The Society For The Promotion of Hellenic Studies The Journal of Hellenic Studies

The Early Life of Julian the Apostate
Author(s): Norman H. Baynes

Source: The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. 45, Part 2 (1925), pp. 251-254
Published by: The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies
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THE EARLY LIFE OF JULIAN THE APOSTATE
SUPPOSE that you are writing a highly eulogistic obituary notice

known statesman who has recently died, and suppose further t
to suppress all reference to one period in that statesman's life wh
six years, how are you going to proceed ? It is clearly a ticklish
if your hero left X at the beginning of that period of six years to g
then at its close returned from Y to X, it might be possible to telesc
residences at X into a single visit, and to cover your suppressio
years' absence by a discreet lack of definition in your chronological s
If you are successful, others may follow your lead, and centuri
evasions may escape the notice of the historical student. I would
this is precisely what has happened in the case of the ErtT0~4o
Libanius upon his hero Julian the Apostate. Libanius suppressed a
to the six years of Julian's banishment to Macellum; Julian as a b
eleven was at Constantinople: from Constantinople he was sent
in Cappadocia by Constantius: from Macellum, as a youth of sev
returned to Constantinople. Libanius has telescoped into on
residences in the capital. Socrates, writing in the following century t
of Julian's early years, has composed his chapter with the 6ertTad
of Libanius before him, and has naturally followed the account of Ju
and contemporary. The story told alike by Christian and by Pa
accepted by modern writers. But Sozomen, engaged upon his histo
publication of the-work of Socrates, followed an independent authori
enables us to reconstruct the true chronology and to detect the a
imposed upon his predecessor. That is the thesis which I would se
in this note.
At present it would seem that the chronological scheme of Julian's early
years proposed by Seeck bids fair to be generally accepted : it has, for instance,
been adopted by Geffcken in his biography of Julian.' That scheme may be
tabulated as follows :
Julian's birth at Constantinople.

Early in 338: Murder of his father and removal to Nicomedia.
About 342 : He moves to Constantinople, where he begins his studies.
344: Returns to Nicomedia, and-
345 : Is banished to Fundus Macelli.
In a review of the fourth volume of Seeck's Geschichte des Untergangs der

antiken Welt (1911) I endeavoured (in 1912) to show that his reconstruction
1 Johannes Geffcken: Kaiser Julianus (=Das Erbe der Alten Heft viii.), Leipzig,
1914, p. 128.
251
252 NORMAN H. BAYNES
of the chronology was impossible (E

760); that negative argument may b
to the positive reconstruction.2
Julian, it would seem, was born in
relatives by the army he lived in Co
massacre is uncertain : it is to be placed
I am inclined to think,4 or very early i
p. 391; cf. Hieron., Chron. 2354). Ju
Eastern capital ( 5Te T'?7 7rap' b;Liyv
259 B) when the catastrophe occurred. A
Constantinople to Nicomedia, where
in Nicomedia, as is well known, he w
Mardonius, 'his spiritual father.' E
to the see of Constantinople c. 339-3
with him at this time to the capit
When in Constantinople for the sec
(Libanius [Forster], ii. p. 241), a
/3p'1XT71TO aGo'CpoGi-V'c ,vb a? of
there can hardly be any doubt. Whe
was parted from Mardonius. On hi
mention of Mardonius; we may there
nople, and not from Nicomedia, that
tended as against Seeck (English Hist
in Macellum terminated about 348 : w
at Macellum in 347 when Constantius
finement. The stay at Macellum last
Julian was therefore in Constanti
was in Constantinople until 344: it i
fession refers: ijXyovv ob arrelpov
When Julian was torn away from sc
LetpaKtov iEt TCov 8t~SacaXeotwv c
old. During his stay at Macellum, ho
be quite capable of appreciating the b
2 For the fact that Socrates wrote with the 762; 0. Seeck, Das Epigramrm des Ger-
&arL'dr4ros Adyos before him, cf. Socr. iii.manus
23, und seine Ueberschrift; Rheinisches
p. 200. That his account was composed Museum, N.S. lxix. [1914], pp. 565-567), we
with the view of combating the repre- have Julian's own statement in his letter to
the Alexandrians, written in the winter of
sentation of the motives of Constantius as
362hdyos
given by Libanius in the wtrLd-PLor (cf. Seeck, Geschichte, etc., iv. p. 391):
has been already remarked by Firster (see
obX haaprer8e yp 7E- s a p0r s 6s0o nEO8deuEvor
his notes in his edition of Libanius, ii. 7( ^ropEVOeVTr Ka'iVc7V T?V 68b (6= Christianity)
[1904], pp. 241-242). That the account of 6XPis trwv E0oa Ka irav'Tv- (=Vthe worship
Sozomen (v. 1) is independent of both of Helios) nJ abi'v Oeo?s 7ropEvoyEv~ 8w8Karov
Socrates (iii. 1) and Libanius needs no proof.
fros. Ep. 51. p. 434D (=Bidez and Cu-
3 Apart from the doubtful evidence of mont,
the p. 172).
oracle (cf. C. Radinger, Das Geburtsdatum 4 Cf. N. H. Baynes, Athanasiana ; Jour-
des Kaisers Julian Apostata, Philologus nal of Egyptian Archaeology xi. [1925], at
1. [1891], p. 761; K. J. Neumann, Das p. 67.
Geburtsjahr Kaiser Julians, ibid. pp. 761-
THE EARLY LIFE OF JULIAN THE APOSTATE 253
of George, later to become bishop of Alexandria (cf. J. B

l'empereur Julien,' Acadgmie Royale de Belgique, Bull
Lettres, etc., 1921, pp. 197-216 at p. 210). At the end of
A.D. 348) Gallus returned to Ephesus, where he had prop
cf. Jul., Epist. ad Ath. 273 B), and thereafter was summoned
'he was kept a close prisoner' (Jul., ibid. 271 D) until he
Julian went once more to Constantinople (Soz., 1.c.), and it is
we should refer his studies under Hecebolius and Nicocles of which Socrates
speaks. The reason for the chronological misplacement in Socrates is, as we
have seen, the fact that he is writing with the r'trd'toot dyom of Libanius
before him, and is therefore misled by Libanius' suppression of all reference to
the stay at Macellum. Julian was now (A.D. 348-349) an attractive youth of
seventeen or eighteen: it was no wonder that Constantius, always suspicious of
possible rivals, felt that it was dangerous to allow Julian to remain in Con-
stantinople, especially since the emperor was himself absent in Syria at thi
time (cf. Seeck, Regesten der Kaiser und Piipste, p. 196). The passage in
Libanius (p. 242) and that in Sozomen (v. 2, 15) both have reference to this
period: as Libanius says of Julian, 8, q wprpoa~Bov iv : he is no longer a
child, he is free to pursue his own education: 7rat {8ecoOaL 8 6' cotv (sc
Constantius) d~ovalav (Lib., p. 242, 12). We know from Eunapius that
Julian asked de'rtrpa7riival oi Kal tpropEx&ov dapodaaa-at cat tkoao'obov
Xdycov (Eunap., Vitae Sophist. p. 473), and that Constantius consented,
repl 7a 3Stfla 8V Xav a-9at /ovXO/evov aVTOV xal (pyeLY ,iiXXov I To0
ycvovv aca rlv 7 PaQaLXEa a i ia b7roT0t/v~pj-ceo-at. Julian had ample means
(/3a9wov /aNl papvTadrwov 7ro1CEtwov T 7'wOv, ibid.). He was sent to
Nicomedia, and one limitation only was imposed upon his freedom: h
was not to attend the lectures of Libanius : he was compelled to reinforce
his promise 'by many great oaths.' On the chronology of Seeck Julian was
a boy of twelve or thirteen at this time : surely at that age even a Roman
boy could be restrained by other means than 7roXXotv a /7eydhoe Xov potLv
Many modern writers have found the prohibition itself somewhat inexplicable
but the explanation is surely not far to seek. Hecebolius, it would seem (cf.
Geffcken, op. cit. p. 8), accompanied Julian to Nicomedia, and Heceboliu
was a sophist of Constantinople : Nicocles had been Julian's teacher; but it was
precisely Nicocles and the other professors of Constantinople who had plotted
to drive Libanius from the capital (cf. Sievers, Das Leben des Libanius, pp. 51
53). Those oaths were inspired, not by any Christian bigotry of Constantius,
but by the jealousy of a professorial cabal. Libanius was in Nicomedia from
c. 344 to 340: Julian returning from Macellum, probably in 348, may have
been sent to Nicomedia in the same year, or early in 349. The fact that
Julian was now independent with large means at his disposal fully explains th
language of Libanius : Julian by means of costly gifts to an intermediary was
able to procure notes of the lectures of the great sophist (wop9pa rvh 7'&v
ca9' ~puppav Xeryo/.Lov J pea t9 ErydXatV KT7)oEde/voV) : this is not the act
of a boy of thirteen; however precocious Julian may have been, a boy of
thirteen, inflamed with an insatiable passion for the sight of the notes of a
254 NORMAN H. BAYNES
university professor's lectures, is sur

It was here, in Nicomedia, that, accordin
it was but natural that he should pro
Aedesius, the philosopher whose d
Sophist., p. 474). When he was twent
was made Caesar-there followed his conversion to the faith of Hellenism.
I believe that on this chronology we can satisfactorily explain all our own
authorities, and can outline a consistent story of Julian's early years.
NORMAN H. BAYNES.

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The Early Life of Julian the Apostate

Author(s): Norman H. Baynes

SUPPOSE that you are writing a highly eulogistic obituary notice

Julian's birth at Constantinople.

In a review of the fourth volume of Seeck's Geschichte des Untergangs der

of the chronology was impossible (E

of George, later to become bishop of Alexandria (cf. J. B

university professor's lectures, is sur

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