Kontrowersje wokół daty urodzin cesarza Flawiusza Klaudiusza Juliana zwanego Apostatą
Controversy over date of birth of Emperor Julian the Apostate

Summary/Abstract: Ancient writers did not hand us down the precise date of Julian’s birth. We have only attestations in a roundabout way in this matter. First of all we have Julian’s own statements. When he composed his satire Misopogon in February 363, he told, that after his seventh year he was handed over to his teacher Mardonius. Julian confirmed this message himself in a letter to philosopher Themistius. He wrote there that he had just begun his education when the mas- sacre of his relatives by the army occurred. We now know that back then boys were taken care of by women until they were six to seven years old and at that point they were handed down to men to become disciples. Same information was handed down by Themistius in his Fourth Oration. By his account Julian’s childhood ended - that is, he became a schoolboy - in 337. Also Sozomen and Sokrates Scholasticus have confirmed this information. They said that Julian was in the eighth year of his age or he was eight years old, when his father died.Consequently in my opinion, if Julian was seven years old in 337, then he was born in 330. Therefore when he wrote his own statement, a letter to the Alexandrians, in November of 362, he must have been thirty one years old or otherwise he was in the thirty-second year of his life. That would mean he was born in December 330. Between the 24th and the 26th of December 362 Emperor wrote his lyric song - “Oration to The King Helios”. There he spoke about himself, that he has been a privileged one and a companion to Helios, both as an emperor and as a private person. Helios chose him from among the others and decided the time and place of his birth. Claudius Mamertinus claimed that a star appeared on Julian’s birthday. Also Libanios and Zonaras handed down information about Julians day of birth. They said that this day was unusual and attended to rare events. Therefore it is possible that Julian was born on the Day of the Invincible Sun - 25th of December 330. Both Ammia- nus Marcellinus and Eutropius would place the death of Julian on the 26th of June 363, both stating that Julian died anno aetatis altero et tricessimo. Today we translate this passage in two ways; he died in the thirty-second year of his life or when he was 32 years old. St. Hieronimus handed down that he was XXXII when he died. Therefore we can not speak with dead certainty about Julians age at this time. Unfortunately works of other ancient writers such as Zosimos, Silvanus, the author of Epitome de Caesaribus and Germanus are unconfirmed and unbelievable.Therefore, in my opinion, Emperor Julian the Apostate was born 25th of December 330.

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