Julian the Apostate

I was thinking of starting a TL starting with a POD of Julian the Apostate defeating Shapur II in battle and making Persia a tributary state to Rome. Here's a rough outline of the ideas I've had so far.

The extra tribute and glory allows Julian to further his goal of reforming the Rome's religion into a Neo-Platonic Pagan religion and reforming the Roman government. While the latter may be achievable the primary concern of religion I think is too far and gone, but for a while the Christians in the East and in Rome itself are going to be very upset and maybe revolutionary. Even with the extra gold I think Julian will have a very unstable situation. Cities like Antioch and Alexandria were fiercely christian and violence would probably break out against all things sponsored by Julian.

Shapur II would start to realize that this could be used against the Romans. He decides to reverse his position on the persecution of Christians. In fact he starts to readily invites them and allow them to practice in Persia. As long as they don't disrupt the Zoroastrians temples they are free to set up in his kingdom.

In the Empire, Julian's reforms find the most success in the west but are met with violence in the east. Not to say that western christians take to paganism, but they are more likely to include Julian's Neo Platonic religion into their christian activities. While in the east Christianity takes a sharper ideological turn. Interestingly enough besides the extreme christians there is also a spread of zorastrian/manichean influenced christians that head into Africa and the big eastern cities.

Julian dies 388 with no heir though and on his death it appears civil war is about to break out. In the east a Christian is declared Emperor by the army while in the West a Pagan Emperor is declared by the senate (which is what Julian declared in his final will). The Christian emperor immediately marches west at the head of his army. Seeing this Shapur II also invades reclaiming parts of Mesopotamia he lost, and ending tribute to rome.

After one battle between and while facing riots in Rome, North Africa, and Iberia the Pagan emperor converts to Christianity. The Roman empire is Christian once again. As a precaution the more sternly Christian Eastern Emperor takes all of north africa and Sicily under his protection and grants them to the Bishop of Alexandria who is now considered the most powerful Patriarch in the empire.

Julian loved the Senate so it seemed like a pretty cool idea to have the Senate select the emperor as cool final reform for Julian to try to leave behind. I've been reading Zosimus' Historia Nova and it seems like when Julian traveled East in OTL he set up Senates for Constantinople as well as Antioch, with the senatorial positions being hereditary. I could imagine that if Christianity becomes increasingly banned, that the Senators would all be pagans and the Christians would overthrow the senates. I think that Christianity will still flourish, but it will be a lot more fractured as time goes on.

Things I need more info on and ideas about:

Armenia during this time period would be the only Christian state when historically Rome was also christian. How would Armenia turn out?

What about the barbarians, and the Gothic wars could Julian do any better or would he possibly die in battle against them?
 
Julian loved the Senate so it seemed like a pretty cool idea to have the Senate select the emperor as cool final reform for Julian to try to leave behind.

Nobody cares about the senate and Julians reform! In the 4th century, the emperor is made by an emperor or by the legions and their leaders.

You would have to explain, why the legions should accept such a reform and the senate. I see no chance, how this could work. 300 years earlier, with a fundamental reform of the senate, the cursus honorum and the military high command, it could perhaps work. But just perhaps.
 
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Nobody cares about the senate and Julians reform! In the 4th century, the emperor is made by an emperor or by the legions and their leaders.

You would have to explain, why the legions should accept such a reform and the senate. I see no chance, how this could work. 300 years earlier, with a fundamental reform of the senate, the cursus honorum and the military high command, it could perhaps work. But just perhaps.

That's why I think there would be automatic civil war between the Legions loyal to their emperor and the few legions loyal to the senate. The senate was highly respected and considering a religious center by the Pagans and especially Julian, who would have been the pretty popular emperor that just died. At least some Legions would stay loyal to that.

Odoacer famously respected the Roman senate and he even would mint coins in the Senate's name and grant senators powerful positions.
 
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