§ 1. About the same time many Egyptians, excited by various rumours, arrived at Constantinople; a race given to controversy, and extremely addicted to habits of litigation, covetous, and apt to ask payment of debts due to them over and over again; and also, by way of escaping from making the payments due to them, to accuse the rich of embezzlement, and the tax-gatherers of extortion. 2. These men, collecting into one body, came screeching like so many jackdaws, claiming in a rude manner the attention of the emperor himself, and of the prefects of the prætorium, and demanding the restoration of the contributions which they had been compelled to furnish, justly or unjustly, for the last seventy years. 3. And as they hindered the transaction of any other business, Julian issued an edict in which he ordered them all to go to Chalcedon, promising that he himself also would soon come there, and settle all their business. 4. And when they had gone, an order was given to all the captains of ships which go to and fro, that none of them should venture to take an Egyptian for a passenger. And as this command was carefully observed, their obstinacy in bringing false accusations came to an end, and they all, being disappointed in their object, returned home. 5. After which, as if at the dictation of justice herself, a law was published forbidding any one to exact from any officer the restitution of things which that officer had legally received. VII. A.D. 362. § 1. At the beginning of the new year, when the consular records had received the names of Mamertinus and Nevitta, the prince humbled himself by walking in their train with other men of high rank; an act which some praised, while others blame it as full of affectation, and mean. 2. Afterwards, when Mamertinus was celebrating the Circensian games, Julian, following an ancient fashion, manumitted some slaves, who were introduced by the consul's officer; but afterwards, being informed that on that day the supreme jurisdiction belonged to another, he fined himself ten pounds of gold as an offender. 3. At the same time he was a continual attendant in the court of justice, settling many actions which were brought in all kinds of cases. One day while he was sitting as judge, the arrival of a certain philosopher from Asia named Maximus, was announced, on which he leapt down from the judgment seat in an unseemly manner, and forgetting himself so far as to run at full speed from the hall, he kissed him, and received him with great reverence, and led him into the palace, appearing by this unseasonable ostentation a seeker of empty glory, and forgetful of those admirable words of Cicero, which describe people like him. 4. "Those very philosophers inscribe their names on the identical books which they write about the contempt of glory, in order that they may be named and extolled in that very thing in which they proclaim their contempt for mention and for praise."[122]