Julian (Latin : Flavius Claudius Julianus Augustus , Greek : Φλάβιος Κλαύδιος Ἰουλιανός Αὔγουστος ; 331/332 – 26 June 363), also known as Julian
the Apostate , as well as Julian the Philosopher , was Roman Emperor from 361 to 363 and a noted philosopher and Greek writer.
A
member of the Constantinian
dynasty , Constantius II
made him Caesar
over the western provinces in 355, where he campaigned successfully against the
Alamanni and Franks . Most notable was his crushing victory over the
Alamanni in 357 at the Battle of
Argentoratum despite being outnumbered. In 360 in Lutetia (Paris) he
was acclaimed Augustus
by his soldiers, sparking a civil war between Julian and Constantius. Before
the two could face each other in battle, however, Constantius died, after
naming Julian as his rightful successor. In 363, Julian embarked on an
ambitious campaign against the Sassanid Empire . Though initially
successful, Julian was mortally wounded in battle and died shortly thereafter.
Julian
was a man of unusually complex character: he was "the military commander,
the theosophist, the social reformer, and the man of letters". He was the
last non-Christian ruler of the Roman Empire, and it was his desire to bring
the Empire back to its ancient Roman values in order to save it from
dissolution. He purged the top-heavy state bureaucracy and attempted to revive traditional
Roman religious practices at the cost of Christianity . His rejection of Christianity
in favour of Neoplatonic paganism caused him to be called Julian the
Apostate (Ἀποστάτης or Παραβάτης
"Transgressor") by the church. He was the last emperor of the Constantinian dynasty ,
the empire's first Christian dynasty.
Early life
Flavius
Claudius Julianus, born in May or June 332 or 331 in Constantinople , was the son of Julius
Constantius (consul in 335), half brother of Emperor Constantine I , and his second wife, Basilina , a woman of Greek origin. Both of his parents were
Christians. His paternal grandparents were Western Roman
Emperor Constantius Chlorus
and his second wife, Flavia
Maximiana Theodora . His maternal grandfather was Julius Julianus , praetorian
prefect of the East under emperor Licinius from 315 to 324 and consul after 325. The name of Julian's
maternal grandmother is unknown.
In the
turmoil after the death of Constantine in 337, in order to establish himself as
sole emperor, Julian's zealous Arian Christian cousin
Constantius II led a massacre of most of
Julian's close relatives. Constantius II ordered the murders of many
descendants from the second marriage of Constantius Chlorus and Theodora,
leaving only Constantius and his brothers Constantine II
and Constans I , and their cousins, Julian and Gallus
(Julian's half-brother), as the surviving males related to Emperor Constantine.
Constantius II, Constans I, and Constantine II were proclaimed joint emperors,
each ruling a portion of Roman territory. Julian and Gallus were excluded from
public life, were strictly guarded in their youth, and given a Christian
education. They were likely saved by their youth and at the urging of the
Empress.
Julian solidus , c. 361. The obverse shows a bearded Julian with an inscription, FL(AVIVS) CL(AVDIVS) IVLIANVS PP AVG (PP=Pater Patriae, "father of the nation"; AVG=Augustus). The reverse depicts an armed Roman soldier bearing a military standard in one hand and subduing a captive with the other, a reference to the military strength of the Roman Empire, and spells out VIRTVS EXERCITVS ROMANORVM, "the bravery/virtue of the Roman army". Under the soldier one reads SIRM indicating the coin was minted in Sirmium , the home of Constantine's family. |
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Initially
growing up in Bithynia , raised by his maternal
grandmother, at the age of seven he was under the guardianship of Eusebius of
Nicomedia , the semi-Arian Christian Bishop of Nicomedia, and taught
by Mardonius, a Gothic eunuch ,
whom Julian wrote warmly of later. After Eusebius died in 342, both Julian and
Gallus were exiled to the imperial estate of Macellum in Cappadocia . Here Julian met the Christian
bishop George of
Cappadocia , who lent him books from the classical tradition. At the
age of 18, the exile was lifted and he dwelt briefly in Constantinople and Nicomedia .
He
became a lector , a minor office in the Christian
church, and his later writings show a detailed knowledge of the Bible, likely
acquired in his early life. (Looking back on his life in 362, Julian wrote, in
his thirty-first year, that he had spent twenty years in the way of
Christianity and twelve in the true way, i.e., the way of Helios .)
Julian
studied Neoplatonism in Asia Minor in 351, at first under Aedesius , the philosopher, and then
Neoplatonic theurgy from Aedesius' student, Maximus of Ephesus .
He was summoned to Constantius' court in Mediolanum (Milan )
in 354 and kept there for a year; in the summer and fall of 355, he was
permitted to study in Athens . While there,
Julian became acquainted with two men who later became both bishops and saints:
Gregory of
Nazianzus and Basil the Great ; in the same period, Julian
was also initiated into the Eleusinian
Mysteries , which he would later try to restore.
Constantine
II died in 340 when he attacked his brother Constans. Constans in turn fell in
350 in the war against the usurper Magnentius . This left Constantius II as the
sole remaining emperor. In need of support, in 351 he made Julian's
half-brother, Gallus , Caesar of the East, while Constantius II
himself turned his attention westward to Magnentius, whom he defeated
decisively that year. In 354 Gallus, who had imposed a rule of terror over the
territories under his command, was executed. Julian was summoned to court, and
held for a year, under suspicion of treasonable intrigue, first with his
brother and then with Claudius Silvanus ;
he was cleared, in part because the Empress Eusebia intervened on his behalf, and he
was sent to Athens. (Julian expresses his gratitude to the empress Eusebia in
his third oration.)
Caesar in Gaul
After
dealing with the rebellions of Magnentius and Sylvanus, Constantius felt he
needed a permanent representative in Gaul. In 355, Julian was summoned to
appear before the emperor in Mediolanum and on 6 November was made Caesar of
the West, marrying Constantius' sister, Helena .
Constantius, after his experience with Gallus, intended his representative to
be more a figurehead than an active participant in events, so he packed Julian
off to Gaul with a small retinue and Constantius' prefects in Gaul would keep
him in check. At first reluctant to trade his scholarly life for war and politics,
he eventually took every opportunity to involve himself in the affairs of Gaul.
In the following years Julian learned how to lead and then run an army, through
a series of campaigns against the Germanic tribes that had settled on both
sides of the Rhine .
Campaigns against German kingdoms
In 356
during his first campaign he led an army to the Rhine, engaged the inhabitants
there and won back several towns that had fallen into Frankish hands, including Colonia Agrippina (Cologne ). With success under his belt he
withdrew for the winter to Gaul, distributing his forces to protect various
towns, and choosing the small town of Senon
near Verdun to await the spring. This turned out
to be a tactical error, for he was left with insufficient forces to defend
himself when a large contingent of Franks besieged the town and Julian was
virtually held captive there for several months, until his general Marcellus
deigned to lift the siege. Relations between Julian and Marcellus seem to have
been poor. Constantius accepted Julian's report of events and Marcellus was
replaced as magister equitum
by Severus.
The
following year saw a combined operation planned by Constantius to regain
control of the Rhine from the Germanic tribes that had spilt across the river
onto the west bank. From the south his magister peditum Barbatio was to come from Milan and amass
forces at Augst (near the Rhine bend), then set off
north with 25,000 soldiers; Julian with 13,000 troops would move east from Durocortorum (Reims ).
However, while Julian was in transit, a group of Laeti
attacked Lugdunum (Lyon )
and Julian was delayed in order to deal with them. This left Barbatio
unsupported and deep in Alamanni territory, so
he felt obliged to withdraw, retracing his steps. Thus ended the coordinated
operation against the Germanic peoples.
With
Barbatio safely out of the picture, King Chnodomarius led a confederation of
Alamanni forces against Julian and Severus at the of Battle of
Argentoratum . The Romans were heavily outnumbered and during the
heat of battle a group of 600 horsemen on the right wing deserted, yet, taking
full advantage of the limitations of the terrain, the Romans were
overwhelmingly victorious. The enemy was routed and driven into the river. King
Chnodomarius was captured and later sent to Constantius in Milan. Ammianus ,
who was a participant in the battle, portrays Julian in charge of events on the
battlefield and describes how the
soldiers, because of this success, acclaimed Julian attempting to make him Augustus ,
an acclamation he rejected, rebuking them. He later rewarded them for their
valor.
Rather
than chase the routed enemy across the Rhine, Julian now proceeded to follow
the Rhine north, the route he followed the previous year on his way back to
Gaul. At Moguntiacum (Mainz ),
however, he crossed the Rhine in an expedition that penetrated deep into modern
Germany, and forced three local kingdoms to submit. This action showed the
Alamanni that Rome was once again present and active in the area. On his way
back to winter quarters in Paris he dealt with a band of Franks that had taken
control of some abandoned forts along the Meuse River .
In
358, Julian gained victories over the Salian Franks on the Lower Rhine , settling them in Toxandria in the Roman Empire, north of
today's city of Tongeren , and over the Chamavi, who were
expelled back to Hamaland .
Taxation and administration
At the
end of 357 Julian, with the prestige of his victory over the Alamanni to give
him confidence, prevented a tax increase by the Gallic praetorian prefect Florentius
and personally took charge of the province of Belgica Secunda . This was Julian's
first experience with civil administration, where his views were influenced by
his liberal education in Greece. Properly it was a role that belonged to the
praetorian prefect. However, Florentius and Julian often clashed over the
administration of Gaul. Julian's first priority, as Caesar and nominal ranking
commander in Gaul, was to drive out the barbarians who had breached the Rhine
frontier. However, he sought to win over the support of the civil population,
which was necessary for his operations in Gaul and also to show his largely
Germanic army the benefits of Imperial rule. He therefore felt it was necessary
to rebuild stable and peaceful conditions in the devastated cities and
countryside. For this reason, Julian clashed with Florentius over the latter's
support of tax increases, as mentioned above, and Florentius's own corruption
in the bureaucracy.
Constantius
attempted to maintain some modicum of control over his Caesar, which explains
his removal of Julian's close adviser Saturninius Secundus Salutius from Gaul.
His departure stimulated the writing of Julian's oration, "Consolation
Upon the Departure of Salutius".
Rebellion in Paris
19th century depiction of Julian being proclaimed Emperor in Paris at the
Thermes de Cluny , standing on a shield in the Frankish
manner, in February 360.
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In the
fourth year of Julian's stay in Gaul, the Sassanid Emperor , Shapur II , invaded Mesopotamia and took the
city of Amida after a 73-day
siege. In February 360, Constantius II ordered more than half of Julian's
Gallic troops to his eastern army, the orders by-passing Julian and going
directly to the military commanders. Although Julian at first attempted to
expedite the order, it provoked an insurrection by troops of the Petulantes , who had no desire to leave
Gaul. According to the historian Zosimus , the army
officers were those responsible for distributing an anonymous tract expressing
complaints against Constantius as well as fearing for Julian's ultimate fate.
Notably absent at the time was the prefect Florentius, who was usually never
far from Julian's side, though now he was kept busy organizing supplies in
Vienne and away from any strife that the order could cause. Julian would later
blame him for the arrival of the order from Constantius. Ammianus Marcellinus
even suggested that the fear of Julian gaining more popularity than himself
caused Constantius to send the order on the urging of Florentius.
The
troops proclaimed Julian Augustus in Paris, and this in turn led to a
very swift military effort to secure or win the allegiance of others. Although
the full details are unclear, there is evidence to suggest that Julian may have
at least partially stimulated the insurrection. If so, he went back to business
as usual in Gaul, for, from June to August of that year, Julian led a
successful campaign against the Attuarian Franks. In November, Julian began
openly using the title Augustus even issuing coins with the title,
sometimes with Constantius, sometimes without. He celebrated his fifth year in
Gaul with a big show of games.
In the
spring of 361, Julian led his army into the territory of the Alamanni, where he
captured their king, Vadomarius. (Julian claimed that Vadomarius had been in
league with Constantius encouraging him to raid the borders of Raetia .) Julian then divided his forces, sending one
column to Raetia, one to northern Italy and the third he led down the Danube on
boats. His forces claimed control of Illyricum and his general, Nevitta,
secured the pass of Succi into Thrace. He was now well out of his comfort zone
and on the road to civil war. (Julian would state in late November that he set
off down this road "because, having been declared a public enemy, I meant
to frighten him [Constantius] merely, and that our quarrel should result in
intercourse on more friendly terms...")
However,
in June, forces loyal to Constantius captured the city of Aquileia on the north Adriatic coast, an
event which threatened to cut Julian off from the rest of his forces, while
Constantius's troops marched towards him from the east. Aquileia was
subsequently besieged by 23,000 men loyal to Julian. All Julian could do was
sit it out in Naissus, the city of Constantine's birth, waiting for news and
writing letters to various cities in Greece justifying his actions (of which
only the letter to the Athenians has survived in its entirety). Civil war was
avoided only by the death on November 3 of Constantius, who, in his last will,
recognized Julian as his rightful successor.
The new emperor and his
administration
The Church of the Holy Apostles, where Julian brought Constantius II to
be buried.
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On
December 11, 361, Julian entered Constantinople as sole emperor and, despite
his rejection of Christianity, his first political act was to preside over
Constantius' Christian burial, escorting the body to the Church of the
Apostles , where it was placed alongside that of Constantine. This
act was a demonstration of his lawful right to the throne. He is also now
thought to have been responsible for the building of Santa Costanza on a Christian site just
outside Rome as a mausoleum for his
wife Helena and sister-in-law Constantina .
The
new Emperor rejected the style of administration of his immediate predecessors.
He blamed Constantine for the state of the administration and for having
abandoned the traditions of the past. He made no attempt to restore the tetrarchal system begun under Diocletian . Nor did he seek to rule as an
absolute autocrat. His own philosophic notions led him to idealize the reigns
of Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius . In his first panegyric to Constantius, Julian described
the ideal ruler as being essentially primus inter pares
("first among equals"), operating under the same laws as his
subjects. While in Constantinople therefore it was not strange to see Julian
frequently active in the Senate, participating in debates and making speeches,
placing himself at the level of the other members of the Senate.
He
viewed the royal court of his predecessors as inefficient, corrupt, and
expensive. Thousands of servants, eunuchs, and superfluous officials were
therefore summarily dismissed. He set up the Chalcedon tribunal
to deal with the corruption of the previous administration under the
supervision of magister militum
Arbitio . Several high-ranking officials
under Constantius including the chamberlain Eusebius were found guilty and
executed. (Julian was conspicuously absent from the proceedings, perhaps
signaling his displeasure at their necessity.) He continually sought to reduce
what he saw as a burdensome and corrupt bureaucracy within the Imperial
administration whether it involved civic officials, the secret agents, or the
imperial post service.
Another
effect of Julian's political philosophy was that the authority of the cities
was expanded at the expense of the imperial bureaucracy as Julian sought to
reduce direct imperial involvement in urban affairs. For example, city land
owned by the imperial government was returned to the cities, city council
members were compelled to resume civic authority, often against their will, and
the tribute in gold by the cities called the aurum coronarium was made
voluntary rather than a compulsory tax. Additionally, arrears of land taxes
were cancelled. This was a key reform reducing the power of corrupt imperial
officials, as the unpaid taxes on land were often hard to calculate or higher
than the value of the land itself. Forgiving back taxes both made Julian more
popular and allowed him to increase collections of current taxes.
While
he ceded much of the authority of the imperial government to the cities, Julian
also took more direct control himself. For example, new taxes and corvées had to be approved by him directly
rather than left to the judgement of the bureaucratic apparatus. Julian
certainly had a clear idea of what he wanted Roman society to be, both in
political as well as religious terms. The terrible and violent dislocation of
the 3rd century meant that the Eastern Mediterranean had become the economic
locus of the Empire. If the cities were treated as relatively autonomous local
administrative areas, it would simplify the problems of imperial administration,
which as far as Julian was concerned, should be focused on the administration
of the law and defense of the empire's vast frontiers.
In
replacing Constantius's political and civil appointees, Julian drew heavily
from the intellectual and professional classes, or kept reliable holdovers,
such as the rhetorician Themistius . His choice of consuls for the
year 362 was more controversial. One was the very acceptable Claudius Mamertinus ,
previously the Praetorian Prefect
of Illyricum .
The other, more surprising choice was Nevitta , Julian's trusted Frankish general. This latter appointment made overt the
fact that an emperor's authority depended on the power of the army. Julian's
choice of Nevitta appears to have been aimed at maintaining the support of the
Western army which had acclaimed him.
Clash with the Antiochenes
After
five months of dealings at the capital, Julian left Constantinople in May and
moved to Antioch , arriving in mid-July and staying
there for nine months before launching his fateful campaign against Persia in
March 363. Antioch was a city favored by splendid temples along with a famous
oracle of Apollo in nearby Daphne, which may have been cause for him choosing
to reside there. It had also been used in the past as a staging place for
amassing troops, a purpose which Julian intended to follow.
His
arrival on 18 July was well received by the Antiochenes, though it coincided
with the celebration of the Adonia , a festival which marked the death of
Adonis , so there was wailing and moaning in
the streets—not a good omen for an arrival.
Julian
soon discovered that wealthy merchants were causing food problems, apparently
by hoarding food and selling it at high prices. He hoped that the curia would
deal with the issue for the situation was headed for a famine. When the curia
did nothing, he spoke to the city's leading citizens, trying to persuade them
to take action. Thinking that they would do the job, he turned his attention to
religious matters.
He
tried to resurrect the ancient oracular spring of Castalia at the temple of Apollo at Daphne. After being advised that the bones of
3rd-century bishop Babylas
were suppressing the god, he made a public-relations mistake in ordering the
removal of the bones from the vicinity of the temple. The result was a massive
Christian procession. Shortly after that, when the temple was destroyed by
fire, Julian suspected the Christians and ordered stricter investigations than
usual. He also shut up the chief Christian church of the city, before the
investigations proved that the fire was the result of an accident.
When
the curia still took no substantial action in regards to the food shortage,
Julian intervened, fixing the prices for grain and importing more from Egypt.
Then landholders refused to sell theirs, claiming that the harvest was so bad
that they had to be compensated with fair prices. Julian accused them of price gouging and forced them to sell.
Various parts of Libanius' orations may suggest that both sides were justified
to some extent while Ammianus blames Julian for "a mere thirst for
popularity".
Julian's
ascetic lifestyle was not popular either, since his subjects were accustomed to
the idea of an all-powerful Emperor who placed himself well above them. Nor did
he improve his dignity with his own participation in the ceremonial of bloody
sacrifices. As David S. Potter says:
They
expected a man who was both removed from them by the awesome spectacle of
imperial power, and would validate their interests and desires by sharing them
from his Olympian height (...) He was supposed to be interested in what
interested his people, and he was supposed to be dignified. He was not supposed
to leap up and show his appreciation for a panegyric that it was delivered, as Julian
had done on January 3, when Libanius was speaking, and ignore the chariot
races.
He
then tried to address public criticism and mocking of him by issuing a satire
ostensibly on himself, called Misopogon or
"Beard Hater". There he blames the people of Antioch for preferring
that their ruler have his virtues in the face rather than in the soul.
Even
Julian's intellectual friends and fellow pagans were of a divided mind about
this habit of talking to his subjects on an equal footing: Ammianus Marcellinus
saw in that only the foolish vanity of someone "excessively anxious for
empty distinction", whose "desire for popularity often led him to
converse with unworthy persons".
On
leaving Antioch he appointed Alexander of Heliopolis as governor, a violent and
cruel man whom the Antiochene Libanius , a friend of
the emperor, admits on first thought was a "dishonourable"
appointment. Julian himself described the man as "undeserving" of the
position, but appropriate "for the avaricious and rebellious people of
Antioch".
The Persian campaign
Julian's
rise to Augustus was the result of military insurrection eased by Constantius's
sudden death. This meant that, while he could count on the wholehearted support
of the Western army which had aided his rise, the Eastern army was an unknown
quantity originally loyal to the Emperor he had risen against, and he had tried
to woo it through the Chalcedon Tribunal. However, to solidify his position in
the eyes of the eastern army, he needed to lead its soldiers to victory and a
campaign against the Persians offered such an opportunity.
An
audacious plan was formulated whose goal was to lay siege on the Sassanid
capital city of Ctesiphon and
definitively secure the eastern border. Yet the full motivation for this
ambitious operation is, at best, unclear. There was no direct necessity for an
invasion, as the Sassanids sent envoys in the hope of settling matters peacefully.
Julian rejected this offer. Ammianus states that Julian longed for revenge on
the Persians and that a certain desire for combat and glory also played a role
in his decision to go to war.
Illustration from The Fall of Princes by John Lydgate
(which is a translation of De Casibus Virorum Illustribus by Giovanni Boccaccio ) depicting "the skyn of
Julyan". There is no evidence that Julian's corpse was skinned and
displayed, and it is likely that the illustrator simply confused the fate of
Julian's body with that of Emperor Valerian .
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Into enemy territory
On 5
March 363, despite a series of omens against the campaign, Julian departed
from Antioch with about 80,000–90,000 men, and headed north toward
the Euphrates. En route he was met by embassies from various small powers
offering assistance, none of which he accepted. He did order the Armenian king Arsaces to muster an army and await
instructions. He crossed the Euphrates near Hierapolis and moved eastward to Carrhae , giving the impression that his chosen route
into Persian territory was down the Tigris. For this reason it seems he sent a
force of 30,000 soldiers under Procopius
and Sebastianus further eastward to devastate Media in conjunction with
Armenian forces. This was where two earlier Roman campaigns had concentrated
and where the main Persian forces were soon directed. Julian's strategy lay
elsewhere, however. He had had a fleet built of over 1,000 ships at Samosata in
order to supply his army for a march down the Euphrates and of 50 pontoon ships
to facilitate river crossings. Procopius and the Armenians would march down the
Tigris to meet Julian near Ctesiphon. Julian's ultimate aim seems to have been
"regime change" by replacing king Shapur II with his brother Hormisdas.
After
feigning a march further eastward, Julian's army turned south to Circesium at the confluence of the Khabur ("Abora") and the
Euphrates arriving at the beginning of April. Passing Dura on April 6, the army made good
progress, bypassing towns after negotiations or besieging those which chose to
oppose him. At the end of April the Romans captured the fortress of Pirisabora , which guarded the canal
approach from the Euphrates to Ctesiphon on the Tigris. As the army marched
toward the Persian capital, the enemy broke the dikes which crossed the land,
turning it into marshland, so the army's progress was slowed.
Ctesiphon
By
mid-May, the army had reached the vicinity of the heavily fortified Persian
capital, Ctesiphon, where Julian partially unloaded some of the fleet and had
his troops ferried across the Tigris by night. Before the gates of the city the
Romans defeated the Persians (Battle of
Ctesiphon ), driving them back into the city.
Although
the undeniable tactical success left the Roman army in control of the
battlefield, the Persian capital was not taken, the main Persian army was still
at large and approaching, while the Romans lacked a clear strategical
objective. In the council of war which followed, Julian's generals persuaded
him not to mount a siege against the city, given the impregnability of its
defenses and the fact that Shapur would soon arrive with a large force. Julian
not wanting to give up what he had gained and probably still hoping for the
arrival of the column under Procopius and Sebastianus, set off east into the
Persian interior, ordering the destruction of the fleet. This proved to be a
hasty decision, for they were on the wrong side of the Tigris with no clear
means of retreat and the Persians had begun to harass them from a distance,
burning any food in the Romans' path. A second council of war on 16 June 363
decided that the best course of action was to lead the army back to the safety
of Roman borders, not through Mesopotamia, but northward to Corduene .
Death
Detail from the Sassanian
relief of the incoronation of Ardashir II showing a defeated
Julian.
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During
the withdrawal, Julian's forces suffered several attacks from Sassanid forces.
In one such engagement on 26 June 363, the indecisive Battle of Samarra near Maranga, Julian was
wounded when the Sassanid army raided his column. In the haste of pursuing the
retreating enemy, Julian chose speed rather than caution, taking only his sword
and leaving his coat of mail. He received a wound from a spear that reportedly
pierced the lower lobe of his liver, the peritoneum and intestines . The wound was not immediately
deadly. Julian was treated by his personal physician, Oribasius of Pergamum, who seems to have
made every attempt to treat the wound. This probably included the irrigation of
the wound with a dark wine , and a procedure known as gastrorrhaphy ,
the suturing of the damaged intestine. On the third day a major hemorrhage
occurred and the emperor died during the night. As Julian wished, his body was
buried outside Tarsus , though
it was later removed to Constantinople.
In
364, Libanius stated that Julian was assassinated by a Christian who was one of
his own soldiers; this charge is not corroborated by Ammianus Marcellinus or
other contemporary historians. John Malalas reports that the supposed
assassination was commanded by Basil of Caesarea . Fourteen years later,
Libanius said that Julian was killed by a Saracen (Lakhmid ) and this may have been confirmed
by Julian's doctor Oribasius who, having examined the wound, said that it was
from a spear used by a group of Lakhmid auxiliaries in Persian service. Later
Christian historians propagated the tradition that Julian was killed by Saint Mercurius . Julian was succeeded by
the short-lived Emperor Jovian who
reestablished Christianity's privileged position throughout the Empire.
Libanius
says in his epitaph of the deceased emperor (18.304) that "I have
mentioned representations (of Julian); many cities have set him beside the
images of the gods and honour him as they do the gods. Already a blessing has
been besought of him in prayer, and it was not in vain. To such an extent has
he literally ascended to the gods and received a share of their power from him
themselves." However, no similar action was taken by the Roman central
government, which would be more and more dominated by Christians in the ensuing
decades.
Considered
apocryphal is the report that his dying words were νενίκηκάς με, Γαλιλαῖε ,
or Vicisti, Galilaee ("You have won, Galilean "),supposedly
expressing his recognition that, with his death, Christianity would become the
Empire's state religion. The phrase introduces the 1866 poem Hymn to Proserpine ,
which was Algernon
Charles Swinburne 's elaboration of what a philosophic pagan might
have felt at the triumph of Christianity.
Tomb
As he
had requested, Julian's body was buried in Tarsus. It lay in a tomb outside the
city, across a road from that of Maximinus Daia.
But we
learn from Zonaras that at some "later" date
his body was exhumed and reburied in or near the Church of
the Holy Apostles in Constantinople, where Constantine and the rest
of his family lay. His sarcophagus is listed as standing in a "stoa"
there by Constantine
Porphyrogenitus . The church was demolished by the Ottoman Turks
after the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Today a sarcophagus of porphyry is
identified as his and stands in the grounds of the Archaeological Museum in
Istanbul.
Julian and religious issues Beliefs
Julian's
personal religion was both pagan and philosophical; he viewed the traditional
myths as allegories, in which the ancient gods were aspects of a philosophical divinity . The chief surviving
sources are his works To King Helios and To the
Mother of the Gods , which were written
as panegyrics , not theological treatises.
While
there are clear resemblances to other forms of Late Antique religion, it is
controversial as to which variety it is most similar to. He learned theurgy from Maximus of Ephesus ,
a student of Iamblichus ; his
system bears some resemblance to the Neoplatonism of Plotinus ; Polymnia Athanassiadi has brought
new attention to his relations with Mithraism , although whether he was
initiated into it remains debatable; and certain aspects of his thought (such
as his reorganization of paganism under High
Priests, and his fundamental monotheism ) may show
Christian influence. Some of these potential sources have not come down to us,
and all of them influenced each other, which adds to the difficulties.
According
to one theory (that of G.W. Bowersock
in particular), Julian's paganism was highly eccentric and atypical because it
was heavily influenced by an esoteric approach to Platonic philosophy sometimes identified as theurgy
and also Neoplatonism . Others (Rowland Smith, in particular) have argued
that Julian's philosophical perspective was nothing unusual for a
"cultured" pagan of his time, and, at any rate, that Julian's
paganism was not limited to philosophy alone, and that he was deeply devoted to
the same gods and goddesses as other pagans of his day.
Because
of his Neoplatonist background Julian accepted the creation of humanity as
described in Plato's Timaeus . Julian writes, "when Zeus was setting
all things in order there fell from him drops of sacred blood, and from them,
as they say, arose the race of men." Further he writes, "they who had
the power to create one man and one woman only, were able to create many men
and women at once...." His view contrasts with the Christian belief that
humanity is derived from the one pair, Adam and Eve. Elsewhere he argues
against the single pair origin, indicating his disbelief, noting for example,
"how very different in their bodies are the Germans and Scythians from the
Libyans and Ethiopians."
The
Christian historian Socrates
Scholasticus was of the opinion that Julian believed himself to be Alexander the Great
"in another body" via transmigration of souls , "in accordance with the
teachings of Pythagoras and Plato ".
Like Pythagoras, Julian was a vegetarian .
Restoration of Paganism as state
religion
Julian
the Apostate presiding at a conference of sectarians , by Edward
Armitage , 187
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After
gaining the purple, Julian started a religious reformation of the state, which
was intended to restore the lost strength of the Roman state. He supported the
restoration of Hellenistic
polytheism as the state religion. His laws tended to target wealthy and
educated Christians, and his aim was not to destroy Christianity but to drive
the religion out of "the governing classes of the empire — much as Buddhism was driven back into the lower
classes by a revived Confucian mandarinate
in 13th century
China ."
He
restored pagan temples which had been confiscated since Constantine's time, or
simply appropriated by wealthy citizens; he repealed the stipends that
Constantine had awarded to Christian bishops, and removed their other
privileges, including a right to be consulted on appointments and to act as
private courts. He also reversed some favors that had previously been given to
Christians. For example, he reversed Constantine's declaration that Majuma ,
the port of Gaza , was a separate city .
Majuma had a large Christian congregation while Gaza was still predominantly
pagan.
On 4
February 362, Julian promulgated an edict to guarantee freedom of religion.
This edict proclaimed that all the religions were equal before the law, and
that the Roman Empire had to return to its original religious eclecticism,
according to which the Roman state did not impose any religion on its provinces.
Practically however, it had as its purpose the restoration of paganism at the
expense of Christianity.
Coptic icon showing Saint
Mercurius killing Julian. According to a tradition, Saint Basil (an old school-mate of
Julian) had been imprisoned at the start of Julian's Sassanid campaign. Basil
prayed to Mercurius to help him, and the saint appeared in a vision to Basil,
claiming to have speared Julian to death.
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Since
the persecution of Christians by past Roman Emperors had seemingly only
strengthened Christianity, many of Julian's actions were designed to harass and
undermine the ability of Christians to organize resistance to the
re-establishment of paganism in the empire. Julian's preference for a
non-Christian and non-philosophical view of Iamblichus' theurgy seems to have
convinced him that it was right to outlaw the practice of the Christian view of
theurgy and demand the suppression of the Christian set of Mysteries.
In his
School Edict Julian required that all public teachers be approved by the
Emperor; the state paid or supplemented much of their salaries. Ammianus
Marcellinus explains this as intending to prevent Christian teachers from using
pagan texts (such as the Iliad , which was
widely regarded as divinely inspired) that formed the core of classical
education: "If they want to learn literature, they have Luke and Mark : Let them go back to their churches
and expound on them", the edict says. This was an attempt to remove some
of the power of the Christian schools which at that time and later used ancient
Greek literature in their teachings in their effort to present the Christian
religion as being superior to paganism. The edict was also a severe financial
blow, because it deprived Christian scholars, tutors and teachers of many
students.
In his
Tolerance Edict of 362, Julian decreed the reopening of pagan temples,
the restitution of confiscated temple properties, and the return from exile of
dissident Christian bishops. The latter was an instance of tolerance of
different religious views, but it may also have been seen as an attempt by
Julian to foster schisms and divisions between different Christian sects, since
conflict between rival Christian sects was quite fierce.
His
care in the institution of a pagan hierarchy in opposition to that of the
Christians was due to his wish to create a society in which every aspect of the
life of the citizens was to be connected, through layers of intermediate
levels, to the consolidated figure of the Emperor — the final provider for all
the needs of his people. Within this project, there was no place for a parallel
institution, such as the Christian hierarchy or Christian charity.
Charity
Julian's
Column in Ankara ,
built on the occasion of the emperor's visit to the city in 362
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Because
Christian charities
were open to all, including pagans, it put this aspect of the Roman citizens
lives out of the control of the Imperial authority and under that of the
Church. Thus Julian envisioned the institution of a Roman philanthropic system,
and cared for the behaviour and the morality of the pagan priests, in the hope
that it would mitigate the reliance of pagans on Christian charity:
These
impious Galileans not only feed their own poor, but ours also; welcoming them
into their agapae , they
attract them, as children are attracted, with cakes.
Attempt to rebuild the Jewish
Temple
In
363, not long before Julian left Antioch to launch his campaign against Persia,
in keeping with his effort to foster religions other than Christianity, he
ordered the Temple rebuilt. A personal friend of his, Ammianus
Marcellinus , wrote this about the effort:
Julian
thought to rebuild at an extravagant expense the proud Temple once at
Jerusalem, and committed this task to Alypius of Antioch .
Alypius set vigorously to work, and was seconded by the governor of the province ; when fearful
balls of fire, breaking out near the foundations, continued their attacks, till
the workmen, after repeated scorchings, could approach no more: and he gave up
the attempt.
— Ammianus
Marcellinus
The
failure to rebuild the Temple has been ascribed to the Galilee
earthquake of 363 , and to the Jews '
ambivalence about the project. Sabotage is a possibility, as is an accidental
fire. Divine intervention was the common view among Christian historians of the
time. Julian's support of Jews , coming after the
hostility of many earlier Emperors, caused Jews to call him "Julian the Hellene ".
Julian the Apostate C onstantinian
dynasty Born: 331 Died: 26 June 363
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Regnal titles
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Preceded by
Constantius
II
|
Roman
Emperor
360 – 363
|
Succeeded by
Jovian
|
Political offices
|
Preceded by
Arbitio ,
Lollianus
Mavortius
|
Consul
of the Roman
Empire
356–357
with Constantius
II
|
Succeeded by
Neratius
Cerealis ,
Censorius
Datianus
|
Preceded by
Flavius
Eusebius ,
Flavius
Hypatius
|
Consul
of the Roman
Empire
360
with Constantius
II
|
Succeeded by
Taurus ,
Florentius
|
Preceded by
Claudius
Mamertinus ,
Nevitta
|
Consul
of the Roman
Empire
363
with Sallustius
|
Succeeded by
Jovian ,
Varronianus
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