Flavius Claudius Julianus, known also as
Julian, Julian the Apostate or Julian the Philosopher
(331/332 – 26 June
363), was
Roman Emperor (Caesar,
November 355 to February 360; Augustus, February 360 to June 363), last
of the
Constantinian dynasty. Julian was a man
of "unusually complex character": he was "the military commander, the
theosophist, the social reformer, and the man of letters".
Julian 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
Neo-Platonic
paganism caused him to be called Julian
the
Apostate by the church, as
Edward Gibbon wrote:
In 363, after a reign of only 19 months as absolute
ruler of the Roman Empire, Julian died in Persia during a campaign
against the
Sassanid Empire.
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, both 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
Julian's family. 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 and given a strictly Arian Christian education.
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 (ie 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
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.
Julian was thus summoned to appear before the emperor in
Mediolanum (Milan)
and, on 6 November
355, he was made Caesar of the West and
married 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. Julian, however, had other ideas, taking 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 the Germanic tribes
In 356 during his first campaign he led an army to
the Rhine, engaged the barbarians 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. There seem to have been poor
relations between Julian and Marcellus. 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
Reims. However, while Julian was in
transit, a group of
Laeti attacked
Lyon ("Lugdunum") 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 tribes.
With Barbatio safely out of the picture, king
Chnodomarius led a confederation of
Alamanni forces against Julian and Severus in a battle that took place
in the vicinity of
Strasbourg. 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, but at the
Mainz bridge he crossed over and made a
sudden foray into Alamanni territory, where Roman forces had not been
seen for many years, forcing three kings 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. 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
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. 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 emperor 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
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.
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
peers"), 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 all the members of the senate and thus
embodying the first among peers.
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.
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 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 martyred 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[44][45]
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.
The
Persian Campaign
Julian's rise to Augustus—it should be remembered—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.
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
Hellenic paganism 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.
|
Juventinus and Maximus
The
Eastern Orthodox and
Roman Catholic Churches retell
a story concerning two of Julian's bodyguards who were
Christian. When he came to
Antioch, he prohibited the
veneration of the relics. The two bodyguards opposed the edict,
and were executed at Julian's command. The Catholic and Orthodox
Churches remember them as saints
Juventinus and Maximus. |
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
Because Christian
charities were beneficial 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:
Julian's Column in
Ankara, built on the occasion of
the emperor's visit to the city in 362
|
“““ |
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. |
” |
|
“ |
Whilst the pagan priests neglect the poor,
the hated Galileans devote themselves to works of charity, and
by a display of false compassion have established and given
effect to their pernicious errors. See their love-feasts, and
their tables spread for the indigent. Such practice is common
among them, and causes a contempt for our
gods. |
” |
Church
martyrs
Although Julian was responsible for temporarily
stopping factional struggles between Arian and orthodox Christians, the
following martyrs have traditionally been dated to his reign:
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. |
” |
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, meant that Jews called him Julian the
Hellene.
