We  may  become  familiarly  acquainted  with  Julian  the
Apostate  from  various  sources,  but  particulary  from  the  ad-
mirable narrative  of  his  officer,  Ammianus  Marcellinus.  He
was  of  middle  stature;  mediocris  staturce  is  the  expression  of
Ammianus,  his  friend,  and  I  must  adhere  to  it.  Julian,  it  may
be  remarked,  has  been  called  a  little  man,  and  the  people  of
Antioch  ridiculed  him  as  a  short  man  [homo  brevis.)  Ammi-
anus also  tells  us  that  when  all  Constantinople  turned  out  to
see  the  new  emperor,  the  hero  of  so  many  victories,  the  peo-
ple were  surprised  at  his  youth,  and  his  small  person  {adullum
juvenem^  exiguo  corpore.Y

All  this,  however,  is,  I  think,  quite  consistent  with  the
behef,  which  I  do  not  doubt  is  the  true  one,  that  Julian  was
just  as  Ammianus  says,  of  middle  stature.  The  satirical
humor  of  the  Antiochians  would  not  stick  closely  to  dry  facts  ;
and  the  mob  of  Constantinople  would  expect  their  heroic  sov-
ereign to  be  a  man  of  gigantic  stature,  as  ail  ideal  warriors
are  in  popular  belief

The  hair  on  Julian's  head  was  soft,  as  if  he  had  carefully
combed  it ;   his  beard  was  shaggy,  ending  in  a  point.     As  in

*  Ammianus  MarcelUnus,  lib.  xxii.  c.  2.  sec.  5.
