The Philosopher: Julian timeline

When should the timeline start

  • 357

    Votes: 14 58.3%
  • 361

    Votes: 2 8.3%
  • 363

    Votes: 8 33.3%

  • Total voters
    24
  • Poll closed .
So, I am doing a Julian timeline. When do you guys want it to start 357, after his victory over the Alamanni, 361 when he becomes emperor, or 363 before he dies, having him miraculously live.
 

Marc

Donor
You would have to majorly upgrade his competence as a military strategist. Otherwise he stands a good chance of losing a large amount of the eastern provinces of the Empire.
There is so much irony that Flavius Julius Constantius Augustus - Constantius II - who was really was a terrible man (along the lines of Domitian) and only a so-so administrator, really understood the Sassanian threat, and handled it quite well, unlike Julian.
If Constantius had not died, likely he would have crushed his cousin as he routinely did other challengers. He was perhaps the best C-in-C that Rome had in the 4th century CE.
But such is history...
 
Domitian wasn't terrible. The Senate just hated him because they saw him as illegitimate Emperor who made a power grabb when Titus hadn't shown he was the heir. He then acted more and more autocratic which they never liked. But his policy's weren't bad, except for maybe the pay increase.
 

Marc

Donor
Domitian wasn't terrible. The Senate just hated him because they saw him as illegitimate Emperor who made a power grabb when Titus hadn't shown he was the heir. He then acted more and more autocratic which they never liked. But his policy's weren't bad, except for maybe the pay increase.

I intended the comparison in terms of personality not policies.
 
I intended the comparison in terms of personality not policies.

I don’t see how Constantius II was any worse than other emperors in terms of personality. Most of them were all a brutal bunch, including his father. Constantius was also a way, way better emperor than Julian.
 

Marc

Donor
I don’t see how Constantius II was any worse than other emperors in terms of personality. Most of them were all a brutal bunch, including his father. Constantius was also a way, way better emperor than Julian.

More than the usual imperial paranoia, but that isn't uncommon.
Wiping out most of your family to secure your position - on the high end of ruthless.
Ironically, his choices helped ensure that the Constantine dynasty wouldn't last.
However, most of what we do know about him was written by supporters of Julian, and various clerical enemies (He was effectively Arian).
 
More than the usual imperial paranoia, but that isn't uncommon.
Wiping out most of your family to secure your position - on the high end of ruthless.
Ironically, his choices helped ensure that the Constantine dynasty wouldn't last.
However, most of what we do know about him was written by supporters of Julian, and various clerical enemies (He was effectively Arian).


Constantius wasn’t alone in wiping out his family, his father did his share, and his brothers had no problem with that. If anything, it was mostly their fault the dynasty didn’t last. While Constantius was efficiently holding the fort in the East, they both got killed for their own foolishness and petty ambitions, leaving the West in complete disarray.

Since then, Constantius only ever sought a solid partner who could hold the half of the empire where he wasn’t, and who would recognize him as the senior emperor. He tried with Gallus, and the latter proved to be such a failure not even Ammian tries to cover up for him. He tried with Julian, and he found himself with yet another civil war in his hands, and no matter how much Julian tried to play innocent, if he didn’t stir the revolt himself, which is unlikely, he clearly stood by letting it happen for his own gain. By pure accident then, Julian won the war, got the throne and confirmed the family’s trend of getting foolishly killed while throwing everything into chaos by getting himself killed in a skirmish, after having stranded his army in the middle of the Sasanian Empire and having left the empire bankrupt. To top that, he decided to not have children ‘cause sex wasn’t his thing. And there’s people who say he was a great emperor...

Constantius’ only real fault in this was to not sire any male heirs, but that hardly depended on him.
 
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