Jovian

Jovian was emperor for eight months and gave away the eastern frontier to get home. Born around 331 in Singidunum, modern Belgrade, he was a Christian officer of the guard whose father had been a senior commander. He held no distinguished command and was not a candidate for anything. He was elected in June 363 in the field in Mesopotamia, in a crisis with no precedent. Julian had invaded Persia, burned his own fleet on the Euphrates, failed to take Ctesiphon, and been speared in a skirmish during the retreat — leaving a Roman army deep inside enemy territory, short of supplies, with no emperor and no heir. The officers offered the purple to the praetorian prefect Salutius, who declined on grounds of age, and then to Jovian, who was junior enough to be nobody's rival. Shapur II had only to wait. Jovian negotiated within days and accepted terms that ceded five provinces beyond the Tigris, the fortress cities of Nisibis and Singara, and Roman claims over Armenia, for a thirty-year peace. Nisibis had held against three Persian sieges and had never fallen. Its population was expelled and it passed to Persia intact, which contemporaries regarded as the disgrace of the settlement. He reversed Julian's pagan restoration, restored privileges to the Christian churches, and issued an edict of toleration. He died in February 364 at Dadastana on the road to Constantinople, found dead in his room — attributed to charcoal fumes, undercooked mushrooms, or murder. Nisibis remained Persian, and Rome's eastern frontier stayed where he left it for two centuries.

• Lived: 331 CE – 364 CE
• Nationality: Roman
• Roles: emperor, head_of_state, military_leader