The Works of the Emperor Julian, Vol. 1Julian, Emperor of Rome
Religion
The Works of the Emperor Julian, Vol. 1
Julian, Emperor of Rome
Speeches, addresses, etc., Greek -- Translations into English
The eunuchs and courtiers who had surrounded Constantius were replaced by
sophists and philosophers, and in the next six months Julian set on foot
numerous economic and administrative reforms. He had long been secretly
devoted to the Pagan religion, and he at once proclaimed the restoration
of the Pagan gods and the temple worship. Christianity he tolerated, and
in his brief reign of sixteen months the Christians were not actively
persecuted. His treatise _Against the Christians_, which survives only in
fragments, was an explanation of his apostasy. The epithet “Apostate” was
bestowed on him by the Christian Fathers. Meanwhile he was preparing—first
at Constantinople then at Antioch, where he wrote the _Misopogon_, a
satire on the luxury and frivolity of the inhabitants—for a campaign
against Sapor, a task which he had inherited from Constantius. In March,
362 he left Antioch and crossed the Euphrates, visited Carrhae, memorable
for the defeat of Crassus, then crossed the Tigris, and, after burning his
fleet, retired northwards towards Armenia. On the march he fought an
indecisive battle with the Persians at Maranga, and in a skirmish with the
retreating enemy he was mortally wounded by a javelin (January 26th, 363).
His body was carried to Tarsus by his successor the Emperor Jovian, and
was probably removed later to Constantinople. The legend that as he died
he exclaimed: Γαλιλαῖε νενίκηκας, “Thou hast conquered, O Galilæan!”
appears first in the Christian historian Theodoret in the fifth century.
Julian was the last male descendant of the famous dynasty founded by
Constantius Chlorus.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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