AE Follis AE1, A.D. 361-363, Nicomedia, 29.5mm, 8.41g, 180°, RIC VIII 121.
Obv: D N FL CL IVLIANVS P F AVG. Diademed, draped and cuirassed bust right.
Rev: SECVRITAS REIPVB. Bull standing right, two stars above; NIKB in ex.
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Flavius Claudius Julianus, commonly known as Julian, Julian II, Julian the Apostate or Julian the Philosopher, was Roman Emperor from 360 to 363 and a noted philosopher and Greek writer. A member of the Constantinian dynasty, he was made Caesar by Constantius II in 355 and took command of the western provinces. During his reign he campaigned successfully against the Alamanni and Franks. Most notable was his crushing victory over the Alamanni in 357 at the Battle of Argentoratum - despite being outnumbered. In 360 he was acclaimed Augustus by his soldiers, sparking a civil war between Julian and Constantius. However, Constantius died before the two could face each other in battle, naming Julian as his rightful successor.

In 363, Julian embarked on an ambitious campaign against the Sassanid Empire. In one engagement on 26 June 363, the indecisive Battle of Samarra near Maranga, Julian was wounded when the Sassanid army raided his column. In the haste of pursuing the retreating enemy, Julian chose speed rather than caution, taking only his sword and leaving his coat of mail. He received a wound from a spear that reportedly pierced the lower lobe of his liver, the peritoneum and intestines. The wound was not immediately deadly. Julian was treated by his personal physician, Oribasius of Pergamum, who seems to have made every attempt to treat the wound. This probably included the irrigation of the wound with a dark wine, and a procedure known as gastrorrhaphy, the suturing of the damaged intestine. On the third day a major hemorrhage occurred and the emperor died during the night.

As he had requested, Julian's body was buried in a tomb outside the city of Tarsus. But we learn from Zonaras that at some later date his body was exhumed and reburied in or near the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople, where Constantine and the rest of his family lay. The church was demolished after the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Today a sarcophagus of porphyry is identified as his and stands in the grounds of the Archaeological Museum in Istanbul.