Religious Intolerance in the Later Roman Empire - Bad request ...

curtail an avenue of approach for them rather than as an attack on the Arians
themselves.
Of course Athanasius would tend to portray Jovian as sympathetic to the
Nicene cause, but despite this it does seem fairly certain that Jovian had no desire to be
drawn into ecclesiastical politics so early in his reign. Only with the persistence of the
Arian petitioners, and at their third attempt, was Jovian obliged to involve himself in
the affair and that obligation may have been due to the apparent circumstances of the
third petition in that Jovian appears to have been sitting in his judicial capacity
expecting petitions from the crowd who in turn expected a response and therefore he
could not avoid the situation. When he finally did give some indication of his
position, he reversed the policy of both his predecessors and restored Athanasius to the
see of Alexandria. This seems counter-intuitive. In light of the recent defeats inflicted
by the Persians and the Roman withdrawal from Mesopotamia, it may have been
reasonable to expect Jovian to have continued with the policies of his Christian
predecessor Constantius, at least until he felt himself secure enough in his new position
to push forward his own religious policy. Lenski suggests that the restoration of
Athanasius was in practice unavoidable as he had now become “an icon of orthodoxy
in the west.” 5 Socrates however has a revealing quote from the emperor in which
Jovian is reported as saying that he “would not molest any one on account of his
religious sentiments, and that he should love and highly esteem such as would
zealously promote the unity of the church.” 6 As such, Jovian may have been less
inclined with doctrinal questions and hence more inclined to tolerate Athanasius for
the sake of unity and peace, rather than because he necessarily agreed with the bishop.
The Ecclesiastical historians however are keen to present Jovian as an
instinctive Orthodox Christian. Socrates records that he had long considered himself a
Nicene rather than anything else and also records that on his accession he recalled all
5 Lenski (2002) 238
92