Article,
On the alleged reburial of Julian the Apostate at Constantinople
Byzantion, (2006)
Abstract
It is generally accepted at present that the emperor Julian (360-63) was reburied in the Church of the Holy Apostles at Constantinople at some unknown date after his initial burial outside Tarsus in Cilicia in 363. This assumption rests on the fact that a series of late Byzantine sources describe the presence of his tomb in this church, from Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (913-59), who included a catalogue of imperial tombs in his De Ceremoniis, to the epitomator Zonaras (c.1118). Most modern commentators have tended to assume that the transfer of the tomb occurred probably within the latter half of the fourth century. It is my argument that Julian’s tomb was never removed from Tarsus, but that the tomb later identified as his had probably belonged to Crispus instead, the eldest son and Caesar of Constantine I (306-37).
