Violent Reactions to the Religious Reforms of the Roman Emperor Julian (r. 361 – 363 CE) – or, Between Pigs and Nuns

Abstract

The program of religious reform proposed by Julian Augustus (r. 361-363) was not generally followed by violent action. Even though the Christians were seen with contempt by the central government, they were not prosecuted with the usual brutality that the Roman State dealt to its enemies, imaginary or not. However, this general rule did not prevent that sudden localised episodes of violence from occurring. In this article, we will see how unstable regional contexts led to the eruption of open religious violence detonated by the imposition of reforms by Julian’s government. We will also see how the use of Stuart Hall’s studies about media can help in the understanding of such phenomena.