Archive for 2007
By: The Scribe on November, 2007
As ‘Julian the Apostate’ began his religious transformation of the state, his new position as Emperor allowed him to force Christian churches to accept pagan practices as normative among the local population – first, forcing the Churches to either return the riches which had been looted from pagan temples since Constantine’s legislation of Christianity of the official religion of Rome, or paying fines that were equal to what had been taken.
A supporter of the polytheistic ‘old Roman faith’, he claimed that he didn’t want to end up like his cousin and turn into someone who forced one religion on people over another, but he did state that his laws – which tended to specifically target Christians who were well educated and wealthy – were designed not to destroy Christianity, but to do everything imaginable to drive it out of the empire’s governing classes.
Christian bishops lost much of their influence on public offices as well as their ability travel for free at Rome’s expense, and lands which had been taken over by the church were given back to the original landowners. In order to convince the public that he had its best interests at heart, Julian handed down an edict in 362 AD that guaranteed freedom of religion to the populace – according to the edict, all religions were held equal in the eyes of the law, and it was in Rome’s best interest to return to its former days of religious eclecticism, wherein no one was forced to accept one religion over the other in any corner of the Empire.
Although Julian wouldn’t come right out and admit that his actions or laws were undermining Christianity, the fact remained that he knew very well that previous persecutions of Christians by Roman Emperors only strengthened the people who believed – and thus he designed his campaign to harass them and cause difficulty for Christians who might try to resist the re-establishment of paganism as an acceptable belief system.
The Orthodox Church even claims that Julian prohibited the worship or veneration of Christian relics, remembering two men as saints – Maximos and Juventinus – who were apparently part of the imperial guard of the Emperor. They openly opposed Julian’s edict against sacred relics, and according to tradition, Julian ordered them executed. In another edict simply known as ‘School Edict’, Julian also forbid Christian teachers from using pagan literature – such as the classical works of the Iliad and the Odyssey – and limited them to using the gospels such as Mark or Luke to each reading and writing. This severely harmed teachers and educators, since it meant fewer students – no one wanted their child educated in such a limiting environment.
The problem was, not everyone was so willing to take back the pagan ways, and it certainly didn’t help the Emperor’s cause that the Christian churches continued to raise funds to help the poor and care for the community, regardless of whether someone was Christian or pagan…
…to be continued…
Want to read more?
Tomorrow: Part…four?!
By: The Scribe on November, 2007
In his new position of power, Julian found himself to be a capable and strong military leader who was able to fend off the Germanic tribes that had troubled Rome for quite some time. He had several major victories – such as the Battle of Strasbourg in 358, winning back Cologne in 356, and defeating the Salian Franks along the Rhine – while also handling domestic affairs such as preventing tax increases and taking care of some provincial administration.
Constantius II was still making his own trouble during this time, and at one point ordered Julius to send some of his own Gallic troops over for support. The troops were not exactly receptive to the idea of leaving the commander they respected and admired for an emperor who had usurped the seat of power, and so the troops of the Petulantes proclaimed Julian the emperor in Paris. This provided Julian with a strategic vantage point from which to round up additional allegiances.
Several months later, Constantius was still causing problems, and captured a city along the northern Adriatic coast – and although he likely expected support from his co-leader of the Empire, he received a rather nasty shock. Recalling what had been done to his family by Constantius II, Julian allowed 23,000 of his own loyal troops to besiege the city. For a short time, the threat of civil war loomed as the armies of both leaders were in opposition – but fortunately for Julian, Constatius died of fever, leaving behind a final will that recognized Julian as the rightful successor.
As the new ruler of the Roman Empire, Julian moved to try and put the Empire back in order: first, he reduced the expenses of the imperial offices by eliminating all the eunuchs who had previously served administrative roles. Secondly, unnecessary luxuries were removed, and the amount of servants and guards were reduced to only as many as were needed. And as the next order of business… he began the Chalcedon Tribunal, where a number of Constantius II’s followers were tortured and killed.
Still bitter about his childhood, Julian was finally able to reject the religious teachings that had been forced upon him by the man who had murdered his family. Private letters between Julian and the pagan rhetorician Libanius reveal an Emperor who deeply resented the Christianity that he was forced to accept while young, since Constantius II refused to tolerate any pagan relatives.
Julian quickly developed a passion for art, literature, and Greek mythology, soon becoming an official convert to the philosophies of Hellenism. Whether he realized it or not, Julian was an Emperor with a strong religious temperament – only he was passionate for something different than his cousin had been – and he became somewhat of a pantheistic mystic after the fashion of contemporary Neoplatonist philosophers.
Julian’s intention was to conduct a religious transformation of the Roman state, however there was a danger in this – although he’d rebelled against the forceful and zealous nature of his cousin’s Christian beliefs, would his new passion for traditional paganism cause that to be forced upon others in the same way?
…to be continued…
Want to read more?
Tomorrow: Part 3 of course!
By: The Scribe on November, 2007
Born in 331 AD, Flavius Claudius Julianus was thrust into some rather complicated family dealings at a very early age. After the death of Constantine the Great in 337 AD, Julian’s rather zealous cousin Constantius II – an Arian Christian – led a massacre against Julian’s entire family, in order to establish himself as the sole emperor of the Roman Empire.
For some reason, he allowed a few males related to Constantine the Great to live, namely Julian and his brother Gallus, and two of the murderer’s own brothers. Constantius II proclaimed himself and his brothers to be joint emperors, and he gave them each a portion of Roman territory to watch over. He then established a strict regimen of Arian Christian education for the young Julian and Gallus.
According to traditional accounts, Julian was tutored by the famous Arian Christian Bishop of Nicomedia, Eusebius – along with his maternal grandmother and a Gothic eunuch named Mardonius. However, it was in 342 that both Julian and Gallus were exiled to Cappadocia, where Julian remained until the exile was lifted at the age of 18.
In 340 AD, Constantine II died after attacking his brother Constans to try and take over his territory – and a decade later, Constans fell during a war against a potential usurper named Magnentius. This left only the man who’d murdered Julian’s family as the sole emperor. Naturally, he was somewhat desperate for support, and so he gave Julian’s brother Gallus a position as Caesar of the East in 351 AD. The problem was, Gallus hadn’t exactly had the best role models for leadership… and his briefly imposed reign of terror over the East resulted in his execution only four years later.
In an effort to avoid a potential quest for vengeance, Julian was imprisoned for a short time while the pain of his brother’s death wore off. Unfortunately for Constantius II, there were far too many threats to the Roman Empire which he simply couldn’t take care of on his own – and so he turned to his late surviving male relative, Julian. He released Julian from prison, made him Caesar of the West, and quickly had him married off to his cousin – and sister of Constantius – Helena.
Now, it was Julian’s turn to defend the Empire… and to take his own revenge on Constantius II who had not only murdered his entire family, but also forced him into exile and the acceptance of Christianity.
…to be continued…
Want to read more?
Tomorrow: Part 2 of course!
By: The Scribe on November, 2007
One of the fascinating components and great mysteries of ancient migration movements is how people – without GPS or maps – managed to make their way from one continent to the next, without getting horribly lost, starving to death, or making fatal wrong turns in the process. As it turns out, ancient humans who came to North America from Asia may have managed to make their way across the ocean by following a highway made of densely packed kelp.
Typically, “coastal migration theory” has centered around the idea that early seafaring people moved from one island to another by boat, hunting the sea creatures that lived in kelp forests for food. The potential ‘kelp highway’ from Asia to America only lends strength to this theory, and certainly provides a rational explanation for how so many people moved themselves across such a vast distance.
Kelp forests are among some of the richest ecosystems in the world today – as they were in ancient times – and are home to an incredible number of living creatures: abalone, urchins, hundreds of varieties of fish, otters, seals, and more, all of which would have provided excellent nutrition value and practical materials for people moving across the ocean.
Often referred to as ‘maritime people’, the ancient humans who made the migration move are believed to have boated along the Kurile and Aleutian Islands from Japan to Alaska approximately 16,000 years ago – some settlements of around 12,000 to 9,000 years old have been discovered along the coastlines of these islands, and they also have rich kelp forests that ecologists believe existed tens of thousands of years ago.
A group of maritime people who lived in Japan’s Ryukyu Islands around 35,000 to 15,000 years ago are known to have had the ability to travel 90 miles or more at once while moving between islands, so at the very least, humans already knew how to cover vast distances in relatively simple boats. In a place called Daisy Cave in the Channel Islands, located off of southern California, remains of some kelp resources have been found that date to around 10,000 BC!
With kelp forests found right next to plenty of the Americas’ earliest known archaeological coastal sites, it certainly seems that the ability of ancient peoples to move such enormous distances across the ocean was dependent on these kelp forests – after all, even today, a nearly continuous ‘highway’ of kelp stretches from Japan all the way across Siberia, past the Bering Strait to Alaska, and then moves down along the coastline of California!
Want to read more?
Tomorrow: The last Pagan Emperor of Rome
Previous page | Next page
