After the slaying of Julian, at last a civil imperial rule is restored to us under Jovian. For he was at one and the same time Emperor, Confessor, and the dispeller of the error that had been wickedly introduced. For when the army was on the point of battle and the Barbarian pressed hard, our leaders, taking counsel about matters of the highest moment, cast their vote for Jovian. And when he, seized, was being led to receive the insignia of empire, he is said to have cried out to Julian's army, defiled with sacrileges, that he could not rule over them, because he was a Christian. Then all are reported to have answered with one and the same voice: 'We too are Christians'; nor would he consent to take up the empire before he heard this cry.
Then at once the divine mercy was present to him, and against all hope—when they were hemmed in on every side by enemies and no means of escape was available—they suddenly saw envoys sent forth by the Barbarians arrive and sue for peace; and to the army, consumed by famine, they offered food and other necessities for purchase, amending the rashness of our men with all humanity. But when, peace having been concluded for twenty-nine years, he returned to Roman soil, and a brighter light, risen from the regions of the East, spread itself over our world, he set about restoring the commonwealth, as it were after exceeding storms, with all moderation; yet he held the care of the churches not in the second place.
Nor yet incautiously, as Constantius had acted, but warned by his predecessor's downfall, he sought out Athanasius with honorable and most courteous letters, and from him he received the form of the faith and the manner of ordering the churches. But death untimely corrupted these beginnings, so pious and so glad. For after eight months of his accession he met his end in Cilicia.