Having spent the winter of 361-362 at Constantinople, Julian proceeded to Antioch to prepare for his great expedition against Persia. His stay there was a curious episode in his life. It is doubtful whether his pagan convictions or his ascetic life, after the fashion of an antique philosopher, gave most offence to the so-called Christians of the dissolute city. They soon grew heartily tired of each other, and Julian took up his winter quarters at Tarsus, from which in early spring he marched against Persia. At the head of a powerful and well-appointed army he advanced through Mesopotamia and Assyria as far as Ctesiphon, near which he crossed the Tigris, in face of a Persian army which he defeated. Misled by the treacherous advice of a Persian nobleman, he desisted from the siege, and set out to seek the main army of the enemy under Shapur II. (q.v.). After a long, useless march he was forced to retreat, and found himself enveloped by the whole Persian army, in a waterless and desolate country, at the hottest season of the year. The Romans repulsed the enemy in many an obstinate battle, but on the 26th of June 363 Julian, who was ever in the front, was mortally wounded. The same night he died in his tent. In the most authentic historian of his reign, Ammianus Marcellinus, we find a noble speech, which he is said to have addressed to his afflicted officers. Soon after his death the rumour spread that the fatal wound had been inflicted by a Christian in the Roman army. The well-known statement, first found in Theodoret (fl. 5th century), that Julian threw his blood towards heaven, exclaiming, "Thou hast conquered, O Galilean!" is probably a development of the account of his death in the poems of Ephraem Syrus. From Julian's unique position as the last champion of a dying polytheism, his character has always excited interest. Authors such as Gregory of Nazianzus have heaped the fiercest anathemas upon him; but a just and sympathetic criticism finds many noble qualities in his character. In childhood and youth he had learned to regard Christianity as a persecuting force. The only sympathetic friends he met were among the pagan rhetoricians and philosophers; and he found a suitable outlet for his restless and inquiring mind only in the studies of ancient Greece. In this way he was attracted to the old paganism; but it was a paganism idealized by the philosophy of the time.