Emperor Julian

Flavius Claudius Julianus (331–363 AD), known as Julian the Apostate, was the last non-Christian Roman Emperor. A dedicated Neoplatonist and initiate into several mystery cults, he attempted to revitalize paganism against the rising tide of Christianity.

Julian and the Hermetic Tradition

As documented in Hermetica II, Julian held Hermes Trismegistus in the highest esteem. In his Hymn to King Helios and his polemic Against the Galileans, Julian references the teachings of Hermes regarding the structure of the cosmos and the emanation of the gods. Julian utilized the Hermetic and Iamblichan framework of theurgy to construct his "pagan church," arguing that the ancient revelations of Thoth-Hermes were vastly superior to the relatively recent scriptures of the Christians.

Scholarly Interpretation

Garth Fowden views Julian as the culmination of the philosophical-magical synthesis of Late Antiquity. Julian's reliance on Hermetic authority (alongside the Chaldean Oracles) demonstrates how the Corpus Hermeticum had been elevated from obscure Egyptian temple wisdom into the canonical scripture of the imperial Neoplatonic resistance. Cyril of Alexandria's massive refutation of Julian (which preserves so many Hermetic fragments) was a direct response to Julian's successful weaponization of the Hermetic tradition.