Table Of ContentJulian the Apostate in Byzantine
Culture
Julian, the last pagan emperor of the Roman empire, died in war in 363.
In the Byzantine (that is, the Eastern Roman) empire, the figure of Julian
aroused conflicting reactions: antipathy towards his apostasy but also admi-
ration for his accomplishments, particularly as an author writing in Greek.
Julian died young, and his attempt to reinstate paganism was a failure, but,
paradoxically, his brief and unsuccessful policy resonated for centuries.
This book analyses Julian from the perspectives of Byzantine Culture.
The history of his posthumous reputation reveals differences in cultural
perspectives and it is most intriguing with regard to the Eastern Roman
empire which survived for almost a millennium after the fall of the West-
ern empire. Byzantine culture viewed Julian in multiple ways, first as the
legitimate emperor of the enduring Roman empire; second as the author of
works written in Greek and handed down for generations in the language
that scholars, the Church, and the state administration all continued to use;
and third as an open enemy of Christianity.
Julian the Apostate in Byzantine Culture will appeal to both researchers
and students of Byzantine perspectives on Julian, Greco-Roman Pagan-
ism, and the Later Roman Empire, as well as those interested in Byzantine
Historiography.
Stefano Trovato is Director of the Biblioteca Universitaria (Ministero della
Cultura) in Padua, Italy. His research focuses on the classical tradition, with
a special interest in the perceptions of the ancient past in the medieval and
modern worlds.
Julian the Apostate in Byzantine
Culture
Stefano Trovato
Translated by Sergio Knipe
First published in English 2023
by Routledge
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© 2023 Stefano Trovato
Translated by Sergio Knipe
The right of Stefano Trovato to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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Published in Italian by Forum 2014
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-1-032-01747-1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-01748-8 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-17981-8 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003179818
Typeset in Times New Roman
by codeMantra
Cytheriacis columbis et omnibus pacem et amorem dantibus
Contents
Foreword ix
Preface xi
I Son of the devil and sophist of wickedness:
the black legend 1
II A sulphurous and versatile emperor 23
III The reinvention of Julian by chroniclers, historians,
and hagiographers 38
IV The blood of innocents: the victims of a sovereign
who is “deceitful, capable of anything, and skilled in
doing evil” 48
V The blood of innocents: “A great persecution against
the Christians” 91
VI Even the dead against Julian 129
VII “Constantine, the son of a prostitute, recognized the
true God and you abandon him?” Telescoping Julian
and Constantine 151
VIII Julian in Byzantine liturgical books, a synthesis of the
early medieval Byzantine hagiographical tradition 178
IX Between old stories and new imaginative
reconstructions: a glance before the decline
of Byzantium 196
viii Contents
X Approaching the end: a new beginning, longing for
a distant past 210
XI The end: beyond Byzantium 237
Bibliography 247
List of Abbreviations 305
Index 307
Foreword
Julian, Emperor Constantine’s nephew and successor, ascended the throne
at the young age of 30, in 361, in the wake of his successful campaign in
Gaul and of a military insurrection. He devoted his reign to an attempt
to overthrow the religious policies towards Christians inaugurated by the
Constantinian revolution and then consolidated by Constantius II. Within
the short span of two years, the young emperor committed himself both to
the reform of social and the structures of the Roman State and to the res-
toration and revitalisation of pagan traditions and forms of worship, in an
effort to make them newly attractive. He surrounded himself with the most
prominent intellectuals, including rhetoric teachers and the heads of philo-
sophical schools, particularly the Neoplatonists, heirs to a kind of spiritual-
ity that could attract the most fervid minds and souls yearning for a new and
direct relationship with the divine and its manifestations. Julian’s shocking
death during the Persian campaign on 26 June 363 apparently confirmed a
prophecy by the elderly Bishop of Alexandria, Athanasius, who had said of
him: “This is only a small cloud; it will soon pass”. However, the strength
and vitality of the emperor’s attempted restoration and of the means and
forces he had deployed were quite clear to St Augustine, who in De civitate
Dei was to stress the Apostate’s egregia indoles. Forty years after the emper-
or’s death, he noted: “What would have happened, if Constantine hadn’t
reigned so long, and if Julian hadn’t been stripped of his life so early?” Al-
most 70 years after the emperor’s death, the Bishop of Alexandria, Cyril,
felt the need to compose a powerful and articulate refutation of Against the
Galileans, noting that this work, which questioned Christianity’s doctrinal
foundations with passionate and competent arguments, continued to elicit
much interest and attention.
The deep mark left by Julian – whether it was only apparent or truly
significant – was a question that needed exploring in relation to its endur-
ance in the Byzantine world. But all we had were some partial, limited works
by individual authors who provided glimpses of significant traces, yet did
not draw a full assessment of the extent of the phenomenon that might make
it possible to grasp the web of relations linking different ages and texts.
Stefano Trovato’s research, which began during his doctorate at Udine,
