The Early Life of Julian the Apostate

Norman H. Baynes

doi:10.2307/625049

The Early Life of Julian the Apostate

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 December 2013

Norman H. Baynes

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Suppose that you are writing a highly eulogistic obituary notice of a well-known statesman who has recently died, and suppose further that you wish to suppress all reference to one period in that statesman's life which lasted for six years, how are you going to proceed? It is clearly a ticklish matter. But if your hero left X at the beginning of that period of six years to go to Y, and then at its close returned from Y to X, it might be possible to telescope the two residences at X into a single visit, and to cover your suppression of the six years' absence by a discreet lack of definition in your chronological statements. If you are successful, others may follow your lead, and centuries later your evasions may escape the notice of the historical student.

Type: Research Article
Information: The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 45 , Issue 2 , 1925 , pp. 251 - 254

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/625049 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1925

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References

¹ Geffcken, Johannes: Kaiser Julianus (=Das Erbe der Alten Heft viii.), Leipzig, 1914, p. 128.Google Scholar

² For the fact that Socrates wrote with the before him, cf. Socr. iii. 23, p. 200. That his account was composed with the view of combating the representation of the motives of Constantius as given by Libanius in the has been already remarked by Förster (see his notes in his edition of Libanius, ii. [1904], pp. 241–242). That the account of Sozomen (v. 1) is independent of both Socrates (iii. 1) and Libanius needs no proof.

³ Apart from the doubtful evidence of the oracle (cf. Radinger, C., Das Geburtsdatum des Kaisers Julian Apostata, Philologus 1. [1891], p. 761Google Scholar; Neumann, K. J., Das Geburtsjahr Kaiser Julians, ibid. pp. 761–762;Google ScholarSeeck, O., Das Epigramm des Germanus und seine Ueberschrift; Rheinisches Museum, N.S. lxix. [1914], pp. 565–567)Google Scholar, we have Julian's own statement in his letter to the Alexandrians, written in the winter of 362 (cf. Seeck, Geschichte, etc., iv. p. 391): (= Christianity) (= the worship of Helios) Ep. 51. p. 434D (= Bidez and Cumont, p. 172).