Emperor Julian, an appropriated word, and a different view of 4th-century “lived religion”

Abstract

: That the Greek word “ Hellenismos ” was used in antiquity to signify the broad concept of a “ pagan religion ” has long been an accepted notion in studies of the 4th-century Roman Empire despite the fact that the term was not value neutral. A word initially designed to wound, it had been coined during the tense time of the Maccabean period, where it was deployed by Jews to smear the identity of Jewish friends and neighbors for “ acting Greek ” and, six hundred years later, was similarly used by Christians in the Eastern Mediterranean, who used it to denigrate their own fellow believers for what they deemed to be an excessive accommodation to Roman ways. That situation changed during the mid-4th century when the Emperor Julian – raised a Christian but vilified by churchmen as an “ apostate ” – described his beliefs with the word “ Hellenismos ” in a letter sent to a pagan priest. Although it has been suggested that this document was forged, based on Julian ’ s puzzling use of the term, this chapter argues for the letter ’ s authenticity. I propose that Julian appropriated a known slur in order to transform it into a positive idea and suggest that it was Julian ’ s effort to embrace a Christian faith grounded in pluralistic Greek and Roman values that ultimately earned him his infamous sobriquet.