A ladies’ man: Julian Augustus as son, husband, and emperor

This article investigates the Emperor Julian's relations with three of his female relatives: with his mother Basilina, with the wife of his cousin Constantius II, Eusebia, and with his own wife, Helena the Younger, also the sister of Constantius II. I argue that the relationships with these women not only shaped Julian’s agency and ultimately his ability to become Roman emperor, but that he also carefully incorporated these relationships into his imperial self-image, even or particularly after these women's death. Using a combination of legal, literary and material sources, I cast a light especially on Julian's mother and on his wife, widely ignored by modern scholarship on Julian. The article invites us to consider the power that flowed through ancient men’s domestic ties created by women, as well as imperial men's acute awareness of this power.