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

INTRODUCTION

funerals were no longer allowed to take place in the daytime according to the Christian custom¹; and one of his earliest reforms in connection with the use of the public post, the cursus publicus the state-run courier and transport system, directly affected Christian ecclesiastics. The privilege of free transport and the use of inns, horses, and mules at the expense of the State had been granted to ecclesiastics by Constantine in 314. In the reign of Constantius, when bishops were summoned from all parts of the Empire to one synod after another, the system of public transport broke down under the burden.² In an edict preserved in Codex Theodosianus 8. 5. 12, dated February 22, 362, Julian reserved to himself—except in certain cases—the right of granting evectio an official permit for free transport. In Letters 8, 15, and 26, he authorizes his correspondents to use State carriages and horses. Libanius says that this reform was so thoroughly carried out that often the animals and their drivers had nothing to do.

But such withdrawals of privileges were pin-pricks compared with the famous edict³ in which Julian reserved to himself the control of the appointments of teachers, and the rescript, Letter 36, in which he forbade Christians to read the pagan authors with their pupils. This meant that they must cease to teach, since all education was based on the reading of the poets, historians, and philosophers. The Christian sophist Victorinus, who was then lecturing at Rome, and Prohaeresius at Athens, had to resign their chairs. Julian offered a special exemption to

¹ See Letter 56, the edict on funerals.
² See Libanius, Oration, 18. 143; Ammianus 21. 16. 18.
³ The Latin edict, dated June 17, 362, survives in Codex Theodosianus 13. 3. 5.