Welcome back to another episode of Five Minutes in Church History.

On this episode, we will be visiting with a fascinating Roman Emperor.

And we will be revisiting a moment in history and the record of it by a certain Roman historian

that is also equally and utterly fascinating.

We are talking about Julian the Apostate.

He was Emperor of Rome from 361 to 363.

He is, in fact, the nephew of Constantine, and, as you know, Constantine, who was the

one who brought Christianity to the Roman Empire, Constantine died in 337.

When he died, the Roman Empire divided as it was, was ruled by his sons, and one of the

sons that emerged in all of this was Constantius II.

He ruled from 337 to 361.

Meanwhile, Julian was off-engaging in military campaigns throughout France and Germany, and

in 360, his soldiers put him in as the Caesar Augustus for the Western Empire.

This was, of course, a threat to Constantius II, and so the two go to war.

But a battle was his never fought, and 361, Constantius II died of a fever.

And so Julian, the Apostate, becomes Emperor of Rome in 361 until his death in 363.

Now why was he called Julian the Apostate?

Well, as a nephew of Constantine, he was brought up as a Christian.

He would have had a sterling Christian education.

He was taught by bishops and leading theologians.

But by the time he turned 20, he set all that aside.

But Julian believed that Christianity was bad for Rome.

...