Julien (Roman Emperor)

Flavius Claudius Julianus (331 - June 26th 363), named Julien the Apostate by the Christian tradition, also called Julien the Philosopher or Julien II (by reference to Didius Julianus), was César in Gaulle (355-361), then Roman Emperor with whole share (361-363). He must his nickname with his attempt restore the pagan religion in the Roman Empire, whereas he had been high in the Christian religion (more exactly in the Arianisme, under the direction of the bishops Eusèbe de Nicomédie, then Georges de Cappadoce). He produced critical writings against the Christianisme which, with the True Discours of Celse are the best witness of the pagan opposition to Christianity.

Its life

Nephew of Constantin I {{er}}, which was the half-brother of its father Jules Constance, and last survivor, with his half-brother Gallus, of the branch junior by the descendants of the emperor Constance Chlorinates, wire of Basilina, it was high in the Christianisme and with the variation of the court. It converts secretly with the old religion and made studies of letters and Philosophie, while Gallus was promoted César, then carried out.

Whereas it had started to look further into its studies of philosophy to Athens, it was suddenly recalled to the court. In 355, after having married Helene (said " the jeune" , in opposition to her grandmother the empress), sister of the emperor Constancy II, her cousin, this one sent it as a Gaulle with the title of César, i.e. of vice-emperor. He saw this promotion like tiresome and dangerous, as he testifies some:

I should not omit to tell here how I authorized and chose to live under the same roof that those of which I knew that they had mined all my family, and of which I suspected that one would not have much time to them before plotting against me. I poured floods of tears, I pushed moanings. I tightened the hands towards your Acropolis, when I received the call, and I requested Athéna to save its begging, not to give up it. Much among you saw me and are pilot. The goddess even, more than whoever, knows that I asked him to make me die in Athens rather than to let me make this voyage. However, the goddess did not betray nor not given up its begging; she showed it by facts. Because everywhere she guided me, and on all sides she surrounded me by guardian angels that the Sun and the Moon had granted to him. You are ready to flatter and adulate by fear to die! But it is possible for you all to drop and to let the gods act as they want, in the their trustful care to deal with you, as Socrate for example judged in connection with making. You can make, as far as possible, which depends on you, but you can make depend on the gods all the business. Do not seek to acquire nor to charm anything, but in full safety receive what they give you.

It made of Lutèce (Paris) its capital and appeared good administrator and good soldier, pushing back the invasions of the Alamans in 357 and 360 and of the Francs in 358. In 360, spontaneously or because Julien had pushed there, its soldiers proclaimed it emperor with whole share (Auguste). Constancy refusing the accomplished fact, Julien went against him towards the East. But there was no battle, because Constance died in 361.

Become Master of the entire empire, Julien promulgated an edict of tolerance authorizing all the religions and it abrogea the measurements taken not only against paganism, but also against the Jews and the Christians who did not follow the creed of inspiration arienne which had the favor of Constancy. However, it well quickly revealed its preference for paganism and its hostility with Christianity (law prohibiting the Christians from teaching traditional poetry, because it evokes gods whom they refuse, favors in the cities which restore the temples, indifference in front of the cases of vexations caused with Christians). However, it did not take any measurement of persecution, informant whom it wished that the Christians recognize themselves their error and that it did not want to force there. In parallel, he wanted to reform paganism (morality of the priests, creation of charitable institutions).

He expressed his intention to return to an empire of form less autocratic and in conformity with the republican tradition, but he reigned in a rather authoritative way. After having reorganized and cleansehaving cleansed the administration, by reducing in particular the personnel of the palate and that which was affected with the denouncement and espionage, it settled with Antioche to prepare a forwarding against the Perse. It entered rather quickly in conflict with the population of the city, on the one hand because of its posted paganism, on the other hand because its moral rigor was opposed to the practices life which had course in this metropolis.

In spring 363, Julien launched out in a vast military forwarding which victoriously carried out it until Ctésiphon, capital of Persians. But it had to start a retirement, during which, on June 26th, 363, it was mortally wounded during a combat. The attention of the historical, Christian tradition like anti-Christian woman, was focused on the religious policy of Julien. But it was only part of its policy and one cannot say that it controlled all the remainder. Thus, out of administrative matter, it does not seem to have marked preferably religious in the recruitment of the personnel.

Remarque

Julien is also known to have granted to the Jews the authorization to rebuild the temple of Jerusalem. This fact is not for nothing in the animosity which the Christians nourished towards this emperor.

Its literary work and philosophical

Julien is one of the Greek principal authors of the 4th century after J. - C. It wrote letters, speeches and a critical work against Christianity, the Against Galiléens . This last, considered to be “démoniaque” by the later times, was destroyed or, at least was not preserved. One however knows of it a good part thanks to the Against Julien composed by Cyrille of Alexandria at the 5th century (the work of Cyrille proves that of Julien was still considered to be dangerous 50 years later).

Follower of philosophy neoplatonician, it nevertheless always made a point of specifying that it had not arrived at the stage of philosopher to whole share and that it was in this field only one student. This is why he did not write of properly philosophical work, even if the majority of its writings are inspired explicitly by philosophical positions. One can distinguish among his works, in addition to the Against Galiléens :

of the letters to friends or characters of his time,
of the satirical or polemical writings: Césars , Misopogon , Against Héracleios , Against the cynical ignoramuses ,
of the writings philosophico-monk: On the Mother of the gods , On Photogravure-King ,
of the political writings or philosophico-policies: Letter with Thémistios , Letter with the Athenians
of the writings rhetorics: praises of Constancy (the emperor, its cousin), of Eusébie (empress, wife of Constancy), a consolation with oneself.

In its letter with the philosopher Thémistios, he writes: How nobody comes me to divide philosophy into several parts, or to cut out it in several pieces, or rather to create several from one of them only! the truth is one, and similarly philosophy is one, it is not necessary to be astonished, however, if we follow all of other ways to reach it . Let us imagine a foreigner or, by Zeus, a citizen of formerly wishing to go back to Athens. It could go there in boat or to foot. If he travelled by ground, he could be useful himself, in my opinion, of the broad public highways, the paths or the short cuts. While sailing, it could skirt the coasts, or to make like the old man of Pylos and cross the open sea. That one does not come to object to me that some of these travellers were mislaid and that arrived some share elsewhere, crammed by Circé or Lotophages, i.e. by the pleasure, the opinion or another thing, they neglected to carry on their road and to achieve their goal. That one rather examines the protagonists of each sect, and one will discover that very agrees.

After the death of Julien

Julien became very early a myth. Certain pagan, in particular Ammien Marcellin and Libanios, made of it a hero of tolerance, of virtue and energy, a too large man for his time, which succumbed under the blows of the meanness and spite (Christian, but not necessarily) ambient. Conversely, the Christian authors presented it like a frantic imbecile (Gregoire of Nazianze, which had known it student with Athens), monster (ecclesiastical historians who allot various profanations and of the human sacrifices to him), a perverse apostate (all measurements which it took, including its edict of tolerance aimed according to them at fighting hypocritically against Christianity).

Thus according to Christian historiography, Julien, went, in addition to one occasion, culprit of acts of violent persecution. These quotations of Christian contemporaries of Julien show the violence of their polemical tone:

It made profane the tombs of the Christians and the relics; and itself was praised to have ordered " to destroy all the tombs of the athées" ;
On its will, " the pagan ones, reflect fire with the sepulchres of the martyrs, at the same time as they burned the body of those, mixed by derision with the cheappest bones, and threw to fire the cendres" ;
Of the murders and the massacres of Christians followed or accompanied these confiscations by churches. Antioche saw the martyrdom of Théodoret, that of holy guilty Basile d' Ancyre to have high requested God to preserve the Christians of the apostasy. Submitted for this fact with the governor of the province, and " having, during the lawsuit suffered from many torments, it consumed its martyre" intrepidly; ;
has Héliopolis, the Cyrille deacon was assassinated, of the nuns, exposed naked in front of the people, outragées, tortured, cut up; " poor wretches tasted of their liver and, tearing off their entrails pantelantes, threw them powdered with barley to porcs" ;
has Gaza, the pagan fanaticism, unchained by the example of the emperor, achieves similar crimes;
On the " defense made to the Christians learn and teach the beautiful letters, the historian Ammien Marcellin, very pagan that it was, deplored itself such iniquities: " It is a barbarian act, which it is necessary to cover with an eternal silence".

This negative image prevailed all during the Moyen-âge and the traditional time, although the character fascinated occasionally originals (thus Montaigne). Thus a medieval tradition put at the account of Julien a series of martyrs in Lorraine, striking the family of Saint Élophe.

At the 18th century, the philosophical (Voltaire in particular) wanted to rehabilitate it, with the championship of the lights against the Christian obscurantism and of champion of freedom against the absolutism of what they Low called “Empire”. The Romantisme (for example Alfred de Vigny) was impassioned in its turn for the character, seeing in him romantic before the letter, spirit lucid and despaired, misunderstood of its century and whose death in full youth gave the signal of the triumph of the poor ones. In 1873, Henrik Ibsen wrote on Julien the Apostate a gigantic tragedy in ten acts, Empereur or Galiléen .

Nevertheless, the even heinous negative judgments perdurent: thus in a work published in 1911, Jean Guiraud, founder of the catholic Association of the household heads and writer of school handbooks bound for private establishments, thus described the action of Julien: He fought Christianity by violence. Especially by legal persecution: Christians excluded from public employment; Christians victims of the legal injustice; private Christians of the freedom of teaching. Jean Guiraud draws up also a catalog which it describes as persecuting actions:

It confiscated the cathedral of Césarée in Cappadoce;
It made burn the church of Beirut;
On its order, the churches of Antioche were closed, and the principal basilica was profaned by it without it being opposed to it and with the complicity of his/her parents.

At the 20th century, the three images, Julien the apostate, Julien the philosopher and Julien the hero of a lost cause, are prolonged not only in the literature of fiction, but even in the works of reflection (with sometimes of the alternatives: a Julien philosophizes atheistic hiding under a paganism posted, according to Alexandre Kojève).

See/to read too

Two opposite points of view (but documented well):

Voltaire, philosophical Dictionary , s.v. “Apostate” and “Julien”, HTTP: /www.voltaire-integral.com/17/apostat.htm 1 and HTTP: /www.voltaire-integral.com/19/julien.htm 2;
P. Allard, Julien the Apostate , 2 (large) vol., 1900.

More recent:

J. Bouffartigue, the Julien Emperor and culture of his time , 1992
the Julien Emperor, of the history to the legend , 2 vol., 1978 (Acts of a conference);
(more amusing) L. Jerphagnon, Julien, known as the Apostate, Natural history and social… , 1986;
(in English) HTTP: /www.roman-emperors.org/julian.htm article '' Julian the Apostate '' in database DIR;
(in English always) Gore Vidal, “Julian”, historical novel, 1964
Benoist-Méchin: " The Julien emperor or the dream calciné." Academic bookstore Perrin, 1977.
Religions of the Julien Emperor: http://www.unine.ch/antic/MLAllisson.pdf
Julien the faithful one, the banquet of the demons, Governed Debray, Gallimard, 2005

Eutrope on Julien

The historian Eutrope who took part in forwarding against the Perses, in March 363, in company of the Julien emperor, known as of him in its Abrégé Roman History (translation of Maurice Rat):

VII. - Constancy gave soon to the East César, Gallus, wire of his/her paternal uncle, and Magnence, overcome in various combat, committed suicide in Lugdunum, after a three years and seven months reign; his/her brother, whom it had sent like César to defend Gaules, also killed himself in Sens. At the same time, Constance made also perish César Gallus, which had made many abuse of power: it was a man of a savage naturalness, and which had been rather inclined with tyranny, if it had been able to order as a Master with his liking. Silvain, which had fomented a revolution as a Gaulle, perishes in the same way in less than thirty days; only in the Roman empire, on this date, Constance was prince and Auguste. Soon it sent in Gaules, with the title of César, its first cousin Julien, brother of Gallus, after him to have given his sister in marriage. The Barbarians had taken by storm several fortified towns, they besieged others, it of it was everywhere a horrible devastation and the Roman empire leant already undoubtedly towards its loss, when Julien, with moderate forces, destroys close to Argentoratum, city de Gaulle, the immense forces of Alamans, made captive most famous of their kings and reconquered Gaules. Later, Julien still achieves many of other remarkable exploits against the Barbarians, drove back well the German ones beyond the Rhine, and returned to the Roman empire his borders. A little later the armies which had fought the German ones, being seen removing the mission of defending Gaules, made, by mutual agreement soldiers, Julien Auguste; one year later, it left to seize Illyrie, while Constance was occupied with wars against Parthes. In this news, turning back to make the civil war, Constance died on the way, between Cilicie and Cappadoce, after thirty-eight years of reign, and at the age of forty-five years; it deserved to be put at the row of the gods. It was a man of a softness remarkable, placid, which trusted too much his/her friends and its familiar; soon also, too devoted to its wives; however, in the first years of its reign, it behaved with a great moderation; it enriches also its familiar, and did not leave without honors those of which it had appreciated the services in difficult moments; too much inclined perhaps with severity, if he suspected somebody of aspiring to the empire, he was, in addition, lenient, and had to more rent its fortune in the civil wars that in the foreign wars.

VIII. - Then Julien was Master of the capacity, and, after immense preparations, carried the war at Parthes, forwarding to which I took myself share. He accepted with many composition places and of castle-forts of Persians, or by storm took them; after having devastated Assyrie, he camped some time close to Ctésiphon; and it returned victorious, when, being exposed too imprudently in the engagements, it was killed with the hand of an enemy, the six of the calends of July, in the seventh year of its reign and the thirty and unième of its age; it was put at the number of the gods. Eminent man, and who had managed the state in a remarkable way, if the destinies had allowed him; very versed in the liberal disciplines, scientist especially in Greek, and so much so that his Latin scholarship could not balance its science of the Greek, it had a powerful and prompt eloquence, a very sure memory. By certain sides it was more similar to a philosopher than with a prince; it was liberal towards his friends, but less scrupulous than it was appropriate for a so large prince: also certain envieux they carried reached to its glory. Very right towards the provincial ones, it decreased the taxes as much as making could be; gracious for everyone, having poor concern of the treasure, avid of glory, and, therefore, of an often immoderate heat, he persecuted the Christian religion too highly, without however spreading blood; he was not without pointing out much Marc Antonin, whom he studied himself besides to take for model.

Montaigne on Julien

Julien is mentioned in the Essais of Montaigne with a certain sympathy. The author points out that it had been also legitimates to qualify Apostat S in his place his predecessor and his successors, since had done to him nothing but try to return in the traditional Roman religion. This recall took much direction in France then pulled about between the Catholicisme and the Réforme.

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