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Message:: [QUOTE="kevin McGonigal, post: 4582507, member: 72790"]If there is one thing thing students of Ancient History know about that time period, it is that people of that time took religious belief very seriously. Whether that meant being religious in the modern day sense of  religious beliefs and practices is debatable but both the citizenry and the state saw religious practices as essential for the welfare of the state. Unless the gods were kept happy with the appropriate devotions,bad things could happen, to individuals and the state. Best to keep on their good side For the most part the official state sponsored worship of the Olympian deities was a civic duty but the gods of Olympus were not seen as loving and kind. Often the exact opposite, capricious, arbitrary and, sometimes, just plain nasty. One did not love the gods. One was wary of them. However, in addition to the state sponsored religion there were a number of cults, frequently known as "mystery religions" because their ceremonies were kept secret from the uninitiated. Perhaps when the Pax Romana started to be replaced by troubles such as plague, barbarian assaults and constant battling among imperial claimants, people began to think that worshipping Isis or Mithras was a safe hedge for protection against some of those uncertainties. Among those "Mystery Religions" was that of Christianity, which by the Third Century had become all too noticeable to Roman authorities as a cult that did not fit into the Classical pantheon, hence periodic state sponsored persecutions of Christians, one of the most severe under Diocletian lasting into the early Fourth Century. It was the emperor Constantine who, for whatever reasons. changed this policy from persecution to tolerance, and by the time of his death in 337 to state favored church. If Constantine had done this to create a religious unity to help battle the enemies of Rome, it did not work. Early Christians showed themselves quite willing to argue, in the streets, most vociferously and violently over abstruse doctrine that must have baffled Constantine. Adopting Christianity as a state sponsored and favored religion did not bring peace to the empire or Constantine's own family which continued the time honored practice of murdering family members seen as a threat by the reigning emperor.. Constantine and his family continued, unimpeded by any kind of Christian piety, to cull the family of potential, incipient imperial claimants. By the mid Fourth century one of these, Constantius II, managed to kill off all of them except for one young man, who perhaps, recalling that studiousness in arcane studies had spared the life of Claudius a few centuries earlier, showed no interest in reigning over anything except maybe, a debate in a philosophy class. Seeing Constantius killing his brother for being too ambitious, our young man who we know as Julian II, kept a very, very low profile and seemed harmless enough for Constantius to ignore.. But in 355 the then twenty-five year old philosopher was pulled out of school and made a "Caesar", second to only Constantius himself, was "encouraged" to marry the emperor's sister and sent off to the West to Gaul to restore order. Surprisingly, that is just what he did, showing both excellent administrative skills and becoming a top notch field commander. Perhaps, a bit to top notch as a growingly nervous Constantius tried to withdraw some of Julian's best troops for his forthcoming Eastern campaign. Julian's Gallic legions would have none of it, mutinied against Constantius, but not an ambivalent Julian whom they named as the new Augustus. The forces of the Augustus and his Caesar headed for each other. But no battle occurred between the two forces. Constantius II, unusual for a member of the Constantine family died a natural death, supposedly appointing Julian as his successor in 361.. Suffice it to say that Julian continued his excellent administrative and military accomplishments, except for one matter. Though raised as a practicing Christian in Constantinople all that study of philosophy had convinced Julian that Christianity was not an adequate religion for Rome and openly announced his repudiation of the now government favored religion and attempted to restore the traditional religions of Rome, the worship of the Olympian gods and the newer mystery religions. He gladly, himself, as the Pontifex Maximus, conducted the sacrifices to the gods and although he announced a kind of religious freedom for the citizens of Rome, his attempt to bring about the restoration of the worship of the old gods created outspoken criticism by the Christian Church ( hence the Apostate appellation). Since Christianity triumphed in the religion market, contemporary and later historians did not give Julian much credit for anything good happening at that time. One exception to that is the credible contemporary historian, Ammianus Marcellinus, who actually fought as a soldier in Julian's army. His Res Gestae shows Julian to be a good commander and ruler but what he wrote has often been submerged in a billingsgate of vituperation by the more doctrinally orthodox writers of the period. Julian's actual reign as the Augustus, the sole emperor, was a brief one. In 363 he invaded Persia and did pretty well on the battlefield but after failing to take Ctesiphon, during a strategic withdraw, he recklessly entered the fray without buckling on his complete battle kit and received a mortal spear thrust to his abdomen. There were rumors that it was a Christian soldier who threw the deadly javelin or that a Christian physician made sure the wound was mortal.  Julian left no heir and the army quickly nominated one of their officers, Jovian. No Xenophon, the new emperor gave up all the territory Julian had just taken and paid an indemnity to get out of Persia, alive. Below are some coins associated with Julian II,  the Apostate. At the far left is a medium bronze of Constantius II who appointed Julian as his Caesar, Sear 4003, the famous Fel temp Reparation and fallen horseman coin we often read about. Next is one of his siliquae, probably clipped at 1.1 grams. It is Sear 3997. On the top, far right is one of his smaller bronzes where the emperor is featured standing on a warship holding a labarum, perhaps with a Chi Rho on it. It is Sear 4001. In the center is another siliqua, this time of our main character, Julian, from the Harptree hoard. it is Sear 4071 and comes in at a respectable 2.6 grams. At the lower left and center right are two large bronze (nummi?) of the most famous coin of Julian, the Apsis bull and associated with the worship of Mithras, inscribed the "Security of the Commonwealth" Notice his pronounced and unusual, for the mid Fourth Century, philosopher's beard on Julian's face. They are Sear 4072 or a variant of it. Lastly at mid bottom is a smaller bronze of Jovian who followed Julian and gave away the store to get out of Persia. It is Sear 4086. Below the coins are a few artifacts, late Roman military, two belt buckles and a smaller kit buckle. Perhaps one of them came from the equipment Julian did not fasten the day of his death (well, it could be). [ATTACH=full]1134911[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]1134912[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]1134912[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]1134913[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]

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