Profile for Emperor: Julian the Apostate - A guide to the coins of the Roman Empire

Julian the Apostate

Reece Period attributed: Period 18

Member of the House of Constantine dynasty.

Coins for this issuer were issued from 355 until 363.

Flavius Claudius Julianus was born in Constantinople around 332, and was a half-cousin to Constantius II. In 355 Constantius recalled him from study at Athens to take control of the Gallic frontier, and gave Julian the rank of Caesar. Julian was very popular with the troops and Constantius felt threatened; Julian’s troops then declared him Augustus and Constantius died just before he could get rid of Julian; Julian then became sole emperor of the rest.

Julian was a learned man who left many literary works; he also favoured reinstituting the pagan system, though he did not actually persecute Christians. He died under questionable circumstances in Mesopotamia, after launching an expedition against the Persians. The army chose Jovian, one of the senior generals, to succeed Julian.

View all coins recorded by the scheme attributed to Julian the Apostate.

Wikipedia derived information

Julian the Apostate, commonly known as Julian, or also Julian the Philosopher, was Roman Emperor from 355 to 363 and a noted philosopher and Greek writer.

A member of the Constantinian dynasty, he was made Caesar over the western provinces, by Constantius II in 355, where he campaigned successfully against the Alamanni and Franks. Most notable was his crushing victory over the Alamanni in 357 at the Battle of Argentoratum - despite being outnumbered. In 360 he was acclaimed Augustus by his soldiers, sparking a civil war between Julian and Constantius.

However, Constantius died before the two could face each other in battle, naming Julian as his rightful successor. In 363, Julian embarked on an ambitious campaign against the Sassanid Empire. Though initially successful, Julian was mortally wounded in battle and died shortly after.

Julian was a man of unusually complex character: he was "the military commander, the theosophist, the social reformer, and the man of letters". He was the last non-Christian ruler of the Roman Empire and it was his desire to bring the Empire back to its ancient Roman values in order to save it from "dissolution". He purged the top-heavy state bureaucracy and attempted to revive traditional Roman religious practices at the cost of Christianity.

His rejection of Christianity in favour of Neoplatonic paganism caused him to be called Julian the Apostate by the church. Interestingly, he was also the last emperor of the Constantinian dynasty â the empire's first Christian dynasty..

Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_the_Apostate
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