The remarkable bestseller about the fourth-century Roman emperor who famously tr
ied to halt the spread of Christianity,Julian is widely regarded as one of Gore
Vidal's finest historical novels.
Julian the Apostate, nephew of Constantine
the Great, was one of the brightest yet briefest lights in the history of the Ro
man Empire. A military genius on the level of Julius Caesar and Alexander the Gr
eat, a graceful and persuasive essayist, and a philosopher devoted to worshippin
g the gods of Hellenism, he became embroiled in a fierce intellectual war with C
hristianity that provoked his murder at the age of thirty-two, only four years i
nto his brilliantly humane and compassionate reign. A marvelously imaginative an
d insightful novel of classical antiquity, Julian captures the religious and pol
itical ferment of a desperate age and restores with blazing wit and vigor the le
gacy of an impassioned ruler.
