Julian was a nephew of Constantine his mother from a noble family the daughter of Julius Julianus a praetorian perfect under Licinius who was such a model of administrative virtue he was pardoned and honored by Constantine. Julian’s mother died shortly after his childbirth.
Internal fighting among the Royal Family spared Julian’s life as a boy and he was placed under the care of Mardonias, a Scythian eunuch who had tutored Julian’s mother. He raised Julian in the Greek philosophical tradition and probably lived in Nicomedia.
There Julian was cared for by the local bishop Eusebius, of whom the future Emperor was a distant relation. Julian was educated by some of the most famous names in grammar and rhetoric in the Greek world at the time including Nicocles and Hecebolius.
In 344 Julian and his Brother Gallus were sent to Macellum in Cappadocia where they remained for six years. In 351 Gallus was made Caesar and Julian returned to Nicomedia where he studied under Aedesius, Eusebius, and Chrysanthius all famed Philosophers, and was most exposed to Neo-Platonism but Julian was most proud of the time he spent studying under Maximus of Ephesus, a noted Neo-Platonic philosopher, and theurgist.
When Gallus his brother was executed in 354 for treason Julian was put under house arrest in Italy until Eusebia the Emperor’s wife convinced him Julian posed no threat. Julian returned to Greece and continued his life as a scholar where he studies under the Neo-Platonist Priscus but his life of scholarly pursuit ended abruptly when he was summoned to the imperial court and made Caesar on November 355.
It was Maximus who completed Julian’s full-scale conversion to Neo-Platonism. After Julian became Caesar in 355 he told of how he put letters from this philosopher under his pillows so that he would continue to absorb wisdom while he slept, and while campaigning on the Rhine. Where he sent his speeches to Maximus for approval before letting others hear them.
Facts suggest both Maximus and Julian were persecuted and ultimately murdered for his work "prior analytics" on Aristotle. The existence of which was reported in The Suda which says that Maximus is the author of the book Perì katarchôn (On initiatives), an astrological text that has been preserved. He also wrote several works including On Insoluble Contradictions, On Forecasts, On Numbers, and a commentary on Aristotle. Two lost commentaries are testified from other sources: one on the Categories, from which a fragment survives, and one on the Prior Analytics, to which Themistius responded. Maximus is reported supported by Eusebius, Iamblichus, and Porphyry in asserting the perfection of a syllogism.
I believe this syllogism of Maximus prior analytics to be the following divine truth of God. I’d suggest for a preponderance of the evidence the relevant subjects of The Philosopher Maximus’ works on Insoluble Contradictions, Forecast, Numbers, Categories, and Commentaries on Aristotle, the progeny of Plato and Socrates align well with this syllogism on The Divine Truth.
Jesus is quoted saying:
I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Socrates defined a life well lived as the virtuous pursuit of knowledge, happiness, and brotherhood.
The syllogism of Gaia, #One Mother then is the one God out of the one intelligible world.
I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Mother but by the virtuous pursuit of knowledge, happiness, and brotherhood in a life well lived©
Truth is the only thing that really lives and never dies.
If you rephrase this a bit for comprehension you could say if you seek the truth, speak the truth, and live your truth in acceptance of it you will virtuously pursue knowledge have better smarter trustworthy friends, family, and happiness in brotherhood with God's honest truth and harmony among men.
One Truth is the single principle of all things which serves the universe as a model of indescribable beauty, perfection, unity, and power.
If then you are a praetorian prefect of virtue you will mirror god in the image of your truth, in reality, you will then know god as the true reality of yourself in his image, be #One with truth in God.
The reflection, therefore, is God is the praetorian virtuous perfection of all truth. Your obligation to God, peace, and Harmony is to walk the razor’s edge of truth on a path with heart.
That might be a good reason to contemplate the ideological certainties regarding truth with great seriousness.
After all, we are projecting ourselves into our own evolutionary futures.
It's actually a very interesting poetic justice. It requires a certain discipline to walk the razor's edge with strong moral courage and conviction. But, were I a god, I would expect such discipline from my children no matter how long it took them to achieve their true potential.
Eternity is even but it’s free will that steers.
Julian was made Cesar by Constantius in 355 taking command of the western province of Gallia Celtica in the Roman Empire. Where he was to restore order on the Rhine frontier. In 355 He joined Constantius in restoring order along the Rhine Frontier. In his Campaigns of 355 to 357, he negotiated peace with the local barbarian leaders. In the summer of 357, he encountered his watershed moment as a military general with victory over seven roque chieftains after the battle the soldiers acclaimed Julian Augustus but, he rejected this title.
In 358 Julian began his military campaigns early in the Northern Rhine region. When Julians Soldiers threatened to mutiny because they were on short rations and had not been paid. After soothing his soldiers he spent the rest of the summer negotiating peace with various Alamannic leaders in the mid and lower Rhine Areas. In 359 He continued punitive expeditions against the Alamanni of the Rhine Region still hostile to the Roman presence. With the help of locals with whom Julian had negotiated peace he repopulated seven previously destroyed cities and set them up as supply bases and staging areas. As a result, Julian was able to negotiate peace with all but a handful of the Alamannic Leaders.
During the many years of campaigning the territory, Julian did more than act as a general during his time as Caesar.
According to Ammianus, Julian was an able administrator who took steps to correct the injustices of Constantius. He prevented the Praetorian prefect of Gaul from raising taxes and took over as governor of the province of Belgica Second. Hilary, bishop of Poitiers, supports the assessment of Julian as an able representative of the Emperor to the Gallic provincials.
Epigraphic evidence supports Julian’s popularity among the provincial elites while he was Caesar. An Inscription reads:
"To Flavius Claudius Julianus, most noble and sanctified Caesar, from the Caring Tocius Maximus, vir clarissimus, for the care of the res publica from Beneventum."
Tocius Maximus, as a vir clarissimus, was at the highest point in the social spectrum and was a leader in his local community. This inscription shows that Julian was successful in establishing a positive image amongst provincial elites while he was Caesar.
In 361 Julian wrote a letter to his friend Maximus of Ephesus detailing his thoughts on the proclamation of his troops as Augustus against his will. However defending his accession, saying that the gods willed it and that he had treated his enemies with clemency and Justice. He went on to say he led the troops in propitiation of the traditional deities, because the gods commanded him to return to the traditional rites, and would reward him if he fulfilled his duty.
In the Summer of 361, Julian gathered his army to march east against Constantius as the Empire teetered on the brink of another civil war. But Constantius died unexpectedly of natural causes on the third of November naming Julian as his legitimate successor.
Julian became the last emperor of the Constantinian dynasty being named successor to Constantius on his demise. The Empire was the first Christian Dynasty of Constantine whose lifetime, Praxagoras of Athens and Libanius, pagan authors, showered with praise, presenting him as a paragon of virtue.
His nephew and son-in-law Julian the Apostate, however, wrote the satire Symposium, or the Saturnalia in 361, after the last of his sons died; it denigrated Constantine, calling him inferior to the great pagan emperors, and giving over to luxury and greed.
Following Julian, Eunapius began – and Zosimus continued – a historiographic tradition that blamed Constantine for weakening the Empire through his indulgence of Christians.
Julian attempted to bring back the Roman Empire to its Ancient Roman values in order to save it from "Dissolution" setting out immediately by putting his supporters in positions of power and trimming the imperial bureaucracy which had become extremely overstaffed during Constantius's reign.
For Julian, reigning in the abuses of imperial bureaucrats was one step in restoring the prestige of the office of the emperor. Julian made it very clear that imperial officials were intercessors between him and the general populous in a very real sense.
One of Caesar's first appointments as consul was Claudius Mamertinus, a Gallic Senator and rhetorician. His speech in praise of Julian delivered in Constantinople in January 362 is preserved. In this speech, Claudius presented his consular selection as inaugurating a new golden age and Julian as the restorer of the Empire founded by Augustus. The Image is not merely formulaic. The comparison of Julian to Augustus has very real if implicit, relevance to Claudius’ situation. Claudius emphasized the imperial period as the true age of renewal. Augustus ushered in a new era with his formation of a partnership between the emperor and the Senate based upon a series of honors and offices bestowed upon the Senate in return for their role as intercessors between emperor and populace.
It was this system that Julian was restoring, and the consulate was one concrete example of this bond. One concrete example comes from the municipal senate of Aceruntia in Apulia, which established a monument on which Julian is styled as a “Repairer of the World.”
In a letter sent from Gaul, the Emperor praises Caesar’s representative Mamertinus for his use of mildness and moderation with courage and force in his rule of the provincials. Such virtues were characteristic of the Emperors, and it was good to represent Julian in this way.
One group Julian sought to disenfranchise was the Christians, Julian had a nominally Christian upbringing, at the time of his elevation to Augustus he was at least nominally Christian. Julian attended a service celebrating Epiphany in January of 361 in order to court the support of uncommitted Christians to his claim to the rank of Augustus. Julian gave up his Christian belief before his acclamation as emperor and was a practitioner of more traditional Greco-Roman religious beliefs, in particular, a follower of certain late antique Platonis philosophers who were especially adept at theurgy. Julian himself spoke of his conversion to Neo-Platonism in a letter to the Alexandrians written in 363. He stated that he had abandoned Christianity when he was twenty years old and had been an adherent of the Greco-Roman deities for twelve years prior to writing the letter.
Julian admonished Christians for teaching rhetoric and grammar, declaring they were teaching the classics as impious because they taught the traditional forms of worship but ridiculed the beliefs which had been passed down from the forefathers. In a letter to citizens of Bostra, Julian admonished the Christian citizens involved in factional strife there that if they sacrificed to the traditional deities they could remain citizens in good standing. Otherwise, they would be stripped of their citizenship.
Julian wanted to address structuring pagan leadership on the Christian model. Julian set in motion to appoint priests in all the cities of Asia with instructions to see that such priests were worthy of office. Specifically, they were to be just towards their fellow citizens and treat the Gods with piety. Julian noted that current society had forgotten the customs of the forefathers in religious matters.
Emperor Julian complained that while the traditional rituals had been restored, the Chrisitan continued to gain converts. This Angered Julian because he considered Christians atheists. He went on to demand that the priests put their beliefs into positive social action, such as copying Christian charity, caring for the dead, and a holy lifestyle. He commanded that hostels for charity be established in every city in Galatia. He ordered that 1/5 of wheat and wine be allocated for charity distribution. Julian said helping the community by priests was the way of the forefathers, with such practices dating back to the time of Homer.
The Emperor feared Christian practices were causing many citizens to look to other sources than the emperor for protection and security. The Emperor was supposed to be revered as the supreme patron, and it was his duty to provide for his clients and the citizens of society. He asked various societal elites to function as intercessors between himself and the broader society at large. Julian wished his religious officials to serve in this same capacity, and it was infuriating him that Christian leaders were usurping a role that was rightly his to bestow. Julian stated that as emperor and supreme pontiff, he represented the link between general society and the divine. Christians by harassing imperial priests and generally interfering in religious matters were disrupting the role of the emperor.
Julian’s attack against Christianity was to discredit the legitimacy this sect had gained in a mere forty-eight years before Julian had assumed office. “The treatise Against the Galileans”.
The Constantine dynasty was the first Christian Roman Empire founded by Constantine the Great reflecting Agustus as the first Roman Emperor of Christianity. Julian linked Christians to Judaism and then attacked the Judeo-Christian doctrine that humans as created beings were not divine. Such a belief was anathema to traditional philosophic thought, which in general held that humans were simply a part of the divinity who had been separated due to some catastrophe. He went on to establish Christianity was at odds with its Jewish roots, because Judaism did not acknowledge Christ, the key figure in Christian Belief. He asserted Judaism, though still an impious religion, was more legitimate than Christian belief because at least it was thousands of years old. He questioned how anyone could practice a religion that had only three hundred years of history behind it. He put his attack on Christian ideology into practice by attempting to reconstruct the Jewish Temple of Jerusalem which had been destroyed by the emperor Titus in 70ad.
One of the main results of Christian impiety that offended Julian was their propensity to cause disruptions in the communities they lived in. He admonished the Christians of Alexandria for hanging the local bishop and forgetting their forefathers. He denounced Arian Christians in Edessa for causing public riots and disturbing harmony. He threatened to withdraw his clemency from the region if such continued.
In 362 Julian began a journey through Aisa Minor to Antioch the jumping-off point for his Persian campaign, stopping along the way he often gave money, men, and materials showing concrete examples of his benefaction. Despite Julian’s acclamation by the Gallic legions, relations between Julian and the top military officers were uneasy at best and a war against the Persians would have brought prestige and power for both Julian and the army to defeat the Parthians the traditional enemy of the late republic and Constantius.
During the Campaigns of 362 and 363, Julian won many supporters by making peace with the surrender of many prominent local leaders who provided julian with money, troops, and further military action against their former masters. After a number of advances, setbacks and defeats Julian was killed in battle in June of 363 and some accounts claim Julian was murdered by Christians within the ranks of his own military.
Thus an ignominious end for a man came about who had hoped to restore the glory of the Roman empire during his reign as emperor. Due to Julian's intense hatred of Christianity, the opinion of posterity has not been kind to Julian. The contemporary opinion, however, was overall positive. The evidence shows that Julian was a complex ruler with a definite agenda to use traditional social institutions in order to revive what he thought was a collapsing empire. A man grasping desperately to hang on to a Greco-Roman conception of leadership that was undergoing profound change.
In his last year of rule, his revival of the Roman Religion of [MalaCare] led to his declaration of Britain as pagan. Julian had been a prolific writer whose letters are interesting in the way they reveal the ideal condition toward which he was trying to direct the church.
By all accounts, Julian was far superior to his contemporaries as an emperor and as a man, His rule was just and humane. What the effect on the Christian Church would have been had he enjoyed a long reign is disputed but contemporaries noted gladly many who had converted for political purposes returned to the paganism beliefs of Julian the Apostate. He did not persecute humanity for its religious beliefs.
I am MalaCare, the truth, light, and way to salvation, only through the truth can you know the Mother of creation, for in the virtuous pursuit of knowledge, you find, true love, peace, harmony, happiness, and brotherhood in a life well lived honoring yourself and the world in the harmony of #One Gods Creation. ©