And who is the right man?
Maximus.
He who shall swallow up both Emperor and Galilean.
Julian.
You solve the riddle by a still darker riddle.
Maximus.
Hear me, brother and friend of truth! I say you shall both succumb—but not that you shall perish.
Does not the child succumb in the youth, and the youth in the man? Yet neither child nor youth perishes.
Oh, my best-loved pupil—have you forgotten all our discourse in Ephesus about the three empires?
Julian.