Gaius Julius Cicurinus

Saint Julius of the Caeline
Julius in a sacramentary c. 1100
Archduke of Urceopolis
Born	Gaius Julius Cicurninus 1 April 714 (attributed) Urceopolis, Duchy of Urceopolis
Died	24 July 800 Urceopolis, Archduchy of Urceopolis
Venerated in	Catholic Church
Canonized	24 July 1097, Urceopolis by Pope Urban II
Major shrine	Basilica of Saint Julius, Urceopolis
Feast	24 July
Attributes	Crown, throne, scepter
Patronage	Urcea, Urcean monarchs, Urcean politicians

Gaius Julius Cicurninus (714 – 24 July 800), commonly known as Saint Julius of the Caeline was the first Archduke of Urceopolis and last Dux of Urceopolis, ruling from his election as Dux in 749, then from his coronation as Archduke from 759 until his death in 800. He is considered the founder of the Julian dynasty. In addition to founding the still-reigning Julian dynasty and successfully integrating his realm into the nascent Levantine Empire, Cicurinus also was a major proponent of Gaelic integration within Urceopolitan society, and for both his dynastic and cultural achievements he is considered to be the "founding father" of Urcea.

Sources

Contemporary sources about Cicurinus are sparse, although some of his own writings describing events in the late 750s survive. For many years, hagiographies of the Saint from the 12th and 13th centuries were relied upon as key historical sources, with many of these documents only being called into question in the 1850s.

Marriage

In 751, Cicurinus married Neronia, the daughter of the head of the Neronii clan, Aulus Neronius Urbicus, one of the most powerful magnates in the Urceopolis region and a major force in the city's politics. The marriage secured an alliance between the Julii and Neronii that would survive Cicurinus's lifetime, lasting more than a century through the lives of his children. The alliance gave Cicurinus a freer hand against the other prominent families of the city. For their part, the marriage between Neronia and Cicurnus is believed by most historians to have been a happy one, producing two sons and four daughters that would survive to adulthood.

Neronia died in 772 after two decades of marriage that would see her husband reach soaring political heights both in Urceopolis and throughout greater Levantia. She was buried in a now-lost mausoleum on the grounds of the Julian Palace. Following her death, Cicurinus would embrace celibacy.

Later life

Co-reign with Usdenicus Maximus

In 780, Cicurinus would crown his son, now named Gaius Julius Cicurinus Usdenicus Maximus (usually just known by his agonomen), as co-Archduke. The remaining two decades of Circirinus's life would see alternating phases of productive cooperative rule alongside his son and bitter struggles between father and son.

Although moderately successful, the co-reign of Cicurinus and Usdenicus Maximus dissuaded the adoption of coregency as a future practice in Urcea, and it is the only such example of coregency in the Julian dynasty.

Death and legacy

Cicurinus appears to have begun suffering complications from various diseases and ailments beginning in the early 790s. Already in his mid 70s, he had lived an impressively long time among those contemporaries of his in power. Most historians believe he retired from public life and gave most of his remaining authority to his son in or around 795, retiring to a monastery. He would remain in seclusive prayer until his death on 24 July 800 at a remarkable 86 years old. Although some early medieval rumors and legends suggested he was poisoned by his son, historians agree that he almost certainly succame to old age. Upon his death, his son Usdenicus Maximus assumed sole control of the Archduchy of Urceopolis.

In ruling the Duchy of Urceopolis and Archduchy of Urceopolis for more than half a century, Cicurinus both introduced major social and political changes and was also a beneficiary of them. By his shrewd decision to embrace, rather than resist, Conchobar and Gallawa, he not only ensured the survival of his dynasty but enhanced it as it was expanded to Harren. These actions allowed for the propagation of the Julian dynasty, one of the most important familal dynasties in world history. The alliance between Cicurinus and Conchobar also ensured direct inheritance succession within the Archduchy of Urceopolis. On his own, Cicurinus successfully began the process of legally recognizing the integration of the Gaels into Urceopolitan society, which was an important milestone in the development of the Urcean people; for his work in this field, Cicurinus is largely remembered as the "founding father" of Urcea. Cicurinus also contributed significantly to the Catholic Church, not only defending Catholic areas against the advance of the Audonian Christian Hištanšahr, but also sponsoring major missionary efforts among them and the Gothic peoples, the latter of which bore significant fruit. Besides his accomplishments in life, his personal piety made him a figure immediately imitated by his successors, playing an important role in the development of the eventual Apostolic Kingship of Urcea as one in part reliant on piety and positive relations with the Church.

Veneration as a saint

Almost immediately following his death, a devotional cult arose around Cicurinus, who was venerated as a fair and pious ruler as well as a celebate and sometimes monastic later in his life. By the mid-9th century, he was universally hailed throughout the early Levantine Empire as a model Christian ruler. Although considered a Saint by some as early at 900, formal canonization by the Pope did not occur until 1097, when he was canonized as "Saint Julius of the Caeline", named for the hill on which the Julian Palace sits. Following his canonization, his remains were exhumed from the Julian Palace and largely relocated to the under-construction Basilica of Saint Julius in Urceopolis, though some of his relics were divided throughout the city for construction of new churches, and some were also sent to Cálfeld, the cathedral city of Harren.