Julian’s Batavian campaign, an embezzlement trial in Britain, and barbarian access to the Annona Militaris

Abstract

In his Epitaphios for the emperor Julian, composed in Antioch at some point between 365 and 368, Libanius describes an embezzlement trial which was held most likely in A.D. 359, in which Julian ruled against the accused, defying the wishes of Constantius II’s Praetorian Prefect, Florentius. Libanius puzzlingly suggests that the trial prompted Julian’s campaign to restore fortresses in 359 in Batavia, to restore shipments of British grain being blockaded by barbarian forces, and there is some chronological confusion in other sources between this event and Julian’s campaign in Batavia in 358. Scholars have yet to explain the causal and chronological relationship between these events. This article suggests that Libanius’ narrative is a propagandistic representation of several distinct stages of the taxation dispute Julian fought with Florentius. With the aid of recent advances in our archaeological understanding of agricultural practices in Britain and on the lower Rhine, the article argues that in response to this dispute, Julian’s Batavian campaign was intended to disrupt longstanding access by barbarians on the lower Rhine to the later Empire’s military supply mechanisms. The article suggests further that this has significant ramifications for the emergence of Saxon piracy in the second half of the fourth century, and thus the roots of the so-called ‘Anglo-Saxon’ migration to Britain.