Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the last pagan ruler of the Roman Empire. Fifty years after Constantine the Great converted to Christianity and introduced a policy of tolerating the faith across the empire, Julian (c.331 - 363 AD) aimed to promote paganism instead, branding Constantine the worst of all his predecessors. Julian was a philosopher-emperor in the mould of Marcus Aurelius and was noted in his lifetime for his letters and his satires, and it was his surprising success as a general in his youth in Gaul that had propelled him to power barely twenty years after a rival had slaughtered his family. Julian's pagan mission and his life were brought to a sudden end while on campaign against the Sasanian Empire in the east, but he left so much written evidence of his ideas that he remains one of the most intriguing of all the Roman emperors and a hero to the humanists of the Enlightenment. With James Corke-Webster Reader in Classics, History and Liberal Arts at King’s College, London Lea Niccolai Assistant Professor in Classics at the University of Cambridge and Fellow and Director of Studies in Classics, Trinity College And Shaun Tougher Professor of Late Roman and Byzantine History at Cardiff University Producer: Simon Tillotson Reading list: Polymnia Athanassiadi, Julian: An Intellectual Biography (first published 1981; Routledge, 2014) Nicholas Baker-Brian and Shaun Tougher (eds.), Emperor and Author: The Writings of Julian the Apostate (Classical Press of Wales, 2012) Nicholas Baker-Brian and Shaun Tougher (eds.), The Sons of Constantine, AD 337-361: In the Shadows of Constantine and Julian, (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020) G.W. Bowersock, Julian the Apostate (first published 1978; Harvard University Press, 1997) Susanna Elm, Sons of Hellenism, Fathers of the Church: Emperor Julian, Gregory of Nazianzus, and the Vision of Rome (University of California Press, 2012) Ari Finkelstein, The Specter of the Jews: Emperor Julian and the Rhetoric of Ethnicity in Syrian Antioch (University of California Press, 2018) David Neal Greenwood, Julian and Christianity: Revisiting the Constantinian Revolution (Cornell University Press, 2021) Lea Niccolai, Christianity, Philosophy, and Roman Power: Constantine, Julian, and the Bishops on Exegesis and Empire (Cambridge University Press, 2023) Stefan Rebenich and Hans-Ulrich Wiemer (eds), A Companion to Julian the Apostate (Brill, 2020) Rowland Smith, Julian’s Gods: Religion and Philosophy in the Thought and Action of Julian the Apostate (Routledge, 1995) H.C. Teitler, The Last Pagan Emperor: Julian the Apostate and the War against Christianity (Oxford University Press, 2017) Shaun Tougher, Julian the Apostate (Edinburgh University Press, 2007) W. C. Wright, The Works of Emperor Julian of Rome (Loeb, 1913-23)
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Considering he ruled as roman emperor for less than two years, 361 to 363 AD, Julian Apostate made an extraordinary impression on history.
Christians saw him as the villain who returned the empire to paganism after Constantine the Great's conversion early that century, while Gibbon was to see that return as a heroic attempt to halt the decline and fall of the Roman Empire.
Henia was a philosopher emperor inspired by Marcus Aurelius, writing satires being written about, in turn leaving a remarkable record.
With me to discuss Julian Apostate are James Cork Webster, reader in classics, history and liberal arts at King's College London Leah Nicolai, assistant professor in classics at the University of Cambridge and fellow and director of studies in classics, Trinity College, and Sean Tucker, professor of late roman and byzantine history at Cardiff University.
Sean Tucker, can you talk to us about the Roman Empire at the time of Julian's birth?
331 adhd.
What state was it in?
By 331, it was actually in a more stable state than it had been.
The emperor Constantine the Great had come to power in 306, and this was followed by quite a protracted period of civil wars.
But eventually he became the sole augustus in the Roman Empire in 324, and he established a new dynasty.
Prior to Constantine, there was a power sharing system with multiple emperors, but Constantine reestablished the dynastic principle and ruled with members of his family.
But he was the only Augustus.
So by the time Julian is born in 331 or 332, Constantine has established himself in power.
He has been promoting and supporting Christianity, and also dramatically, he has refounded the ancient greek city of Byzantium as Constantinople.
That was dedicated in 330, and that's modern day Istanbul.