Orthodox emperor of [the] Romans, who displayed great care and attention for the churches and recalled all the bishops in exile. And he wrote to St. Athanasius to indicate to him the strictness of his blameless faith. And he sent a letter full of orthodoxy. This man ruled after Julian:[1] when this Julian gave his soldiers the choice to sacrifice or be discharged, Jovian preferred to remove his military belt. And, going to the well-populated city of Nisibis and spending only two days here, he spent as much money as he had—sharing nothing with the inhabitants, not a generous word nor a good deed. A man who had advanced to such a point of power not through his own virtue but through his father's reputation—for he was not altogether physically weak or unexercised in the deeds of war; but, being a man who lacked training and who had not tasted education, he dimmed and disfigured even what natural ability he had through laziness.
This man, who gained control of the Roman empire after Julian, as has been said, disdained all and was eager to reap the benefit of the honor that had come to him, and, fleeing from Persia, he hurried to get within the Roman provinces[2] to display his good fortune, and he turns over Nisibis, a city long subject to the Romans, to the Persians. Therefore, they mocked him in song and in burlesques and the so-called 'lampoons'[3] because of [his] betrayal of Nisibis.
And Jovian, set in motion by his wife, burned down a very elegant temple built by the emperor Hadrian for the deification of his father Trajan. This temple, by command of Julian, had been converted to a library by a eunuch named Theophilus, but Jovian burnt it down along with all its books, and the concubines[4] themselves, while laughing, set the fire. The Antiochenes became upset with the emperor and threw out some of the books onto the ground, so that whoever wanted could pick one up and read it, and they stuck others to the walls.[5] And they were this sort of thing: "You came from war; O, that you had died there."[6] And "You damned Paris, so very good-looking...." etc.[7] And "If I don’t grab you and take off your fine clothes, your chlaina and chiton, which cover your shame, and swiftly send you yourself weeping to the Persians."[8]
And an old woman who had seen that he was big and handsome and recognized that he was an idiot declared: "As long and deep as folly!" Another private citizen dared to shout in a loud voice at the racetrack and afforded laughter to everyone [by] saying empty, insipid [words] to his comrades.[9] And monstrous things would have happened, if a certain Sallustius had not ended the disturbance.
And when it was winter, Jovian made his way to Cilicia and Galatia and died in Dadastana after eating a poisoned mushroom.[10] And in his rule he seemed to be affable and generous.
In the reign of Jovian, Acacius, who wrote a pamphlet about orthodox faith [and] accept[ed] the synod at Nicaea, was bishop of Palestinian Caesarea.[11]