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| Of Julian; his Lineage and Education; his Elevation to the Throne; his Apostasy to Paganism.
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Book III.
Chapter I.—Of Julian;
his Lineage and Education; his Elevation to the Throne; his Apostasy to
Paganism.
The Emperor Constantius died on
the frontiers of Cilicia on the 3d of November, during the consulate of
Taurus and Florentius; Julian leaving the western parts of the empire
about the 11th of December following, under the same consulate, came to
Constantinople, where he was proclaimed emperor.458
| 458December, 361 a.d. This
proclamation must be distinguished from the one in Gaul (II. 47); the
latter was the proclamation by the army, and occurred during the
lifetime of Constantius.
|
And as I must needs speak of the character of this prince who was
eminently distinguished for his learning, let not his admirers expect
that I should attempt a pompous rhetorical style, as if it were
necessary to make the delineation correspond with the dignity of the
subject: for my object being to compile a history of the Christian
religion, it is both proper in order to the being better understood,
and consistent with my original purpose, to maintain a humble and
unaffected style.459
However, it is proper to describe his person, birth, education, and the
manner in which he became possessed of the sovereignty; and in order to
do this it will be needful to enter into some antecedent details.
Constantine who gave Byzantium his own name, had two brothers named
Dalmatius and Constantius, the offspring of the same father, but by a
different mother. The former of these had a son who bore his own name:
the latter had two sons, Gallus and Julian. Now as on the death of
Constantine who founded Constantinople, the soldiery had put the
younger brother Dalmatius to death, the lives of his two orphan
children were also endangered: but a disease which threatened to be
fatal preserved Gallus from the violence of his father’s
murderers; while the tenderness of Julian’s age—for he was
only eight years old at the time—protected him. The
emperor’s jealousy toward them having been gradually subdued,
Gallus attended the schools at Ephesus in Ionia, in which country
considerable hereditary possessions had been left them. And Julian,
when he was grown up, pursued his studies at Constantinople, going
constantly to the palace, where the schools then were, in plain
clothes, under the superintendence of the eunuch Mardonius. In grammar
Nicocles the Lacædemonian was his instructor; and Ecebolius the
Sophist, who was at that time a Christian, taught him rhetoric: for the
emperor had made the provision that he should have no pagan masters,
lest he should be seduced to the pagan superstitions. For Julian was a
Christian at the beginning. His proficiency in literature soon became
so remarkable, that it began to be said that he was capable of
governing the Roman empire; and this popular rumor becoming generally
diffused, greatly disquieted the emperor’s mind, so that he had
him removed from the Great City to Nicomedia, forbidding him at the
same time to frequent the school of Libanius the Syrian Sophist. For
Libanius having been driven at that time from Constantinople, by a
combination of the educators there, had retired to Nicomedia, where he
opened a school. Here he gave vent to his indignation against the
educators in the treatise he composed regarding them. Julian was,
however, interdicted from being his auditor, because Libanius was a
pagan in religion: nevertheless he privately procured his orations,
which he not only greatly admired, but also frequently and with close
study perused. As he was becoming very expert in the rhetorical art,
Maximus the philosopher arrived at Nicomedia (not the Byzantine,
Euclid’s father) but the Ephesian, whom the emperor Valentinian
afterwards caused to be executed as a practicer of magic. This took
place later; at that time the only thing that attracted him to
Nicomedia was the fame of Julian. From him [Julian] received, in
addition to the principles of philosophy, his own religious sentiments,
and a desire to possess the empire. When these things reached the ears
of the emperor, Julian, between hope and fear, became very anxious to
lull the suspicions which had been awakened, and therefore began to
assume the external semblance of what he once was in reality. He was
shaved to the very skin,460
| 460See Bingham, Eccl. Antiq. VI. 4, end.
|
and pretended to live a monastic life: and while in private he pursued
his philosophical studies, in public he read the sacred writings of the
Christians, and moreover was
constituted a reader461
| 461The ‘reader,’ ἀναγνώστης ,
lector, was commonly a young man possessed of a good voice, who
read the Scriptures from the pulpit or reading-desk (not the altar).
Bennett, Christ. Archæol. p. 374.
|
in the church of Nicomedia. Thus by these specious pretexts he
succeeded in averting the emperor’s displeasure. Now he did all
this from fear, but he by no means abandoned his hope; telling his
friends that happier times were not far distant, when he should possess
the imperial sway. In this condition of things his brother Gallus
having been created Cæsar, on his way to the East came to
Nicomedia to see him. But when not long after this Gallus was slain,
Julian was suspected by the emperor; wherefore he directed that a guard
should be set over him: he soon, however, found means of escaping from
them, and fleeing from place to place he managed to be in safety. At
last the Empress Eusebia having discovered his retreat, persuaded the
emperor to leave him uninjured, and permit him to go to Athens to
pursue his philosophical studies. From thence—to be
brief—the emperor recalled him, and after created him Cæsar;
in addition to this, uniting him in marriage to his own sister Helen,
he sent him against the barbarians. For the barbarians whom the Emperor
Constantius had engaged as auxiliary forces against the tyrant
Magnentius, having proved of no use against the usurper, were beginning
to pillage the Roman cities. And inasmuch as he was young he ordered
him to undertake nothing without consulting the other military
chiefs.
Now these generals having obtained such authority,
became lax in their duties, and the barbarians in consequence
strengthened themselves. Julian perceiving this allowed the commanders
to give themselves up to luxury and revelling, but exerted himself to
infuse courage into the soldiery, offering a stipulated reward to any
one who should kill a barbarian. This measure effectually weakened the
enemy and at the same time conciliated to himself the affections of the
army. It is reported that as he was entering a town a civic crown which
was suspended between two pillars fell upon his head, which it exactly
fitted: upon which all present gave a shout of admiration, regarding it
as a presage of his one day becoming emperor. Some have affirmed that
Constantius sent him against the barbarians, in the hope that he would
perish in an engagement with them. I know not whether those who say
this speak the truth; but it certainly is improbable that he should
have first contracted so near an alliance with him, and then have
sought his destruction to the prejudice of his own interests. Let each
form his own judgment of the matter. Julian’s complaint to the
emperor of the inertness of his military officers procured for him a
coadjutor in the command more in sympathy with his own ardor; and by
their combined efforts such an assault was made upon the barbarians,
that they sent him an embassy, assuring him that they had been ordered
by the emperor’s letters, which were produced, to march into the
Roman territories. But he cast the ambassador into prison, and
vigorously attacking the forces of the enemy, totally defeated them;
and having taken their king prisoner, he sent him alive to Constantius.
Immediately after this brilliant success he was proclaimed emperor by
the soldiers; and inasmuch as there was no imperial crown at hand, one
of his guards took the chain which he wore about his own neck, and
bound it around Julian’s head. Thus Julian became emperor: but
whether he subsequently conducted himself as became a philosopher, let
my readers determine. For he neither entered into communication with
Constantius by an embassy, nor paid him the least homage in
acknowledgment of past favors; but constituting other governors over
the provinces, he conducted everything just as it pleased him.
Moreover, he sought to bring Constantius into contempt, by reciting
publicly in every city the letters which he had written to the
barbarians; and thus having rendered the inhabitants of these places
disaffected, they were easily induced to revolt from Constantius to
himself. After this he no longer wore the mask of Christianity, but
everywhere opened the pagan temples, offering sacrifice to the idols;
and designating himself ‘Pontifex Maximus,’462
| 462See Smith, Dict. of Greek and Rom. Antiq. See
also, on sacrificing to idols as a sign of apostacy, Bingham, Eccl.
Antiq. XVI. iv. 5.
|
gave permission to such as would to celebrate their superstitious
festivals. In this manner he managed to excite a civil war against
Constantius; and thus, as far as he was concerned, he would have
involved the empire in all the disastrous consequences of a war. For
this philosopher’s aim could not have been attained without much
bloodshed: but God, in the sovereignty of his own councils, checked the
fury of these antagonists without detriment to the state, by the
removal of one of them. For when Julian arrived among the Thracians,
intelligence was brought him that Constantius was dead; and thus was
the Roman empire at that time preserved from the intestine strife that
threatened it. Julian forthwith made his public entry into
Constantinople; and considered with himself how he might best
conciliate the masses and secure popular favor. Accordingly he had
recourse to the following measures: he knew that Constantius had
rendered himself odious to the defenders of the homoousian faith by
having driven them from the churches, and proscribed their bishops.463
| 463See II. 7, 13, 16, &c.
|
He was also aware that the pagans were extremely discontented because of the
prohibitions which prevented their sacrificing to their gods, and were
very anxious to get their temples opened, with liberty to exercise
their idolatrous rites. In fact, he was sensible that while both these
classes secretly entertained rancorous feelings against his
predecessor, the people in general were exceedingly exasperated by the
violence of the eunuchs, and especially by the rapacity of Eusebius the
chief officer of the imperial bed-chamber. Under these circumstances he
treated all parties with subtlety: with some he dissimulated; others he
attached to himself by conferring obligations upon them, for he was
fond of affecting beneficence; but to all in common he manifested his
own predilection for the idolatry of the heathens. And first in order
to brand the memory of Constantius by making him appear to have been
cruel toward his subjects, he recalled the exiled bishops, and restored
to them their confiscated estates. He next commanded the suitable
agents to see that the pagan temples should be opened without delay.
Then he directed that such individuals as had been victims of the
extortionate conduct of the eunuchs, should receive back the property
of which they had been plundered. Eusebius, the chief of the imperial
bed-chamber, he punished with death, not only on account of the
injuries he had inflicted on others, but because he was assured that it
was through his machinations that his brother Gallus had been killed.
The body of Constantius he honored with an imperial funeral, but
expelled the eunuchs, barbers, and cooks from the palace. The eunuchs
he dispensed with, because they were unnecessary in consequence of his
wife’s decease, as he had resolved not to marry again; the cooks,
because he maintained a very simple table; and the barbers, because he
said one was sufficient for a great many persons. These he dismissed
for the reasons given; he also reduced the majority of the secretaries
to their former condition, and appointed for those who were retained a
salary befitting their office. The mode of public traveling464
| 464It is difficult to determine in what particulars the
improvements mentioned here were made. Gregory Nazianzen, Contra
Julianum, I. lxxv., confesses that Julian had made reforms in the
matter.
|
and conveyance of necessaries he also reformed, abolishing the use of
mules, oxen, and asses for this purpose, and permitting horses only to
be so employed. These various retrenchments were highly lauded by some
few, but strongly reprobated by all others, as tending to bring the
imperial dignity into contempt, by stripping it of those appendages of
pomp and magnificence which exercise so powerful an influence over the
minds of the vulgar. Not only so, but at night he was accustomed to sit
up composing orations which he afterwards delivered in the senate:
though in fact he was the first and only emperor since the time of
Julius Cæsar who made speeches in that assembly. To those who were
eminent for literary attainments, he extended the most flattering
patronage, and especially to those who were professional philosophers;
in consequence of which, abundance of pretenders to learning of this
sort resorted to the palace from all quarters, wearing their palliums,
being more conspicuous for their costume than their erudition. These
impostors, who invariably adopted the religious sentiments of their
prince, were all inimical to the welfare of the Christians; and Julian
himself, whose excessive vanity prompted him to deride all his
predecessors in a book which he wrote entitled The Cæsars,
was led by the same haughty disposition to compose treatises against
the Christians also.465
The expulsion of the cooks and barbers is in a manner becoming a
philosopher indeed, but not an emperor; but ridiculing and caricaturing
of others is neither the part of the philosopher nor that of the
emperor: for such personages ought to be superior to the influence of
jealousy and detraction. An emperor may be a philosopher in all that
regards moderation and self-control; but should a philosopher attempt
to imitate what might become an emperor, he would frequently depart
from his own principles. We have thus briefly spoken of the Emperor
Julian, tracing his extraction, education, temper of mind, and the way
in which he became invested with the imperial power.
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