Julian the Apostate

February 6 2012

Adrian Murchoch’s Emperors of Rome reaches Julian the Apostate. Also at iTunes.

The official establishment of the Catholic Church in the Roman Empire was a gradual process, which was begun by Constantine the Great (imperabat A.D. 307-37) and was completed by Theodosius the Great (imperabat A.D. 378-95), after an Arian interlude under Constantius II (imperabat A.D. 337-61) and a pagan reaction under Julian (imperabat A.D. 361-3).

Cavafy on Julian.

A Study of History, Vol V, OUP, 1939 (footnote)

2 Responses to “Julian the Apostate”

  1. rwmg Says:

    Why Catholic Church rather than Orthodox? Doesn’t that assume it was the Eastern church that split off from the Western rather than vice versa? (Not saying it was necessarily the reverse but does either term have any meaning before 1054?)

    • davidderrick Says:

      Very good question. Particularly when his own view of the world was so Greece- rather than Rome-centric. I wonder whether he ever examined his use of this word. On the other hand, his religious chums tended to be Catholic. Possibly the justification is that “Catholic” is an older term than “Orthodox”.


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