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The itinerary of Alexander: Constantius to Julian
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2009
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Constantine, the first Christian Emperor, bequeathed war against Persia to his son Constantius, a legacy which haunted the next two decades, culminating in Julian′s debacle in 363. Much has been written on the timing, motives, and strategy of these campaigns but the same role model appears at their beginning and end: Alexander the Great. Here, I wish to re-examine the evidence for his presence: recent scholarship has minimized it at one end and maximized at the other.
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References
1 My greatest debt is to T. D. Barnes, whose work is the impulse for this article and who kindly read Part Two and improved it for me. I am also grateful to S. N. C. Lieu and Hunt, E.D. for helpful comment on an earlier version and Smith, R.B. for further discussion, reflected in his valuable study, Julian′s Gods(London, 1995). A re-edited text of the first 22 sections of the ‘Itinerary’ is given by R. Tabacco, Per Una Nuova Edizione Critica dell′Itinerarium Alexandri(Bologna 1992); H. Volkmann, Itinerarium Alexandri(Landschule Pforta, 1871) and H.-J. Hausmann, Itinerarium Alexandri(Diss Koln, 1970) are particularly helpful studieHerzog, s.R. (ed.), Restauration und Erneuerung, R. Herzog and P. L. Schmidt (edd.), Handbuch der Lateinischeti literatut der Antike,Funfter Band (Miinchen, 1989), pp. 212–15 gives the full bibliography and a survey of the textual and literary issues which this text has raised. J.-P. Callu ′La Pr6face a L′ltineraire d′Alexandre′in De Tertullien Aux Mozarabes: Melanges Offerts a J. FontaineI (Paris, 1992), pp. 429–43 is a re-edition and commentary on the Preface of the text only. The most valuable survey, however, is by R. Tabacco, ‘Itinerarium Alexandri:Rassegna Critica degli Studi e Prospettive di Indagine’, Bollettino di Studi Latini17 (1987), 77–120, the essential starting point for future study of the work.Google Scholar
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3 Itin. Alex.9 (revenge); 15 (similar physique).
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42 Petzi, G., Die Inschriften von SmyrnaII. 1 (Bonn, 1987), nos 818 III, 815d, 812B, 813 (possibly the same text as 812B). The other Eastern inscriptions cited by Ferrero (supra, n. 41) are fragmentary or of uncertain relevance.Google Scholar
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48 Julian, Or.19B, 20A-B, 33B-C, 41B-C, 45C
49 Cod Theod11.12.1.
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57 Itin. Alex., Praefatio9 for deuspraeses; Itin. Alex.49–53, 90, 107–8.
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62 Itin. Alex.34, not in Arrian but in Plutarch, Alexander32.1, Diod. Sic. 17.56, Q. Curt. 4.13.17; Justin 11.13.1; Kluge (supra, n. 13), p. 8 n. 8.
63 ed. Kuebler (supra, n. 10), 1.46. See also 1.23 (hexameters) and 1.31 (iambic trimeters); 1.52 is more desperate!
64 Itin. Alex.11.
65 Itin. Alex.118, with Diod. Sic. 17.117.1; Plut., Alex.75.3–4 explicitly rejects the story, and AIT. Anab.7.24–5 ignores it.
66 Julian, Epist. ad Themistium253B, with C. Lacombrade, ‘L′Empereur Julien, Emule de Marc Aurele’, Pallas14 (1967), 9, and my n. 85 below.
67 Libanius, Or.17.17.
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72 Socrates, H. E. 3.21.
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74 Bidez (supra, n. 73), Anhang III.
75 Bidez (supra, n. 73), L.
76 Amm. Marc 22.9.13.
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78 Alfoldi, A., ′some Portraits of Julianus Apostata′, AJA66 (1962), 404, not altogether overturned by Leveque, P., ‘De Nouveaux Portraits de L′Empereur Julien’, Latomus22 (1963), 82–3.Google Scholar
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80 Libanius, Or.18.260 and 261.
81 Socrates, H. E. 3.21.
82 J. Szidat, ‘Alexandrum Imitatus (Amm. 24.4.27)’, in W. Will and J. Heinrichs (herausg.), Zu Alexander d Gr. Festschrift G. Wirth(1988), pp. 1023–35, esp. pp. 1025–7.
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84 Szidat (supra, n. 82), pp. 1027–35, with full discussion.
85 Julian, Epist. ad Themist.253B where the force of is relevant, and made sharper by the following sentence; on Marcus, E. D. Hunt, ‘Julian and Marcus Aurelius’, in D. Innes, H. Hine and C. Pelting (edd.), Ethics and Rhetoric: Classical Essays for Donald Russell(Oxford, 1995), pp. 287–98.
86 Julian, Epist.257B: Or.45D-46A: Caesars,330 B-C: Epist.446.
87 Baynes (supra, n. 68), n. 3; Julian, Or.212C naturally cites Dio for a tale concerning Diogenes and Alexander.
88 Julian, Or.41C, 46A; Epist. ad Themist.264C and Or.96A-C.
89 Julian, Epist.443C, esp. 446A.
90 Julian, Epist.446A.
91 At 446A, Julian implies two stories of the death of Hector, son of Parmenion. We know only one (the Nile version) and then only in Q. Curt. 4.8.7–9, 6.9.27. The Emperor knows more evidence than we now have.
92 Baldwin, B., ‘The Caesares of Julian’, Klio60 (1978), 449–66; Smith (supra, n. 1), p. 125 is excellent on the Caesars′ tone.Google Scholar
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97 Julian, Epist. ad Nilum446; see also Or.251 B-C (leaving open the possibility of blaming Alexander).
98 Amm. Marc. 25.3.15: Ephrem, Hymns Against Julian,now translated in S. N. C. Lieu (ed.), The Emperor Julian: Panegyric and Polemic(Liverpool, 1986), pp. 91–124.
99 Itin. Alex.30 stresses Alexander′s virtue to his friends (supra, n. 96) by transposing Arr. Anab.2.4.11 to the start of the incident.
100 R. T. Ridley, ‘Notes on Julian′s Persian Expedition’, Historia22 (1973), 317–26 esp. 326; for other views, A. Marcone, ‘II Significato della Spedizione di Giuliano Contro La Persia’, Athenaeum,n.s. 57 (1979), 334–556, esp. 342–5 and the important study in Matthews (supra, n. 40), pp. 130–79.
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