Some Considerations

This chapter offers thoughts about origin and function of the Jovian Narrative. The Jovian Narrative is a composite text in which various narratives about Julian and Jovian circulating in northern Mesopotamia and the Syriac-speaking world were combined. The Jovian Narrative is part of the Syriac tradition of Christian discourse of imagination, and the author is likely to have made use of various Syriac narrative traditions. Edessa is in all probability the Christian intellectual center where most of these texts were produced, and the Jovian Narrative most likely had its origin in Edessa. For the composition of his text, the composer is likely to have made use of various Syriac narrative traditions as well as historical information. The compilation of the Jovian Narrative as a cohesive text should probably be seen against the background of the religious and geopolitical policy of the emperor Justinian (527–565). Under his reign the Roman–Persian military conflict flared up again in all vehemence after many years of peaceful coexistence between the two empires. Furthermore, the Jovian Narrative intervenes on an eschatological level in the conflict between Chalcedonians and non-Chalcedonians in the reign of Justinian. Jovian is presented as the eschatological realization of the ideal Christian emperor, who represents a return to the orthodox ideal as it existed under Constantine.