Statue of Julian the Philosopher in Tongeren, Belgium (Gallo-Roman Atuatuca Tungrorum). Photo by Car

Statue of Julian the Philosopher in Tongeren, Belgium (Gallo-Roman Atuatuca Tungrorum). Photo by Carole Raddato, 2016 via Wikimedia Commons (X). LIcense:  Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 GenericJune 28 marks the death of the Emperor Julian in 363 CE, three days after being mortally wounded in battle against the forces of the Sassanid ruler Shapur II at Ctesiphon, Iraq. His body was entombed at Tarsus, in complaince with his wishes. He was accorded divine honors by the Roman Senate, and is known to have received worship by individuals and cities who still observed the Imperial Cult.Though Julian was the last great pagan Emperor of Rome, there was at least one later Emperor who practiced traditional Roman religion, and several more who were tolerant of, or even sympathetic to, their subjects who continued to worship the old gods. He was also not the final Emperor of Rome to be deified; that practice continued, even among the Christian Emperors, into the 6th century.“…Julian surprised the world by an edict which was not unworthy of a statesman or a philosopher. He extended to all the inhabitants of the Roman world the benefits of a free and equal toleration; and the only hardship which he inflicted on the Christians was to deprive them of the power of tormenting their fellow-subjects, whom they stigmatized with the odious titles of idolaters and heretics. The Pagans received a gracious permission, or rather an express order, to open ALL their temples; and they were at once delivered from the oppressive laws and arbitrary vexations which they had sustained under the reign of Constantine and of his sons.”- Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Chapter 23.More about Julian here. -- source link

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