GRICE E GIULIANO: LA FILOSOFIA DI GIOVE -- ROMA -- FILOSOFIA ITALIANA -- LUIGI SPERANZA

 

Grice e Giuliano: la filosofia di Giove -- Roma -- filosofia italiana – Luigi Speranza – Filosofo italiano. Grice: “When I think Giuliano, I think Donizetti – and Poliuto’s lions!” -- Flavio Claudio Giuliano (in latino: Flavius Claudius Iulianus; Costantinopoli), filosofo. L’ultimo sovrano dichiaratamente pagano, che tenta, senza successo, di riformare e di restaurare la religione romana dopo che essa era caduta in decadenza di fronte alla diffusione del cristianesimo. Sometimes known as ‘the Apostate,’ Giuliano was a Roman emperor, who died in battle at the early age of 32 exclaiming the infamous “Galileans, ye won!” as the arrow penetrated in his breast. A naturally gifted scholar, Giuliano stuied philosophy under Massimo di Efeso and had many philosophical friends and acquaintances, including Saturnino Secondo Salutio, Prisco, and Imerio. Although his philosophical outlook was what he described as ‘generally eclectic,’ he had a special fondness for the Accademia, and a particular hostily to the Cinargo. Keen to eliminate the Galileans, as he called the sect originated after the death of Gesu di Nazareth, in fact he left them rather ‘to their own devices,’ although removing some of their privileges. His letters and speeches survive – many on deep philosophical issues (‘What is universal about worshipping a man born in Galilee who claimed to be the son of God – and born of a virgin?’). Grice: “There are various Griceian problems when approaching Giuliano from a Griceian perspective. It all reminds me of my father, a non-Conformist, in a household comprised of my High-Church mother and Catholic convert aunt! At Oxford, and in fact, before then, at Clifton, I learned that religion has nothing to do with i. Nobody believes that Giove raped Ganymede – it’s a tale! Giuliano has been unjustly treated counterfactually. Historians, seeing that Giuliano’s fight was useless, dismiss it. But this is a weak argument. I might just as well dismiss Mussolini’s plans because we English bombed Milano! Giuliano read too much of what the Hebrews call ‘the Holy Writ’ – but his propositions should be taken separately, one by one. In a way reminiscent of Arnold (in his Ebraism and Ellenismo), Giuliano proposes to us an examination of things like ‘Jesus was the son of God, therefore he was God.’ Aeneas was divinized by Virgil, so the Romans shouldn’t count as good critics here. A nice story involves Giuliano and Arete, a philosopher to whom Giamblico di Calcide dedicated one of his books. It seems likely that she was one of his pupils. Her neighbours (presumably Christians) tried to get her thrown out of her home, but the emperor Giuliano himself went to Phrygia to help her. Giuliano. Keywords: pagano, ennico, prima Roma, terza Roma. Refs.: Luigi Speranza, “Grice e Giuliano” – The Swimming-Pool Library.