Jovian, Roman emperor

On June 27, 363, Jovian was crowned Roman emperor after the sudden death of Julian during Rome’s Persian campaign. To get the Roman army safely out of Persian territory, he concluded a treaty with Shapur II at the cost of surrendering regions and strongholds, among them the city of Nisibis. The treaty was considered a shame for Rome in most primary sources, an opinion not quite rightly adopted in modern scholarly literature. The settlement was claimed by Jovian as a victory. Jovian was a Christian. He made a break with Julian’s religious policy towards Christianity. Unlike his predecessors, he kept his distance from interfering in Christian dogmatic issues, and it appears that he favoured general religious tolerance. Despite the brevity of his reign, Jovian re-established the empire after Julian’s administration. The legacy of his rule was carried on by his successors, Valentinian I and Valens. In the Syriac Julian Romance, a polemical work of historical fiction against Julian and dated to the 6th century, Jovian is presented as a model Christian emperor and a second Constantine.