Word: julians
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...JULIAN, by Gore Vidal. In A.D. 361, Roman Emperor Julian the Apostate took an 18-month back step to the Hellenic gods, using all his power to destroy Christianity. In this ingenious historical novel, Gore Vidal brings his wit and urbanity to his subject, and if he does not quite capture the spirit of this elegant hero, his novel is still entertaining and convincing...
Secret Journal. The novel, which draws heavily on Julian's own letters (more than 80 have been preserved), is cast in the form of a secret journal presumably written by Julian and discovered in his tent the night of his death by a garrulous old counselor, one Priscus, who serves as a sort of chorus...
...Vidal sees him, Julian was the prototype of what a political leader should be-tolerant, intellectually curious, and equipped with a large sense of the absurdity of all humanity, including himself. It is probably no accident that, in some respects, he resembles John F. Kennedy, who Vidal thought had "the perfect temperament" for command...
Last Survivors. Julian's career was as spectacular as it was brief. Nephew of Constantine the Great, he was born in Constantinople and trained, by imperial edict, for a career in the church. But in the course of a visit to Nicomedia, he came under the influence of apostate theoreticians secretly working toward a return to the old faith-or rather, to an idealized amalgam of paganism and philosophy that they took for the faith of the ancient world. Julian wanted to be a teacher, and might well have been if his half-brother Gallus (whom Vidal paints...
...series of remarkable victories (the most notable being at Strasbourg in 357), Julian secured the frontier once more at the Rhine. When Constantius died in 361, he became emperor. He died in battle against the Persians in 363, at the age of 32, having been on the throne for only 18 months...