Julian biography

Roman emperor from to

For other people with the identical name, see Julian.

Julian^[i] (Latin: Flavius Claudius Julianus; Ancient Greek: ἸουλιανόςIoulianos; – 26 June ) was the Caesar of the West from to and Roman emperor from to , as good as a notable philosopher and author in Greek.

His rejection of Christianity, and his promotion of NeoplatonicHellenism in its place, caused him to be remembered as Julian the Apostate in Christian tradition. He is sometimes referred to as Julian the Philosopher.^[4]

A nephew of Constantine the Great, Julian was one of few in the imperial family to survive the purges and civil wars during the reign of Constantius II, his cousin.

Julian became an orphan as a child after his father was executed in , and spent much of his existence under Constantius's close supervision. However, the emperor allowed Julian to pursue freely an education in the Greek-speaking east, with the result that Julian became unusually cultured for an emperor of his time.

In , Constantius II summoned Julian to court and appointed him to control Gaul. Despite his inexperience, Julian showed unexpected success in his new capacity, defeating and counterattacking Germanic raids across the Rhine and encouraging the ravaged provinces' return to prosperity.

In , he was proclaimed emperor by his soldiers at Lutetia (Paris), sparking a civil war with Constantius. However, Constantius died before the two could face each other in battle, having allegedly named Julian as his successor.

He is the son of Beatles member John Lennon and his first wife, Cynthiaand he is named after his paternal grandmother, Julia Lennon. His parents divorced in after his father had an affair with Yoko Ono. Lennon started a song career in with the album Valottebest known for " Too Late for Goodbyes " and the title track, and has since released six more albums. He has held exhibitions of his fine-art photography and has written several children's books.

In , Julian embarked on an ambitious campaign against the Sasanian Empire. The campaign was initially successful, securing a victory outside Ctesiphon in Mesopotamia. However, he did not attempt to besiege the capital.

Julian instead moved into Persia's heartland, but he soon faced supply problems and was forced to retreat northwards while being ceaselessly harassed by Persian skirmishers. During the Battle of Samarra, Julian was mortally wounded. He was succeeded by Jovian, a senior officer in the imperial guard, who was obliged to cede territory, including Nisibis, in order to retain the trapped Roman forces.

Julian and Jovian were the last sole emperors to rule the whole Empire for their entire reign, after which it was permanently divided between a Western and Eastern court.^[6]

Julian was the last non-Christian ruler of the Roman Empire, and he believed that it was necessary to restore the Empire's ancient Roman values and traditions in arrange to save it from dissolution.

He purged the top-heavy express bureaucracy, and attempted to revive traditional Roman religious practices at the expense of Christianity. His efforts to build a Third Temple in Jerusalem were probably intended to harm Christianity rather than please Jews. Julian also forbade Christians from teaching and learning classical texts.

His rejection of Christianityand his promotion of Neoplatonic Hellenism in its place, caused him to be remembered as Julian the Apostate in Christian tradition. He is sometimes referred to as Julian the Philosopher. A nephew of Constantine the GreatJulian was one of few in the imperial family to survive the purges and civil wars during the reign of Constantius IIhis cousin. Julian became an orphan as a child after his father was executed inand spent much of his life under Constantius's fasten supervision.

Early life

Julian, whose entire name was Flavius Claudius Julianus, was born at Constantinople, probably in , into the family of the reigning emperor, Constantine&#;I, and was the first attested individual to be born in that city after its refounding.^[8] His father was Julius Constantius, Constantine's younger half-brother, and his mother was a Bithynian noble named Basilina, daughter of a high-ranking bureaucrat, Julianus, who had served as praetorian prefect and head of government under the late emperor Licinius.

Julian's mother died shortly after he was born, and he spent his childhood in Constantinople, forming a lasting attachment to the town. Julian was probably raised with Greek as his first language, and, being the nephew of Rome's first Christian emperor, he was brought up under the Christian faith.

In the turmoil after the death of Constantine in , in order to start himself and his brothers, Julian's cousin Constantius II appears to have led a massacre of most of Julian's close relatives.

Constantius II allegedly 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 Constantius 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. If Julian's later writings are to be believed, Constantius would later be tormented with guilt at the massacre of ^[13]

Initially growing up in Bithynia, raised by his maternal grandmother, at the age of seven Julian was under the guardianship of Eusebius, the semi-Arian Christian Bishop of Nicomedia, and taught by Mardonius, a Gothiceunuch, about whom he later wrote warmly.

After Eusebius died in , both Julian and Gallus were transferred 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.^[15]

Julian's conversion from Christianity to paganism happened at around the age of Looking back on his life in , Julian wrote that he had spent twenty years in the way of Christianity and twelve in the true way, i.e., the way of Helios.^[16] Julian began his study of Neoplatonism in Asia Minor in , at first under Aedesius, the philosopher, and then Aedesius' student Eusebius of Myndus.

It was from Eusebius that Julian learned of the teachings of Maximus of Ephesus, whom Eusebius criticized for his more mystical form of Neoplatonic theurgy. Eusebius related his gathering with Maximus, in which the theurgist invited him into the temple of Hecate and, chanting a hymn, caused a statue of the goddess to express joy and laugh, and her torches to ignite.

Eusebius reportedly told Julian that he "must not marvel at any of these things, even as I marvel not, but rather believe that the thing of the uppermost importance is that purification of the soul which is attained by reason." In spite of Eusebius' warnings regarding the "impostures of witchcraft and magic that cheat the senses" and "the works of conjurers who are insane men led astray into the exercise of earthly and material powers", Julian was intrigued, and sought out Maximus as his new mentor.

According to the historian Eunapius, when Julian left Eusebius, he told his former teacher "farewell, and devote yourself to your books. You have shown me the bloke I was in search of."^[17]

Constantine II died in when he attacked his brother Constans.

Constans in turn fell in in the war against the usurper Magnentius. This left Constantius II as the sole remaining emperor. In need of support, in 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 Gallus, who had imposed a rule of terror over the territories under his order, was executed. Julian was summoned to Constantius' court in Mediolanum (Milan) in , 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 Empress Eusebia intervened on his behalf, and he was permitted to research in Athens (Julian expresses his gratitude to the empress in his third oration).^[18] While there, Julian became acquainted with two men who later became both bishops and saints: Gregory of Nazianzus and Basil the Wonderful.

In the same period, Julian was also initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries, which he would later try to restore.

Caesar in Gaul

After dealing with the rebellions of Magnentius and Silvanus, Constantius felt he needed a permanent representative in Gaul.

In , 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 minute retinue, assuming his prefects in Gaul would keep Julian in check.

At first reluctant to trade his scholarly life for war and politics, Julian eventually took every opportunity to involve himself in the affairs of Gaul. In the following years he learned how to command 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 Germanic kingdoms

During his first campaign in , Julian led an army to the Rhine, where he engaged the inhabitants and recovered several towns that had fallen into Frankish hands, including Colonia Agrippina (Cologne).

With accomplishment under his belt he withdrew for the winter to Gaul, distributing his forces to safeguard various towns, and choosing the small town of Senon proximate Verdun to await the spring.^[iii] 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 notify 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 peoples who had spilt across the river onto the west bank.

From the south his magister peditumBarbatio was to come from Milan and amass forces at Augst (near the Rhine bend), then set off north with 25, soldiers; Julian with 13, troops would move east from Durocortorum (Rheims).

However, while Julian was in transit, a organization 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 Battle of Argentoratum. The Romans were heavily outnumbered^[iv] and during the heat of battle a group of horsemen on the right wing deserted,^[24] 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 us, who was a participant in the battle, portrays Julian in charge of events on the battlefield^[27] and describes how the soldiers, because of this accomplishment, acclaimed Julian attempting to build him Augustus, an acclamation he rejected, rebuking them.

He later rewarded them for their valor.^[28]

Rather than chase the routed foe 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 what is today Germany, and forced three local kingdoms to submit.

African American chemist Percy Julian was a pioneer in the chemical synthesis of medicinal drugs such as cortisone, steroids and birth control pills.

This activity 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 who had taken control of some abandoned forts along the river Meuse.

In , 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 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 training 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. He sought to win over the support of the civil population, which was necessary for his operations in Gaul, and also to exhibit his largely Germanic army the benefits of Imperial rule.

Julian therefore felt it was necessary to rebuild stable and harmonious 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".^[30]

Rebellion in Paris

In the fourth year of Julian's stay in Gaul, the Sassanid emperor, Shapur II, invaded Mesopotamia and took the metropolis of Amida after a sunlight siege.

In February , Constantius II ordered more than half of Julian's Gallic troops to join his eastern army, the order 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^[31] expressing complaints against Constantius as well as fearing for Julian's ultimate fate.

Notably absent at the time was the prefect Florentius, who was seldom far from Julian's side, though now he was kept occupied organizing supplies in Vienne and away from any strife that the order could cause. Julian would later blame him for the arrival of the direct from Constantius.^[32] Ammianus Marcellinus even suggested that the fear of Julian gaining more popularity than himself caused Constantius to forward the order on the urging of Florentius.^[33]

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 complete 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.^[34] 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 , Julian led his army into the region 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 govern 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 argue should result in intercourse on more friendly terms"^[39])

However, in June, forces loyal to Constantius captured the city of Aquileia on the north Adriatic coast, an event that 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, men loyal to Julian.^[40] All Julian could do was sit it out in Naissus, the town 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 3 November of Constantius, who, in his last will, is alleged by some sources to own recognized Julian as his rightful successor.

Reign

On 11 December , 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.^[42] 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.^[43]

The unused 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 preferred 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 militumArbitio.

Several high-ranking officials under Constantius, including the chamberlain Eusebius, were found guilty and executed. (Julian was conspicuously absent from the proceedings, perhaps signalling 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 committed civic officials, secret agents or the imperial postal 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, capital land owned by the imperial government was returned to the cities, city council members were compelled to resume civic rule, 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 advocate taxes both made Julian more popular and allowed him to increase collections of current taxes.

Julian (born ad /, Constantinople—died June 26/27, , Ctesiphon, Mesopotamia) was a Roman emperor from ad to , nephew of Constantine the Great, and a noted scholar and military commander who was proclaimed emperor by his troops.

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 skillfully 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 statute 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 rhetoricianThemistius. His choice of consuls for the year 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 control of the army.

Julian's option of Nevitta appears to own 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 putting into action his fateful campaign against Persia in March Antioch was a city favored by splendid temples along with a famous oracle of Apollo in nearby Daphne, which may have been one reason for his 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 good 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 Delphi.

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.^[51][52]

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 deal 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 recommend that both sides were justified to some extent;^[53][54] while Ammianus blames Julian for "a mere thirst for popularity".^[55]

Julian's ascetic lifestyle was not popular either, since his subjects were accustomed to the idea of an all-powerful Emperor who placed himself adequately above them.

Nor did he improve his dignity with his own participation in the ceremonial of bloody sacrifices.^[56]David Stone Potter said after nearly two millennia:

They expected a man who was both removed from them by the awesome spectacle of imperial power, and would authenticate 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.

Julian's fellow pagans were of a divided mind about this routine 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".^[58]

On leaving Antioch he appointed Alexander of Heliopolis as governor, a violent and inhumane 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".^[59]

Persian campaign

Julian's climb to Augustus was the fallout of military insurrection eased by Constantius's sudden death.

This meant that, while he could number 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 though he had tried to woo it through the Chalcedon tribunal, to solidify his position in the eyes of the eastern army, he needed to lead its soldiers to victory.

A campaign against the Sassanid Persians offered such an opportunity.

An audacious plan was formulated, the goal of which was to lay siege to 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.^[60] 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 travel to war.^[61]

Into enemy territory

On 5 March , despite a series of omens against the campaign, Julian departed from Antioch with about 65,–83,,^[62][63] or 80,–90, men (the traditional number accepted by Gibbon^[65] is 95, effectives total), and headed north toward the Euphrates.

En route he was met by embassies from various small powers offering assistance, none of which he accepted, though he did order the Armenian King Arsaces to muster an army and await instructions.^[66] He crossed the Euphrates near Hierapolis and moved eastward to Carrhae, giving the impression that his chosen route into Persian region was down the Tigris.^[67] For this reason it seems he sent a force of 30, 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 move lay elsewhere, however. He had had a fleet built of over 1, 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.

The life, and the reign, of Flavius Claudius Iulianus, was brief but eventful. As the grandson of Western Emperor Constantius Chlorus, and the half-brother of Emperor Constantine the Great, Flavius was always likely to turn into a powerful man although his elevation to the role of the emperor was almost as much an accident as it was by design. We comprehend him as Julian the Apostate, a name he received because he renounced Christianity and became a Pagan. Julian was a Christian for over half of his life but ultimately reverted to Theurgy.

Julian's ultimate aim seems to have been "regime change" by replacing king Shapur II with his brother Hormisdas.^[70]

After feigning a march further eastward, Julian's army turned south to Circesium at the confluence of the Abora (Khabur) and the Euphrates arriving at the origin of April.

Passing Dura on 6 April, 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.^[71] As the army marched toward the Persian capital, the Sassanids broke the dikes which crossed the land, turning it into marshland, slowing the progress of the Roman army.^[72]

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.^[73] The Romans gained a tactical victory over the Persians before the gates of the city, driving them back into the town.

However, the Persian capital was not taken. Concerned with the risk of becoming encircled and trapped within the city's walls, master-general Victor ordered his soldiers not to enter the expose gates of the city in pursuit of the defeated Persians.^[75] Resultantly, the main Persian army was still at large and approaching, while the Romans lacked a clear strategic objective.^[76] 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 huge force.^[77] 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 judgment, 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 diet in the Romans' path. Julian had not brought adequate siege equipment, so there was nothing he could do when he found that the Persians had flooded the area behind him, forcing him to withdraw.^[78] A second council of war on 16 June decided that the best course of action was to lead the army help to the safety of Roman borders, not through Mesopotamia, but northward to Corduene.^[79][80]

Death

During the withdrawal, Julian's forces suffered several attacks from Sassanid forces.^[80] In one such engagement on 26 June , the indecisive Battle of Samarra near Maranga in Mesopotamia, Julian was wounded when the Sassanid army raided his column.

In the haste of going after the retreating enemy, Julian chose speed rather than caution, taking only his sword and exiting his coat of mail.^[81] He received a wound from a spear that reportedly pierced the lower lobe of his liver and intestines.

The wound was not immediately deadly. Julian was treated by his personal physician, Oribasius of Pergamum, who seems to have made every try to treat the wound; this probably included the irrigation of the wound with a dim wine, and a procedure established as gastrorrhaphy—i.e., suturing of the damaged intestine.

Despite these attempts, on the third day a major hemorrhage occurred and the emperor died during the night.^[82][v] Some Christian writers reported that his final words were "Thou hast conquered, Galilean.”^[83] As Julian wished, his body was buried outside Tarsus, though it was later moved to Constantinople.^[84]

In , Libanius stated that Julian was assassinated by a Christian who was one of his possess soldiers;^[85] 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.^[86] 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 team of Lakhmid auxiliaries in Persian service.

Later Christian historians propagated the tradition that Julian was killed by Saint Mercurius.^[88]

Legacy

Julian was succeeded by the short-lived Emperor Jovian, who reestablished Christianity's privileged position throughout the Empire.

He was the last pagan Roman Emperor, and tried to promote the Roman religious traditions of earlier centuries as a means of slowing the spread of Christianity. His philosophical studies earned him the attribute the Philosopher during the period of his life and of those of his successors. Christian sources commonly refer to him as Julian the Apostatebecause of his rejection of Christianityconversion to Theurgy a late form of Neoplatonismand aim to rid the empire of Christianity while bringing back ancient Roman religion. His model was Marcus Aurelius.

Libanius says in his epitaph of the deceased emperor () that "I contain 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 core 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"),^[vi] supposedly expressing his recognition that, with his death, Christianity would develop the Empire's state religion.

The phrase introduces the poem "Hymn to Proserpine", which was Algernon Charles Swinburne's elaboration of what a philosophic pagan might contain felt at the triumph of Christianity. It also ends the Polish Romantic play The Undivine Comedy written in by Zygmunt Krasiński.

Tomb

As he had requested,^[90] Julian's body was buried in Tarsus. It lay in a tomb outside the city, across a road from that of Maximinus Daia.^[91]

However, chronicler Zonaras says that at some "later" hang out 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.^[92] His sarcophagus is listed as standing in a "stoa" there by Constantine Porphyrogenitus.^[93] The church was demolished by the Ottomans after the fall of Constantinople in Today a sarcophagus of porphyry, believed by Jean Ebersolt to be Julian's, stands in the grounds of the Istanbul Archaeology Museum.^[94]

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.^[95]

As the last pagan ruler of the Roman Empire, Julian's beliefs are of great interest for historians, but they are not in complete agreement.

He learned theurgy from Maximus of Ephesus, a student of Iamblichus;^[96] 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.^[97]

According to one theory (that of Glen 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) hold argued that Julian's philosophical perspective was nothing unusual for a "cultured" pagan of his day, 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."^[98] 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"^[99] 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".^[]

The diet of Julian is said to own been predominantly vegetable-based.^[]

Restoration of articulate paganism

See also: Henosis, Henotheism, and Restoration of paganism from Julian until Valens

After gaining the purple, Julian started a religious reformation of the empire, which was intended to restore the clueless strength of the Roman mention.

He supported the restoration of Hellenistic polytheism as the articulate 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 Chinese Buddhism was driven back into the bring down classes by a revived Confucianmandarinate 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.

Julian Assange - Wikipedia: Julian [i] (Latin: Flavius Claudius Julianus; Ancient Greek: Ἰουλιανός Ioulianos; – 26 June ) was the Caesar of the West from to and Roman emperor from to , as well as a notable philosopher and author in Greek.

Majuma had a large Christian congregation while Gaza was still predominantly pagan.

On 4 February , 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 come back to its original religious eclecticism, according to which the Roman state did not impose any religion on its provinces.

The edict was seen^{[by whom?]} as an act of favor toward the Jews, in order to upset the Christians.^{[citation needed]}

Since the persecution of Christians by past Roman Emperors had seemingly only strengthened Christianity, many of Julian's actions may have been engineered to harass Christians and undermine their ability to organize resistance to the re-establishment of paganism in the empire.^[] Julian's favor for a non-Christian and non-philosophical view of Iamblichus' theurgy seems to have convinced him that it was right to outlaw the Christian liturgy and require the suppression of the Christian Holy Mysteries (Sacraments).^[]

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)^{[citation needed]} 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.^[]