In the year 1116 from the founding of the City, Julian, long a Caesar, but afterwards the thirty-sixth from Augustus to take control of the state, held the supreme power alone for one year and eight months.
1 Anno ab urbe condita MCXVI Iulianus dudum Caesar, post autem tricesimus sextus ab Augusto rerum potitus anno uno et mensibus octo imperii summam solus obtinuit.
He attacked the Christian religion by cunning rather than by power, striving to entice men with honours rather than to compel them with torments to deny the faith of Christ and take up the worship of idols.
2 Christianam religionem arte potius quam potestate insectatus, ut negaretur fides Christi et idolorum cultus susciperetur, honoribus magis prouocare quam tormentis cogere studuit.
Yet by an open edict he ordered that no Christian should be a professor teaching the liberal studies. But nevertheless, as we have learned from our elders, nearly all of them everywhere embraced the terms of the decree and chose to abandon their office rather than their faith.
3 aperto tamen praecepit edicto, ne quis Christianus docendorum liberalium studiorum professor esset. sed tamen, sicut a maioribus nostris compertum habemus, omnes ubique propemodum praecepti condiciones amplexati officium quam fidem deserere maluerunt.
Julian, moreover, preparing war against the Parthians, as he dragged with him the Roman forces, drawn together from every side, to their appointed destruction, vowed the blood of the Christians to his gods, intending to persecute the churches openly if he were able to win the victory.
4 Iulianus autem bellum aduersum Parthos parans cum Romanas uires contractas undique ad destinatam secum traheret perditionem, Christianorum sanguinem dis suis uouit, palam persecuturus ecclesias, si uictoriam potuisset adipisci.
For he even ordered an amphitheatre to be built at Jerusalem, in which, on his return from the Parthians, he might throw bishops, monks and all the saints of that place to beasts made more savage still by art, and watch them being torn to pieces.
5 nam et amphitheatrum Hierosolymis extrui iussit, in quo reuersus a Parthis episcopos monachos omnesque eius loci sanctos bestiis etiam arte saeuioribus obiceret spectaretque laniandos.
And so, after he had moved his camp from Ctesiphon, he was led into the desert by the guile of a certain deserter; and when the army was perishing, worn out by the force of thirst and the heat of the sun and the toil of the sands besides, the emperor, anxious at so great a danger, while wandering too incautiously over the wastes of the desert, was struck by the lance of an enemy horseman who met him, and died. Thus the merciful God brought ungodly counsels to nothing by the death of the ungodly man.
6 itaque postquam a Ctesiphonte castra mouit, dolo cuiusdam transfugae in deserta perductus, cum ui sitis et ardore solis atque insuper labore harenarum confectus periret exercitus, imperator tanto rerum periculo anxius dum per uasta deserti incautius euagatur, ab obuio quodam hostium equite conto ictus interiit. sic misericors Deus impia consilia impii morte dissoluit.