Nadene Goldfoot
Nudged by Victor Sharp
The most interesting Roman Emperor that my friend, Victor Sharp, had read about, was Flavius Claudius Julianus, known hatefully to Christians as Julian the Apostate who was the last pagan Roman emperor, who reigned from 360 to 363 CE. He was the nephew of Constantine the Great who was the first Christian emperor. Julianus was actually educated as a Christian which must have angered and shocked him as he apostatized at the age of 20 when he was initiated into a religion based on Neoplatonism in 351 (oriental conceptions that conceive of the world as an emanation from the One with whom the soul is capable of being reunited in trance or in ecstacy.) He was one of history's great ironies in that he was the last non-Christian emperor. "A persistent enemy of Christianity, he publicly announced his conversion to paganism in 361, in essence, came out of the closet about his religious thoughts, after 10 years when he was more successful, thus acquiring the epithet “the Apostate.”
Because of this, he was vilified by most Christian sources beginning with John Chrysostom and Gregory Nazianzus in the later 4th century. It seems that he was a force against the early Christians who were persecuting pagan Romans. One never hears of that, usually it is the pagans persecuting the early Christians.
Julian, born in 331-332 in Constantinople, was orphaned as a young child. He was raised, not by his uncle Constantine's family members but by a Gothic eunuch slave, Mardonius, who had a profound influence on him. He was the teacher of his master's daughter Basilina. In 330, Basilina would marry Julius Constantius, the half-brother of Constantine the Great, who had defeated Licinius (or Gaius Valerius Licinianus Licinius Augustus (c263-325) a Roman emperor from 308 to 324. For most of his reign he was the colleague and rival of Constantine I, with whom he co-authored the EDICT OF MILAN that granted official toleration to Christians in the Roman Empire, and seized control of the entire Roman Empire.
The couple had one son, the later emperor Julian. He provided Julian with an excellent education. This is the role that many Greeks who had been taken as slaves played for Romans. As a result, Julian also became a philosopher and a writer as well. He married another Helena, and had a son, Procopius. He was not an only child, but had a half brother, Constantius Galius, 7 years older, Their father had been Julius Constantius and Basilina was Julian's mother.
Both Julian and Galius were exiled to the imperial estate of Macellum in Cappadocia, Turkey in 342 when Julian was about 11 years old. This was after Eusebius, a Bishop and historian of Christianity, died. "During the Council of Antiochia (325) he was excommunicated for subscribing to the heresy of Arius (Libyan presbyter and ascetic, and priest in Baucalis in Alexandria, Egypt. His teachings about the nature of the Godhead in Christianity, which emphasized God's uniqueness and the Christ's subordination under the Father, and his opposition to what would become the dominant Christology, Homoousian Christology, made him a primary topic of the First Council of Nicaea, which was convened by Emperor Constantine the Great in 325. Thus Eusebius was withdrawn during the First Council of Nicaea where he accepted that the Homoousion referred to the Logos. (The Gospel of John identifies the Christian Logos, through which all things are made, as divine (theos), and further identifies Jesus Christ as the incarnate Logos.). Never recognized as a saint, he became counselor of Constantine the Great, and with the bishop of Nicomedia he continued to polemicize against Saint Athanasius of Alexandria, Church Fathers, since he was condemned in the First Council of Tyre in 335."
In 351 Julian converted to the pagan Neoplatonism, recently “reformed” by Iamblichus, and was initiated into theurgy by Maximus of Ephesus. "Neoplatonism is a term used to designate a strand of Platonic philosophy that emerged in the third century AD against the background of Hellenistic philosophy and religion. The term does not encapsulate a set of ideas as much as it encapsulates a chain of thinkers which began with Ammonius Saccas and his student Plotinus (c. 204/5 – 270 AD) and which stretches to the sixth century AD. Even though Neoplatonism primarily circumscribes the thinkers who are now labeled Neoplatonists and not their ideas, there are some ideas that are common to Neoplatonic systems, for example, the monisticidea that all of reality can be derived from a single principle, "the One"."
Julian became Caesar (This title was given to an heir to the throne. ) over the western provinces by order of Constantius II, his cousin, in 355, and in this role he campaigned successfully against the Alamanni and Franks. Later, he became a co-emperor in 361 with his cousin, Constantius II who was the Eastern emperor. At this time, Christianity was still less popular than polytheism. He was summoned to appear before the emperor in Mediolanum and on November 6 of 355 was made Caesar of the West, and married Constantius's sister, Helena. She would be his cousin.
Five years later in 360, Julian was proclaimed Augustus ( The title given to the ruling emperor as being the senior ruler of the empire.) by his soldiers at Lutetia (Paris), sparking a civil war with Constantius, his brother in law.
Kaveh Farrokh, artist
He's buried at the Church of the Holy Apostles. "It was a Greek Eastern Orthodox church in Constantinople, capital of the Eastern Roman Empire." " It was second in size and importance only to the Hagia Sophia among the great churches of the capital. When Constantinople fell to the Ottomans in 1453, the Holy Apostles briefly became the seat of the Ecumenical Patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church. Three years later the edifice, which was in a dilapidated state, was abandoned by the Patriarch, and in 1461 it was demolished by the Ottomans to make way for the Fatih Mosque."
He was so interesting to so many that Gore Vidal wrote about his life as a Roman emperor. He rebelled against the growing power of Christianity in the Roman Empire at the young age of 22, as he was more in favor of restoring the Jewish homeland.
His opposition to Christianity culminated in his attempt to restore the Roman paganism which led him to regard the Jews more favorably. In 362, he announced his intention of restoring the Jerusalem Temple and appointed an official named Alypius in charge of the building operation. This stopped after a short time, probably because of the political uncertainties created by Julian's Persian campaign. Christian sources attributed it to a miraculous fire.
It was in c37 that Jesus had died. It took almost 300 years for Rome to become Christianized to the point of meeting about this new religion that was slowly spreading throughout their realm by 312 and again in 325. Most people were still happy being pagans and worshipping the many gods populating Mt. Olympus. Why would anyone want to trade off their exciting holidays, virgin methods of bringing on good harvests, etc.?
Our Julian was educated by a Gothic slave, Mardonius. Who were the Goths? "The Goths were a people who flourished in Europe throughout ancient times and into the Middle Ages. Referred to at times as “barbarians,” they are famous for sacking the city of Rome in A.D. 410.
https://www.livescience.com/45948-ancient-goths.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mardonius_(philosopher)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logos
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Augustus-Roman-emperor
http://bibleprobe.com/rebuildingthetemple.htm
https://larouchepub.com/eiw/public/1983/eirv10n16-19830426/eirv10n16-19830426_018-flirting_with_armageddon_the_jer.pdf
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/daily/military-history/emperor-julian-the-apostate/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaric_I
https://www.reddit.com/r/badhistory/comments/as9ks/julian_the
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/342592-the-roan-emperor-julian
www.roman-emperors.org/julian.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Julian
Nudged by Victor Sharp
The most interesting Roman Emperor that my friend, Victor Sharp, had read about, was Flavius Claudius Julianus, known hatefully to Christians as Julian the Apostate who was the last pagan Roman emperor, who reigned from 360 to 363 CE. He was the nephew of Constantine the Great who was the first Christian emperor. Julianus was actually educated as a Christian which must have angered and shocked him as he apostatized at the age of 20 when he was initiated into a religion based on Neoplatonism in 351 (oriental conceptions that conceive of the world as an emanation from the One with whom the soul is capable of being reunited in trance or in ecstacy.) He was one of history's great ironies in that he was the last non-Christian emperor. "A persistent enemy of Christianity, he publicly announced his conversion to paganism in 361, in essence, came out of the closet about his religious thoughts, after 10 years when he was more successful, thus acquiring the epithet “the Apostate.”
Because of this, he was vilified by most Christian sources beginning with John Chrysostom and Gregory Nazianzus in the later 4th century. It seems that he was a force against the early Christians who were persecuting pagan Romans. One never hears of that, usually it is the pagans persecuting the early Christians.
Julian, born in 331-332 in Constantinople, was orphaned as a young child. He was raised, not by his uncle Constantine's family members but by a Gothic eunuch slave, Mardonius, who had a profound influence on him. He was the teacher of his master's daughter Basilina. In 330, Basilina would marry Julius Constantius, the half-brother of Constantine the Great, who had defeated Licinius (or Gaius Valerius Licinianus Licinius Augustus (c263-325) a Roman emperor from 308 to 324. For most of his reign he was the colleague and rival of Constantine I, with whom he co-authored the EDICT OF MILAN that granted official toleration to Christians in the Roman Empire, and seized control of the entire Roman Empire.
The couple had one son, the later emperor Julian. He provided Julian with an excellent education. This is the role that many Greeks who had been taken as slaves played for Romans. As a result, Julian also became a philosopher and a writer as well. He married another Helena, and had a son, Procopius. He was not an only child, but had a half brother, Constantius Galius, 7 years older, Their father had been Julius Constantius and Basilina was Julian's mother.
 |
| Bishop Eusebius |
Both Julian and Galius were exiled to the imperial estate of Macellum in Cappadocia, Turkey in 342 when Julian was about 11 years old. This was after Eusebius, a Bishop and historian of Christianity, died. "During the Council of Antiochia (325) he was excommunicated for subscribing to the heresy of Arius (Libyan presbyter and ascetic, and priest in Baucalis in Alexandria, Egypt. His teachings about the nature of the Godhead in Christianity, which emphasized God's uniqueness and the Christ's subordination under the Father, and his opposition to what would become the dominant Christology, Homoousian Christology, made him a primary topic of the First Council of Nicaea, which was convened by Emperor Constantine the Great in 325. Thus Eusebius was withdrawn during the First Council of Nicaea where he accepted that the Homoousion referred to the Logos. (The Gospel of John identifies the Christian Logos, through which all things are made, as divine (theos), and further identifies Jesus Christ as the incarnate Logos.). Never recognized as a saint, he became counselor of Constantine the Great, and with the bishop of Nicomedia he continued to polemicize against Saint Athanasius of Alexandria, Church Fathers, since he was condemned in the First Council of Tyre in 335."
In 351 Julian converted to the pagan Neoplatonism, recently “reformed” by Iamblichus, and was initiated into theurgy by Maximus of Ephesus. "Neoplatonism is a term used to designate a strand of Platonic philosophy that emerged in the third century AD against the background of Hellenistic philosophy and religion. The term does not encapsulate a set of ideas as much as it encapsulates a chain of thinkers which began with Ammonius Saccas and his student Plotinus (c. 204/5 – 270 AD) and which stretches to the sixth century AD. Even though Neoplatonism primarily circumscribes the thinkers who are now labeled Neoplatonists and not their ideas, there are some ideas that are common to Neoplatonic systems, for example, the monisticidea that all of reality can be derived from a single principle, "the One"."
Julian became Caesar (This title was given to an heir to the throne. ) over the western provinces by order of Constantius II, his cousin, in 355, and in this role he campaigned successfully against the Alamanni and Franks. Later, he became a co-emperor in 361 with his cousin, Constantius II who was the Eastern emperor. At this time, Christianity was still less popular than polytheism. He was summoned to appear before the emperor in Mediolanum and on November 6 of 355 was made Caesar of the West, and married Constantius's sister, Helena. She would be his cousin.
Five years later in 360, Julian was proclaimed Augustus ( The title given to the ruling emperor as being the senior ruler of the empire.) by his soldiers at Lutetia (Paris), sparking a civil war with Constantius, his brother in law.
Kaveh Farrokh, artist
 |
Emperor Julian 'The Apostate' sought to emulate Alexander the Great’s conquest of Persia, but Shapur II’s Savaran cavalry proved his undoing.
Julian was killed by the Persians just 2 years after his accession (coming into his highest seat of power.) When he was killed it was the end of Roman official acceptance of polytheism. When Emperor Julian had received the wound [in Persia], he filled his hand with blood, flung it into the air and cried, Thou hast won, O Galilean,” wrote Theodoret of Cyrus. Emperor Julian, who reigned from 361 to 363 CE, had received that fatal wound during his last duel with the Savaran armored knights of Persia, but not before defeating the armored gladiator-type Persian infantry at the very gates of Ctesiphon, capital of the Sassanian Persian Empire. Had Julian the Apostate conquered Persia, he may well have become history’s second Alexander, leading Roman armies far to the east toward India and Central Asia. Julian already had proven his martial mettle in the crucible of battle against Europe’s Germanic warriors.He's buried at the Church of the Holy Apostles. "It was a Greek Eastern Orthodox church in Constantinople, capital of the Eastern Roman Empire." " It was second in size and importance only to the Hagia Sophia among the great churches of the capital. When Constantinople fell to the Ottomans in 1453, the Holy Apostles briefly became the seat of the Ecumenical Patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church. Three years later the edifice, which was in a dilapidated state, was abandoned by the Patriarch, and in 1461 it was demolished by the Ottomans to make way for the Fatih Mosque."
 |
| The remarkable bestseller about the fourth-century Roman emperor who famously tried to halt the spread of Christianity, Julian is widely regarded as one of Gore Vidal’s finest historical novels.Julian the Apostate, nephew of Constantine the Great. Julian himself wrote a book titled "Against the Galileans." |
His opposition to Christianity culminated in his attempt to restore the Roman paganism which led him to regard the Jews more favorably. In 362, he announced his intention of restoring the Jerusalem Temple and appointed an official named Alypius in charge of the building operation. This stopped after a short time, probably because of the political uncertainties created by Julian's Persian campaign. Christian sources attributed it to a miraculous fire.
"The Jews already tried to rebuild the Temple. In 363 A.D., egged on by the Roman Emperor Julian the Apostate, the Jews tore down every remaining stone from the old temple to begin rebuilding it. But God miraculously halted this work.  A few, very small, Jewish groups support constructing a Third Temple today, but most Jews oppose this, for a variety of reasons. " My 3rd cousin, Stanley Goldfoot, was one of the leaders of a group planning for the day it is rebuilt. His home was in Jerusalem. He belonged to the Jerusalem Temple Foundation, or the Faithful of the Temple Mount. |
It was in c37 that Jesus had died. It took almost 300 years for Rome to become Christianized to the point of meeting about this new religion that was slowly spreading throughout their realm by 312 and again in 325. Most people were still happy being pagans and worshipping the many gods populating Mt. Olympus. Why would anyone want to trade off their exciting holidays, virgin methods of bringing on good harvests, etc.?
 |
King Alaric I, of Visigoths in Athens : Alaric was also a Roman magister militum"master of soldiers," making him a valued member of the Roman Empire. Despite his allegiance to Rome, Alaric knew he would conquer the eternal city because it had been prophesied.
|
Ironically, however, they are often credited with helping preserve Roman culture. After the sacking of Rome, a group of Goths moved to Gaul (in modern-day France) and Iberia (Spain) and formed the Visigothic Kingdom. This kingdom would eventually incorporate Catholic Christianity, Roman artistic traditions and other aspects of Roman culture. The last Gothic kingdom fell to the Moors in A.D. 711."
Resource: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eusebiushttps://www.livescience.com/45948-ancient-goths.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mardonius_(philosopher)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logos
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Augustus-Roman-emperor
http://bibleprobe.com/rebuildingthetemple.htm
https://larouchepub.com/eiw/public/1983/eirv10n16-19830426/eirv10n16-19830426_018-flirting_with_armageddon_the_jer.pdf
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/daily/military-history/emperor-julian-the-apostate/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaric_I
https://www.reddit.com/r/badhistory/comments/as9ks/julian_the
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/342592-the-roan-emperor-julian
www.roman-emperors.org/julian.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Julian
No comments:
Post a Comment