Julian and the Late Roman Empire: Ma Yong / Sichuan People's Publishing House / 2022-9
Wen 丨 Sea of clouds
In the history of the Roman Empire, there was an emperor who ruled for less than 2 years, and many people are unfamiliar with him today. In terms of conquest achievements, although he was strong in the expedition to Persia, he was far inferior to the great monarchs such as Caesar, Octavian, and Constantine. In terms of philosophical achievements, he was enthusiastic about Neoplatonism, possessed the dual identity of a philosopher and an emperor, as well as a high moral character, and was known as the "philosopher king" by the world.
His civilization-religious revival has given him an important place in world history. This was the last emperor of the Constantine dynasty, Julian (331-363).
Dr. Ma Yong pointed out in his book Julian and the Late Roman Empire that the most important reason why Emperor Julian had such charm was that during his reign, the Roman Empire faced a double crisis of political system and civilization.
Until Emperor Theodosius, there was always a crisis in the monarchy of the Roman Empire, which was concentrated in the fact that the problem of the emperor's heir was not well resolved, as reflected in the frequent change of emperors and frequent civil wars in the Roman Empire in the 3rd century AD. This crisis of political system is essentially a reflection of the crisis of civilization in the political system. With the process of Christianization begun by Constantine the Great in 312, the classical Greco-Roman civilization soon ushered in a decisive battle with Christian civilization. As soon as Julian came to power, he launched a "civilized civil war" in support of religious freedom, and the ancient Greco-Roman civilization made a final revival effort, which also determined the life and death of the ancient Greco-Roman civilization.
Constantine the Great
Tragically, with Julian's unexpected death in the subsequent expedition to Persia, this civilization-religious revival soon failed. Since then, Christianity has been invincible in Europe for a thousand years, and Julian has been shaped by Christians as an "apostate" historical image.
In "Julian and the Late Roman Empire", the author places Julian in the historical perspective of the late Roman Empire, tells the story of Julian's short life, and discusses Julian's thoughts and actions in response to the imperial crisis based on the rich documentary records left by Julian, and also sorts out and describes the motivation and ideological origin behind his actions.
Born into an imperial family, Julian experienced ruthless intrigue and killing from an early age. After the death of Constantine the Great in 337, he divided the empire among his three sons, which led to a brutal civil war that ended in Julian's cousin Constantius II winning and reunifying the empire in 351. During this period, in order to eradicate the family's coveting of the imperial throne, the adult males of the Julian family were murdered, and Julian spent his teenage years under house arrest and exile.
Julian
But the pain of life did not twist Julian's soul. He read a great deal of philosophical works, and with the solace of philosophy, Julian was able to look at the misfortunes of his and his family with a detached eye. At the age of 20, Julian was allowed to go out to study, so he went to Athens to study philosophy calmly under the most famous philosophical representative of the empire, Neoplatonism.
A few years later, fate brought Julian back to the wrestling field for power. In 355, Julian was appointed vice-emperor "Caesar" (the official emperor was "Augustus"), and as a member of the imperial family, he went to the western part of the empire to defend Gaul and eliminate the Germanic barbarians. Julian, who had just arrived in Gaul, not only had no experience in political and military struggles, but was only a bare-rod commander, whose task was "to march through Gaul in the purple robe of the emperor to demonstrate the authority of the royal family", and the real military and political power was firmly in the hands of Constantius II's henchmen.
However, Julian soon demonstrated his excellent political and military talents. As soon as he arrived in Gaul, Julian began to form his own power core, and with brave, endless energy and strong desire to fight, Julian became more and more prestigious, gradually mastered the military and political power of Gaul, and finally unexpectedly conquered the barbarians in Gaul, restored order in Gaul, and became the savior and idol of the Gaul people and legions.
Julian
After that, Julian was added to his subordinate Yellow Robe, and publicly broke with his cousin Constantius II, who was busy with the war in the East, and set out to march east in July 361, intending to carry out a military adventure with little chance of victory. At the critical juncture of a new civil war, Constantius II, who had no heirs, suddenly fell ill and died, and was forced to recognize Julian as Emperor of the Roman Empire before his death.
In December 361, Julian, the new emperor who led an army into Constantinople, in order to quickly stabilize the army and officials in the eastern part of the empire, when dealing with some cousins who killed his father, he first personally planned to bury Constantius II next to Constantine the Great, and then admitted that Constantius II was already a god, in order to show his magnanimity, thereby winning the loyalty of the eastern army and officials.
The following year, Julian immediately launched a civilizational-religious movement to revive the classical Greco-Roman tradition. In February, a religious tolerance edict was issued aimed at triggering infighting in Christianity; In June, the famous education decree was issued to expel Christians from the field of education; At the same time, actively revive the ancient traditions of the Roman Empire itself, preventing the Empire from becoming a Christian empire. At the same time, in 363 Julian also began an expedition to Persia, intending to follow the example of the idol Alexander the Great and completely solve the threat of the Sassanid Persian Empire in the east.
The author explains what Julian did during his reign in terms of the neoplatonic concept of an ideal king. According to Julian, he fully met the requirements of the ideal king: to practice virtue diligently, to cultivate foresight and familiarity with all matters of war and peace; Temper desires and be piety and filial piety; Strictly abide by justice and be honest.
Heavily influenced by Neoplatonism, we can understand Julian's series of actions, such as yearning for a republican monarchy in the 2nd century (the tradition of the second generation of wise magicians), turning from Christianity to opposing Christianity (because Christianity hinders the pursuit of wisdom), and resolutely remarrying after the death of his wife (abstinence), and so on.
Julian sculpture
In Julian and the Late Roman Empire, with the author's account of Julian's life and actions, we can understand the political difficulties and power struggles of the late Roman Empire, as well as the efforts to restore the tradition of civilization under the rule of philosophers.
Although Julian's sudden death directly led to the failure of this effort to revive civilization, even if Julian's rule can continue, it is a great uncertainty whether such efforts will succeed. Christianity flourished in Europe for thousands of years precisely because of its strong inner strength to unite people's hearts, and by the end of the Roman Empire, the Christian climate had become established, and it was forcibly reversed or even extinguished by political power, which was extremely difficult to achieve without the efforts of several generations. The question is, how many philosopher kings like Julian can live up to their ideals in the real world?
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