DeepSummary
The episode discusses the life and reign of Julian the Apostate, who ruled the Roman Empire from 361-363 AD as the last pagan emperor. After Constantine the Great converted to Christianity in the early 4th century, Julian aimed to promote paganism and denounced Constantine's policies. He was a philosopher-emperor inspired by Marcus Aurelius, known for his letters and satires, and unexpectedly successful as a general in his youth.
Julian's family was slaughtered by rivals, but his unexpected military success propelled him to power. As emperor, he sought to undermine Christianity's relationship with the empire without persecuting Christians directly. His reign was cut short by his death during a campaign against the Sasanian Empire in Persia.
The panelists discuss Julian's education, philosophical beliefs, writings like the satire 'Misopogon,' and his motives for opposing Christianity. They analyze his legacy, including how he catalyzed Christian thinkers to strengthen the church's position, and the enduring interest in his life and ideas.
Key Episodes Takeaways
- Julian the Apostate ruled as the last pagan Roman emperor from 361-363 AD, seeking to revive traditional Greco-Roman religion and undermine Christianity after Constantine's conversion.
- As a philosopher-emperor inspired by Marcus Aurelius, Julian was known for his writings like the satires 'The Caesars' and 'Misopogon' which critiqued previous emperors.
- Despite his short reign, Julian left a lasting impact through his efforts to control education, promote pagan philosophy, and challenge Christianity's growing imperial influence.
- While failing to directly persecute Christians, Julian's pagan revival inadvertently united the divided Christian church against him and catalyzed Christian thinkers.
- Julian's military success as a young general propelled his rise to power, but his death during a pivotal Persian campaign cut short his religious reforms.
- Julian's autobiographical writings provide a remarkably candid window into his philosophical beliefs, self-perception, and motives as emperor.
- Julian remains a polarizing but intriguing figure, viewed alternately as a catalyzing threat to Christianity or a heroic upholder of classical culture.
Top Episodes Quotes
- βJulian's legacy has many faces. On the one hand, of course, there's also the legacy that probably he would not have been happy to know he had generated. There was, in a sense, Julian reinforced the church because the church at the time was divided among so many litigants fighting over issues of the nature of the treaty. And so on. But they found one point of union that was precisely the distaste of Julian, the antipathy for Julian.β by Leah Nicolai
- βChristianity can have no part in that. So he thinks this is an alien thing. So if you're going to be a Roman, this is not really part of their identity. So he's trying to sort of get that message across.β by Sean Tougher
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Episode Information
In Our Time
BBC Radio 4
4/18/24
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the last pagan ruler of the Roman Empire. Fifty years after Constantine the Great converted to Christianity and introduced a policy of tolerating the faith across the empire, Julian (c.331 - 363 AD) aimed to promote paganism instead, branding Constantine the worst of all his predecessors. Julian was a philosopher-emperor in the mould of Marcus Aurelius and was noted in his lifetime for his letters and his satires, and it was his surprising success as a general in his youth in Gaul that had propelled him to power barely twenty years after a rival had slaughtered his family. Julian's pagan mission and his life were brought to a sudden end while on campaign against the Sasanian Empire in the east, but he left so much written evidence of his ideas that he remains one of the most intriguing of all the Roman emperors and a hero to the humanists of the Enlightenment.
With
James Corke-Webster Reader in Classics, History and Liberal Arts at Kingβs College, London
Lea Niccolai Assistant Professor in Classics at the University of Cambridge and Fellow and Director of Studies in Classics, Trinity College
And
Shaun Tougher Professor of Late Roman and Byzantine History at Cardiff University
Producer: Simon Tillotson
Reading list:
Polymnia Athanassiadi, Julian: An Intellectual Biography (first published 1981; Routledge, 2014)
Nicholas Baker-Brian and Shaun Tougher (eds.), Emperor and Author: The Writings of Julian the Apostate (Classical Press of Wales, 2012)
Nicholas Baker-Brian and Shaun Tougher (eds.), The Sons of Constantine, AD 337-361: In the Shadows of Constantine and Julian, (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020)
G.W. Bowersock, Julian the Apostate (first published 1978; Harvard University Press, 1997)
Susanna Elm, Sons of Hellenism, Fathers of the Church: Emperor Julian, Gregory of Nazianzus, and the Vision of Rome (University of California Press, 2012)
Ari Finkelstein, The Specter of the Jews: Emperor Julian and the Rhetoric of Ethnicity in Syrian Antioch (University of California Press, 2018)
David Neal Greenwood, Julian and Christianity: Revisiting the Constantinian Revolution (Cornell University Press, 2021)
Lea Niccolai, Christianity, Philosophy, and Roman Power: Constantine, Julian, and the Bishops on Exegesis and Empire (Cambridge University Press, 2023)
Stefan Rebenich and Hans-Ulrich Wiemer (eds), A Companion to Julian the Apostate (Brill, 2020)
Rowland Smith, Julianβs Gods: Religion and Philosophy in the Thought and Action of Julian the Apostate (Routledge, 1995)
H.C. Teitler, The Last Pagan Emperor: Julian the Apostate and the War against Christianity (Oxford University Press, 2017)
Shaun Tougher, Julian the Apostate (Edinburgh University Press, 2007)
W. C. Wright, The Works of Emperor Julian of Rome (Loeb, 1913-23)