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 (\u3a0\u3b1\u3c4\u3c1\u3cc\u3ba\u3bb\u1ff3) 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 (\u3c0\u3b1\u3c4\u3c1\u1f76 \u3c6\u3af\u3bb\u1ff3) and what he means: Constantius\u2019 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\u2019s ancestor Constantine, Constantius\u2019 father and Julian\u2019s uncle
