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Background || Religion and Conversion || Rule || Death || Opinions of Julian

Perhaps it's my fascination with tragic heroes, but Emperor Julian is one of my favorite Emperors (although I think it's more likely because I read Libanius's account of him).  Like Cicero, he fought and lost a battle that forever changed the outcome of Western History.  (in my opinion, which is contrary to most scholars)

Julian's Background
Most people have heard of Julius Caesar, Constantine, and Marcus Aurelius now because of Gladiator, but if you mention Julian to a room of history majors, you would still get mostly empty looks unless they have had some Roman history.  Perhaps the best way to start with Julian is with Constantine.  After Constantine's death, his remaining three sons (the eldest was killed by Constantine earlier) Constantine II, Constantius II, and Constans, curved up the Roman Empire.  They also killed every single male in their family (there were a lot) until all that remained were two children, Gallus and Julian, nephews of Constantine.  Constantine II, in control of the Western Empire was recognized as the senior Emperor.  However there were a lot of rivalry between the three brothers, and eventually in 340, Constans defeats and kills Constantine II.  Constantius II stood back and did nothing.  In 350, Constans is killed in a mutiny of his troops, so only Constantius II remained, and Gallus is chosen as Caesar in the East.  However in 354, Constantius II beheads Gallus and in 355 Julian becomes the Caesar of the of the West (he's 24) so that Julian can deal with the problems of the Western Frontiers.  Constantius II meanwhile must deal with aggression and military conflicts with the Persians in the East.  Julian was successful in securing the Western Frontiers.  He even secured alliances with the Franks and invaded Germany.  Pretty good for someone who was previously simply a student.  In 360, Constantius II asks for reinforcement from Julian for battle in Persia, but Julian's troops mutinied and declared Julian to be the Emperor.  So the two armies started to march against each other, but as luck would have it, Constantius II dies unexpectantly on the way, and Julian, the only male heir of Constantine left, becomes Emperor.

Julian's Religion and Conversion
Like Constantine's four sons, Julian was raised an Arian Christian.  The three sons of Constantine who survived past him were all ardent Arian Christians.  They pushed Christianity over other religions, and prosecuted all other religions.  Julian however, grew up in the Eastern Empire.  He spent a lot of time in Athens, and was significantly influenced by the Neo-Platonists.  They were basically a very philosophical pagan group . . .intellectual mythicism if you will.  They took Plato's ideas and combined it with monotheistic thinking.  They believed that there was one creative force that created the universe.  The rest was derived from him.  The material world of human is a pale reflection of the cosmos.  Men are hindered by their bodies.  They advocated shedding all material things and live a life of celibacy.  Kind of like monks I guess.  My understanding of their religion is limited, but I will trust my professor on this one and say that their belief is most similar to the Jedi Knights.  (And if you don't know what a Jedi Knight is you need to get out more.  Either that or come visit my room . . .)  In any case, Julian came under this influence and secretly converted to it.  He actually wrote an account of this himself, much like Augustine, though not nearly as long.  He joined several mystery cults including the cult of Isis and the cult of Mithras.  He was later given the infamous title Restorer of Cults.  Of course, the Emperor of the time, Constantius II had no knowledge of this.  Some believe it was because the Empress shielded him.  However, after Constantius dies, Julian comes out of the closet.  (No, he doesn't decide he's gay, although I have a theory on that later)  Julian tries to undo a lot of the advantages that the Christians had previously received and convert the Roman state back to Paganism.

The Rule of Julian
Julian regarded the death of Constantius as the will of heaven to bring Rome back to paganism.  The actual account of Julian's rule lies hidden beneath a bunch of really *really* extreme opinions.  Personally, I think he was a good ruler.  There're some things sources generally agree on that he did do.  It seems that he promoted religious tolerance.  He revived and restored pagan temples. He also removed the Christian's tax advantage (before him, they didn't have to pay taxes).  He also prevented the Christians from teaching the pagan classics, they could teach their own Christian writing, but no pagan classics.  (Augustine mentions this in his Confessions)  Of course Christians found ways around it.

The Death of Julian
Julian was killed during a campaign to Persia.  A spear went through his side.  However, some say it was from his own army.  The Christians who despised him killed him. . .

Opinions of Julian
Here comes the hard part, and I guess the fun part.  Who the heck was Julian?  What the heck did he think he was doing?  And was he nuts?  Julian, evidently, is not one of those figure you could feel neutral about either in antiquity or in modern times.  The Christians of antiquity hated him.  They considered him the anti-Christ.  They rejoiced when he died.  To the writers of the Enlightenment like Edward Gibbons, Julian has been portrayed as a tragic hero.  And now I think the wave is swaying back, because I just found a recent book where he is the anti-Christ figure again.  Why don't we know anything about him?  Probably because although he left numerous letters, it's hard to tell which ones were genuine and which ones were faked by later Christians.  Here is the argument on both sides.  On the side that doesn't like Julian.  He is portrayed as delusional, and having lost touch with the reality of the Christian world.  His argument against Christianity were entirely philosophical and failed to reach the common man.  He is pompous and a fool.  On the other side of the spectrum, Julian was an intellectual.  One who had envisioned tolerance.  Someone who simply wanted to keep all religions at an equal footing.  Julian's world has only recently been turned Christian.  There was still  many pagans among the people.  Christianity was by no means dominant as it was during later Emperors' rule.  Only shortly before had Constantine turned the wave.  Julian put up a good fight, and was lost to fate.  Get the idea of how the debate goes?  Well, there is merit on both sides I think.  Personally, I think had Julian lived, he would have been able to promote religious tolerance and break the dominance of Christianity.  Although his ideas of paganism was too complex for the common people to grasp, I think the mere knowledge that the Emperor is pagan is likely to influence the people in the long run.  People seem to forget, Julian had little over two years to assert himself.  If he was given twenty, I think he would have been able to do a lot more.  I personally do not think he was delusional nor a fool.  A bit pompous perhaps, but definitely not a fool.  Then again, we can not hang on what-ifs in history.  My personal like for him stems from Libanius' autobiography.  In it, Libanius describes a moving friendship between himself and Julian.  (To the extreme that homosexuality, I personally feel, is not out of the question).  I think Libanius was a pretty amazing man (completely arrogant, but amazing nonetheless), and if Julian was able to gain that much love from Libanius, than surely he was no common man.

Background || Religion and Conversion || Rule || Death || Opinions of Julian