Oh my god I'm dying of excitement because I
NEED to comment on this so badly. I signed up with this forum specifically because I saw this thread and I needed to reply as soon as possible.
For some time now I've been obsessing over Julian and how insanely different history would have unraveled if he had survived. I've been attempting to come up with a
realistic depiction of his reign, not based on idealizing him and making him some unstoppable Mary-Sue character. I've only read your first chapter so far (because I am
SO eager to post here that I can't contain myself from typing) but it seems like OP here shares my goals, which is great! Like OP, I also picked the Battle of Ctesiphon as my point of divergence.
I have
SO MUCH I want to say about Julian and his hypothetical reign, so this might take several posts for me to get it all out. I've been trying to create a timeline of my own, and I hope it's not too presumptive of me to post some of the info I've been gathering here. I was just thinking that OP and others might be able to use some of this info in their story. So for starters, here's some miscellaneous topics related to Julian:
The Persian Situation
Historians have debated the motives behind Julian's Persian campaign ever since antiquity, especially since
Shapur had apparently tried to end hostilities with Rome once Julian became emperor. Some people have claimed that Julian's hubris led him to believe than he was the reincarnation of
Alexander, and wished to conquer the entire Persian empire. However, this is based on Christian sources that were extremely hostile to Julian, and it strongly conflicts with the facts we know about this campaign. The simple answer is probably that Julian's victories in Gaul had secured the loyalty of the western legions, and now he needed to secure the loyalty of the eastern ones with an equally impressive feat. Shapur had been waging war with Rome for almost as long as Julian had been alive, and he had inflicted some embarrassing loses on the eastern legions. By defeating Shapur, Julian would be guaranteed a fairly secure reign free of usurpers.
Julian almost certainly would not have taken over the entire Persian empire. Instead, he probably would have placed the exiled prince
Hormizd on the throne (who, by law, should have been the rightful ruler). It's unclear how this would have turned out, since Hormizd was over 70 years old in 363 (by my calculations), and probably wouldn't have been well-liked by the Persians thanks to his ties with Rome. But anyways, Julian would probably also take control of a small, but prosperous and strategically vital territory in northern mesopotamia, the region known as
Adiabene (or
Nodardashiragan), but I personally think he would have allowed Persia to remain in control of
Ctesiphon and
Asoristan. Previous attempts at conquering this region had proven that Asoristan was extremely hostile to Roman rule, and very indefensible from the east. Meanwhile, Adiabene was mostly Christian, and it had been a problem area for the Sassanids for a very long time. By only taking Adiabene, Julian could make the transition easier to swallow for everyone involved. And finally, I think that as part of the peace agreement, Julian would insist that he be allowed to place his own rulers in control of the buffer states of
Caucasian Albania and The
Lakhmids, ensuring their loyalty to Rome This might seem like a minor point, but it would ultimately mean that went war inevitably broke out with Persia again, there would be a united front of four different nations (Rome, Armenia, the Lakhmids, and Caucasian Albania) to oppose them and greatly restrict their mobility.
Marriage
Julian seems to have been disgusted at the concept of anyone inheriting the throne simply because their father was emperor. For instance, we can look at Julian's comical essay
"The Caesars" where he lists the faults of every major emperor prior to him. His hero was
Marcus Aurelius, and his one massive criticism was that the innate love a father feels for his son led Marcus to name his son
Commodus as his heir, which proved disastrous for the empire. Julian was also obsessed with chastity, ironically more so than even some very pious Christians of the time. It's true that he had married and impregnated
Helena (who miscarried several times), but this was only on the orders of her brother, the emperor
Constantius, and this happened before Julian apparently had any imperial ambitions and simply wished to do his duties as a husband. As a result, I'd postulate that Julian would take lengthy measures to ensure that he would not produce an heir.
Firstly, a solid excuse for him to remain unmarried would be if he expressed a desire to marry
Constantia, the posthumous daughter of Constantius. In 363, she'd only be about two years old, which would give Julian at least another decade (and more likely a decade and a half) where he could remain unmarried without arousing suspicion (as it was typically considered bizarre for a man his age, especially an emperor, to remain unmarried). After extending this engagement for as long as possible, he could then change his mind and marry off Constantia to whomever he chose as his heir. There are a few ways he could tactfully break off the engagement, possibly by claiming that he was giving her away to someone as a reward for some major accomplishment, possibly a military victory. Or he could claim that he found another woman who he had fallen madly in love with and had chosen to marry instead. In the case of this second option, there is a very tantalizing marriage candidate for fans of alternate history:
Hypatia of Alexandria.
Fans of this time period will know that Hypatia became the head of the pagan Neoplatonic Academy in Alexandria, and was renowned as the world's leading scholar on mathematics and astronomy (an exceptionally shocking reputation for a woman in this time period). She is primarily famous (in our timeline) for being flayed alive at the hands of a Christian mob, making her, in the eyes of some, the closest thing we have to a pagan martyr. Like Julian, she was also obsessive about chastity, never marrying, and once rebuking a suitor with her menstrual rags, claiming that there was nothing beautiful about sexuality. If any woman could garner the respect of Julian, and be trusted to remain totally chaste in marriage, it was Hypatia. Estimates for her year of birth vary, but most evidence points to somewhere between 350 and 355 ad. This means that after the lengthy 10 to 15 year long engagement to Constantia, Hypatia would be in her 20s to early 30s. This was still long before she'd become the head of the academy, but if Julian ever met her and stayed in contact (which I believe would happen, for reasons I'll get into later), I think there's s great chance that they would end up marrying, although unbeknownst to the public, the marriage would remain unconsummated.
Succession
The issue of succession was always the leading problem in Roman's history. I suspect that Julian would want a successor who was A.) experienced in war, B.) a zealous pagan, C.) intellectual, D.) a skilled administrator.
Julian's cousin
Procopius (who would eventually become a usurper under the emperor Valens, in our own timeline) might have been being groomed to become his successor. He had both administrative and war experience, and he was ambitiously rising towards the highest offices even before Julian was named Caesar (note that Procopius was only related to Julian, not Constantius, so his rise was not the result of nepotism). Many rumors spread in the aftermath of Julian's death that he had named Procopius his successor (and it doesn't seem that these rumors were started by Procopius). However, his religion is never mentioned in any ancient sources (even the legends on the coins minted during his usurpation are ambiguous, as though he is trying to appeal to both christians and pagans). This probably makes it safe to assume that, like most people of his day, he was not very religious, and simply went along with whatever sect the current emperor favored. Would someone as obsessively devoted to the destruction of Christianity, as Julian was, actually pick someone who was so ambivalent about religion as his successor? It's hard to say.
Another possibility for Julian's chosen successor is Salustius, who was perhaps his closest confidant and friend. He was certainly a sincere pagan, a well-read intellectual, and he had extraordinary administrative abilities (in Gaul he had helped Julian streamline the beaurocracy so well that they were able to both cut taxes AND increase spending). And it's worth nothing that after Julian's death, Salustius was immediately hailed as emperor by the troops, which he turned down, supposedly citing illness and old age (although he may have also had concerns for his safety if he became emperor in such a tumultuous time). This episode might be evidence that he was widely considered to be the chosen successor to Julian. But then again, it might also show that he really was too old and feeble to be considered a viable successor, not to mention the fact that he seems to have had no military experience.
But these are just the two main candidates that he would have been considering in 363. If his reign had continued, then new candidates would certainly have shown up to replace these two, especially since both of them were certainly older than Julian.
