JuliantheApostateOV

By clicking on the pictures you'll be linked to a more complete description of the coin. At the bottom of this page there is a more elaborate biography of the emperor.

Flavius Claudius Julianus was born at the end of 331 or the beginning of 332 at Constantinople as the son of Julius Constantius (half-brother of Constantine the Great) and Basilina (daughter of the governor of Egypt). He had two half-brothers and a half-sister (who was married to Constantius II) one of his half-brothers was Constantius Gallus the name of his other half-brother and his half-sister are not known. Julian had a quiet early life which abruptly changed when Constantius II and his two brothers (Constantine II and Constans) took control of the empire after the death of Constantine the Great. The three brothers got together and murdered all of their relatives who were considered a threat to the security of their thrones including Julians father. The only male family members who survived were their cousin Julian and his half-brother Constantius Gallus. They were probably spared because of their young age or perhaps, and more likely, their young age in combination with the fact that they were brother and half brother of the wife of Constantius II. Julian was given a scholarly education in philosophy, grammar and rhetoric by some of the best scholars of that day. During this time he was exposed to Neo-Platonism a philosophy that would play an important role during his reign and his life despite his partly Christian upbringing. When Julian got older Constantius II got a bit nervous with a youth of Constantine's blood being so close to the center of power (Constantinople since Constantine the Great the new capital of the empire) and he moved Julian to Nicomedia and later to a remote fortress at Macellum in Cappadocia where his education was continued but with a Christian tint to it. In 351 his half-brother Constantius Gallus was raised to Caesar and Julian was allowed back to Constantinople. Constantius Gallus turned out to be a ruthless tyrant and he was executed in 354 AD, this fiasco caused Julian to be banished to Mediolanum and eventually to Athens where he could continue his studies.

Julians scholarly life and studies came to an abrupt end when Constantius II summoned him to his court in 355 AD. There he elevated Julian to the position of Caesar and married him to his sister Helena. By this time Constantius II had defeated both his brothers but had come to the realization that the empire was to big to be handled by him alone, he couldn't deal with the Persians in the east and the barbarian incursions in the west. The only immediate relative that was still alive was Julian so Constantius had little choice and ordered Julian to the Rhine to deal with invading Franks and Alamanni. On the 1st of December 355 Julian set out for the north where he learned that Colonia Agrippina had been destroyed by barbarian raiders and that lots of cities along the border were in barbarian hands (Moguntiacum and Argentorate being the biggest). Although Julian had absolutely no military experience he energetically went to work and met with his army at Durocortorum. He led several punitive strikes against the Alamanni , recovered Colonia Agrippina and negotiated a peace deal with the local barbarian chief. The following year he led several more successful operations and thus became very popular with the people of Gaul. Julian was also very popular with the soldiers not only because of his victories but also because he joined the soldiers in the field and lived like they did. Julian increased his popularity by lowering taxes for a large portion of the people of Gaul to compensate them for the damage done by all the barbarian incursions. Julians greatest moment came in the summer of 357 when he defeated a vastly superior force of Alamanni near Argentorate, he then crossed the Rhine and destroyed several Alamanni strongholds. Immediately after this victory his soldiers acclaimed him as emperor but Julian firmly rejected the title. Julian started his 358 military campaign early to catch the barbarians by surprise this worked and he defeated the Franks along the northern Rhine and restored several forts in the Mosa Region. Julian wanted to continue but his soldiers started to revolt because they hadn't received their donative promised to them when Julian became Caesar, he managed to settle the situation but the rest of the campaigning season was lost. In the 359 season Julian resettled several previously destroyed cities with the barbarians who had made peace with him the years before. By the end of the season Julian had made peace with or defeated all but a few of the Alamannic tribes. In the mean time Constantius suffered several setbacks and had gotten quite jealous and unnerved by all the military success of Julian and the popularity he enjoyed with the people of Gaul. At the beginning of 360 AD in an attempt to hamper his popularity Constantius II ordered Julian to send him most of his troops to support his own Persian campaign. One of the legions ordered east, the Petulantes, didn't want to leave Gaul because most of the soldiers were born in the region. They revolted and hailed Julian as Augustus he refused once again but the soldiers more or less forced him to accept, they crowned him and lifted him on a shield (a barbaric custom) and so he accepted and promised them a donative of 5 gold pieces and a pound of silver. According to Ammianus the night before the troops acclaimed him Augustus Julian had a dream:

       In his sleep Julianus saw an apparition in a form usually associated with the Genius of the state, who reproachingly said: "Since long Julianus I've watched you secretly from the threshold of your house and I wish to increase your esteem but often I have the feeling you reject me. If you don't receive me now, when many have the same feeling, I shall leave defeated. But consider the fact that I will no longer be with you."

       This all happened at the beginning of 360 at Lutetia. Julian feared Constantius' reaction and wrote him a letter saying that Constantius had forced these events by ordering the soldiers east and that Julian only reluctantly followed the will of the soldiers and that Julian had always been Constantius faithful servant. Constantius answered him that he should stop these nonsense and to be satisfied with his position as Caesar. Julians soldiers however would have none of it and only an uneasy peace held the two emperors apart. Julian resumed his campaigns against the Alamanni and Constantius II started his Persian campaign. Julian camped in Vindobona for the winter where he celebrated his quinquennalia (5 years as a Caesar) but this was overshadowed by the death of Helena his wife. The uneasy peace between the two emperors lasted until the summer of 361 when Julian decided to take the initiative he gathered his troops and marched towards Constantius. To speed his advance he took 3000 man and vanished into the German forests only to appear again near the lower Danube while the main force coming from Gaul was split in two, advancing along the Roman highways trough Italia and Raetia. By having large parts of his armies at different places at the same time he hoped to prevent any uprisings against him. Constantius in the meantime had negotiated a peace deal with the Persians and started out to meet Julian but before the two armies met Constantius died and named Julian as his legitimate heir and successor. And so Constantius II was eventually succeeded by one of the two persons he didn't consider a threat to his throne.

      Julian was moving trough Dacia when he heard about Constantius' death, he continued his journey and on the 11th of December 361 he arrived at Constantinople where he buried Constantius II with all the honors befitting an emperor. Julians first order of business was to put his own people in positions of power and to clean out the palace from its bloated staff of eunuchs, barbers and cooks. He then started to clean up the imperial bureaucracy, a lot of people were accused of abusing their position, tried and punished (some killed most banished). His most important change however came when he turned on Christianity and openly declared his love for the pagan gods. This gave him his nickname "Julian the Apostate" (a person abandoning his faith as Julian had proclaimed himself a full Christian early on in his career). In fact Julian himself speaks of his conversion to Neo-Platonism in a letter written in 363. He states that he abandoned Christianity when he was twenty years old and that he had been an adherent of the traditional Roman deities for the twelve years prior to writing the letter (while pretending to be Christian). Julian used several strategies to try and revive the belief in the old Roman gods and discredit the Christians. He began by using legislation, taking away their privileges and tax breaks and making it illegal for Christians to actively advocate their beliefs. Next, Julian attempted to establish a pagan church structure to rival that of Christianity he especially tried to incorporate Christian beliefs like charity, helping the community and a sober lifestyle for the priests. Finally, he mounted a philosophical assault on Christianity, trying to show that its belief system was novel and harmful, and also to portray Christians as apostates from Judaism, a much older, more established, and more accepted religion. How could anybody follow a religion that had only three hundred years of history behind it. He started to favor Judaism in the hope they would steal away the followers of Christianity. To this end he started to restore the Jewish temple at Jerusalem (Hierosolyma) who's destruction by Titus in 70 AD was a key event for Christians overthrowing Jewish law and validating the New Testament. Most of his reforms however were never executed and since he didn't believe in a forceful approach Julian wasn't very successful. Julian also had other things on his mind and set out for a big eastern campaign against the Persians punishing them for their attacks on Amida and hoping that great conquests in the east would do the same for his popularity there as it had done in the west.

From Constantinople Julian went to Antioch where he started to amass a 46000 men strong army and preparing for his campaign which started on the 5th of march 363 AD. Using his surprise attack and speed tactics he marched towards Mesopotamia and crossed the Euphrates near Hierapolis. On march the 27th he had moved most of his army across the Euphrates and started south along the Euphrates re-conquering previously lost lands. Many regional dignitaries who had nominally supported the Persians surrendered and offered their support to his cause. Julian moved further along the Euphrates towards the province of Babylonia. He re-conquered the fortress of Circesium around the 1st of April and visited the grave of Gordian III which is in the area. Julian then moved into the heart of Babylonia, his forces took the fortress of Anatha and ravaged the countryside of Babylonia between the rivers Euphrates and the Tigris. As the army continued south, they came across the fortresses Thilutha and Achaiachala, but these places were too well defended and Julian decided to leave them alone. The city's of Diacira, Ozogardana and Perisabora were not so lucky and were sacked and burned. But all this burning and pillaging led to a greater resistance then previous met and local inhabitants tried to flood the route the Romans took on their further advances south. The Roman army pressed on and ransacked the city of Maiozamalcha which was close to their main target the Persian capitol Ctesiphon. As they drew closer to Ctesiphon resistance grew ever fiercer and Julian lost a sizable portion of his army but the army marched on and reached the city. However it quickly became apparent that it would take a long siege to take the formidable city and Julian's generals managed to convince him that this would be a bad plan. So the armies left the city and set of into Assyria planning to continue to plunder and live of the land. This plan didn't work though as the Persians used the scorched-earth tactic and on the 16th of June Julian had to face the facts of imminent starvation and the averse influence of the great desert heat on his men and ordered the retreat along the Tigris towards Armenia (a Roman client kingdom). On their way back the army was constantly harassed by small raids and during one of these raids Julian got caught up in the fighting and took a spear to the abdomen. He was taken to his tent and shortly afterwards died of this grievous wound.
With Julian the last of the pagan emperors died and Christianity became the state religion of the Roman empire. Due to his actions against Christianity Julian was condemned as a bad ruler by most historians but more recent research shows him in a more positive light as a great ruler with a definite and clear plan to try and restore glory to the Roman empire in a changing world.

For this biography I've used the texts from the following websites:
http://www.imperiumromanum.com/
http://www.roman-emperors.org/
http://www.roman-empire.net/
Gibbon's book: Decline and fall of the Roman empire.
The works of Ammianus for which I used a Dutch translation here : http://www.ammianus.info/

	Obverse: DN IVLIANVS NOB C
	Reverse: FEL TEMP REPARATIO
	Fieldmarks: M left field of the reverse
	Exergue: ASIRM