A correspondent has advised me that Matthew Crawford is engaged in making the first ever English translation of Cyril of Alexandria’s Contra Julianum, the 10-book work refuting Julian the Apostate’s attack on the Christians. And it is true! Dr C. has uploaded the preface and opening sections of book1 to his Academia.edu account here.
This is excellent news. Making an English translation is going to be very hard work; some “900 pages of difficult Greek”. But it is great to learn that someone is going to attempt it.
More power to his elbow!
Dear Sir,
I am very curious about the very first instance of the usage of the epithet “apostate” for Julian. Do you know, or think, it was more or less contemporary, or who among the subsequent Church Fathers or historians made this epithet stick with Julian’s name?
Many thanks in advance with greetings from Mardin in Turkey.
Yours sincerely,
Kutlu Akalin
I do not know. He is known as Julian the Apostate in modern English. I don’t know the history of the description. An interesting question…
I see the term in use in 1689.
According to Lampe’s Lexicon, ἀποστάτης is applied to Julian by Gregory Nazianzen: Or. 21.26 (Migne 35 1112C) & carm. 1.2.34.247 (Migne 37 963A); Philostorgius: Hist. Eccl. 7.7 (Migne 65 544C); and Socrates: Hist. Eccl. 3.12.1 (Migne 67 412A).