Julian II Siliqua!

Flavius Claudius Julianus ( Julian II ) was born in Constantinople on 331/332 CE to Julius Constantius and his wife Basilina. Julius Constantius was the half brother of Emperor Constantine I.
In 337, Constantius II instigated a purge of his cousins and uncles. Julian, who was too young be any real threat, was exiled to Cappadocia. Unfortunately most of the other male members of the Constantinian dynasty were not so lucky

After the fall of his brother ( Gallus), Constantius summoned Julian to Milan and proclaimed him Caesar. He then sent to young prince to Gaul which had been flooded by germans ever since the Battle of Mursa Major in 353.
Julian began the slow and arduous process of clearing the germans out of Gaul and won a string of minor victories. Julian, who had no military experience prior to becoming Caesar, won a decisive battle against the alamanni in 357.

In 360, Constantius II ordered Julian to redeploy half of his army in Gaul to assist him in the war against the Persians. On the face of it, it seems like a reasonable order, but this was Constantius II. Constantius II can be best described as super paranoid and super sneaky guy. It is also worth noting; why would Constantius redeploy troops loyal to Julian in Gaul when he could have easily transferred units from Spain or the Danube?

It probably was nothing, but to Julian and his staff officers it seemed that Constantius had gotten jealous of him and was planning to murder him.
Either way, Julian was proclaimed Augustus by the legions of Gaul in 360 in the city of Paris. Initially both sides were reluctant to duke it out on the field; Julian only had the support of the legions in Gaul, while Constantius was tied up in a war with Shapur in the east.The real tie breaker was when Julian discovered that Constantius had prodded some germans to attack him.

Constantius II cut a temporary peace with Sharpur and marched his army to crush Julian. Lucky for Julian, Constantius died of a fever while in route .
Constantius II never changed his will and the forgotten orphan of Flavius Claudius Julians became Emperor of the known world.

As Emperor, Julian reorganized the Imperial bureaucracy to something akin to the glory days of Antoninus Pius. Since the reforms of Diocletian the Emperor was seen as a god (by the Pagans) or god's regent on earth (by the Christians). Julian eschewed this practice and styled himself as first among equals (Princeps) .

Julian grew up as a christian, but later rejected that religion later in his life. Some historians theorize that it was Julian witnessing his devoutly christian cousin killing his father and brothers that made him reject that belief system.
I personally think that Julian found christianity to be boring and simply converted to a faith that quenched his thirst for mystery.

Julian realized that persecuting the church was doomed to fail. Galerius's persecutions weren't exactly ancient history in Julian's time, and had actually made Christianity stronger.
So Julian unleashed the most dangerous enemy of the christians against them; other christians.
Julian allowed exiled bishops and priests to return to their flocks. To put it nicely, the Orthodox hated the Arians and would use the Imperial government to harass them, and vice versa. By allowing "heretics" to return to preaching and withdrawing state support for Christianity, Julian was simply dividing and conquering them.

Julians end goal was not to kill or destroy the christians but to make them look so ridiculous that nobody with half a brain would join them. To do this he published a number of essays directly attacking christian readings and ideology. Some of these survive in fragments, one of his more famous ones was titled The garden of Eden Myth.

Not wanting to bore you guys anymore......
Here it is!
I think it checks out okay (no horn silver) but your opinions are more than welcome.

Julian II AR Siliqua as Augustus
Struck at Trier mint
360 CE
1.87 Grams


Price-$110
And there goes the last of my monies set aside for that Valentinian II Siliqua....

Some links
The Battle that made Julian into a celebrity.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Strasbourg

Fragments of his essay The garden of Eden Myth


The battle that forced Constantius to appoint Julian to Caesar.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Mursa_Major


Julian and his wife Helena

 

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Nice one MM! Likin' the toning on it.

 

Great score and at a great price.

 

Thanks Aidan and Mat! Funny story 'bout this one.
The seller is Calgary Coin on Vcoins and he sold this coin about a year ago. I really wanted it but was tied down ( $ wise) by my Magnus Maximus Siliqua. So when I saw for some odd reason he had reacquired it, I promptly pounced on it like a puma.

 

How rude of me! Please post all your coins of Julian II!

 

HI, M.M.
The only Julian II that I have is a well-worn AE4
Thessalonica (Unlisted)
C L IVLIANVS NOB CAES Bare headed, draped and cuirassed bust right.
FEL TEMP REPARATIO. Soldier standing left spearing fallen horseman who is bare-headed, reaching backwards. 'E' in left field.
Mintmark SMTS
Unlisted Mintmark and Fieldmark for Julian II
Poss. RIC VIII 190

 

Its not a Julian II, but it is my favorite of my few siliquae:

In the name of Honorius, Vandal Kingdom
AR siliqua
Obv: D N HONORI-VS P F AVG, pearl-diademed, draped, cuirassed bust right
Rev: VRBS [ROMA], Roma seated left on cuirass, holding Victory on globe and spear
Mint: Carthage (struck 440-480 AD under King Gaiseric); Mintmark: RVPS (in ex)
Ref: MEC 1, 1-3; BMC Vandals 6-9

 

Man its great to see you TC!
Hey, worn or not, a Julian II coin is still a Julian II coin!
So much history in these bits of metal!

 

Always a pleasure to see that one VK!
Cheers!

 

Nice coin and writeup, MM.

 

Thanks Zumbly!
So guys, whats the verdict on it having "horn silver"

 

I see no horn silver. Mine is TCONS = Arles.

 

Many thanks Doug!
I shall offer sacrifices in your name tonight!

I see that Julian grew his whiskers out a bit on your coin!
Nice!

 

Very pleasant coin MM and Doug once again you amaze me with your coins.

Here are just three of mine. All are standing in the queue for re-imaging.

 

Nice trio of bronzes, Bing!
Really digging that Snazzy Double Maiorina!

 

Great coins all and thanks MM for the interesting writeup.

 

Nice write up. I only have a hand full of LR coins; 1 being a siliqua:
Looks like they gave him a Roman era skin graft over his eye...

Constantius II
AD 353-360.
DN CONSTAN-TIVS PF AVG, pearl-diademed, draped, curassed bust right / VOTIS XXX MVLTIS XXXX within wreatch, SCON in ex.
17.4mm
2.2g

-Michael

 

Thanks Orfew and Tiberius!
I always loved the bust style of the Arles mint.
Very nice!

 

another awesome coin form the siliaqua master!
you should put them all togehter in a nice virtual tray pic.

here's my best julian ii...

 

Yeah, I have been thinking about that.
Thanks Chris!
How much does that bad boy weight?