Julian - Book

Julian: Rome's Last Pagan Emperor by Philip Freeman, 2023. This book is part of the Ancient Lives series and tells the story of the tragic life of Julian, a nephew of Constantine The Great, and the last non-Christian emperor of Rome.

I was totally fascinated with this biography of Julian and his short life as a scholar, soldier and empire administrator. His brief two year reign as emperor was controversial. I was not familiar with him and only heard of him in passing or a footnote in some books I'd read on ancient Rome. He was mostly called Julian The Apostate but of course the history of Rome was written by Christian scholars. His attempt to rid the Roman Empire of Christian influence was an amazing story and that it occurred in the 360's after the reign of Constantine The Great where Christianity was made the state religion. Julian's goal was to bring back the religion of the old Roman gods. Christianity had become the religion of the ruling class of Rome but not the general public who were still basically pagan. He really could have changed history had it not been for a random Persian spear. The author's judicious use of original contemporary sources was very interesting.

I've always enjoyed reading histories and especially books about ancient Rome, Greece, Byzantium, Persia, China, India, the Aztecs, etc. I haven't read an ancient history book in awhile except some recent books about pre-Columbian Native Americans. 

Gore Vidal wrote a novel about the life of Julian The Apostate in 1964. The novel was simply titled Julian.