SCENE FIRST.
A spacious vestibule in the Emperor's Palace, at Antioch. An open entrance in the background; on the left is a door, leading into the inner rooms.
On a raised seat in the foreground, to the right, sits the Emperor Julian, surrounded by his court. Judges, Orators, Poets, and Teachers, among them Hekebolius, sit on lower seats around him. Leaning against the wall near the entrance stands A Man, dressed as a Christian Priest; he hides his face in his hands, and seems rapt in prayer. A great gathering of citizens fills the hall. Guards at the entrance, and at the door on the left.
Julian.
[Addressing the assemblage.] So great success have the gods vouchsafed me. Hardly a single city have I approached on my journey, whence whole troops of Galileans have not streamed forth to meet me on the road, lamenting their errors, and placing themselves under the protection of the divine powers. Compared with this, what signifies the senseless behaviour of the scoffers? May not the scoffers be likened to dogs, who in their ignorance yelp at the moon? Yet I will not deny that I have learned with indignation that some inhabitants of this city have spoken scornfully of the rule of life which I have enjoined on
