The Roman emperor Julian, wary of the encroaching borders of the Persians, undertook a military campaign against the Persian Empire in March of A.D. 363.  Despite some initial successes, the operation resulted in a defeat for Roman arms and Julian’s own death in battle.  Yet the field of conflict yielded more than just a litany of forgotten sieges and dusty marches.  The emperor had occasion to deliver two masterpieces of rhetoric, expressive of some of the noblest, and most memorable, sentiments ever uttered by a wearer of the imperial purple.  We will review both of them here.