deem it a worse thing to dwell with the gods than to dwell with men, ye are not in your right senses: but if ye suppose that I have not been admitted to that region, ye are entirely in the dark, and appear to me to be in a most unreasonable condition of mind, for ye are entirely unacquainted with the very person whom ye believe you know most intimately. Neither let my falling in battle, and by the steel, be accounted by you a bad end-so fell Leonidas, so fell Sarpedon, so Epaminondas, so Memnon, children of the gods. If my time on earth grieves you by its shortness, let Alexander, the son of Jove himself, bring you consolation.” Thus would he speak—but I, what shall I have to add to his words? One thing only, the first and greatest (R. 623). The decrees of the Fates are not to be controverted; and perhaps a Fate governs the Roman empire, of the same kind as ruled the Egyptian of old and since it was ordained that this of ours should come to a bad end, and this man stood in the way by his bringing in prosperity, he has made way for the career of worse men in order that they should not escape faring as badly as they deserve. Secondly, let us consider with ourselves another point, that although he hath departed young, yet it is after having surpassed in his performances the longest length of reigns, for whom does history record as having done so many, and such great things, though he lived thrice as long? It behoves us therefore, having his glory in place of himself, to bear his loss, and not to grieve on account of his end, more than we were rejoiced before that loss. This is he who at once is absent from the Roman world, and yet presides over it; who has left his corpse on hostile ground, and yet his own land under his sovereignty, and equally powerful to insure universal tranquillity now that he is absent as when he was with us. For neither hath the barbarian grasped his weapons with

1 He has made way for the innovators, in order that they may eat the fruits of their own devices.

out his willing it; nor has a single tumult broken out at home, such as has frequently been made by daring spirits, even when emperors have been present. And yet, it is either love or fear that causes this; or more properly speaking, if fear checks the enemy, and love the subject, assuredly there is good cause to admire the hero on either account-his striking terror into his adversaries, and his inspiring affection into his friends; or rather, if you please, his filling both parties with both feelings at

once.

Let this reflection, therefore, remove some of your grief; and in addition to it, this other,—that none of those of old time is able to say to himself that he had been ruled over by a better sovereign. For what other ever had a better right to reign? that is, if it be right that he who excels the rest in prudence, in ability to speak, and all other virtues, should command those less accomplished than himself (R. 624). The man in person we shall no more be able to see, but we can peruse his books, so numerous, and all written with skill. And yet the greatest part of those who have grown old in writing, have shunned more branches of literature than just so many as they have ventured to treat upon; whence they have reaped less credit for what they have done, than blame for what they have not written about. But He, at one and the same time, carrying on wars and composing books, hath left behind him works in every descriptions of literature: in all of them surpassing all competitors, but his own works in that of "Epistles." Taking up these books I procure myself some consolation; by the aid of these, his offspring, you will be able to bear your sorrow; for these has he left behind him to the world in the place of children, and which time will not be able to obliterate along with the colours in his portraits. And since I have alluded to portraitsmany cities have placed him by the side of the statues of the gods and do honour to him with the gods, and This fact may be connected with the issue of the little medals bear

1

already many a one has asked in prayer for some blessing from him, and has not been disappointed: so evidently hath he ascended up unto them, and received a share in the powers of those above (R. 625). Very much in the right, therefore, were they who were near upon stoning the first who brought news of his death, as one that slandered a god. Consolation, too, comes to me from the Persians representing, in pictures, the events of his invasion; for they are said to have likened him to a thunderbolt, and to paint a thunderbolt with his name written below; thereby intimating that he had inflicted upon them calamities beyond the power of mere human nature.

Earth, in the suburbs of Tarsus in Cilicia, has received his corpse the place ought rather to have been the garden of the Academy by the side of the tomb of Plato, so that the same rites might be paid to him by youths and teachers as are paid to Plato himself; to make in his honour songs, in his honour odes, and every species of commemorative discourse in setting out to war to invoke as helper against the barbarians Him, who, being able to discover all the future by means of divination, made it his business to discover whether he should do harm to the Persians, but did not trouble himself to know whether he should himself return home in safety-thereby proving that he was anxious for glory, not for life. To be governed by such virtue as his was indeed the greatest of all happiness; but since we are bereft of it, we must make his glory the medicine of our grief, and must swear boldly and with the gods to back us, laying our hands upon his tombstone, that he is more to be blessed' than by any of the barbarians are those reputed the most just amongst them.

ing Julian's head in the character of Serapis, the god of the Shades, and therefore an appropriate type for a memento-piece.

1

μãλλov evλoyov, something seems lost here-the sense may, however, be "we can safely swear that he is more worthy of praise, than any prince amongst foreigners most celebrated for his justice," i.e., Cyrus, Dejoces, Solomon, Zamolxis, &c.

218 LIBANIUS' FUNERAL ORATION UPON THE EMPEROR JULIAN.

"O offspring of deities, disciple of deities, associate of deities! O thou that dost fill but a little spot of earth by thy tomb, but the whole inhabited world with admiration! (R. 626.) O thou who hast conquered foreigners by thy battles, thy countrymen without fighting! O thou that art more to be regretted by fathers than their own lost sons, by sons than their own fathers, by brothers than their own brethren! O thou who hast done great things, but wert about to do still greater! O thou defender of gods, and converser with gods! O thou that didst spurn all pleasures save those of literature! this offering do I make to thee out of my eloquence, mean as it is, although thou didst once esteem it great!"

UPON THE SOVEREIGN SUN. ADDRESSED TO

SALLUST.

IT is my opinion that the present subject interests all:

"Whatever breathes, and moves upon the earth,"

all that are endowed with existence, with a rational soul, and with a mind: but that above all others it interests myself, inasmuch as I am a votary (ỏπados) of the Sun. Of which fact I possess the most certain evidences in my own case; but one instance, which it is allowable to adduce, is the following:-From my earliest infancy I was possessed with a strange longing for the solar rays, so that when, as a boy, I cast my eyes upon the ethereal splendour, my soul felt seized and carried up out of itself. And not merely was it my delight to gaze upon the solar brightness, but at night also whenever I walked out in clear weather, disregarding all else, I used to fix my eyes upon the beauty of the heavens; so that I neither paid attention to what was said to me, nor took any notice of what was going on. On this account, people used to think me too much given to such pursuits, and far too inquisitive for my age: and they even suspected me, long before my beard was grown, of practising divination by means of the heavenly bodies. And yet at that time no book on the subject had fallen into my hands, and I was