A. D. 361. horse; and have enrolled you among our domestic guards, who confift of fuch as have borne arms, and ferved in the army Epiftle XXIII. TO HERMOGENES, formerly AL LLOW me to fay, with the poets, How blefs'd beyond my hopes am I! How much beyond my hopes have I heard of my escape from that many-headed Hydra +! I do not mean my brother Conftantius (whatever he was), but the wild beafts who furrounded him, whofe eyes nothing could elude, and who made him more fevere, who in his own difpofition was not the mildeft, though he feemed fo to many. But he is no more. On him therefore, as the faying is, light lie the earth! As to them, I would not have them, Jupiter knows, treated with the least injuftice; but as many charges are brought against them, I allow them a trial. In order to be prefent, Symmachus, Epift. 67. 1.111. "For to fuch veterans "a prerogative is due, that they may have the rank of guards, as a reward for their long fervices." PETAU. This Epiftle is omitted by M. de la Bleterie.... * Πολυκέφαλόν [in.one MS. τρικεφαλον] ύδραν. Hermogenes was, like himself, converfant with the Greek poets. GIBBON. To conduct this enquiry, Julian named fix judges of the highest rank in the ftate and army; and as he wished to escape the reproach of condemning his perfonal enemies, 2 he prefent, haften hither, my dear friend, even beyond your ftrength; for, by the Gods, I have long wifhed to fee you: and as I. have had the great fatisfaction of hearing that you are well, I now command you to come. Epiftle XXIV. To the most excellent OME prefent their friends with panegyrics; but I, as a delicious repaft, have fent you a hundred of our long-stalked, dried figs ; a gift whose beauty far exceeds its value. Ariftophanes fays, that" dried figs are the sweetest of all things, except honey," and he is afterwards of opinion that not even honey is fweeter t. The hiftorian Herodotus thought that a true folitude was fufficiently defcribed by faying, "it has neither figs, he fixed this extraordinary tribunal at Chalcedon, on the Afiatic fide of the Bofphorus, and transferred to the commiffioners an absolute power to pronounce and execute their final fentence, without delay, and without appeal. They were a fecond Sallust, Præfect of the Eaft, President; the eloquent Mamertinus, one of the confuls elect, and four generals, Nevitta, Agilo, Jovinus, and Arbetio. Ibid. * A fenator, probably, of Conftantinople. † Pliny (l. xv. c. 18.) mentions, among the various kinds of figs [twenty-nine in all], thofe of a purple colour (porphyritides), with very long falks. PETAU. The only two paflages in which Ariftophanes mentions figs, are in his Knights, act II. fc. 2. and his Acharnians, act. III. fc. 3. and in neither of thefe afe they compared with honey. Julian muft therefore refer to fome play, or work, that is not extant, ઃઃ nor nor any thing elfe that is good." As if no fruit excelled figs, and where there were figs, nothing good could be wanting. Homer praises other Fruits for their fize, their colour, or their beauty; but to the fig alone he gives the appellation of "fweetness." Honey he calls "new 1," fearing left he should inadvertently ftyle that fweet which often happens to be bitter on the fig alone he *Herodotus, in the first book of his hiftories, thus proves the excellence of figs: " You are preparing to make war, O king, against men who wear breeches, "and other garments, of leather, who feed, not on what "they like, but on what they have, inhabiting a rugged country; they have no wine, by Jove, but are waterdrinkers; nor have they figs to eat, nor any thing else "that is good." ATHENA US. The above is part of the speech of Sandanis, a Lydian, who in vain attempted to diffuade Crafus from invading Perfia. † In the garden of Alcinöus, Odyff. VII. 117. Euxas TË γλυκεραι. κ. λ. το The blufhing fig with luscious juice o'erflows. POPE, 148. And again, x1. 589. among the fruits that torment Tantalus, where though the line in the original is the fame, Broome drops the epithet, and fubftitutes two of his own: Figs fky-dy'd a purple hue difclofe. 66 "Homer's epithets," fays Euftathius," are excellent. "For it is obfervable, that the poet gives every tree an epithet fuited to its peculiar nature. Thus the apple is beautiful," and its fruit, as he expreffès it," fplendid" (ayλaos) he therefore ftyles the apple a fplendid-fruited "tree" (ayλaoxagros); among the autumnal fruits, the fig, "by way of eminence, "fweet," and the olive" verdant." MEXλpor, part of the entertainment given by Neftor, in Il. x1..630. and by Circe in Odyff. x. 234. Pope renders it in one place by "fresh," and in the other by new-preffed." The Latin tranflator of Julian has made it flavum. bestows bestows this peculiar praife, as on nectar, because of all things the fig only is fweet. "Honey," fays Hippocrates," is fweet to the taste, but quite "bitter when digested*:" and I am of his opinion; for that it breeds bile is generally allowed, and gives the humours a different favour; which fhews that it is in its nature rather bitter than sweet. For it would never change to bitter, if it were not fo originally, and afterwards became the reverse. But the fig is not only sweet to the taste, but easy of digeftion. It is fo useful to mankind, that Ariftotle deems it an antidote against all poisons, and says, that "for no other reason it is introduced at "the beginning and clofe of meals; as, in pre"ference to every thing else, affording a facred re medy against the injuries of food." That the fig is confecrated to the Gods, and in all facrifices is placed on the altar, and is better for perfumes than any frankincense, is not merely my opinion; but all who are acquainted with its ufe know that fuch alfo is the opinion of that fage the Hie Hippocrates fays this, though not in these words, in fubftance, in his work de internis affectionibus, but of honey boiled: Boiled honey is heating, and adheres to the "belly; but after it is digefted, it ferments, and the belly fuddenly fwells, and burns, and feems as if it would "burst." Galen alfo, in his iiid book de facultate alimentorum, fays, that "honey, in its nature, is fubtle, and by "its acrimony fwells the belly before it can be digefted, fo ་་ as to be voided. Therefore by correcting this we render "it fitter for digeftion and concoction." And this is done by mixing it with water, and boiling both together. For then, being clarified, it digefts easily. E VOL. II. PETAU. rophant. rophant *. The excellent Theophraftus +, in his precepts of husbandry, explaining what kinds of trees can be grafted on others, and the manner of engrafting them, commends, I think, above all, the fig-tree as capable of admitting various forts, and as being fingular in eafily bearing at the fame time grafts of every kind, if you split any of its boughs, and engraft upon them the fhoots of other trees; fo that it often refembles a whole orchard, diffufing, like a beautiful garden, the variegated fplendor of different kinds of fruit. And while the fruits of other trees continue but a fhort time, and attain no age, the fig alone furvives the year, and accompanies the growth of the fucceeding fruit . Homer therefore fays, that, in the garden of * Άνδρος σοφο και ιεροφαντα. I fuppofe that Julian here means the Eleufinian pontiff, peculiarly ftyled Hierophantes, or a revealer of facred things. He was obliged to devote himself to the divine fervice, and lead a chaste and fingle life. He was attended by three officers, a torch-bearer, a herald, and one who affifted at the altar. (See Epictetus, 7. 111. c. 21. and Potter's Greek Antiquities, vol. I. c. 20.) This pontiff was fupposed to be more profound even than Maximus in the fcience of Theurgy. And Julian must have been well acquainted with his fentiments, las he initiated him in the myfteries at Eleufis, and was afterwards invited by that prince to the court of Gaul, to perfect his fanctification. I am not confident, however, that the interpre tation which I have given is the true one. + Theophraftus has treated on figs, and on the grafting of them in the 11d book of his Hift. Plant. alfo in his 1ft book de Caufis, c. VI. c. I. and 17. and PETAU. Theophraftus alfo mentions fome wild fig-trees which bore twice, and others thrice, in a year, as in the island of Ceos. The late Mr. Markland, in an ingenious illuf tration |