Julian: A Novel

First of all this was the most entertaining and believable work of historical fiction I have ever read. Everytime I read about Julian, whether through Marcellinus or in secondary works I envision him as the character presented in this masterpiece. Vidal successfully presents Julian as a strong individual, albeit a suppressed youth reacting against the anti-intellectual religion(christianity/arianism) of his cousin, Emperor Constantius II. Vidal does a good job portraying Julian as an almost Marcus Aurelius like figure, balancing philosophy with the military defense of the empire. Sometimes Julian wishes he were just a philosopher and other times he believes he is the reincarnation of Alexander the Great, although the latter seems to be a common trend among hellenized roman Emperors. This book is not only worth reading for those interested in late antiquity, it is an essential work that should supplement Marcellinus's later roman history. If only Julian had lived as long as Octavian!!

*Julian* was just as good the second reading, as it was the first reading a couple of years ago. This time I led a small discussion group and all seemed enthusiastic about the story--the story I like to call the "deconstruction of Julian the Apostate"(showing my own hermeneutical framework and presuppositions!). I delight in the perennial "good read" experience, and Gore Vidal's work is exceptional! Having read most all of Vidal's novels, I have come to his earlier ones only of late. I am a big fan having begun with his *Lincoln* about 20 years ago, and now I look forward to *The Judgment of Paris* to round out my reading experience!

Gore Vidals Julian rings embarrassing true for Christindom. Mr. Vidal seems to always pick up the tone of an era that is not well known to most of us. He makes the fourth century valid part of our history with Julian the Apostate through a series of letters and writings of Julian and between two contemporaries.
I thought Gore Vidal identified with Julian in many ways, this made it easy for him to write well and without pretentousness.Mr. Vidal's books are never a boring read, and I enjoyed it very much.

Gore Vidal manages to get inside the head of Julianus, Priscus and Libanius with such realism that we feel that we're reading a real diary...it's great. There are some little (forgivable)mistakes, but the facts are accurate and written imaginatively. Obviously, vidal read some material about Rome and the way "pagans" thought or the rivalries between several cristhian factions. I don't give a 5 because vidal should have studied a little more about roman warfare on the 4th century.

Excellent historical novel which brings this Roman Emperor and the fourth century Roman world to life. Well-researched as always. Zesty and well-written, as always with Vidal. I would rank it only slightly behind "Burr," another of his historical novels as the most interesting. "Burr" #1, "Julian" #2, "Lincoln" #3. Would recommend all of the foregoing. The other novels fall off from there. Vidal is a masterful writer

Independently of its historical accuracy, and Vidal is very clear about the fictional side of this book in its preamble, Julian is a pretty nice romanticized insight about how the transition between Hellenism and Christianity might have occurred. I especially enjoyed Julian's diary side notes by Priscus and Libanius.

My first Gore Vidal novel, and absolutely NOT my last.

I rarely have time to read as much as I like, but over the last week and a half I have carved time out at all hours of the day to get back to this book. I am a fan of history and historical fiction, and this is the good stuff without doubt.

Other reviews will give you the book report summary of plot and device, but I am here to tell you that the layers of commentary in this book were breathtaking. Vidal's personality seeps up through every page so subtly that on many occassions I found myself doing, in essence, double-takes: turning back a page or two and thinking, "Hang on... did he just?" and inevitably, the commentary, the literary slight of hand, the double meaning, and the three and four layer references I suspected were all there. I can only guess how many I may have missed.

As you know by now, this book is about the death of a king. The life and times of a leader who was dedicated to rejuvinating a divided country. A man whose mission required the unification of a nation divided along religious and political lines. It is the story of a leader who was assasinated after holding power for just three short years.

Vidal ends his novel with this:

April 1959 - 6 January 1964, Rome

This is a reference, I am sure, to the period during which he wrote it. It is also a reference to the dating of Julian's journal entries. But I believe this date range, specifically its terminus, serves another, typically subtle, purpose. It is a reference to another historical leader; one who strove to reinvigorate a faded empire, one who inspired similar division in his country, and one who met a similar, tragic end. I believe that this book is a farewell of sorts to John F. Kennedy.

Read it. It's amazing.

I read and reviewed this novel forty-six years ago when it was newly published. After re-reading both novel and callow review (it was for a college literary magazine!) I find a glimpse of myself as a younger, more certain man and of Julian as a man of whom much was expected. At the time, I thought of Julian as a late Roman John Kennedy, a carrier of hope cut off before his dreams could be realized (it was that kind of moment). On reflection, I'm less generous of both Vidal's snippy interpretation and Julian's failures both of promise and of delivery, a man who discovered too soon that his dreams were hallucinations.

The Rome described bears little resemblance to Rome as it was in its days of greatness; in fact the name appears as an adjective to describe a world order rather than to describe a by-then backwater city, more Old Detroit than the Imperial City of the Augustan Age. The concepts that made brought Rome grandeur even when their promise was violated had long passed, devastated by plagues, bankruptcy, internal strife and civil war, and a general exhaustion. To be Roman meant to have a pulse; to dream of greatness meant to pine for a stronger Euro. Instead of dominating the world, "with war the proud to overbear", Rome bribes the tribes and struggles even to deal with Persia as an equal.

I've come to believe that Julian's quest for a return to Paganism was misdirection, though Vidal clearly disagrees. The spread of Christianity or any revolutionary order reflects, as always, the failure of the old order to provide hope and optimism. The fact that Rome embraced an obscure Eastern mystery cult that at its core excluded them indicates how spiritually bankrupt that order had become.

The text is presented and critiqued, appropriately, by two aging Pagan philosophers, last of a dying breed: the stuffy, conservative Priscus and the more accepting Libanius. This is quite appropriate. Vidal lets the multiheaded spirit of the East, from the charlatan Maximus to the Academe of Athens set Julian's journey. But Julian is ultimately a child of the West -- still vigorous and able to trade blow for blow with enemies. When he follows Paganism instead of the genius of Rome he sets off on the road to ruin.

Vidal is acutely aware of this tension, but I've never been quite sure where it leads him any more than it does Julian. My impression nearly five decades ago is, comfortingly, unchanged. I still don't quite understand Julian, and I'm not alrogether certain Vidal did; or if he understood Julian, he preferred to keep the mystery to himself, in Eleusis.

Far from being the cultural illiterati most Europeans view us as, we Americans do have appreciation for the vast panorama of history and its implications for the present. Many of our cities are built in the grand neoclassical style, emphasizing Greek and Roman architecture and art. I grew up in such a city, and now I understand that if it weren't for people such as the emperor Julian, this might not have happened. Gore shows us a Julian who wishes to restore Hellenism so the individual can realize his own worth. He labored against the reactionary forces which sought to destroy all the myths of the past. He could work with the Gallic and German soldiers, the Greek philosophers, and the Roman courtiers, all for the benefit of the state. This book, for me, is a vivid illumination of Julian, and I feel he would be happy with how he is depicted by Gore Vidal. Ad Gloriam Aeternam Juliani!

Probably because of my pagan sympathies, this is one of my favorite books. Julian is, by far, one of the most interesting of all the Roman emperors, and this book is an excellent and creative interpretation of his life. If you are somewhat disillusioned by Christianity, this book may provide you with some insight into how Roman paganism was overturned by the Christians. I've read other biographies and historical accounts from this era, but Gore Vidal really brings this colorful emperor, and the time period, to life.

I've just finished an old, tattered paperback copy of JULIAN and have to say I was sad to have the story end. I was fascinated by all the characters, the history, the strange triple narration (the book is part memoir, part diary, part epistolary novel), and Vidal's own luminous prose. I would recommend JULIAN to anyone. It is probably the best historical novel I have ever read and it sorely deserves to be back in print.

I like history, especially about the Roman Empire. I really ended up loving this book. It never gets boring, that's really something to say about a historical novel. I would like recommend this book to anyone, but, most likely, not everyone would enjoy it. It also has a lot to do with religion, which was surprisingly very interesting. I enjoyed every page of this book; the last two chapters are definitely page-turners! So, hopefully you purchase and read this book, it's totally worth it.

Missing a whole block of pages!!! I received this as a gift off my wishlist and have made to page 174, the next page is 287!!! This continues to page 318, and then it's back to page 207. Pages 287 through 318 then appear again in the proper place. What do I do about a book that was bound incorrectly? Pages 175 through 206 are missing and I can't read any further. So bummed.

This book is nothing more than the typical postmodern and revisionist excrement coming from Vidal.
In response to the below reviewer, Vidal is no Tolkien. He created beautiful stories with an optimistic outlook on humanity. Vidal shows us a cynical world where up is down and right is wrong. There is one similarity between the two, both created worlds that never existed in reality.
Julian the Apostate might not have been the villian of Christian history, but he was not the sainted leader of Vidal. Julian did not want religious tolreance, he persecuted the Christians and refused to let them teach their religion. His pomposity and extravagance (he sacrificed thousands of animals at one time) alienated his own pagan allies. While his victory in Gaul was impressive, his invasion of Persia was a disaster because of his own incompetence. He was murdered while on retreat back to Roman territory. Most reputable historians agree it was his own soldiers who did it because he was so disliked by them.
Christianity was not responsible for the fall of the Roman Empire. This discredited idea goes back at least 200 hundred years to Edward Gibbon. The Roman Empire began to collapes in the second century AD. In fact, if it weren't for Christian monks preserving the knowledge of antiquity we would have lost much more. Finally, Vidal fails to mention that the Byzantine Empire, the Roman Empire in the East, lasted another thousand years and was a fusion of Christianity and Hellenism.

I had read The Last Pagan: Julian the Apostate and the Death of the Ancient World and I was wondering how the Julian in that book that dabbles in magic and sex with prostitutes, quick jokes about his violent, sexual yet Christian brother and other oddities would translate to real life. Gore Vidal definitely brings it to life (TMI!). The summary is that Julian's family was killed by Christians, then he was raised but great Christians but ultimately rejected the philosophy and basically became a High Priest in Greek mythology, which had power then and wasn't a myth. They choose Julian to become Emperor and got him there and Julian vowed to raise them up. He re-established the Greek gods and persecuted Christians through getting them out of the military, government, preventing them to teach, stopping free rides on the transit system, and getting rid of tax waivers for churches. The Greek gods told him to wait a year to go to war with the Persians and he didn't and he died. The first third is pretty sexual and philosophical. An interesting war to take the throne in the middle, the royalty of basically bashing Christianity, and finally a quite ponderous war that led to his death. I'm guessing Gore Vidal overdoes the sex and violence, while not talking much about his interaction in his childhood with the great church fathers he lived with. Vidal draws from lots of sources that I read though, like some of his writings "Beard Hater", and Against the Galileans that I was wondering how they would play in real life. Thank you Gore Vidal, even if it is way too much sex, and a throughly Christian bashing work.