Works - Amazon S3

INTRODUCTION
and about this time he wrote Letter 35 to Aristoxenus,
asking him to meet him at Tyana, and Letter 29 to
his uncle at Antioch, whom lie had appointed Count
of the East (Comes Orientis) ;
he refers to their
approaching meeting at Antioch (p. 105).
On the
way he visited and wept over Nicomedia, which had
been destroyed by an earthquake in 358, 1 and Pessinus,
where he sacrificed to Cybele the Mother of
the Gods at her ancient shrine. From Letter 42 to
Callixeine it
appears that as a consequence of his
visit he appointed her priestess of Cybele at Pessinus.
That the citizens of Pessinus had displeased him by
a lack of enthusiasm for the restoration of their
famous cult
may be gathered from Letter 22, p. 73.
Julian also visited Tarsus, in whose suburb near
the river Cydnus he was destined to be buried in
the following year. He arrived at Antioch towards
the end of July, and wrote Letter 41, the
rescript to the citizens of Bostra, on August l. 2 In
January 363 he entered on the consulship (see
Letter 54).
In the Misopogon (Loeb Library, Vol. 2), Julian
has himself described his nine months' stay at
Antioch. The city was predominantly Christian
and opposed to his restoration of paganism, so that
when the celebrated temple of Apollo in the beautiful
suburb of Daphne was burned in 362, he ascribed
it to the malice of the Christians. The citizens, who
were notoriously pleasure-loving and luxurious,
openly ridiculed his austere way of life and disliked
his reforms. During the winter he wrote the
1
Ammianus 22. 9. 3-5.
2 Julian's first edict from Antioch in Codex Theodosianus
1. 16. 8 is dated July 28, 362.