Rise to Power

Abstract

This chapter offers a reconstruction of Jovian’s rise to imperial power after Julian died in the Persian heartland. A few hours after Julian’s death, the army generals, the commanders of the legions and cavalry squadrons, as well as high civil officials assembled at the dawn of June 27, 363, to elect a successor. After the praetorian prefect Salutius had declined the emperorship and no agreement could be reached on a suitable candidate, the imperial guardsmen (protectores) put their commander (primicerius domesticorum) Jovian forward as the new emperor. He was soon accepted by the generals, high officials, and the complete army as their new ruler. Although sometimes argued otherwise, Jovian’s elevation to the throne was legitimate according to the primary sources. According to the Christian sources, Jovian initially refused to became emperor (recusatio imperii). Although Ammianus Marcellinus mentions that he was unfit for the emperorship, it is argued that Jovian’s background, his family connections (his own father Varronianus and his father-in-law Lucillianus), as well as his own military career, made him eligible for the emperorship. Nevertheless, Jovian was a compromise candidate and was made emperor not for his dynamic leadership, but in the expectation that he would work in collaboration with the senior staff (the men who had elected him) to get the army out of Persia and to lead the soldiers back to Roman territory.