Identité du prince et discours impérial: le cas de Julien

This paper considers the epigraphic evidence about Julian’s titulature and the specific discourse which can be analysed from that point of view in order to account for what was Julian’s conception of imperial power. Building upon a limited but significant number of inscriptions (less than two hundreds), we can ascertain in Julian’s and his chancellery’s discourse a much more traditional statio principis than usually surmised. It can be assumed that the most important aspects of the imperial titulature and its evolution during the 3^rd and 4^th centuries AD are relevant to Julian’s identity. The “Apostate” is much more an “Augustan” princeps, even if some texts can present peculiar aspects of his personality: the master of Philosophy and the pagan devout. The emperor is always presented as the protector of the Empire, an orbis terrarum identified with a single Vrbs, the eternal Rome, but now the new Romè, Constantinopolis.