The Essays, vol 12 | Page 7

characters, by which he professed
to govern all his actions; and, in truth, there is no sort of virtue of
which he has not left behind him very notable examples: in chastity (of
which the whole of his life gave manifest proof) we read the same of
him that was said of Alexander and Scipio, that being in the flower of
his age, for he was slain by the Parthians at one-and-thirty, of a great
many very beautiful captives, he would not so much as look upon one.
As to his justice, he took himself the pains to hear the parties, and
although he would out of curiosity inquire what religion they were of,
nevertheless, the antipathy he had to ours never gave any counterpoise
to the balance. He made himself several good laws, and repealed a
great part of the subsidies and taxes levied by his predecessors.
We have two good historians who were eyewitnesses of his actions:
one of whom, Marcellinus, in several places of his history sharply
reproves an edict of his whereby he interdicted all Christian
rhetoricians and grammarians to keep school or to teach, and says he
could wish that act of his had been buried in silence: it is probable that
had he done any more severe thing against us, he, so affectionate as he
was to our party, would not have passed it over in silence. He was
indeed sharp against us, but yet no cruel enemy; for our own people tell
this story of him, that one day, walking about the city of Chalcedon,
Maris, bishop of the place; was so bold as to tell him that he was
impious, and an enemy to Christ, at which, they say, he was no further

moved than to reply, "Go, poor wretch, and lament the loss of thy
eyes," to which the bishop replied again, "I thank Jesus Christ for
taking away my sight, that I may not see thy impudent visage,"
affecting in that, they say, a philosophical patience. But this action of
his bears no comparison to the cruelty that he is said to have exercised
against us. "He was," says Eutropius, my other witness, "an enemy to
Christianity, but without putting his hand to blood." And, to return to
his justice, there is nothing in that whereof he can be accused, the
severity excepted he practised in the beginning of his reign against
those who had followed the party of Constantius, his predecessor. As to
his sobriety, he lived always a soldier-like life; and observed a diet and
routine, like one that prepared and inured himself to the austerities of
war. His vigilance was such, that he divided the night into three or four
parts, of which the least was dedicated to sleep; the rest was spent
either in visiting the state of his army and guards in person, or in study;
for amongst other rare qualities, he was very excellent in all sorts of
learning. 'Tis said of Alexander the Great, that being in bed, for fear
lest sleep should divert him from his thoughts and studies, he had
always a basin set by his bedside, and held one of his hands out with a
ball of copper in it, to the end, that, beginning to fall asleep, and his
fingers leaving their hold, the ball by falling into the basin, might
awake him. But the other had his soul so bent upon what he had a mind
to do, and so little disturbed with fumes by reason of his singular
abstinence, that he had no need of any such invention. As to his
military experience, he was excellent in all the qualities of a great
captain, as it was likely he should, being almost all his life in a
continual exercise of war, and most of that time with us in France,
against the Germans and Franks: we hardly read of any man who ever
saw more dangers, or who made more frequent proofs of his personal
valour.
His death has something in it parallel with that of Epaminondas, for he
was wounded with an arrow, and tried to pull it out, and had done so,
but that, being edged, it cut and disabled his hand. He incessantly
called out that they should carry him again into the heat of the battle, to
encourage his soldiers, who very bravely disputed the fight without him,
till night parted the armies. He stood obliged to his philosophy for the

singular contempt he had for his life and all human things. He had a
firm belief of the immortality of souls.
In matter of religion he was wrong throughout, and was surnamed the
Apostate for having relinquished ours: nevertheless, the opinion seems
to me more probable, that he had never thoroughly embraced it, but