The ecclesiastical historians, Socrates (1. iii.c. 22), Sozomen (1. vi. c. 3), and Theodoret (1. iv. c. 1), ascribe to Jovian the merit of a confessor under the preceding reign, and piously suppose that he refused the purple till the whole army unanimously exclaimed that they were Christians. Ammianus, calmly pursuing his narrative, overthrows the legend by a single sentence.
Hostiis pro
Joviano extisque inspectis, pronuntiatum est, etc. (xxv. 6).