Emperor Julian’s Policy on the Jews

Declaration of March 1, 363 CE

363

To the Community of the Jews

[ . . . ] Wishing you to fare even better, I have recommended to my brother Julus, the most reverent patriarch, that that which is called among you apostle-tax be abolished, and that in the future no one could harm your multitudes by exacting such taxes, so that you shall have freedom from care in every way during my…

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Addressed to the Jews of imperial Rome, this declaration is thought to have been publicized from Antioch in March 363 CE, just as war with Persia was getting underway. It includes three general measures regarding Julian’s policy toward the Jews: nullification of outstanding debts owed from illicit taxes exacted from the Jews in former times, resettlement of Jews in the recently Christianized city of Jerusalem, and, importantly, advice to Hillel II—in the text, Julus the Patriarch— to abrogate the “apostle tax” (a tax collected by “apostles,” members of the Sanhedrin, that was used for the support of the patriarch and his household) and other similar taxes. While earlier scholarship tended to find this imperial declaration inconsistent with other writings attributed to Julian, most scholars today consider the work authentic. See also The Temple Almost Rebuilt.

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