Julian II, as Augustus (AD 360-363). AE1 or BI maiorina (28mm, 6h). NGC AU, light smoothing. Sirmium, 1st officina, 3 November AD 361-26 June AD 363. D N FL CL IVLI-ANVS P F AVG, pearl-diademed, draped, and cuirassed bust of Julian II right, seen from front / SECVRITAS REIPVB, bull standing right; two stars above, star ASIRM wreath in exergue. RIC VIII 106. A nephew of Constantine the Great, Julian spent his youth in the east of the empire, tutored by prominent Christian bishops and philosophers of the day. His first cousin Constantius II, emperor of the East from 337, purged many of his relatives but spared the young Julian, who had secretly renounced Christianity by the age of 20. Raised to Caesar of the West in 355, he became the sole Augustus upon Constantius' death in 361. With his devout Christian cousin gone at last, Julian openly expressed his support for paganism and his distaste for Christianity. Fashioning himself as a classical Greek philosopher, Julian grew a long beard and wrote a number of treatises, some of which have survived to the present. He replaced Christian symbols on the coinage with pagan ones, such as the bull depicted on this coin, believed by some to represent either the sun god Helios or the popular eastern cult figure Mithras. His death in battle with Persia in 363 was seen as divine retribution by many Christians, and perhaps even by Julian himself, whose dying words were said to be "thou has triumphed, O Galilean." HID09801242017 © 2024 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved

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