Page "Julian the Apostate" Paragraph 63

After gaining the purple, Julian started a religious reformation of the state, which was intended to restore the lost strength of the Roman state.

He supported the restoration of Hellenistic paganism as the state religion.

His laws tended to target wealthy and educated Christians, and his aim was not to destroy Christianity but to drive the religion out of " the governing classes of the empire — much as Buddhism was driven back into the lower classes by a revived Confucian mandarinate in 13th century China.