materials collected for the building. A storm of thunder and lightning followed; fire fell, says Socrates, and the workmen's tools, the spades, the axes, and the saws were melted down. Then came an earthquake, which threw up the stones of the old foundation, says Socrates; filled up the excavation, says Theodoret, which had been made for the new foundations; and, as Rufinus adds, threw down the buildings in the neighbourhood, and especially the public porticoes in which were numbers of the Jews who had been aiding in the undertaking, and who were buried in the ruins. The workmen returned to their work; but from the recesses, laid open by the earthquake, balls of fire burst out, says Ammianus; and that again and again as often as they renewed the attempt. The fiery mass, says Rufinus, raged up and down the street for hours; and St. Gregory, that when some fled to a neighbouring church for safety the fire met them at the door and forced them back, with the loss either of life or of their extremities. At length the commotion ceased; a calm succeeded; and, as St. Gregory adds, in the sky appeared a luminous cross surrounded by a circle. Nay, upon the garments and the bodies of the persons present crosses were impressed, says St. Gregory; which were luminous by night, says Rufinus; and at other times of a dark colour, says Theodoret ; and would not wash out, adds Socrates. In consequence the attempt was abandoned" (Newman, Essay on Miracles in Early Eccl. Hist. p. clxxvii.). All these incidents present a picture consistent with the extraordinary operations of the forces of nature. Even for the luminous crosses there are curious parallels in the history of storms of lightning and volcanic eruptions (see those collected by Warburton and quoted by Newman, p. clxxxii. notes). The cross in the sky has its likeness in the effects of mock suns and parhelia. But even so, a Christian may still fairly assert his right to call the event a miraculous interposition of God's providence. It fulfilled all the purposes we can assign to the Scripture miracles. It gave "an impression of the present agency and of the will of God." It seemed to shew His severe disapproval of the attempt and fulfilled the prophecy of Christ. It came, like the vision of Constantine, at a critical epoch in the world's history. It was, as the heathen poet has it, a "dignus vindice nodus." All who were present or heard of the event at the time thought it, we may be sure, a sign from God. As a miracle it ranges beside those Biblical miracles in which, at some critical moment, the forces of nature are seen to work strikingly for God's people or against their enemies.
§ 7. Julian's Persian Campaign and Death (Mar. 5 to June 27, 363).—Julian's route into Persia is marked with considerable exactness; the first part of it by a letter which he wrote to Libanius from Hierapolis (Ep. 27). At Beroea, the modern Aleppo, he "conversed with the senate on matters of religion—all praised my discourse, but few only were convinced by it" (Ep. 27, p. 399 D).
At Batnae (the scenery of which he compared to that of Daphne) he found ostentatious preparations for sacrifice upon the public roads, but thought them too obviously studied and too redolent of personal flattery. Leaving Edessa on his left hand, probably as a city too distinctly Christian to be visited with comfort, he had reached Carrhae, a place of vigorous pagan traditions, on Mar. 19. At some distance from the town there was a famous temple of the Moon, in which it was worshipped both as a male and a female deity, and near which the emperor Caracalla had been murdered (Herodian. iv. 13, 3; Spartian. Caracallus, 6, 6; 7, 3). Julian made a point of visiting it and offered sacrifices "according to the local rites." Of his secret doings in this temple there are different accounts. Ammianus had heard that he invested his relative Procopius, who was his only companion, with his paludamentum, and bid him seize the empire in case he died in the campaign on which they were engaged (Aram. xxiii. 3, 2). Among Christians a report was current that he offered a human sacrifice. The story ran that he sealed up the temple and ordered it not to be opened till his return: and that after the news of his death people entered it and found a woman hanging by the hair of her head, and her body cut open as if to search for omens (Theod. iii. 26).
On Mar. 27 he was at Callinicum and celebrated the festival of the Mother of the Gods (Amm. xxiii. 3, 7). At the beginning of Apr. he came to Circesium (Carchemish) at the junction of the Chaboras and the Euphrates. Here he received distressing letters from his friend Sallustius in Gaul, urging him to give up his campaign as he felt sure that the gods were unfavourable (Amm. xxiii. 5, 6). At Zaitham (where Ammianus first begins to speak in the first person) they saw the high mound which marked the burial-place of the emperor Gordian. The historian records numerous portents on their march; among them, a lion which appeared at Dura gave rise to a curious dispute between the Etruscan augurs and the philosophers who followed in his train. The former shewed from their books that it was an ill omen; the latter (amongst whom were Maximus and Priscus) had historical precedents to prove that it need not be so regarded. A similar dispute occurred next day as to the meaning of a thunderstorm (xxiii. 5, 10 seq.). Such superstitious discussions were not likely to embolden the soldiery; but Julian decided in favour of the philosophers, animated the army with his own courage, and tried to dispel the prejudice that the Romans had never invaded Persia with success. One of his most important officers, Hormisdas (elder brother of Sapor, the reigning king of Persia), had angered the nobles of his country by threats, had been imprisoned by them, and escaped to the court of Constantine. He became apparently a sincere Christian, yet remained a useful and trusted officer of Julian: By his intervention several Assyrian towns opened their gates to the invaders (xxiv. 1, 6, etc.). The country was inundated by the natives, and it required all Julian's inventive quickness and personal example to carry the army through the marshes. After various successes he arrived at the bank of the Tigris, at the ruins of
