Customer Reviews

Julian the Apostate

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Ricciotti's book on Julian was first published in the 1950s. For decades it has only been available used. While readable and making no major errors in fact, he has been superceded by more modern works. You will find it an interesting read and will get value for your money. Julian is one of the fascinating characters of late Roman history and the one whom we know the most about, not only from several major sources but also from the Emperor's own surviving writings. Julian, a fascinating character, is worth anyone's time to investigate.

I love this book. It's a very well-written life of a fascinatingly weird character. There are a couple of more recent books, but I don't imagine they can reproduce the memorability of meeting Julian in Guiseppe's hands. It's comprehensive. You'll learn quite a bit of late Roman culture (including the Christian vs. pagan controversy), but nothing in this book is laborious learning. If you are looking for a place to start on Julian, this is probably the place.

EDIT 1/8/2012: Since writing this review I've aged and learned a lot; given more thought this book may or may not be the place to start. See the comments to this review for a couple of other recommendations. I'm not qualified comment on the historical veracity of this book. I'll certainly grant that it's written from a Catholic (possibly a traditionalist Catholic) perspective, not that I remember it taking over the book, but it assumes (as the comments point out) that you agree that his apostacy was a bad thing. Regardless of that it was still a very enjoyable read, and his psychological assessment of Julian and his motives was still compelling, though I'm not the expert to critique it.

While the good Abbott does strive to be genuinely historical in his work, one has to wonder at the comment in the publisher's preface by Thomas Nelson. "Apostasy from the Truth Faith always has dire consequences because one loses the special blessings and guidance from Almighty God." The Catholics, of course, have labeled the Emperor Julian as an "Apostate" because he attempted to slow the rise of Christianity while trying to rekindle interest and devotion to a more polytheistic approach to religion. He also quotes, "What if he had not lost The True Faith? How would history then have read?" Why not ask What if he had lived and succeeded? Maybe there would have been no Christian Crusades, no Inquisition, etc.

Really, if you want to more about Julian and his attempt to restore balance to the way people worshiped in the 4th Century, CE, try Gore Vidal's "Julian" and/or Adrian Murdoch's "The Last Pagan: Julian the Apostate and the Death of the World".