View source for Salutius

{{short description|Roman official and Neoplatonist author}}
{{Infobox person
| image         = File:EPMA-10401-CILIII459-Julian letter-3.JPG
| caption       = Edict from [[Emperor Julian]] to Secundus, prefect of the Eastern Praetorium concerning the judgment of minor cases. Latin copy found at [[Amorgos]]. around 362 AD
| name          = Salutius
| birth_name    = Saturninius Secundus
| birth_date    = 4th century
| death_date    = 4th century
| nationality   = Roman
| other_names   =
| occupation    = Bureaucrat and author
| years_active  = {{fl}} 355–367
| notable_works = ''On the Gods and the Cosmos''
| office        = Governor of [[Gallia Aquitania|Aquitania]]<br>Governor of [[Africa (Roman province)|Africa]]<br>''Magister memoriae''<br>[[Praetorian prefect]]
| children      = 1 son{{sfn|Jones|Martindale|Morris|p=815}}
}}
'''Saturninius Secundus Salutius''' ({{fl}} 355–367) was a Roman official and [[Neoplatonist]] author. A native of [[Roman Gaul|Gaul]], he had a successful career as a provincial governor and officer at the imperial court, becoming a close friend and adviser of the Emperor [[Julian (emperor)|Julian]].<ref name=brill/> Salutius was well versed in Greek philosophy and rhetoric, and had a reputation for competence and incorruptibility in office.{{sfn|Athanassiadi|p=68}}{{sfn|Jones|Martindale|Morris|p=816}} He authored a Neoplatonic religious treatise titled ''On the Gods and the Cosmos'', in support of Julian's pagan reaction against Christianity.<ref>''[[Oxford Classical Dictionary]]'', "[https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.5675 Sallustius, author]"</ref>
==Life==
Salutius's official name was Saturninius Secundus, as he is called in inscriptions and official documents. The {{lang|la|signum}}, or informal name, 'Salutius', sometimes 'Salustius', was otherwise the main way to refer to him.{{sfn|Seeck|loc=col. 2072}}{{sfn|Barnes|p=62}} He was born to a non-[[Roman Senate|senatorial]] family in [[Roman Gaul]], and was a pagan.<ref name=brill>''[[Brill's New Pauly]]'', "[https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/brill-s-new-pauly/secundus-e1106280 Secundus]"</ref> His career included governorships of [[Gallia Aquitania]] and [[Africa (Roman province)|Africa]], as well as the position of ''magister memoriae'' at the imperial court. He probably held these offices under the emperor [[Constans]], as he was already an old man by the time he was assigned to the staff of [[Julian (emperor)|Julian Caesar]] in Gaul.{{sfn|Jones|Martindale|Morris|p=816}} It was probably through his counsel that Julian developed the skills of administration he displayed in Gaul. In 359 AD, [[Constantius II]] removed him from Gaul.{{sfn|Athanassiadi|p=68}}{{sfn|Bowersock|pp=44–45}}
When Julian became sole emperor, he raised Salutius to [[Praetorian prefecture of the East|praetorian prefect of the Orient]] late in 361. One of Salutius' early tasks was to oversee the [[Chalcedon tribunal]].<ref>Ammianus Marcellinus, ''Res Gestae'', 22.3.1.</ref> Salutius accompanied his emperor on the Persian campaign, during which Julian was killed. As a sign of their great respect for him, the military command first nominated him to become their emperor, but Salutius refused the honor, pleading illness and old age, and the purple then fell to [[Jovian (emperor)|Jovian]].<ref>Bowersock, p. 118.</ref><ref>Ammianus Marcellinus, ''Res Gestae'', 25.5.3.</ref> After the return from Persia, Salutius continued in the office of praetorian prefect during the reign of [[Valentinian I|Valentinian]] until he was replaced by Nebridius.<ref>Ammianus Marcellinus, ''Res Gestae'', 26.7.4.</ref>
==''On the Gods and the Cosmos''==
Salutius, and not his contemporary [[Flavius Sallustius]], is almost certainly to be identified as the {{lang|grc-latn|Salustios}} ({{langx|grc|Σαλούστιος}}) who, according to [[Photios I of Constantinople|Photios]], wrote the theological pamphlet ''On the Gods and the Cosmos'' ({{lang|grc|Περὶ θεῶν καὶ κόσμου}} ''Peri theōn kai kosmou'').{{sfn|Bowersock|pp=86, 125}}{{sfn|Athanassiadi|pp=68, 154}}{{sfn|Desnier|p=53}}<ref>R.B.E. Smith, Julian's Gods: Religion and Philosophy in the Thought and Action of Julian the Apostate (Routledge, 1995), pp. 33, 236</ref><ref>Döbler, Religious Education in Pre-Modern Europe (Brill, 2012), p. 118 (and note 84)</ref>
The work, a kind of catechism of 4th-century [[Hellenistic religion|Hellenic paganism]], owes much to that of [[Iamblichus of Chalcis]], who synthesized [[Platonism]] with [[Pythagoreanism]] and [[theurgy]], and also to Julian's own philosophical writings.<ref>Nock 1926:xcvii</ref> The treatise is quite concise, and generally free of the lengthy metaphysical theorizing of the more detailed Neoplatonic texts. Its aim is in part "to parry the usual onslaughts of Christian polemic" in the face of [[Christianity]]'s growing preeminence, and "me[e]t theology with theology".<ref>Nock 1926:cii</ref>
===Editions===
* [[Gilbert Murray]].  1925  "On the Gods and the World," appended to Murray's ''Five Stages of Greek Religion'', first published in 1912 as ''Four Stages of Greek Religion.''
* Arthur Darby Nock (ed/trans.). 1926. ''Sallustius concerning the gods and the universe. Edited with prolegomena and translation.'' Available in various reprints, for example {{ISBN|0-89005-550-5}} and {{ISBN|3-487-01413-0}}.
* Gabriel Rochefort.  1960. ''Des dieux et du monde''.  Edition of the Greek text, with French translation and notes, in the [[Collection Budé]].
* [[Thomas Taylor (neoplatonist)|Thomas Taylor]] (ed/trans.). 1793. ''Sallust, On the gods and the world; and the Pythagoric sentences of Demophilus, translated from the Greek; and five hymns by Proclus, in the original Greek, with a poetical version. To which are added five hymns by the translator.'' Reprinted many times, for example {{ISBN|0-7661-6735-6}}.
==Citations==
{{reflist|2}}
==References==
* {{cite book |last=Athanassiadi |year=1992 |first=Polymnia |title=Julian: An Intellectual Biography |publisher=Routledge |place=London |orig-year=1981 |isbn=0-415-07763-X |url={{googlebooks|I_lQAwAAQBAJ|plainurl=y}} |authorlink=Polymnia Athanassiadi |ref={{sfnref|Athanassiadi}} }}
* {{cite book |last=Barnes |year=1998 |first=Timothy D. |title=Ammianus Marcellinus and the Representation of Historical Reality |publisher=Cornell University Press |place=Ithaca, NY |isbn=0-8014-3526-9 |title-link=iarchive:ammianusmarcelli0000barn |authorlink=Timothy Barnes (classicist) |ref={{sfnref|Barnes}} }}
* {{cite book |last=Bowersock |year=1978 |first=G.W. |title=Julian the Apostate |publisher=Duckworth |place=London |isbn=0-7156-1262-X |title-link=iarchive:julianapostate0000bowe |author-link=Glen Bowersock |ref={{sfnref|Bowersock}} }}
* {{cite journal |last=Desnier |year=1983 |first=J.L. |title=Salutius – Salustius |journal=Revue des Études Anciennes |volume=85 |pages=53–65 |doi=10.3406/rea.1983.4146 |eissn=2540-2544 |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/rea_0035-2004_1983_num_85_1_4146 |ref={{sfnref|Desnier}} }}
* {{cite book |last=Jones |year=1971 |first=A.H.M. |author2=J.R. Martindale |author3=J. Morris |title=The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire volume I: A.D. 260–395 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=0-521-07233-6 |url={{googlebooks|uOHw4idqAeYC|plainurl=y}} |name-list-style=amp |authorlink=A. H. M. Jones |authorlink2=John Robert Martindale |authorlink3=John Morris (historian) |ref={{sfnref|Jones|Martindale|Morris}} }}
* {{wikicite |reference=[[Otto Seeck|Seeck, Otto]], "[[s:de:RE:Salutius|Salutius]]", ''[[Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft]]'', volume 1 A.2, columns 2072–2075 (Stuttgart, 1920).|ref={{sfnref|Seeck}} }}
{{Julian (emperor)}}
[[Category:4th-century Gallo-Roman people]]
[[Category:Comites]]
[[Category:Late-Roman-era pagans]]
[[Category:Neoplatonists]]
[[Category:Praetorian prefects of the East]]
[[Category:Roman governors of Africa]]
[[Category:Roman governors of Gallia Aquitania]]
[[Category:Julian (emperor)]]