"the propaganda of power: the role of panegyric in late antiquity" (1998) contains a number of essays on the subject of panegyrics. among them is "in praise of an empress:julian's speech of thanks to eusebia" by shaun tougher, discussing a "panegyric in honour of eusebia" written by julian himself. tougher examines the relationship of julian and eusebia, commenting on whether helena was affected by it. the historian considers that the image of a politically influential but "kind-hearted and philanthropic" eusebia is directly based on her depiction in the works of julian. according to tougher, later historians have tended to accept this depiction with little to no questioning of it. he regards eusebia to be the greatest threat to julian for the duration of his term as caesar. this rank effectively made julian heir presumptive to the imperial throne. his position as such relied solely on constantius and eusebia remaining childless. had an heir been born to the imperial couple, julian could find himself outliving his usefulness to his imperial patrons. tougher follows the example of senior historian noël aujoulat in considering the story of helena's miscarriages being the result of abortifacients to be entirely plausible. both historians consider ammianus' allegations, casting eusebia as the orchestrator of such a plot, should be taken into consideration and "not be lightly dismissed".