The disinclination of their monarch to observe the designs of Julian was shared, or rather surpassed, by his people, the more educated portion of whom were strongly attached to the new faith and worship.

If the great historian of Armenia is right in stating that Julian at this time offered an open insult to the Armenian religion, we must pronounce him strangely imprudent.

The alliance of Armenia was always of the utmost importance to Rome in any attack upon the East.

Julian seems to have gone out of his way to create offence in this quarter, where his interests required that he should exercise all his powers of conciliation.
The forces which the emperor regarded as at his disposal, and with which he expected to take the field, were the following.

His own troops amounted to 83,000 or (according to another account) to 95,000 men.