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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Magnus Maximus, post: 2206877, member: 73473&quot;]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.</p><p>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<img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie3" alt=":(" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p><br /></p><p>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?</p><p><br /></p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p><br /></p><p>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 .</p><p>Constantius II never changed his will and the forgotten orphan of Flavius Claudius Julians became Emperor of the known world.</p><p><br /></p><p>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&#039;s regent on earth (by the Christians). Julian eschewed this practice and styled himself as first among equals (Princeps) .</p><p><br /></p><p>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.</p><p>I personally think that Julian found christianity to be boring and simply converted to a faith that quenched his thirst for mystery.</p><p><br /></p><p>Julian realized that persecuting the church was doomed to fail. Galerius&#039;s persecutions weren&#039;t exactly ancient history in Julian&#039;s time, and had actually made Christianity stronger.</p><p>So Julian unleashed the most dangerous enemy of the christians against them; other christians.</p><p>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 &quot;heretics&quot; to return to preaching and withdrawing state support for Christianity, Julian was simply dividing and conquering them.</p><p><br /></p><p>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 <i>The garden of Eden Myth.</i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p>Not wanting to bore you guys anymore......</p><p>Here it is!</p><p>I think it checks out okay (no horn silver) but your opinions are more than welcome.</p><p><br /></p><p>Julian II AR Siliqua as Augustus</p><p>Struck at Trier mint</p><p>360 CE</p><p>1.87 Grams</p><p>[ATTACH=full]430666[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Price-$110</p><p>And there goes the last of my monies set aside for that Valentinian II Siliqua....</p><p><br /></p><p>Some links</p><p>The Battle that made Julian into a celebrity.</p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Strasbourg" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Strasbourg" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Strasbourg</a></p><p><br /></p><p>Fragments of his essay <i>The garden of Eden Myth</i></p><p>[MEDIA=youtube]L_fNXy2v97A[/MEDIA]</p><p><br /></p><p>The battle that forced Constantius to appoint Julian to Caesar.</p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Mursa_Major" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Mursa_Major" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Mursa_Major</a></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Julian and his wife Helena</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]430673[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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