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Flavius Iovianus, anglicized to Jovian, (331
331

Events...
 – 17 February 364
364

Events...
) was a soldier
Soldier

A soldier is a general English term that refers to a land component of national armed forces.In most societies of the world, "soldier" is also a general term for any member of the land forces including Commissioned officer and non-commissioned officers....
 elected Roman Emperor
Roman Emperor

The Roman Emperor was the ruler of the Roman Empire during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office: Latin language titles such as imperator , Augustus , Caesar and princeps were all associated with it....
 by the army on 27 June 363
363

Events...
 upon the death of Emperor Julian the Apostate
Julian the Apostate

Flavius Claudius Julianus, known also as Julian or Julian the Apostate , was Roman Emperor of the Constantinian dynasty. He was the last non-Christian Roman Emperor, and expended much energy during his reign attempting to supplant the growing power of Christianity within the empire with officially revived Religion in ancient Rom...
 during his Sassanid
Sassanid Empire

The Sassanid Empire or Sassanian Dynasty is the name of the last pre-Islamic Iranian empire. It was one of the two main powers in Western Asia for a period of more than 400 years....
 campaign. Jovian reestablished Christianity
Christianity

Christianity is a Monotheistic religion #Christian view religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus as New Testament view on Jesus' life....
 as the official religion of the Empire.

an Binda was born at Singidunum
Singidunum

Singidunum was an ancient Roman city, first settled by the Celts Scordisci tribe in the 3rd century BC, and later garrisoned and fortified by the Ancient Rome who romanized the name....
 (today Belgrade
Belgrade

Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. The city lies on international waterway, at the confluence of the Sava River and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkan Peninsula....
,Serbia
Serbia

Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a country in Central Europe and Balkans Europe, covering the southern part of the Pannonian Plain and the central part of the Balkans....
) in 331, son of (Flavius?) Varronianus, the commander of Constantius II
Constantius II

Flavius Iulius Constantius, known in English as Constantius II was a Roman Emperor of the Constantinian dynasty....
's imperial bodyguards (comes domesticorum).






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Flavius Iovianus, anglicized to Jovian, (331
331

Events...
 – 17 February 364
364

Events...
) was a soldier
Soldier

A soldier is a general English term that refers to a land component of national armed forces.In most societies of the world, "soldier" is also a general term for any member of the land forces including Commissioned officer and non-commissioned officers....
 elected Roman Emperor
Roman Emperor

The Roman Emperor was the ruler of the Roman Empire during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office: Latin language titles such as imperator , Augustus , Caesar and princeps were all associated with it....
 by the army on 27 June 363
363

Events...
 upon the death of Emperor Julian the Apostate
Julian the Apostate

Flavius Claudius Julianus, known also as Julian or Julian the Apostate , was Roman Emperor of the Constantinian dynasty. He was the last non-Christian Roman Emperor, and expended much energy during his reign attempting to supplant the growing power of Christianity within the empire with officially revived Religion in ancient Rom...
 during his Sassanid
Sassanid Empire

The Sassanid Empire or Sassanian Dynasty is the name of the last pre-Islamic Iranian empire. It was one of the two main powers in Western Asia for a period of more than 400 years....
 campaign. Jovian reestablished Christianity
Christianity

Christianity is a Monotheistic religion #Christian view religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus as New Testament view on Jesus' life....
 as the official religion of the Empire.

Rise to power

Jovian Binda was born at Singidunum
Singidunum

Singidunum was an ancient Roman city, first settled by the Celts Scordisci tribe in the 3rd century BC, and later garrisoned and fortified by the Ancient Rome who romanized the name....
 (today Belgrade
Belgrade

Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. The city lies on international waterway, at the confluence of the Sava River and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkan Peninsula....
,Serbia
Serbia

Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a country in Central Europe and Balkans Europe, covering the southern part of the Pannonian Plain and the central part of the Balkans....
) in 331, son of (Flavius?) Varronianus, the commander of Constantius II
Constantius II

Flavius Iulius Constantius, known in English as Constantius II was a Roman Emperor of the Constantinian dynasty....
's imperial bodyguards (comes domesticorum). He also joined the guards, and by 363 had risen to the same command that his father had once held. In this capacity, Jovian accompanied the Roman Emperor Julian
Julian

Julian, also spelt Julien, is a common given name in United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Poland, France and elsewhere in Europe, mostly to males but also to females....
 on the disastrous Mesopotamian campaign of the same year against Shapur II
Shapur II

Shapur II was the ninth King of the Sassanid Empire from 309 to 379. During his long reign, the Sassanid Empire saw its first golden era since the reign of Shapur I ....
, the Sassanid
Sassanid Empire

The Sassanid Empire or Sassanian Dynasty is the name of the last pre-Islamic Iranian empire. It was one of the two main powers in Western Asia for a period of more than 400 years....
 king. After a small but decisive engagement the Roman army was forced to retreat from the numerically superior Persian force. Julian was mortally wounded during the retreat and died on 26 June 363. The next day, after the aged Saturninius Secundus Salutius, praetorian prefect
Praetorian prefect

Praetorian prefect was the constant title of a high office in the Roman Empire state that changed fundamentally in nature.The praetorian prefect was commander of the Praetorian Guard until Constantine I abolished the guard in 314....
 of the Orient, declined the purple, the choice of the army fell upon Jovian. His election caused considerable surprise, and it is suggested by Ammianus Marcellinus
Ammianus Marcellinus

Ammianus Marcellinus was a fourth-century Ancient Rome historian. His is the last major historical account of the late Roman empire which survives today....
 that he was wrongly identified with another Jovianus, chief notary (primicerius notariorum), whose name also had been put forward, or that during the acclamations the soldiers mistook the name Jovianus for Julianus, and imagined that the latter had recovered from his illness.

Restoration of Christianity

Jovian, a Christian
Christian

A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism#Christian view religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus and interpreted by Christians to have been prophesied in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament....
, reestablished Christianity
Christianity

Christianity is a Monotheistic religion #Christian view religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus as New Testament view on Jesus' life....
 as the official religion of the Roman Empire
Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
 ending the brief revival of paganism under his predecessor Julian. Upon arriving at Antioch, he revoked the edicts of Julian against the Christians. The Labarum
Labarum

For the article about the "PX" symbol see Chi RhoThe Labarum was a typographic ligature formed from Chi and Rho , which had particular symbolic significance to the Roman Empires, Ancient Greece, and to the Christianity of Late Antiquity in general....
 of Constantine the Great again became the standard of the army. He issued an edict of toleration, to the effect that, while the exercise of magical rites would be severely punished, his subjects should enjoy full liberty of conscience. Jovian entertained a great regard for Athanasius, whom he reinstated on the archiepiscopal throne, desiring him to draw up a statement of the Orthodox faith. In Syriac literature Jovian became the hero of a Christian romance. From Jovian's reign until the 15th century Christianity remained the dominant religion of both the Western and Eastern Roman Empires, until the fall of Constantinople
Constantinople

Constantinople was the empire capital of the Roman Empire , the Byzantine Empire , the Latin Empire , and the Ottoman Empire . Strategically located between the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmara at the point where Europe meets Asia, Byzantine Constantinople had been the capital of a Christendom empire, successor to ancient ancient Greece...
 to the Turks
Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299?1923. It was Treaty of Lausanne by the Republic of Turkey, which was officially proclaimed on October 29, 1923....
 in 1453.

Rule

Jovian continued the retreat begun by Julian, and, continually harassed by the Persians, succeeded in reaching the banks of the Tigris, where Jovian, deep inside Sassanid territory, was forced to sue for a peace treaty on humiliatingly unfavourable terms. In exchange for his safety, he agreed to withdraw from the five Roman province
Roman province

In Ancient Rome, a province was the basic, and until the Tetrarchy , largest territorial and administrative unit of the empire's territorial possessions outside of the Italia ....
s conquered by Galerius
Galerius

Galerius Maximianus , formally Gaius Galerius Valerius Maximianus was Roman Emperor from 305 to 311....
 in 298, east of the Tigris, that Diocletian
Diocletian

Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus , born Diocles and commonly known as Diocletian , was Roman Emperor from November 20, 284 to May 1, 305....
 had annexed and allow the Persians to occupy the fortresses of Nisibis
Nisibis

Nusaybin is a city in Mardin Province, southeastern Turkey populated by Kurdish people, Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac people, Arabs.It is the ancient Mesopotamian city, which Alexander's successors refounded as Antiochia Mygdonia and is mentioned for the first time in Polybius' description of the march of Antiochus I against the Molon...
, Castra Maurorum and Singara
Singara

Singara was a strongly fortified post at the northern extremity of Mesopotamia, which for awhile, as appears from many coins still extant, was occupied by the Roman Empire as an advanced colony against the Persians....
. The Romans also surrendered their interests in the kingdom of Armenia
Kingdom of Armenia

The Kingdom of Armenia was an independent kingdom from 190 BC to AD 387 and a client state of the Roman and Persian empires until 428, stretching from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean Sea seas....
 to the Persians and the Christian king of Armenia, Arshak II
Arshak II

Arshak II was the son of Diran of Armenia and was himself king of Armenia from 350-367....
, was to stay neutral in future conflicts between the two empires, and was forced to cede part of his kingdom to Shapur. The treaty was widely seen as a disgrace and Jovian rapidly lost popularity.

After arriving at Antioch, Jovian decided to rush to Constantinople to consolidate his political position there.

He died on 17 February 364
364

Events...
 after a reign of only eight months. During his return to Constantinople, Jovian was found dead in bed in his tent at Dadastana, halfway between Ancyra and Nicaea. A surfeit of mushrooms or the poisonous carbon monoxide
Carbon monoxide

Carbon monoxide, with the chemical formula CO, is a colorless and odorless, tasteless, yet highly toxic gas. Its molecules consist of one carbon atom covalent bond to one oxygen atom....
 fumes of a charcoal warming fire has been assigned as the cause of death.

Jovian was buried in the Church of the Holy Apostles
Church of the Holy Apostles

The Church of the Holy Apostles , also known as the Imperial Polyandreion, was a Christian basilica built in Constantinople in 550. It was second only to the Hagia Sophia among the great churches of the Eastern Empire....
 in Constantinople.

Sources and references

  • Banchich, Thomas, , De Imperatoribus Romanis.
  • Ammianus Marcellinus
    Ammianus Marcellinus

    Ammianus Marcellinus was a fourth-century Ancient Rome historian. His is the last major historical account of the late Roman empire which survives today....
    , xxv. 5-10
  • J. P. de la Bleterie, Histoire de Jovien (1740)
  • Gibbon, Decline and Fall, chapters xxiv., xxv.
  • Gibbon, Edward, 1737-1794. The history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. (NY : Knopf, 1993), v. 2, pp. 517 - 529.
  • G. Hoffmann, Julianus der Abtrünnige, 1880
  • J. Wordsworth in Smith and Wace's Dictionary of Christian Biography
  • H. Schiller, Geschichte der römischen Kaiserzeit, volume ii. (1887)
  • A. de Broglie, L'Église et l'empire romain au IVe siècle (4th ed. 1882).


See also

  • Belgrade
    Belgrade

    Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. The city lies on international waterway, at the confluence of the Sava River and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkan Peninsula....
  • Singidunum
    Singidunum

    Singidunum was an ancient Roman city, first settled by the Celts Scordisci tribe in the 3rd century BC, and later garrisoned and fortified by the Ancient Rome who romanized the name....


External links