INTRODUCTION

The more important letters and edicts in this volume are difficult to understand for a reader unfamiliar with the historical background. The following brief summary of Julian’s career is intended to explain the references in the text and to supplement the Introduction in Vol. 1.

In his more formal works—especially the manifesto To the Athenians (written in 361 as a defense of his rebellion against the Emperor Constantius) and the Misopogon (a satire written in 362, addressed to the citizens of Antioch, regarding his own austere habits)—Julian himself relates the main incidents of his childhood and youth. For the last ten years of his life (353–363), the best authority is Ammianus Marcellinus, the Latin historian, who was an eyewitness.

Flavius Claudius Julianus was born in Constantinople in 331. He was the only son of Julius Constantius (a half-brother of Constantine the Great) and Basilina, a highly educated woman and devout Christian who died when Julian was only a few months old. From his father’s earlier marriage, there survived a son, Gallus, a daughter (probably named Galla, who married her cousin the Emperor Constantius II), and another son whose name is unknown. Soon after the death of the Emperor Constantine in 337, the Emperor Constantius eliminated potential rivals by the murder of certain relatives, including Julian's father and half-brother. Gallus and Julian survived. The latter was sent to Nicomedia under the care of a relative, Bishop Eusebius, and his education was entrusted to the Christian eunuch Mardonius, who had taught Basilina Greek literature.