Chapter XXII: The Rise of Julian the Apostate
Read it here or here.
0) Housekeeping
Perceptive readers will note that I haven't actually posted here since eight weeks ago. I have been travelling a lot, and also was taken up with a project (well, several projects) involving the British election; and finally last weekend was a family birthday so other matters have had priority. I hope to be a bit more regular in future, though am already scheduled to be away for two weekends in June and probably two in July. But I still intend to see this through to the end, which will be some time in 2012 at this rate.
1) Good quotes
Lots of good material here but fewer standout quotes. I love the soldiers storming the palace in Paris to make Julian emperor "with respectful violence". It's one of those beautifully chosen phrases which makes Gibbon such a pleasure to read.
He is dubious about Julian's motivation, though open-minded about whether Julian is lying to himself or to posterity, and concludes: Whenever the spirit of fanaticism, at once so credulous and so crafty, has insinuated itself into a noble mind, it insensibly corrodes the vital principles of virtue and veracity.
A few more nice lines below which I develop into particular points.
2) Summary
We're back to narrative now after two chapters about religion. And it is thrilling stuff. Julian, having made a good go of the West from Paris, is proclaimed emperor, possibly reluctantly, by his own troops; he marches east to confront Constantius, himself taking a devious detour through southern Germany to descend on Sirmium by the Danube (while most of his troops head through Austria and Italy); and the final confrontation is averted when Constantius suddenly dies of natural causes, aged 45. Julian therefore takes over the whole empire peacefully, and purges the corrupt officials of the court, having also pledged to restore the old religion.
3) Points arising
Maybe it's just that I'm reinvigorated after taking a break for several weeks, but there seemed to me to be a lot here compared with some of the recent chapters.
i) My hero!
It's been a while since Gibbon has been quite so starry-eyed about anyone as he is about Julian (and his reservations in the last paragraph of the chapter have little to support them and seem to be thrown in as a belated attempt at balance). Of course, Julian is important; but I would point out that this chapter is the start of more than a hundred pages in my edition dealing with his sixteen-month reign, which is rather more attention than, say, the forty pages given to the two decades of Diocletian's reign. (I exaggerate a bit, but not I think by much).
ii) Freedom
It's a while since we heard Gibbon on this theme, but we have him boldly asserting that Julian was not insensible of the advantages of freedom.
But actually this freedom doesn't amount to much more than respect for tradition, not getting executed and disdain for the unfree: From his studies he had imbibed the spirit of ancient sages and heroes; his life and fortunes had depended on the caprice of a tyrant; and, when he ascended the throne, his pride was sometimes mortified by the reflection that the slaves who would not dare to censure his defects were not worthy to applaud his virtues.
Actually the evidence provided by Gibbon is that Julian ran a very hands-on, centralised government, but with less lavish public expenditure than his predecessors, and a keen concern for the welfare of the ordinary citizen, which doesn't really make him a libertarian. Perhaps this is a lead-in to the discussion of Julian's religious policy in the next chapter.
iii) Sex
I was particularly tickled by Gibbon's assessment of Julian's private life: ...except in the short interval of a marriage which was the effect of policy rather than love, the chaste Julian never shared his bed with a female companion.50
50 Lectulus . . . Vestalium toris purior [his bed was purer than a Vestal Virgin's - nwhyte ], is the praise which Mamertinus (Panegyr. Vet. xi. 13) addresses to Julian himself. Libanius affirms, in sober peremptory language, that Julian never knew a woman before his marriage or after the death of his wife (Orat. Parent. c. lxxxviii. p. 313). The chastity of Julian is confirmed by the impartial testimony of Ammianus (xxv. 4), and the partial silence of the Christians. Yet Julian ironically urges the reproach of the people of Antioch that he almost always (ὼς ἐπίπαν, in Misopogon. p. 345 [p. 445, ed. H.]) lay alone. This suspicious expression is explained by the Abbé de la Bléterie (Hist. de Jovien, tom. ii. p. 103-109) with candour and ingenuity.
I just had to dig out the Abbé de la Bléterie's explanation, which thanks to Google can be found here, and amounts to imagining that ὼς ἐπίπαν here means "absolutely always" and that we should imagine it as a bit of a joke against the people of Antioch. I'm not well placed to judge, but it seems to me laboured rather than ingenious, and there is a strange insistence by Gibbon and his secondary sources on Julian's chastity when the man himself seems to assert it less vigorously.
iv) Balkan geography
Gibbon has an annoying description of: ...the narrow pass of Succi, in the defiles of Mount Haemus; which, almost in the midway between Sirmium and Constantinople, separates the provinces of Thrace and Dacia, by an abrupt descent towards the former, and a gentle declivity on the side of the latter.33
33The description of Ammianus, which might be supported by collateral evidence, ascertains the precise situation of the Augustiae Succorum, or passes of Succi. M. d'Anville, from the trifling resemblance of names, has placed them between Sardica and Naissus. For my own justification, I am obliged to mention the only error which I have discovered in the maps or writings of that admirable geographer.
Sardica is Sofia, and Naissus is of course Niš in southern Serbia, so that is decently specific; but Gibbon puts the pass elsewhere, and "Mount Haemus" basically means the entire Balkan range of the Стара планина, ie most of modern Bulgaria (and would be rather more than half-way to Constantinople from Sremska Mitrovica/Sirmium). Trying to find out where today's wisdom places the Succi pass brought me to the Gate of Trajan, about halfway between Sofia and Plovdiv, which at least looks possible, but as so often with Gibbon's Balkan geography I'm not completely convinced.
4) Coming next
Chapter XXIII, Julian's Apostasy: read it here or here.
0) Housekeeping
Perceptive readers will note that I haven't actually posted here since eight weeks ago. I have been travelling a lot, and also was taken up with a project (well, several projects) involving the British election; and finally last weekend was a family birthday so other matters have had priority. I hope to be a bit more regular in future, though am already scheduled to be away for two weekends in June and probably two in July. But I still intend to see this through to the end, which will be some time in 2012 at this rate.
1) Good quotes
Lots of good material here but fewer standout quotes. I love the soldiers storming the palace in Paris to make Julian emperor "with respectful violence". It's one of those beautifully chosen phrases which makes Gibbon such a pleasure to read.
He is dubious about Julian's motivation, though open-minded about whether Julian is lying to himself or to posterity, and concludes: Whenever the spirit of fanaticism, at once so credulous and so crafty, has insinuated itself into a noble mind, it insensibly corrodes the vital principles of virtue and veracity.
A few more nice lines below which I develop into particular points.
2) Summary
We're back to narrative now after two chapters about religion. And it is thrilling stuff. Julian, having made a good go of the West from Paris, is proclaimed emperor, possibly reluctantly, by his own troops; he marches east to confront Constantius, himself taking a devious detour through southern Germany to descend on Sirmium by the Danube (while most of his troops head through Austria and Italy); and the final confrontation is averted when Constantius suddenly dies of natural causes, aged 45. Julian therefore takes over the whole empire peacefully, and purges the corrupt officials of the court, having also pledged to restore the old religion.
3) Points arising
Maybe it's just that I'm reinvigorated after taking a break for several weeks, but there seemed to me to be a lot here compared with some of the recent chapters.
i) My hero!
It's been a while since Gibbon has been quite so starry-eyed about anyone as he is about Julian (and his reservations in the last paragraph of the chapter have little to support them and seem to be thrown in as a belated attempt at balance). Of course, Julian is important; but I would point out that this chapter is the start of more than a hundred pages in my edition dealing with his sixteen-month reign, which is rather more attention than, say, the forty pages given to the two decades of Diocletian's reign. (I exaggerate a bit, but not I think by much).
ii) Freedom
It's a while since we heard Gibbon on this theme, but we have him boldly asserting that Julian was not insensible of the advantages of freedom.
But actually this freedom doesn't amount to much more than respect for tradition, not getting executed and disdain for the unfree: From his studies he had imbibed the spirit of ancient sages and heroes; his life and fortunes had depended on the caprice of a tyrant; and, when he ascended the throne, his pride was sometimes mortified by the reflection that the slaves who would not dare to censure his defects were not worthy to applaud his virtues.
Actually the evidence provided by Gibbon is that Julian ran a very hands-on, centralised government, but with less lavish public expenditure than his predecessors, and a keen concern for the welfare of the ordinary citizen, which doesn't really make him a libertarian. Perhaps this is a lead-in to the discussion of Julian's religious policy in the next chapter.
iii) Sex
I was particularly tickled by Gibbon's assessment of Julian's private life: ...except in the short interval of a marriage which was the effect of policy rather than love, the chaste Julian never shared his bed with a female companion.50
50 Lectulus . . . Vestalium toris purior [his bed was purer than a Vestal Virgin's - nwhyte ], is the praise which Mamertinus (Panegyr. Vet. xi. 13) addresses to Julian himself. Libanius affirms, in sober peremptory language, that Julian never knew a woman before his marriage or after the death of his wife (Orat. Parent. c. lxxxviii. p. 313). The chastity of Julian is confirmed by the impartial testimony of Ammianus (xxv. 4), and the partial silence of the Christians. Yet Julian ironically urges the reproach of the people of Antioch that he almost always (ὼς ἐπίπαν, in Misopogon. p. 345 [p. 445, ed. H.]) lay alone. This suspicious expression is explained by the Abbé de la Bléterie (Hist. de Jovien, tom. ii. p. 103-109) with candour and ingenuity.
I just had to dig out the Abbé de la Bléterie's explanation, which thanks to Google can be found here, and amounts to imagining that ὼς ἐπίπαν here means "absolutely always" and that we should imagine it as a bit of a joke against the people of Antioch. I'm not well placed to judge, but it seems to me laboured rather than ingenious, and there is a strange insistence by Gibbon and his secondary sources on Julian's chastity when the man himself seems to assert it less vigorously.
iv) Balkan geography
Gibbon has an annoying description of: ...the narrow pass of Succi, in the defiles of Mount Haemus; which, almost in the midway between Sirmium and Constantinople, separates the provinces of Thrace and Dacia, by an abrupt descent towards the former, and a gentle declivity on the side of the latter.33
33The description of Ammianus, which might be supported by collateral evidence, ascertains the precise situation of the Augustiae Succorum, or passes of Succi. M. d'Anville, from the trifling resemblance of names, has placed them between Sardica and Naissus. For my own justification, I am obliged to mention the only error which I have discovered in the maps or writings of that admirable geographer.
Sardica is Sofia, and Naissus is of course Niš in southern Serbia, so that is decently specific; but Gibbon puts the pass elsewhere, and "Mount Haemus" basically means the entire Balkan range of the Стара планина, ie most of modern Bulgaria (and would be rather more than half-way to Constantinople from Sremska Mitrovica/Sirmium). Trying to find out where today's wisdom places the Succi pass brought me to the Gate of Trajan, about halfway between Sofia and Plovdiv, which at least looks possible, but as so often with Gibbon's Balkan geography I'm not completely convinced.
4) Coming next
Chapter XXIII, Julian's Apostasy: read it here or here.