ABSTRACT
Julian's plan to restore the pagan cults to the cities was put into effect as soon as he entered Constantinople through decrees ordering that 'the temples be opened, victims brought to the altars and the worship of the gods restored'. Julian emphasized his divine right by asserting his link with the Constantinian dynasty in symbolical fashion. Julian assigns Fortune the leading role in politics, which he knows to be a field where virtue and a wise policy can often prove of no avail. He saw to it that inscriptions greeting him as the man 'born for the good of the State', come 'to extirpate the vices of the past'. What Julian's panegyrists described as 'liberty' was the suppression of some of the more striking innovations of the recent past, and a partial return to the traditions of Hellenism and Romanitas. As a united principle Hellenism and Romanitas inspired Julian's administrative reform.
