JOVIA'NUS, FLA'vius CLAu'ruus, b. A.D. 331; the son of Veronianus, a distinguished gen. under Coustantius; of a noble Mcesian family. He was rapt. of the life-guards of the emperor Julian, attending him in his disastrous campaign against the Persians. Julian having fallen in battle, Jovian was proclaimed, A.D. 363. by the army, his suc cessor. His first task was to save his army, harassed by the Persians. and suffering greatly for want of provisions. He reached the Tigris in safety, but found it impossible to cross, exposed to attack from the Persian force. Sapor proposed terms of peace, to which, though ignominious, Jovian was compelled to yield. The terms were that the Romans should surrender their conquests w. of the Tigris, together with the fortress of Nisibis, and many other strongholds in Mesopotamia, and should bind themselves not to aid the Armenians, with whom the Persians were then at war. His troops being in -great distress he submitted to the harsh terms, and marched westward towards his kingdom. He surrendered Nisibis to the Persians, the inhabitants removing to Amida, which became the chief Roman town -in Mesopotamia. On his arrival at Antioch he proclaimed himself a Christian; and rescinded the edicts of ,Julian against the Chris tians, but granting protection to such as remained pagans. He upheld the Nicene, or
orthodox creed, against the Arians, and restored the bishops who had suffered at their hands. Athanasius, who visited him at Antioch, he reinstated in the see of Alexandria, from which he had been driven by the Arians. Acknowledged by the various provinces, he set out from Antioch for Constantinople, stopping at Tarsus to pay funeral honcms to Julian's remains. Continuing his journey in unusually severe cold, of which several of his attendants died, he reached Ancyra, where he assumed consular dignity; and a few days after came to Dadastana in Galatia. The next morning, Feb. 17, 364 A.D., he was found dead in his bed. Some attribute his death to suffocation from the fumes -of a charcoal iire'in his room, some to the exhalations from the plaster with which it lied been newly laid, others, with more probability, to the dagger or poison of an assas sin. He was 33 years of age and had reigned 7 months. Valentinian was proclaimed emperor by the army.