Un’antitesi amplificata? Aspetti di Costantino e Giuliano a partire dall’Apologia pro Zosimo di Löwenklau

Abstract

The article starts from an analysis of Johannes Löwenklau's Apologia pro Zosimo adversus Evagrii, Nicephori Callisti et aliorum acerbas criminationes, Basel 1576 to show how the antithesis between Constantine and Julian is an amplified antithesis. Thinking of the two figures standardised as antithetical, Julian cannot be schematically contrasted with the new faith in the name of the Olympian faith, as he not only practises and proclaims tolerance, but is syncretist. Constantine himself can be described as a tolerant emperor, an attitude closely linked to a particularly elaborate 'pagan strategy' that can be found by simultaneously considering epigraphy, numismatics and Latin panegyrics.