"A monarch more wicked than all the nations of the earth" ~ Julian the Apostate and the martyrdom of Saints Juventius and Maximus

The martyrdom of Saints Juventius and Maximus taken from the
early 11th century Menologion of Basil II.

January 25 is the feast day of the ancient martyrs, Juventius and Maximus (sometimes called Juventinus and Maximinus). These two were soldiers during the time of Julian the Apostate and suffered martyrdom at his hands, most likely in AD 363. 

You may remember from similar posts on this blog that although Julian had a deep animosity toward Christianity, he refrained from enacting a wholesale persecution in the style of Diocletian because he had seen that such methods failed to suppress the Faith and indeed, seemed to enhance its appeal. As a result, Julian had taken a more subtle approach to suppressing Christianity, as demonstrated in a previous post on Saint Eupsychius, a martyr who had participated in the destruction of the Temple of Fortune in Caesarea.

Unlike many of the semi-legendary martyrs of the late 4th century, we can be fairly certain that Juventius and Maximus not only existed, but that their acts are authentic. They are recorded in two near-contemporary sources: a homily of Saint John Chrysostom who eulogized the martyrs about 30-40 years after their deaths, and the Ecclesiastical History written by Theodoret, bishop of Cyrrhus who wrote in the mid-5th century AD.

The account of Theodoret is rather detailed, and seems to jive nicely with the historical portrait of Julian gleaned from friendly sources like Ammianus Marcellinus and hostile ones like Hermias Sozomen and Socrates Scholasticus, as well as Julian's own surviving writings. The whole of Theodoret's account of the deaths of Juventius and Maximus runs as follows:

Julian continued to oppose religion with greater and greater boldness and effrontery, while he assumed the specious appearance of clemency, in order to lay snares to entrap men, and seduce them to irreligion. He cast things offered to idols into the fountains of the city of Antioch, and into those of Daphne, so that no one could drink of the streams without partaking of the hateful sacrifices. He defiled in the same way everything that was sold in the marketplace, for he had water which had been offered to idols sprinkled on the bread, meat, fruit, herbs, and all the other articles of food. 

The Christians wept and lamented at witnessing these abominations, yet they partook of the food according to the precept of the apostle, for it is said, "Whatsoever is sold in the shambles, that eat, asking no question for conscience sake." (1 Corinthians 10:25). 

Two of the emperor's guards, who were his shield-bearers and companions in arms, vehemently deplored, at a certain convivial party, the perpetration of such hateful deeds, and borrowed the admirable words used by the young man who gained so high a celebrity at Babylon: "You have delivered us," they said, " to a monarch who is more wicked than all the nations of the earth." 

One of those at table acquainted the emperor with this speech. The emperor sent for these two men, and asked what it was that they had said. This question giving them an opportunity of speaking freely, they, in the warmth of their zeal, made the following reply: 

"Having been brought up, O emperor, in the true religion, and having been accustomed to obey the admirable laws enacted by Constantine, and by his sons, we cannot but be deeply grieved at witnessing everything filled with abominations, and the very food contaminated by being mixed with the sacrifices offered to idols. We have lamented over this in our own houses, and now, in your presence, we publicly express our regret. This is the only cause of sorrow which we experience under your government." 

On hearing these words the mildest and wisest of emperors, as he is called by those who resemble him, threw off the mask of clemency, and disclosed his real impiety. Such excruciating tortures were at his order inflicted on these two men, that they expired under them or, rather, they obtained a release from the misery of the age, and received the crowns of victory. It was declared, that their boldness of speech, and not the religion which they defended, was the cause of their execution: they were punished, it was said, because they had insulted the emperor. This account of the transaction Julian ordered to be universally circulated, for he was apprehensive lest these champions of truth should obtain the honor of being regarded as martyrs. 

Their names were Juventius and Maximus. The church of Antioch honored them as defenders of religion, and interred them in a magnificent tomb; and even to this day an annual festival is celebrated in their honor. [Theodoret, Ecclesiastical History, Book III, Chapter 15]

These martyrs are also mentioned in a homily given by Saint John Chrysostom. As one-time bishop of Antioch, Saint John no doubt was very familiar with these two martyrs who would have been slain during his own lifetime. Indeed, he would have been a young man at the time, most likely living in Antioch during the reign of Julian. 

I could not locate a full literal English translation of this homily, but fragments may be found in Butler’s Lives of the Saints and other scholarly sources around the internet. The account in Butler’s mentions that when the martyrs refused to retract their statements about the emperor, they were scourged, their property was confiscated and finally, they were beheaded in prison. Following the execution, some local Christians in Antioch obtained the bodies and built for them a magnificent tomb. In his homily, John Chrysostom urges his listeners to visit the shrine of these martyrs regularly and embrace the relics, feeling confident that they may obtain blessings. In fact, this homily provides yet another example of the early Church believing in the efficacy of prayers to the saints in heaven as mediators with God as St. John makes clear in a very dramatic fashion:

“For just as soldiers, showing off the wounds received in battle, boldly converse with the emperor, so too these [martyrs], by brandishing in their hand the heads which were cut off and putting them on public display, are easily able to procure everything we wish from the King of Heaven.” [See Garbarino, Resurrecting the martyrs: The role of the Cult of the Saints, AD 370-430 – page  128]

A final ancient source on these martyrs is also worth citing. In a hymn of Severus of Antioch, a Monophysite bishop of the early 6th century AD, a third martyr is mentioned along with Juventius and Maximus—another soldier named Longinus, who along with his companions, was accounted a valiant man, a champion and a soldier of Christ who confounded Julian and stripped off his cloak of deceitfulness. See Hymns of Severus in Patrologia Orientalis, Tomus Septimus, page 612 [200] 

For more posts on Julian the Apostate, see:

• A passionate longing to acquire (and destroy) books ~ The cognitive dissonance of Julian the Apostate
• "You have won, O Galilean!" ~ Who killed Julian the Apostate?
• "He hated the entire city intensely" ~ St. Eupsychius and Julian the Apostate's reaction to the destruction of the Temple of Fortune in Caesarea in Cappadocia
• "Martyrs Neither Ignoble Nor Few" ~ The death of Hypatia and mob violence against Christians during the reign of Julian the Apostate

On the Death of Nero ~ Classical and Early Christian Perspectives

The Death of Nero as shown in an engraving from The Story of the Greatest
Nations, 1901.

I recently ran across a passage written by Lactantius in his enigmatic and fascinating work entitled On the Deaths of the Persecutors about the demise of the original persecutor of Christians, Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus—that is, Nero. Writing in the early 4th century AD, or about 250 years after the fact, Lactantius says the following of Nero:

Click for more info.

When Nero heard of those things [that is, the growth of Christianity in Rome] and observed that not only in Rome but in every other place a great multitude revolted daily from the worship of idols and, condemning their old ways, went over to the new religion, he being an execrable and pernicious tyrant, sprung forward to raze the heavenly temple and destroy the true faith. He it was who first persecuted the servants of God. He crucified Peter and slew Paul. Nor did he escape with impunity, for God looked on the affliction of His people, and therefore the tyrant, bereaved of authority, and precipitated from the height of empire, suddenly disappeared, and even the burial-place of that noxious wild beast was nowhere to be seen. [Lactantius, On the Deaths of the Persecutors, Chapter II]

There are several things that are interesting about this passage. Most obviously, it seems to run contrary in some of its details to the accounts of earlier secular historians. For example, in Lives of the Caesars by Suetonius, written about fifty years after the facts recorded, we find that Nero committed suicide with the help of one of his freedmen. Far from disappearing after his death, Suetonius records that Nero's corpse was...

...buried at a cost of two hundred thousand sesterces and laid out in white robes embroidered with gold….His ashes were deposited by his nurses, Egloge and Alexandria, accompanied by his mistress, Acte, in the family tomb of the Domitii on the summit of the Hill of Gardens, which is visible from the Campus Martius. [Suetonius, Lives of the Caesars: Nero]

Furthermore, Suetonius claims that the location of Nero's tomb was not only well known but that “there were some who for a long time decorated his tomb with spring and summer flowers.” 

Based on these details, some might assume that Lactantius was merely ignorant of Roman history. I consider this unlikely. Lactantius was brilliantly educated in the best Roman tradition prior to his conversion to Christianity and his Latin prose was so fine that later scholars would call him "the Christian Cicero." 

Suetonius himself may provide a clue to the answer. In another passage directly following the ones quoted above, he mentions that some of Nero's admirers pretended that the emperor was still alive and would return shortly to bring vengeance upon his enemies. This rumor had enough legs that even decades later, the Parthians would protect a man who claimed to be Nero, probably in an attempt to cause political chaos among the Romans. Suetonius relates:

Twenty years later, when I was still a young man, a person of obscure origin appeared, who gave out that he was Nero, and the name was still in such favor with the Parthians that they supported him vigorously and surrendered him with great reluctance. [Suetonius, Lives of the Caesars: Nero]

This rumor and the impostor associated with it brings us back to Lactantius and early Christian traditions about the death of Nero. Clearly, the admirers of Nero who put forth the rumors of his continuing Elvis-like existence in hiding were not Christians. However, Christians may have picked up on these rumors and placed them into a completely different context. Curiously, following his description of Nero’s fall and death, Lactantius echoes Suetonius, saying that some persons of “extravagant imagination” believed that Nero had been taken to a distant place where he remained alive even 250 years after his death. He even incorporates pagan prophecy, saying:  

To him they apply the Sibylline verses concerning, “The fugitive, who slew his own mother, being to come from the uttermost boundaries of the earth,” as if he who was the first should also be the last persecutor, and thus prove the forerunner of Antichrist. [Lactantius, On the Deaths of the Persecutors, Chapter II]

That this was a popular view among early Christians is corroborated by St. Sulpicius Severus writing near the end of the 4th century, about 80 years after Lactantius. In the following passage from his Sacred History, St. Sulpicius writes:

Nero, now hateful even to himself from a consciousness of his crimes, disappears from among men, leaving it uncertain whether or not he had laid violent hands upon himself: certainly his body was never found. It was accordingly believed that, even if he did put an end to himself with a sword, his wound was cured, and his life preserved, according to that which was written regarding him,—“And his mortal wound was healed,”—to be sent forth again near the end of the world, in order that he may practice the mystery of iniquity. [Sulpicius Severus, Sacred History, Book II, Chapter 29]

The phrase, “And his mortal wound was healed” quoted by St. Sulpicius above is taken from the Apocalypse of Saint John (Revelation) 13:3 as part of St. John’s description of the Beast with Seven Heads: “And I saw one of his heads as it were slain to death: and his death’s wound was healed. And all the earth was in admiration after the beast.”

It seems that some Christians with "extravagant imaginations" had interpreted this passage to identify Nero as the beast with the healed wound, and furthermore extrapolated that he would return again as the forerunner of the Antichrist. Lactantius, however, is much more cautious when it comes to offering such speculations on the meaning of prophetic utterances in Sacred Scripture. He wraps up his short history of the reign and persecution of Nero as follows:

But we ought not to believe those who, affirming that the two prophets Enoch and Elias have been translated into some remote place that they might attend our Lord when He shall come to judgment, also fancy that Nero is to appear hereafter as the forerunner of the devil, when he shall come to lay waste the earth and overthrow mankind. [Lactantius, On the Deaths of the Persecutors, Chapter II]

As a reporter of history, Lactantius certainly favors the Christian viewpoint, but it is noteworthy that he is not prone to accept the wilder flights of fancy associated with some Christian Roman writers of his day. 

Certainly, On the Deaths of the Persecutors is among the most fascinating and informative works of history from the late Roman period relating a myriad of accounts and anecdotes that appear nowhere else among the contemporary histories of that era. For those of you who have visited this blog before, you may remember seeing numerous quotes from On the Deaths of the Persecutors in a variety of posts, including:

• Was the wife of Diocletian a secret Christian?
• "They Leveled that Lofty Edifice with the Ground" ~ The Destruction of the Church at Nicomedia and Commencement of the Great Persecution
• Death of Constantius I, the father of Constantine the Great ~ Primary Accounts
• Constantine's Vision of the Cross ~ Early Accounts and Backstory