Contents
-BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
S.A. Bent, comp. Familiar Short Sayings of Great Men. 1887.
Julian the Apostate
[Julianus Flavius Claudius; Roman emperor, known to history as “Julian the Apostate;” a nephew of Constantine the Great; born in Constantinople, A.D. 331; educated in the principles of the Christian religion, but embraced the philosophy of the Platonists; became emperor, 361; renounced Christianity, proclaiming religious liberty to all; invaded Persia, 363, and gained several victories beyond the Tigris, until he was wounded by a javelin, and died the next day, June, 363.]O Plato, Plato, what a task for a philosopher!
When awkwardly repeating some military exercise, after being appointed to the command of the provinces of Gaul, for which his scholastic training had not fitted him.—GIBBON: Decline and Fall, chap. xiv.When, after his accession to power, his army demanded a donation of silver, he assured them, “Such has been the temper of my reign, that I can retire without regret and without apprehension to the obscurity of a private station.”He took for his arms an eagle struck through the heart with his own feathers (propriis configimur alis).
“So the struck eagle, stretched upon the plain,No more through rolling clouds to soar again,Viewed his own feather on the fatal dart,And winged the shaft that quivered in his heart.”BYRON: English Bards and Scotch Reviewers.
