The Second Oration is a panegyric of the Emperor Constantius, written while Julian, after his elevation to the rank of Caesar, was campaigning in Gaul.216 It closely resembles and often echoes the First, and was probably never delivered. In his detailed and forced analogies of the achievements of Constantius with those of the Homeric heroes, always to the advantage of the former, Julian follows a sophistic practice that he himself condemns,217 and though he more than once contrasts himself with the “ingenious rhetoricians” he is careful to observe all their rules, even in his historical descriptions of the Emperor's campaigns. The long Platonic digression on Virtue and the ideal ruler is a regular feature of a panegyric of this type, though Julian neglects to make the direct application to Constantius. In the First Oration he quoted Homer only once, but while the Second contains the usual comparisons with the Persian monarchs and Alexander, its main object is to prove, by direct references to the Iliad, that Constantius surpassed Nestor in strategy, Odysseus in eloquence, and in courage Hector, Sarpedon and Achilles.