The construction(s) of the public image of the Emperor Julian

Abstract

This thesis deals with the construction(s) of the public image of the Emperor Julian. The unusual abundance of sources for Julian’s short reign as sole emperor of the Roman world (361-363) allows for biographical studies of this figure; this study intends to problematise the picture, taking into account the plurality of voices that composed his public image. Even the emperor himself must be taken as a plural; his own self-conception, and the public presentation of this self-conception, varied considerably over time, as did the responses of his subjects – whether they opposed Julian or not. The composition of this image was an act of creation, a dialogical relationship between ruler and ruled. This relationship could be friendly, hostile, full of mutual misunderstandings; the tensions that arise from these dialogues allow us a glimpse at the (historical) polyphony that is, as will be shown, a fundamental feature of Roman society.