A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

surnamed ECLANENSIS for the sake of distinction, is conspicuous in the ecclesiastical history of the fifth century as one of the ablest supporters of Pelagius. His father, Memorius or Memor, who is believed to have presided over the see of Capua, was connected by close friendship with St. Augustine and Paulinus of Nola, the latter of whom celebrated the nuptials of the son with Ia, daughter of Aemilius, bishop of Beneventum, in a poem breathing the warmest affection towards the different members of the family. Julianus early in life devoted himself to the duties of the priesthood, and after passing through the subordinate grades of reader, deacon, and probably presbyter also, was ordained to the episcopal charge of Eclanum in Apulia, by Innocentius, about A. D. 416. No suspicion seems to have attached to his orthodoxy until he refused to sign the Tractoria or public denunciation of Coelestius and Pelagius, forwarded

by Zosimus in 418 to the authorities of the Christian church throughout the world. This act of contumacy, in which he was supported by many prelates of Southern Italy and Sicily, was soon followed by the banishment of himself and his adherents in terms of the imperial edict. Quitting his native country, he repaired to Constantinople, but being driven from thence, took refuge in Cilicia with Theodorus of Mopsuestia, with whom he remained for several years. In 428 we find him again at Constantinople, patronised by Nestorius, who addressed two letters to pope Coelestinus on behalf of the exile. But in 429 Marius Mercator arrived, and by the charges contained in the Commonitorium [MARIUS MERCATOR], presented to Theodosius, procured the expulsion of the heretics from the capital of the East. Having been formally condemned by the great council of Ephesus, in 431, Julianus appears to have lived in obscurity until 439, when he made a last desperate effort to recover his station and privileges; but the attempt having been frustrated by the firmness of Sixtus II., his name from this time forward disappears entirely from history, if we except the statement of Gennadius, who records that he died under Valentinian, and therefore not later than A. D. 455, having previously swelled the number of his followers by distributing his whole fortune among the poor, to alleviate their sufferings during a famine.

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