God Against the Gods (37 page)

CHAPTER SEVEN: The Ruler of the Whole World

1
Quoted in Herman Dorries,
Constantine the Great
, trans. Roland H. Bainton (New York: Harper & Row, 1972), 143.

2
Andrew Alfoldi,
The Conversion of Constantine and Pagan Rome
, trans. Harold Mattingly (Oxford: Clarendon/Oxford University Press, 1998), 11.

3
Eusebius, “The Oration of Eusebius Pamphilus in Praise of the Emperor Constantine” in Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, eds.,
A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church
(2d. Series), Vol. 1,
Eusebius
(1890; Reprint, Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1997), 584.

4
Alfoldi, 13 (adapted).

5
Quoted in Ramsay MacMullen,
Christianity and Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997), 130.

6
A. N. Wilson,
Paul: The Mind of the Apostle
(New York: W. W. Norton, 1997), 9.

7
Quoted in John Holland Smith,
Constantine the Great
(New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1971), 183.

8
Quoted in James Carroll,
Constantine’s Sword: The Church and the Jews
(New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2001), 187.

9
Quoted in Smith,
Constantine
, 201.

10
Quoted in Dorries, 136.

11
Quoted in Diana Bowder,
The Age of Constantine and Julian
(New York: Barnes & Noble, 1978), 71.

12
Quoted in ibid., 67.

13
Quoted in Smith,
Constantine
, 202.

14
Ibid., 113.

15
Edward Gibbon,
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
(1776; reprint, New York: Heritage, 1946), 1:608.

16
Pierre Chuvin,
A Chronicle of the Last Pagans
, trans. B. A. Archer (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1990), 22.

17
Prudence Jones and Nigel Pennick,
A History of Pagan Europe
(London: Routledge, 1995), 68.

18
Robin Lane Fox,
Pagans and Christians
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1987), 667.

19
Quoted in Jacob Neusner,
Judaism and Christianity in the Age of Constantine: History, Messiah, Israel and the Initial Confrontation
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987), 14-15.

20
Quoted in Chuvin, 22.

21
Gibbon, 1:499.

22
Quoted in Smith,
Constantine
, 220.

23
Quoted in (and adapted from) Jacob Burckhardt,
The Age of Constantine
(1852; reprint, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday/Anchor, 1949), 337.

24
Jones and Pennick, 68.

25
Bowder, 35.

26
Burckhardt, 294.

27
Jones and Pennick, 68.

28
Burckhardt, 340.

29
Gibbon, 1:303.

30
Quoted in Samuel N. C. Lieu and Dominic Montserrat, eds.,
From Constantine to Julian: Pagan and Byzantine Views, A Source History
(London: Routledge, 1996), 5.

31
Ibid.

32
Quoted in Smith,
Constantine
, 289.

33
Gibbon, 1:495.

34
Smith,
Constantine
, 40.

35
Alfoldi, 6 (adapted).

36
John Holland Smith,
The Death of Classical Paganism
(New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1976), 37.

37
Bowder, xii.

38
J. Bidez, quoted in Alfoldi, 30.

39
Eusebius of Caesarea,
Life of Constantine
, quoted in ibid., 33.

40
Ammianus, quoted in ibid., 31.

41
Jones and Pennick, 66, 69.

42
Bowder, 80.

43
Strictly speaking, the baptism of Constantine II is not confirmed in the historical record, and some historians question whether he was in fact baptized.

44
Quoted in Fox, 339.

45
Bowder, 33, citing Zosimus and Julian.

46
Ibid., 34.

47
Chuvin, 32.

48
Ibid., 29.

49
Fox, 619-20.

50
Constantine’s year of birth is the subject of much scholarly debate. Eusebius proposes a date of birth between 273 and 275 (Smith,
Constantine
, 1); Gibbon adopts the earlier date, which puts his age at death at sixty-four. (Gibbon, 1:508.) According to the earliest year of birth proposed by modern scholars, 271, he would have been sixty-six years old on the day of his death.

CHAPTER EIGHT: The Orphans of Macellum

1
Gerald Henry Rendall,
The Emperor Julian: Paganism and Christianity
(Cambridge: Deighton, Bell and Co., and London: George Bell and Sons, 1879), 35.

2
Julian,
Letter to the Athenians
, in Wilmer Cave Wright, trans.,
The Works of the Emperor Julian
, (1913; reprint, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1980), 2:249. Gerald Henry Rendall argues that the death toll of seven cousins and uncles of Constantine II results from an erroneous translation of Julian’s account in
Letter to the Athenians
, and puts the total number at six. “[T]here were not seven
cousins
left to murder,” he insists. Rendall, 35-36, fn. 1.

3
Constantine II, one of the three surviving sons of Constantine, may have a different mother, but they were all regarded as legitimate offspring and legal heirs of their father. John Holland Smith,
The Death of Classical Paganism
(New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1976), 67.

4
The birthdates for Gallus and Julian are subject to debate but are generally given as 325 or 326 for Gallus and 331 or 332 for Julian.

5
Quoted in ibid. 79.

6
Quoted in Rendall, 32.

7
Quoted in Richard E. Rubenstein,
When Jesus Became God: The Struggle to Define Christianity During the Last Days of Rome
(San Diego: Harcourt, 1999), 196.

8
Edward Gibbon,
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
, 1776; reprint, (New York: Heritage, 1946), 1:517.

9
Rendall, 32.

10
Quoted in Pierre Chuvin,
A Chronicle of the Last Pagans
, trans. B. A. Archer (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1990), 36.

11
Quoted in Gibbon, 1:636.

12
Quoted in (and slightly adapted from) Diana Bowder,
The Age of Constantine and Julian
(New York: Barnes & Noble, 1978), 82.

13
Gibbon, 1:636.

14
Quoted in Chuvin, 37.

15
Quoted in Gibbon, 1:636.

16
Bowder, 96.

17
Smith,
Death of Classical Paganism
, 77.

18
Quoted in ibid., 82.

19
Gibbon, 1:518.

20
Rendall, 35.

21
Julian,
Letter to the Athenians
, in Wright, 2:251 (adapted).

22
Julian,
Letter to the Athenians
, in ibid., 2:255 (adapted).

23
Julian,
Letter to the Athenians
, in ibid., 2:249-251.

24
Julian,
Letter to the Athenians
, in ibid., 2:251.

25
Augustus Neander,
The Emperor Julian and His Generation
, trans. C.V. Cox (1812; reprint, Eugene, Ore.: Wipf and Stock, 2001), 74.

26
Giuseppe Ricciotti,
Julian the Apostate, Roman Emperor, 361-363
, trans. M. Joseph Costelloe, (S. J. 1960; reprint, Rockford, Ill.: Tan Books, 1999), 51.

27
Quoted in “Gallus Caesar,” Thomas M. Bancich, De Imperatoribus Romanis (
www.roman-emperors.org/gallus.htm
).

28
Julian,
Letter to the Athenians
, in Wright, 2:253 (adapted).

29
Rendall, 53 (adapted).

30
Ibid., 33-34.

31
Quoted in Hermann Dorries,
Constantine the Great
, trans. Roland H. Bainton (New York: Harper & Row, 1972), 152.

32
Quoted in Chuvin, 39.

33
Quoted in Bowder, 84.

34
Quoted in Gibbon, 1:603.

35
Ibid., 1:622 (adapted).

36
Ibid., 1:628 (adapted).

37
Ibid., 1:630 (adapted).

38
Rendall, 32 (adapted).

39
Quoted in Bowder, 108 (adapted).

CHAPTER NINE: The Secret Pagan

1
Julian,
To a Priest
, in Wilmer Cave Wright, trans.,
The Works of the Emperor Julian
, 1913; reprint, (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1980), 3:51.

2
Julian,
To a Priest
, quoted in Giuseppe Ricciotti,
Julian the Apostate, Roman Emperor, 361-363
, trans. M. Joseph Costelloe, S. J. (1960; reprint, Rockford, Ill.: Tan Books, 1999), 54.

3
Julian,
To a Priest
, in Wright, 3:53.

4
Gerald Henry Rendall,
The Emperor Julian: Paganism and Christianity
(Cambridge: Deighton, Bell and Co., and London: George Bell and Sons, 1879), 37.

5
Quoted in “Gallus Caesar” Thomas M. Bancich, De Imperatoribus Romanis (
www.roman-emperors.org/gallus.htm
).

6
Rendall, 37 (adapted).

7
Ibid., 45 (adapted).

8
Julian,
Mispogon
, in Wright, 2:463.

9
Ricciotti, 12.

10
Julian,
Mispogon
, quoted in ibid., 11.

11
Julian,
Mispogon
, in Wright, 2:459.

12
Ricciotti, 11.

13
Rendall, 38.

14
Julian,
Mispogon
, in Wright, 2:458-59.

15
Ibid., 2:459.

16
Quoted in John Holland Smith,
The Death of Classical Paganism
(New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1976), 105.

17
Julian,
Mispogon
, in Wright, 2:465 (adapted).

18
Julian,
Hymn to the Mother of the Gods
, in Wright, 1:487 (adapted).

19
Julian,
Letter to the Athenians
, in Wright, 2:251.

20
Julian,
Hymn to King Helios
, in Wright, 1:353.

21
Ibid. 1:353.

22
Ricciotti, 19, referring to accounts in Sozomen, Theodoret and Gregory of Nazianzus.

23
Augustus Neander,
The Emperor Julian and His Generation
, trans. C. V. Cox (1812; reprint, Eugene, Ore.: Wipf and Stock, 2001), 74.

24
Rendall, 39 (adapted).

25
Julian,
To the Cynic Heracleios
, in Wright, 2:151 (adapted).

26
Ricciotti, 16.

27
Robert Browning,
The Emperor Julian
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976), 44-45.

28
Smith,
Death of Classical Paganism
, 56 (adapted).

29
Quoted in Diana Bowder,
The Age of Constantine and Julian
(New York: Barnes & Noble, 1978), 85.

30
Quoted in Browning, 55.

31
Bowder, 98, and Browning, 56.

32
Browning, 56.

33
Ibid., 58.

34
Walter Burkert,
Ancient Mystery Cults
(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1987), 91.

35
Edward J. Martin,
The Emperor Julian: An Essay on His Relations with the Christian Religion
New York: Macmillan, 1919), 28, citing Sozomen and Gregory of Nazianzus.

36
Edward Gibbon,
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
(1776; reprint, New York: Heritage, 1946), 1:669, fn. 11.

37
Ricciotti, 207.

38
Neander, 79.

39
A letter preserved from antiquity suggests that Gallus, while still reigning as Caesar, had already received reports that his younger half brother, “goaded by some evil kind of madness,” had turned to paganism, and that Gallus had then urged Julian remain faithful to the Christian deity. W. C. Wright insists, however, that “[n]early all the critics reject this letter as a Christian forgery.”
Gallus Caesar to His Brother Julian
, in Wright, 3:288, fn. 1, 289.

40
Julian,
Panegyric in Honour of Eusebia
, in ibid., 1:315.

41
Julian,
Panegyric in Honour of Eusebia
, in ibid., 1:311 (“. . . zealous on my behalf . . .”); Julian,
Letter to the Athenians
, in ibid., 2:255 (“I could not have . . .”).

42
Julian,
Letter to the Athenians
, quoted in Ricciotti, 67.

43
Ricciotti, 35, paraphrasing Ammianus.

44
Julian,
Mispogon
, in Wright, 2:425.

45
Ricciotti, 35.

46
Julian,
Misopogon
, in Wright, 2:423, 427 (adapted).

47
Quoted in Browning, 65.

48
Quoted in Smith,
Death of Classical Paganism
, 98.

49
Julian,
To the Athenians
, quoted in Ricciotti, 103-04 (adapted).

50
Julian,
Misopogon
, in Wright, 2:429 (adapted).

51
Quoted in Smith,
Death of Classical Paganism
, 98.

52
Ammianus, quoted in Browning, 71.

53
Ammianus, quoted in ibid., 72.

54
Quoted in Ricciotti, 69. The verse that Julian recites is found in the
Iliad
(5.83).

55
Julian,
Letter to the Athenians
, in Wright, 2:265 (adapted).

56
Ibid.

57
Quoted in Bowder, 50.

58
Julian,
Letter to the Athenians
, in Wright, 2:267.

59
Ricciotti, 82-83.

60
Ibid., 110.

61
Julian,
Letter to the Athenians
, in Wright, 2:271.

62
Browning, 86-87.

63
Ibid., 92.

64
Julian,
Heroic Deeds
, quoted in Ricciotti, 117 (adapted).

65
Julian,
To the Athenians
, quoted in ibid., 67.

66
Quoted in Browning, 95.

67
Julian,
Panegyric in Honour of Eusebia
, in Wright, 1:329.

68
Quoted in Ricciotti, 58.

69
Julian,
Panegyric in Honour of Eusebia
, in Wright, 1:327.

70
Ricciotti, 59.

71
Gibbon, 1:655 (adapted).

72
Quoted in Ricciotti, 126.

73
Quoted in Smith,
Death of Classical Paganism
, 107 (adapted).

74
Ricciotti, 59-60.

75
Browning, 102.

76
Julian,
Letter to the Athenians
, in Wright. 2:283 (adapted).

77
Quoted in Browning, 103.

78
Quoted in ibid. (adapted). The complete formula Browning gives is: “
Imperator Caesar dominus noster Flavius Claudius Iulianus pius felix victor ac triumphator semper Augustus.
”