Death of Emperor Julian
Reluctantly, Julian agreed to retreat back along the Tigris and look for Procopius and the other half of his army that had failed to coordinate the double-pincers movement with him outside of Ctesiphon as had been planned. On June 16, 363, the retreat began and ten days later, outside Samarra, the army’s rearguard came under heavy attack. Not even pausing to put on his armour, Julian plunged into the fray shouting encouragement to his men. Just as the Persians were beginning to pull out with heavy losses, Julian was struck in the side by a flying spear. His liver fatally pierced, Julian died before midnight, on June 26, 363. Considered apocryphal is the report that his dying words were "Vicisti, Galilæe" ("Thou hast conquered, Galilean"), supposedly expressing his recognition that, with his death, Christianity would become the Empire's state religion.
Libanius in his orations commemorating the life and deeds of the last legitimate pagan Roman Emperor, initially stated that Julian was assassinated by a Christian who was one of his own soldiers, but later stated that the assassin was a Saracen, or Persian mercenary. Ammianus Marcellinus, Julian's chief biographer and highly valued and praised historian of 354–378, also sheds doubt that a Christian was the guilty party and echoes Libanius' later thoughts that an unknown Persian committed the deed that cost Rome dearly. As a result, the truth of who killed Julian may never be known with certainty.
Read more about this topic: Battle Of Ctesiphon (363)
Famous quotes containing the words death, emperor and/or julian:
“But the life of Spirit is not the life that shrinks from death and keeps itself untouched by devastation, but rather the life that endures it and maintains itself in it. It wins its truth only when, in utter dismemberment, it finds itself.... Spirit is this power only by looking the negative in the face, and tarrying with it. This tarrying with the negative is the magical power that converts it into being. This power is identical with what we earlier called the Subject.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
“Even the emperor has poor relations.”
—Chinese proverb.
“The rich were dull and they drank too much or they played too much backgammon. They were dull and they were repetitious. He remembered poor Julian and his romantic awe of them and how he had started a story once that began, “The very rich are different from you and me.” And how someone had said to Julian, “Yes, they have more money.””
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961)