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3 Philosopher, Leader, Priest Julian in Constantinople, Spring 362 But must we really speak of this also? And write about the ineffable mysteries and divulge what must not be revealed nor divulged? Who is Attis or Gallus? Who is the Mother of the Gods? And of what does this rite of purification consist? And further: Why was it taught to us like that from the beginning , transmitted from the most ancient Phrygians, but then first adopted by the Greeks? . . . And after the Greeks, this cult was adopted by the Romans. —Julian, Oration 5, Hymn to the Mother of the Gods 158d–159c Julian entered Constantinople, the city of his birth, on December 11, 361, surrounded by troops of soldiers. As Sabine MacCormack has emphasized, the choreography of his adventus into Constantinople crystallized and projected the central tenets of his inaugural letters to the Athenians and to Themistius and thus to the Constantinopolitan senate: as his military victories demonstrated, Julian came as one chosen by the gods to alter Constantius’s legacy. The new emperor, though acknowledging his dynastic connections to the mighty house of Constantine, entered the city as victorious military leader and independent man.1 The citizens of Constantinople approved. They, too, “all ages and sexes, poured forth as though they were going to see someone sent down from heaven,” just as the citizens of Sirmium before them had done, acclaiming Julian “as an epiphany, the appearance of one sent by the gods, as one coming into the world as a health-giving star.”2 As soon as the Augustus “sent down from heaven” arrived in the city, he went 88 1. Amm. Marc. 15.9.8, 21.10.1–2, 22.2.3–5; Claud. Mam. Pan. Lat. 11.6.2–5, 11.2.3; MacCormack, Art, 46–50; den Boeft, Drijvers, et al., Philological and Historical Commentary on Ammianus Marcellinus 22, 14–15. According to Caltabiano (“Giuliano,” esp. 344–53), Julian’s adventus consciously evoked traditional Roman military virtues, and Ammianus used the adventus to legitimize Julian within a Roman imperial and religious context. Béranger, “Julien”; F. Kolb, Herrscherideologie, 91–100. 2. Amm. Marc. 21.10.2, 22.2.4; Ando, Imperial Ideology, 199. to work at high speed—with his public sacrifices; measures to restore the temples; his gathering of his Friends, including the recall of those bishops exiled under Constantius ; the trials at Chalcedon; and the removal of Constantius’s staunchest supporters (including patrons of Themistius), ostensibly to eliminate corruption, ostentatious luxury, and other grave misdeeds.3 As this chapter shows, however, in reorganizing the top court personnel, the new emperor also took the opportunity to showcase the philosophical life he considered true, hence the one he wished his Friends to adopt and propagate. At stake for the emperor was what being Roman actually entailed. How and according to what guidelines did Julian intend to govern the empire of the Romans? How would he meld Greek wisdom and Roman honor, the two key principles to which Constantius had referred in praising Themistius? Who embodied their melding most appropriately? What divinity or divinities had truly created Rome’s universal greatness and hence guaranteed its security and longevity? What philosophical life would, therefore, ensure that the divine was properly heard and obeyed? As the reaction of Libanius and Ammianus to Julian’s purges of the court personnel demonstrates, Julian’s empirewide audience well understood the philosophical component of his reorganization. Thus, both Libanius and Ammianus (no doubt echoing the views of many others) praised Julian’s measures to reform Constantius ’s luxurious court, although they considered some of them too harsh, too philosophical , and thus damaging to the emperor. Ammianus, for example, felt compelled to explain that the thoroughness of Julian’s purges was a personal lapse rather than behavior befitting “a philosopher claiming to search for the truth.”4 Julian’s perceived harshness in purging the court contrasted with his mild reaction to the riots that had erupted on December 24, 361, in Alexandria, which had cost the lives of Bishop George and two imperial officials. Julian’s imperial letter of response, posted in Alexandria in January 362, began by recalling Alexandria’s importance as a place where Serapis (a god who shared many traits with Helios, whose special favor Julian had emphasized in his Epistle to the Athenians) and Isis had long been worshipped. Further, the Alexandrians had been “Greeks since ancient times [to . . . archaion Hellēnes]” (Ep. 60.380d). Consequently, in Julian’s...

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