The Works of the Emperor Julian, Vol. 1 (Loeb)

INTRODUCTION

...naturally inclined to superstition. With Maximus, he studied the teachings of Iamblichus the NeoplatonistA school of religious and mystical philosophy based on the teachings of Plato., and although he did not openly profess paganism until 361, he notes in Letter 47, written in 362, that he had ceased to be a Christian twelve years prior.

The Syrian Neoplatonism of the fourth Christian century, which followed the teachings of Iamblichus, was more of a religion than a philosophy and was well suited to his love of the mystical and the marvelous. For the rest of his life, he remained the devoted disciple of Maximus. However, his apostasy from Christianity was carefully concealed. His first panegyric on Constantius, Oration 1, written in 355, is entirely non-committal, referring vaguely to "the deity" and "providence," and could have been composed by a Christian.

In the second panegyric, Oration 2, written in Gaul at a safe distance, he frequently invokes Zeus and assumes the reality of the gods of Homer in language that exceeds what was permitted by literary etiquette in rhetorical works of this type. It could not have been written by a Christian. His brother Gallus, sometime between 351 and 354, heard rumors of his devotion to Maximus and sent his own spiritual adviser, Aetius, to remonstrate with Julian. Letter 82 (Gallus to Julian), the earliest letter in this volume that can be dated, expresses the relief of Gallus at the reassuring report of Aetius regarding Julian's adherence to the Christian faith.

On the death of Gallus in 354, Julian was summoned to the court at Milan, and on the way there, he visited Troy and had the interview with Pegasius...