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Flavius Claudius Julianus (born 331 in Constantinople, died June 26 363 in Maranga at Tigris river), also known as Julian the Apostate, was Roman emperor from 361 to 363.

During his short reign, he tried to push back Christianity, the privileged religion in the Empire since Constantine I, and to promote the pagan religion. As a successful general, he also started the largest military operation of Roman history against the Persian Empire of the Sassanids, but fell during the campaign. With his death, hopes for a pagan renaissance were thwarted, although the emperors succeeding him more or less tolerated the "old" religion until the times of Theodosius I.

The Roman Empire at the time of Julian

The Constantinian Dynasty

At the beginning of the 4th century, Julian's uncle Constantine I had been victorious in the struggle for succession after the end of the tetrarchy, the system of ruling the Empire established by Diocletian. Julian was the last member of Constantine's dynasty.

Two aspects of Constantine's reign gained particular significance: On one hand, approximately one year before Julian's birth, he had transferred the emperors' residence to Constantinople. As the eastern half of the Empire became more and more important, with the relocation of the capital Constantine also moved the political centre of the Empire to the East. On the other hand, he had sponsored Christianity and started the Christanisation of the Roman Empire; Julian later tried to revert that process. Constantine died in May 337. In the turmoil after his death, many members of the imperial family were killed, among them Julian's father Julius Constanius and his eldest son.

Constantine was succeeded by his three sons Constantine II, Constantius II and Constans. Constantine II died in 340 when he attacked his brother Constans. Constans fell in 350 in the war against the usurper Magnentius. Julian's brother Gallus was made junior emperor (Caesar) by Constantius II to govern the East, while he himself defeated Magnentius. Shortly afterwards, Gallus was executed. Julian was imprisoned, but soon released and promoted to Caesar in Gaul, since Constantius had to deal with the Persian threat in the East. In Gaul, Julian's rule was very successful. Eventually, he succeeded his cousin Constantius II on the throne.

Exterior Challenges

Constantine's decision to relocate the capital was also motivated with regard to the military situation of the Empire. Constantinople was halfway between two of the most important frontiers at the rivers Danube and Euphrates. On the eve of the invasions of the Huns and other peoples, the Danube frontier was relatively secure. In the East, however, the Persians under Shapur II began to wage war against the Roman Empire after a short-term peace agreement at the end of Constantine's reign. Constantius campaigned on the eastern frontier for several years and prepared another war, when he was distracted by the conflict with Julian in 360.

Another focus was the Rhine frontier in Gaul. Germanic tribes had conquered and destroyed several cities, and there had even been two army officers of Germanic descent who had usurped the throne there, Magnentius in 350 and Silvanus in 355. Constantius sent his last surviving relative, Julian, to Gaul, who could secure the Rhine frontier once more and drive back the Germanic invaders. Eventually, his great success was the reason for his soldiers to acclaim him emperor against Constantius, who tried to remove some of the troops to fight in his war against Persia.

Interior Difficulties

Although the murder of many members of the Constantinian family in 337 prevented the outbreak of civil war for the time being, differences between the three new emperors continued. On religious issues, the quarrel between the Arian and Orthodox creeds of Christianity also divided the imperial family: while Constantine II and Constantius II favoured the Arians, Constans was on the orthodox side. Already in 340, the conflict between Constantine and Constans escalated, and war between both brothers was only prevented by Constantine's death in a minor fighting near Aquileia.

After some calmer years, interior difficulties rose again with the usurpation of Magnentius, during which Constans was killed. Constantius II, the last surviving son of Constantine I, defeated Magnentius and became sole ruler of the Empire. However, to maintain imperial presence in the east, he had to appoint his cousin Gallus, Julian's brother, junior emperor. According to the sources, Gallus led a regime of terror, and eventually Constantius deposed and executed him.

In 355, Julian became the next junior emperor, and by his promotion to Augustus in 360 the Empire was on the verge of the next civil war.

Life

Rise to power

Childhood and youth

Flavius Claudius Julianus was born as son of Julius Constantius, half-brother of Constantine I. His mother was Basilina, daughter of Julius Julianus, Praetorian prefect of Licinius.

Julian was named after his grandfather Julianus and his presumed ancestor Claudius II; Flavius was the family name of the imperial dynasty. He had two half-brothers and one half-sister, children of his father's first wife Galla.

Julian's mother Basilina died soon after his birth. Still, he later wrote that his childhood had been idyllic until 337. That year, most relatives of the late emperor Constantine I were killed on behalf of his son Constantius, to prevent potential rivals to the throne. Among the victims was Julian's father. Julian himself and his older half-brother Gallus were spared as they were only children at the time: Julian was six years old.

Afterwards, Julian lived in Nicomedia and from 344 on at the country estate Macellum. He was brought up as a Arian Christian by bishop Eusebius of Nicomedia, the Scythian Mardonios, Nicocles and Hecebolios. In 345, he read the writings of the pagan rhetor and philosopher Libanios, which turned out to be the first step towards Julian's later renouncement of Christianity.

Renouncement of Christianity

Early on, Julian established ties to neoplatonist philosophers. At Pergamon, he studied under a certain Aedesius. Probably under the influence of Aedesius' disciple Maximus of Ephesus, Julian privately began to turn away from the Christian faith. It is likely that this process was reinforced when the emperor Constantius accused Julian's brother Gallus of high treason, executed him and imprisoned Julian himself in 354. Many historians, e.g. Glen Bowersock or Klaus Bringmann, believe that Julian had turned to paganism already in 351 and only pretended to be Christian afterwards. They deduce this from certain comments of Julian himself and from a speech of Libanios' (orat. 12, 34), who states that Maximus was especially important in this regard (Lit. XXX, but cf. K. Rosen, Kaiser Julian, in: JbAC 40 (1997), pp. 126-146). Julian was imprisoned for eight months in Como near Milan in 354/55.

After his release, he continued to present himself as a Christian, but was initiated into the Eleusinian mysteries in 355. In the same year, he studied in Athens under the neoplatonist philosopher Priskos, together with Gregory Nazianzen and Basilius the Great. However, these studies already ended after a few months, as he was called to the court of his cousin Constantius.

Promotion to Caesar

After the usurpation of Claudius Silvanus, Julian was promoted to Caesar, that is to "junior emperor", by Constantius II on November 6 355. His accession was supported by the new empress Eusebia, who had already spoken in his favour during his imprisonment. As the last surviving member of the Constantinian dynasty save for the emperor himself, Julian should uphold imperial presence in the west while Constantius remained in the east for negotiations with the Persian empire of the Sassanids. Julian expressed his gratitude towards Eusebia with a panegyrical speech one or two years later.

Still in 355, Julian married Constantius' sister Helena to confirm the bond between the two rulers. On December 1 he departed to the north, accompanied by the praetorian prefect Ursicinus. For the rest of the winter, he stayed in Vienne, and started to campaign on the Rhine border during the next year. His first military actions were some punitive expeditions against Germanic tribes. With those tribes threatening the city of Cologne, he made peace. The next winter he spent at Senonae.

Successes in Gaul

During his stay there he defeated Germanic forces which tried to lay siege to the town. Afterwards, Julian went to the interior of Gaul. In the summer of 357, his abilities were put to the test for the first time. In the battle of Strasbourg he defeated seven Alamannic chieftains. Ammianus Marcellinus, who was in the entourage of Ursicinus at the time, provides an extensive account of the battle. The soldiers wanted to elevate Julian to Augustus after the battle, but he declined.

In 358, he defeated the Salian Franks on the Lower Rhine and settled them in Toxandria, near the city of Xanten. His successes raised his reputation with the troops, though he had to prevent a mutiny which threatened to break out because of inadequate supply. Later in that year he negotiated with the Alamanni in the Rhine area; during the winter he was at Lutetia (modern Paris).

As the Alamanni stayed restive, Julian undertook several punitive expeditions against them in [359]]. To secure the border, he rebuilt seven towns, which had been destroyed earlier, as supply bases; some Germans, who kept the peace accord from the preceding year, helped with those works. By systematic attacks on their chieftains on the right side of the Rhine near Mainz, he managed to secure a peace agreement with most of the Alamanni tribes. He spent the winter again at Lutetia.

During his residence in Gaul, Julian also attended to non-military matters. He prevented a tax increase by the Gallic praetorian prefect Florianus and personally administrated the province of Belgica Secunda. In addition to Ammianus and Hilarius of Poitiers, an inscription from Benevento in Apulia testifies that Julian had gained a good reputation in his part of the Empire:

"To Flavius Claudius Julianus, most noble and sanctified Caesar, from the caring Tocius Maximus, vir clarissimus, for the care of the res publica from Beneventum".
(cited from [1])