The Works of the Emperor Julian, Vol. 2

Chapter 14: Introduction

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About This Book

A collection of orations, essays, letters, and fragments in which an imperial author argues for classical religious observance and philosophical discipline while attacking contemporary religious and moral corruptions. The writings include formal speeches criticizing uneducated imitators of Cynicism and defending authentic philosophical asceticism, private correspondence with contemporary intellectuals and civic bodies, satirical pieces on manners and personal affectation, and rhetorical treatments of imperial themes. Together the pieces showcase rhetorical skill and present sustained polemics that combine ethical instruction, religious advocacy, and civic argumentation for a return to traditional beliefs and practices.

The Caesars

Introduction

The Caesars, otherwise entitled in the MSS. Symposium or Kronia (Latin Saturnalia) was written at Constantinople in 361 and was probably addressed to Sallust, to whom Julian had sent his lost work the Kronia.539 The interlocutor in the proœmium540 is almost certainly Sallust.

“Caesar” was in Julian's time a Roman Emperor's most splendid title, and was regularly used by the barbarians when they referred to the Emperor. The idea and the working out of the satire is Lucianic and there are echoes here and there of Lucian's Dialogues of the Dead, but Julian is neither so witty nor so frivolous as Lucian. In speaking of the gods he allows himself a licence which is appropriate to the festival, but would otherwise seem inconsistent with the admonitions addressed to priests in the Fragment of a Letter. His conception of the State and of the ideal ruler is Greek rather than Roman.

[pg 344]