JO'VIA'NUS, CLAUDIUS. Roman Emperor (A.D. 363-364), the son of Varonianus, a noted general of the period. lie was captain of the life guards (roues ordinis domesticorum) of the Emperor Julian, attending him in his disas trous campaign against the Persians. Julian having fallen in battle. Jovianus was proclaimed his successor by the army. His first task was to save his army. harassed by the Persians. and suf fering greatly for want of provisions. He reached the Tigris in safety, hut found it impossible to cross, exposed as he was to attack from the Persian force. The Persian King Sapor proposed as terms of peace that the Romans should sur render their conquests west of the Tigris, together with the fortress of Nisibis, and many other strongholds in .Mesopotamia, and should bind themselves not to aid the Armenians, with whom the Pel•sians were then at war. llis troops being in great distress, Jovianus submitted and marehed westward. Ile surrendered Nisibis to the Per sians, the inhabitants removing to Amida, which became the chief Roman town in :Mesopotamia On his arrival at Antioch lie proclaimed himselt a Christian, and rescinded the edicts of Julian against the Christians, granting protection to such as remained pagans. Ile upheld the Nicene
or orthodox creed, against the Aria us, and re• stored the bishops who had suffered at their hands. lle reinstated Athanasins in the Sec of Alexandria, from which he had been driven by the Arians. Acknowledged by the various prov inces, he set out from Antioch for Constantinople, stopping at Tarsus to pay funeral honor, to Julian's remains. Continuing his journey in un usually severe cold, of which several of his at tendants died, he reached Ancyra, where he assumed consular dignity, and a few days after came to Dadastana in Galatia. The next morn ing. February 17. A.D. 364. he was found dead in his bed. Some attribute his death to suffocation from the fumes of a charcoal fire in his room; others, \•ill more probability, to the dagger or poison of an assassin. Ile was thirty-three years of age, and had reigned seven months. Valen tinian I. was proclaimed Emperor by the army.