Chapter 8
The Fourth Century: Constantius
II and Julian
The
achievements of Diocletian and Constantine were real
and revolutionary in many ways.
Nonetheless, there was no way to know whether they would survive and
continue to guide the empire into the future.
The task of providing continuity, of solidifying the situation and
bringing these reforms to fruition, was left to
The Sons of
Oddly
enough,
Upon the elder emperor's death (337)
there was a moment of remarkable indecision, lasting four months, when it was
unclear who would actually seize power and rule the state. For one reason or another
rumors arose that
The sons of
Constantius, however, realized the
difficulty of ruling the entire empire by himself and he sought a
co-emperor. Turning naturally to the few
remaining members of his own family, he selected Gallus--one
of the two to survive the massacre--and made him Caesar. Gallus was married
to Constantius’ sister Constantia and sent to deal
with the Persian frontier. His success
against the Persians, however, as well as his temper, excited Constantius' jealousy and suspicion. Constantius
recalled Gallus and had him executed in 354.
Constantius next turned to Gallus' younger brother Julian, who was named Caesar in 355
(at age 23). Although Julian had no
previous military experience, and had spent nearly all of his time in the study
of literature and philosophy, he soon became a popular and successful commander. He was able to put down a military
insurrection in
In religion the Arian controversy continued to cause
difficulties. In the West, the decisions
of the council were more or less accepted, but in the East opinion was
divided. Athanasius,
bishop of
Julian the Apostate (361-63)
Julian will always remain a mysterious and controversial figure, admired by some but feared and detested by others. He was a great threat to the Constantinian system and to the dominance of Christianity and one will never know what might have happened had his reign not been cut suddenly short.
Julian, as other members of his
family, had been raised as a Christian and he had even taken lower clerical
orders (as a "lector" -- or "reader" -- in the
church). He had studied under the bishop
George of Cappadocia, but he was particularly
attracted to Hellenic learning, literature, and philosophy. He studied rhetoric at
Julian did not openly persecute the
Christians, but rather re-opened toleration to all, including heretics and
Jews. He encouraged the latter to
re-build the Temple at Jerusalem (inviting all kinds of apocalyptic
expectations of the end of the world) and he sought to embarrass the Christians
since he knew that toleration of all heretics would quickly lead to infighting
and even bloodshed among them (it did!).
He believed in the superiority of polytheism and thought that if people
were given a free choice, they would quickly abandon Christianity and revert to
traditional religion (many did). But
Julian also sought to reshape and reinvigorate polytheism, unifying and
organizing it and encouraging the priesthood to set a good example for charity
and proper behavior. His religion was
essentially monotheistic and philosophical, although again his ideas were also
laced with some of the basest superstition.
The one serious criticism of his policies, made by pagans and Christians
alike, was that he forbade Christians to teach in the schools--saying they
could retire and teach the Gospels! Many
of these Christian teachers turned their talents to other tasks, including Apollinarius and his son Apolinarius,
who set about to turn the Gospels into proper classical verse!
Julian quickly turned his attention
to military affairs and in 363 he prepared a great campaign against
Historians,
both ancient and modern, have held widely divergent views of the last pagan
emperor. Ammianus
Marcellinus was a pagan and a contemporary of
Julian. Like many of the educated
elite, he saw Julian as a heroic figure and the last hope for a return to the
policies of the old Roman state.
Nevertheless, even Ammianus realized that Juian’s character was not free of fault.
“He
[Julian] was a man truly to be numbered with the heroic spirits, distinguished
for his illustrious deeds and his inborn majesty. For since there are, in the opinion of the
philosophers, four principal virtues, moderation, wisdom, justice, and courage
and corresponding to these also to some external characteristics, such as knowledge
of theart of war, authority, good fortune, and
liberality, these as a whole and separately Julian cultivated with constant
zeal.
“In the first place, he was so
conspicuous for inviolate chastity that after the loss of his wife it is well
known that he never gave a thought to love: bearing in mind whet we read in
Plato, that Sophocles, the tragic poet, when he was
asked, at a great age, whether he still had congress with women, said no,
adding that he was glad that he had escaped from this passion as from some mad
and cruel master. . . .
“Then there were very many proofs of
his wisdom, of which it will suffice to mention a few. He was thoroughly skilled in the arts of war
and peace, greatly inclined to courtesy, and claiming for himself
only so much deference as he though preserved him from contempt and
insolence. He was older in virtue than
in years. He gave great attention to the
administration of justice, and was sometimes an unbending judge; also a very
strict censor in regulating conduct, with a calm contempt for riches, scorning
everything mortal; in short, he often used to declare that it was shameful for
a wide man, since he possessed a soul, to seek honors from bodily gifts….. His authority was so well established that,
being feared as well as deeply loved as one who shared in the dangers and
hardships of his men , he both in the heat of fierce
battles condemned cowards to punishment, and, while he was still only a Caesar,
he controlled his men even without pay, when they were fighting with savage
tribes, as I have long ago said. And
when they were armed and mutinous, he did not fear to address them and threaten
to return to private life, if they continued to be insubordinate. Finally, one thing it will be enough to know
in token of many, namely, that merely by a speech he induced his Gallic troops,
accustomed to snow and to the Rhine, to traverse long stretches of country and
follow him through torrid Assyria to the very frontiers of the Medes. His success was so conspicuous that for a
long time he seemed to ride on the shoulders of Fortune herself, his faithful
guide as he in victorious career surmounted enormous difficulties. And after he left the western region, so long
as he was on earth all nations preserved perfect quiet, as if a kind of earthly
want of Mercury were pacifying them.
“There are many undoubted tokens of
his generosity. Among these are his very
light imposition of tribute, his remission of the crown-money, the cancellation
of many debts made great by long standing, the impartial treatment of disputes
between the privy purse and private persons, the restoration of the revenues
from taxes to various states along with their lands …furthermore, that he was
never eager to increase his wealth, which he thought was better secured in the
hands of its possessors; and he often remarked that Alexander the Great, when
asked where his treasures were, gave the kindly answer, “in the hands of my
friends.”
“Having set down his good qualities,
so many as I could know, let me now come to an account of his faults, although
they can be summed up briefly. In
disposition he was somewhat inconsistent, but he controlled this by the
excellent habit of submitting, when he went wrong, to correction. He was somewhat talkative, and very seldom
silent; also too much given to the consideration of omens and portents, so that
in this respect he seemed to equal the emperor Hadiran. Superstitious rather than truly religious, he
sacrificed innumerable victims with out regard to cost, so that one might
believe that if he had returned from the Parthians, there would soon have been
a scarcity of cattle….
“He delighted in the applause of the mob, and
desired beyond measure praise for the slightest matters, and the desire for
popularity often led him to converse with unworthy men…..
“The laws which he enacted were not oppressive, but
stated exactly what was to be done or left undone, with a few exceptions. For example, it was a harsh law that forbade
Christian rhetoricians and grammarians to teach, unless they consented to
worship the pagan deities. And also it
was almost unbearable that in the municipal towns he unjustly allowed persons
to be made members of the councils, who, either as foreigners, or because of
personal privileges or birth, were wholly exempt from such assemblies.
“The figure and proportion of his body were as
follows. He was of medium stature. His hair lay smooth as if it had been combed,
his beard was shaggy and trimmed so as to end in a point, his eyes were fine
and full of fire, an indication of the acuteness of his mind. His eyebrows were handsome, his nose very
straight, his mouth somewhat large with a pendulous lower lip. His neck was thick and somewhat bent, his
shoulders large and broad. Moreover,
right from top to toe he was a man of straight well-proportioned bodily frame
and a result was strong and a good runner.
(Ammianus Marcellinus
25.4.1 –25)
Edward
Gibbon, in his Decline and Fall (chapter 22), has an idealistic view of
Julian:
"The
reformation of the Imperial court was one of the first and most necessary acts of
the government of Julian. Soon after his entrance into the
"Julian
was not insensible of the advantages of freedom. From his studies he had
imbibed the spirit of ancient sages and heroes; his live and fortunes had
depended on the caprice of a tyrant; and, when he ascended the throne, his
pride was sometimes mortified by the relfection that
the slaves who would not dare to censure his defects were not worthy to applaud
his virtues. He sincerely abhorred the system of oriental despotism which Diocletian,
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