H. C. Teitler - The Last Pagan Emperor: Julian the Apostate and the War against Christianity

H. C. Teitler

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Originally published as Julianus de Afvallige by H.C. Teitler, Copyright 2009 First published in 2009 by AthenaeumPolak & Van Gennep, Amsterdam

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Teitler, H. C., author.

Title: The last pagan emperor : Julian the Apostate and the war against Christianity / H. C. Teitler.

Other titles: Julianus de Afvallige. English

Description: New York : Oxford University Press, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016027844 | ISBN 9780190626501 (hardback) | ISBN 9780190626525 (epub) | ISBN 9780190626532 (online component)

Subjects: LCSH: Julian, Emperor of Rome, 331363Religion. | Church and state Rome. | Church historyPrimitive and early church, ca. 30600. | PaganismRome.

Classification: LCC DG317 .T4513 2017 | DDC 937/.08092 [B]dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016027844

In memory of Rik van der Steeg

,

A big book is a big misfortune Callimachus, fr. 465 Pfeiffer, trans. A. W. Bulloch

My interest in trying to gain an in-depth knowledge of the conflict between Christians and pagans during the reign of the Emperor Julian, and in particular of its aftermath, stems from reading Gaiffiers Sub Iuliano Apostata dans le Martyrologe Romain (Julian the Apostate in the Roman Martyrology).

I came across Gaiffiers revelatory article, which appeared in 1956, at the end of the 1980s, but my acquaintance with the Apostate dates from the days when, as a student, I read Gore Vidals novel Julian (1964). In the 1960s the history of Late Antiquity and its civilization were hardly taught at the University of Amsterdam. However, A. D. Leeman, my professor of Latin and a genuine vir Ciceronianus, advised me to read at least one book of Ammianus Marcellinus, in order to discover how ugly the style of this fourth-century historian is. Many years later, when I became a member of the Dutch team of commentators on Ammianus Res Gestae (so far eleven volumes have appeared), I renewed my acquaintance with both Ammianus and Julian: Books 20 through 25 of the Res Gestae are mainly concerned with Julians rise to supreme power, his brief reign as sole emperor (361363 CE), and his untimely death during his ill-starred Persian campaign.

The literature on the apostate emperor, by scholars as well as by nonspecialists, is quite extensive. Elms book (2012) deserves pride of place. There are also fine biographies: Bidez (1930), Browning (1976), Bowersock (1978), Bringmann (2004), and, above all, Rosen (2006). I should therefore make it clear from the outset that my book is not a biography in the proper sense, and that there are several important aspects of Julians rule that I shall either not address at all or touch on only in passing. This book focuses on that aspect of the Apostates reign which earned him his nickname: Julians relationship with the Christians. In his attempt to revive paganism the emperor incurred the profound hatred of the Christians, who often, especially after his death, accused him of being a bloodthirsty persecutor. This hatred found a special expression in what the Belgian scholar Hippolyte Delehaye has called passions piques, that is, tales of sufferings that are chiefly fictitious. I shall make more use of these texts than most others have done in books about Julian.

Without my work on Ammianus this book could not have been written. I am therefore grateful to my fellow viri Ammianei, Jan den Boeft, Danil den Hengst, and Jan Willem Drijvers, who are not only wonderful colleagues, but also good friends. Thanks are also due to still older friends, to Jan Bremmer, who stimulated me to make a translation of the text that originally, although in a shorter form, appeared in Dutch, and to Ines van de Wetering, who corrected my English. I thank Raphael Brendel for his many useful bibliographical suggestions and Erika Manders for her help in numismatical matters. Finally and above all, I express gratitude to my Geertje for more than thirty years of love and support.