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Gore Vidal covers one of my favorite Emperors- Flavius Claudius Julianus (known to Christians as Julian the Apostate), who reigned from 360 to 363 C.E. Julian was the last non-Christian Emperor and tried to bring back the Hellenistic religion. A scholar, a soldier, a religious man, and a philosopher all wrapped up in the Purple of the Emperor. A truly fascinating individual and one, had he lived longer, might have changed the course of religion in the world.

Vidal's novel tells the story of Julian via the transmission of his private journals, going from Priscus to Libanus (both confidants of Julian) and the reading of these journals is the "story". The rest of the novel is then presented as the manuscript of Julian in its original form including instructions to the eventual editor and publisher. The marginal notes of Priscus are incorporated into Julian's narrative where he feels fit to comment on or expand certain parts of the narrative. These comments are then often followed by the comments of Libanius on both the narrative and the comments of Priscus. Frequently they offer a different and sometimes contradictory hindsight interpretation of events and people than Julian expresses in his manuscript.

It is this back and forth, jumping between Julian's memoirs and the relative interpretation by either Priscus or Libanus that sometimes seems to inhibit the flow of the story. I realize this was the way it was set up, so that the journal could be published, but it does make the flow of the story a wee bit jarring.

Nonetheless, this is an excellent novel. Full of interesting concepts and a view of Christianity that will likely bother most Christians, who tend to be rather ignorant of the true origins of their religion. The points Julian makes about the contradictions and the sheer amount of rituals, forms, concepts that the Christians stole in order to incorporate common traditions (three wise men, a supreme being, good/evil, resurrection, angels, demons, Dec 25th, etc..etc.) so that Christianity would grow by appealing to a common shared mythological base. Even his points about Jesus being a Jew and spreading a religion that was supposed to be a reformed version of Judaism, instead was coopted by his followers and morphed into something else- Christianity. Which, BTW, has little in common with modern Christianity. All the inconsistencies and differing origins were neatly "dealt with" by the Council of Nicaea (the Nicene Creed) in 325 AD. There were other councils in later ages that made further "edits" but, by then, Christianity had become the dominant religion in the successors of the Roman Empire.

The novel tells Julian's story from an early age, when he and his brother Gallus are indirectly involved in Imperial politics, when their father, the half-brother of Emperor Constantine, is put to death by the new Emperor, Julian's cousin, Constantinus II. Yet, Gallus and Julian are allowed to live. Gallus is groomed, potentially, to be Caesar, while Julian was to be a Christian Priest.

In time, Gallus will be killed for his cruelty, thus leaving Julian to become Caesar. Upon the death of Constantinus, Julian becomes Augustus and tried to reinstate the Hellenistic religions. His attack on the Persian Empire is one that will eventually end up in his demise (or assassination?).

A brilliant book about a brilliant man. It would have been a 5 star, but for the chain of the story flow being broken by the intermittent side quotes by Priscus and Libanus. This will have been my second Gore Vidal book and, so far, they have all been well worth my time. Anyone with an interest in Julian, or just those who enjoy a well-written Historical fiction novel will enjoy this one.