Introduction
Roman Emperor Flavius Claudius Iulianus (r. 361-363) earned his nickname ‘Julian the Apostate’ by trying to stamp out the Christian Church in which he had been brought up, while transferring its charitable activities to the State. He failed in both, and his military campaign in Persia was no more successful. Theodoret, Bishop of Cyrus, believed his death illustrated Julian’s weakness of mind and character.
THE imprudence of the emperor was manifested by the mode of his death. When he and his army had passed the river which separates the Persian from the Roman dominions,* he burnt his ships, in order that the soldiery might fight not by persuasion but by compulsion. The most distinguished commanders have always inspired their troops with alacrity, and when discouragements have arisen, they have roused their expectations and animated their hopes. But this emperor, on the contrary, discouraged his soldiers by burning the vessels, and destroying their hopes of returning to their own country.
In addition to this act of imprudence, the wise emperor neglected to provide the requisite supplies of food for his army; for he neither directed provisions to be brought from the provinces of his own empire, nor did he take measures to obtain them by making depredations on the enemy’s territories.* He led his troops far away from all inhabited places, and made them march through a desert. Oppressed by hunger and by thirst, and without any efficient guide, the soldiers were compelled to wander about in the desert, through the imprudence of this wisest of emperors.
* Julian ‘burned his boats’ on the River Tigris near the Persian capital of Ctesiphon, as he marked time waiting for reinforcements. His enemy was the Sassanid Empire of greater Iran, founded in AD 224. It fell to the Muslims in 651.
* Dissuaded by his generals from mounting a siege of Ctesiphon, the Sassanid capital, Julian pressed on eastwards. The Persians countered by burning the crops in lands ahead of Julian’s march.
Précis
In 363, Roman Emperor Julian embarked on a military campaign in Persia. Historian Theodoret, fifth-century Bishop of Cyrus, accused him of recklessness, not only in burning all his ships so that his army could not retreat back across the Tigris, but also in failing to provide his troops with food and water in Persia’s trackless deserts. (56 / 60 words)
In 363, Roman Emperor Julian embarked on a military campaign in Persia. Historian Theodoret, fifth-century Bishop of Cyrus, accused him of recklessness, not only in burning all his ships so that his army could not retreat back across the Tigris, but also in failing to provide his troops with food and water in Persia’s trackless deserts.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 60 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 50 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: because, if, just, or, otherwise, ought, whereas, whether.
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