Julian: A Novel

The remarkable bestseller about the fourth-century Roman emperor who famously tried to halt the spread of Christianity, <b>Julian</b><i> </i>is widely regarded as one of Gore Vidal's finest historical novels.<br><br>Julian the Apostate, nephew of Constantine the Great, was one of the brightest yet briefest lights in the history of the Roman Empire. A military genius on the level of Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great, a graceful and persuasive essayist, and a philosopher devoted to worshipping the gods of Hellenism, he became embroiled in a fierce intellectual war with Christianity that provoked his murder at the age of thirty-two, only four years into his brilliantly humane and compassionate reign. A marvelously imaginative and insightful novel of classical antiquity, <b>Julian</b><i> </i>captures the religious and political ferment of a desperate age and restores with blazing wit and vigor the legacy of an impassioned ruler.