The Works of the Emperor Julian, Vol. 2Julian, Emperor of Rome
Philosophy
The Works of the Emperor Julian, Vol. 2
Julian, Emperor of Rome
Speeches, addresses, etc., Greek -- Translations into English
ὁδεύσαντος μόνον καὶ φιλίως ἐντυχόντος τοῖς παροικοῦσι τὸν Ἴστρον ἔθνεσιν,
οὐχ ἡμᾶς, ἀλλ᾽ ἐκεῖνον θριαμβεῦσαι.
(After that, Constantius, thinking that there would be some improvement,
but not that so great a transformation would take place in the affairs of
Gaul, handed over to me in the beginning of spring(469) the command of all
the forces. And when the grain was ripe I took the field; for a great
number of Germans had settled themselves with impunity near the towns they
had sacked in Gaul. Now the number of the towns whose walls had been
dismantled was about forty‐five, without counting citadels and smaller
forts. And the barbarians then controlled on our side of the Rhine the
whole country that extends from its sources to the Ocean. Moreover those
who were settled nearest to us were as much as three hundred stades from
the banks of the Rhine, and a district three times as wide as that had
been left a desert by their raids; so that the Gauls could not even
pasture their cattle there. Then too there were certain cities deserted by
their inhabitants, near which the barbarians were not yet encamped. This
then was the condition of Gaul when I took it over. I recovered the city
of Agrippina(470) on the Rhine which had been taken about ten months
earlier, and also the neighbouring fort of Argentoratum,(471) near the
foot‐hills of the Vosges mountains, and there I engaged the enemy not
ingloriously. It may be that the fame of that battle has reached even your
ears. There though the gods gave into my hands as prisoner of war the
king(472) of the enemy, I did not begrudge Constantius the glory of that
success. And yet though I was not allowed to triumph for it, I had it in
my power to slay my enemy, and moreover I could have led him through the
whole of Gaul and exhibited him to the cities, and thus have luxuriated as
it were in the misfortunes of Chnodomar. I thought it my duty to do none
of these things, but sent him at once to Constantius who was returning
from the country of the Quadi and the Sarmatians. So it came about that,
though I had done all the fighting and he had only travelled in those
parts and held friendly intercourse with the tribes who dwell on the
borders of the Danube, it was not I but he who triumphed.)
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