In an autobiographical passage of Misopogon 351a-b Julian explains his strong aversion to theatre and circus and why still adolescent he was ordered by emperor Constantius II to attend to such spectacles. A textual error (Πατρόκλῳ) in the Homeric formula (Il. I 572 and 578) used by Julian to allude to the motivation of that order has obscured what he wrote (πατρὶ φίλῳ) and what he means: Constantius’ aim was both to corrupt Julian and to involve him in the program of moral debasement of the empire through theatre and spectacles inaugurated by the royal family’s ancestor Constantine, Constantius’ father and Julian’s uncle.
