Julius and Aaron

Julius and Aaron (also Julian) were two Romano-British Christian saints who were martyred around the third century AD. Along with Saint Alban, they are the only named Christian martyrs from Roman Britain. Most historians place the martyrdom in Caerleon, although other suggestions have placed it in Chester or Leicester. Their feast day was traditionally celebrated on 1 July, but it is now observed together with Alban on 20 June by the Roman Catholic and Anglican Churches.

The earliest surviving account of Julius and Aaron comes from Gildas, a monk writing in Western Britain during the sixth century. How accurate his account of events that occurred three centuries before is remains unknown; Gildas' account was later repeated by the eighth-century Anglo-Saxon monk Bede. References to Julius and Aaron were included in the work of later medieval authors like Geoffrey of Monmouth and Giraldus Cambrensis.

Gildas implied that a martyrium dedicated to Julius and Aaron was present by the sixth century, and a chapel dedicated to the saints certainly in existence near Caerleon by the ninth century, when it was recorded in a land charter. In the early twelfth century, the church passed into the property of the new Goldcliff Priory, and by 1142 had been renamed in dedication to St Alban as well as Julius and Aaron, reflecting the growing popularity of the former's cult. In later centuries, the chapel's associations with Julius and Aaron were forgotten. By the time of the sixteenth-century English Reformation, when the chapel was abandoned and perhaps converted into a barn, it was solely referred to as a Church of Saint Alban. The building fell into dilapidation and no longer survives.

Julius and Aaron are two of the three Christian martyrs recorded as having lived in Roman Britain, the other being St Alban. Nothing is known of them except for their martyrdom. The name "Aaron" is Hebrew and might suggest an individual of Jewish heritage. The name was exceptionally rare in both Jewish and Christian contexts at that time. The name "Julius" was extremely common among the soldiers at Caerleon, reflecting either descent from one of the Julio-Claudian Coloniae or a name taken on enlistment in the army. Although Caerleon was a major military base in western Britain, there was a civilian settlement association with the fort, and thus Julius and Aaron could have been civilians rather than soldiers.

The Roman military fort at Caerleon held the Legio II Augusta, and witnessed much usage under the Roman Emperors Septimius Severus and Caracalla although saw a reduction in its occupation during the third century, when much of the legion was stationed elsewhere. The fort fell out of use between circa 287 and 296, when many of its buildings were demolished. The core of the legion were reassigned to the Richborough Fort in modern Kent. Given the abandonment of the fort at the end of the third century, it is unlikely that Julius and Aaron would have been killed as part of the anti-Christian persecutions which took place in the early fourth century.

It is more probable that they might have been executed during one of the phases of anti-Christian agitation which broke out in the empire during the mid-third century, particularly between 249 and 251 under Emperor Decius and then between 257 and 259 under Valerian. More broadly, Jeremy K. Knight noted that it probably took place at some point between Septimius Severus' prohibition on anyone converting to Christianity and Aurelian's death in 275, for his successor Constantius Chlorus did not reportedly execute Christians but restricted himself to the demolition of their churches.

The primary evidence for Julius and Aaron comes from the writings of Gildas, who was writing somewhere in western Britain during the early to mid sixth century. There remains a question as to how the events that likely took place in third-century Caerleon were transmitted to Gildas, writing three centuries later. There is also the question as to how accurate his information about the events of the Romano-British past was; some of his claims, such as that Hadrian's Wall was built by Septimius Severus, were incorrect. Jeremy K. Knight believed that Gildas' information on Julius and Aaron should be taken seriously, for he was "a muddled, but honest, witness" to the information he received.

Gildas' De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae is the first surviving source to mention them, and he writes that during the Diocletian persecution, "God... kindled up among us bright luminaries of holy martyrs.... Such were St. Alban of Verulam, Aaron and Julius, citizens of the city of legions and the rest, of both sexes, who in different places stood their ground in the Christian contest." Bede, drawing on Gildas, says in the Ecclesiastical History of the English People that in the same persecution during which Alban was martyred, so "suffered Aaron and Julius, citizens of Caerleon, and many others of both sexes throughout the land. After they had endured many horrible physical tortures, death brought an end to their struggles."