February 17

On This Day In Roman History, February 17

The Roman Emperor Flavius Iovianus Augustus is found dead in his personal tent while en route to Constantinople on the morning of February 17, 364 CE. His death was motst likely caused by a small warming fire found within his tent, causing carbon monoxide causing to Jovian. He was planning on consolidating his newfound power there by eliminating some political opponents. Jovian had recently accepted a peace treaty with the Persians on somewhat demeaning terms, which made him wildly unpopular with the Roman public and elite alike. 

Did you know?

Jovian was an active Christian and began to turn around the previous policy of the former Emperor, Julian the Apostate. He went as far to outlaw even private meetings and practicing of pagans and made it punishable by death. He revoked the previous edicts of Julian which had persecuted Christians and re-instated the Labarum as the army standard. Jovian would be painted in positive light for centuries by Christian writers. 

Pictured: Solidus of emperor Jovian, via Wikimedia Commons .

Excerpt from "All Empires History Forum": 

By the 4th Century CE, service in the Roman Army had become a heriditary occupation, sons almost invariably following their fathers into the service. This especially applied in the case of the children of officers. So Jovian pursued a military career like his father, and also served in the comes domesticorum. Either talent, or his father's influence, had put him in command of the corps by the early 360s. Later legends that Jovian's military career was stifled because Emperor Julian opposed his Christian faith appear to be just that - legends.

Jovian seems to have married a woman bearing the clearly Germanic name of Charito. She was the daughter of one Lucillianus, a decorated military officer who had served against the usurper Magnentius and who had also commanded the comes domesticorum under Gallus (358-359). Jovian's marriage to this woman is known to have produced two sons, but history has only remembered the name of the elder, who was named Varronianus in honor of his grandfather.

Opinion

The early beginnings  of feudalism that would define Europe for the next thousand years are starting to take place. As I mentioned above, army careers were most certainly a hereditary service. So many other jobs during this time were following this trend. It was a culture shift that would subsequently add to the world making its shift into the dark ages. It is also interesting to see how romanticized Jovian was for some time in early Christian writings for vanquishing paganism, but he was quickly overshadowed by more prolific Christian activists. 

Sources

   Gibbon, E. (2015). The History Of The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire. Project Gutenberg.

   Odahl, C. M. (2006). Constantine and the Christian empire. London: Routledge.

   Tougher, S. (2008). Julian the Apostate. Edinburgh: Edinburgh Univ. Press.

Further Reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jovian_(emperor)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labarum

Special Thanks: Michael Houghan