Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #88249 in Books
• Published on: 1993-09-23
• Binding: Paperback
• 544 pages

Synopsis
Gore Vidal's fictional recreation of the Roman Empire teetering on the crux of Christianity and ruled by an emperor who was an inveterate dabbler in arcane hocus-pocus, a prig, a bigot, and a dazzling and brilliant leader.

Customer Reviews

Dull Dull Dull
I love good historical novels but for me at least this is not one of them. Vidal clearly has great knowledge and I suspect that the history content is accurate and complete. However, I look for entertainment in a novel and I found precious little in this one. Hard work and I could only take ten pages at a time whereas I usually swim through good novels easily. Discretion being the better part of valour I gave up halfway through. My rating is as high as three because I have read many of Vidal's other efforts and found them very rewarding. Perhaps it is just me on this one!

Heavy going....
I really struggled with this, taking three weeks (with a weeks break in-between) to read it which is shocking considering I normally read at least a book a week! I found the language stilted, the endless reams of philosophical prose an effort and the detailed descriptions of Roman warfare dull.

However. Let's get this into perspective. This is an extensively researched work of historical fiction and you're only really going to read it if you have an interest in the subject matter in the first place? In which case I think you'll find it fascinating and well written. I knew nothing about the Roman Empire other than the bits and pieces kids are fed at school, so I read the book partly to learn more about the subject and partly in pursuit of my quest to broaden my literary horizons. As for the historical accuracy of the book I couldn't comment and defer to my learned colleagues below!

My interest in the story increased in the last 100 pages, although who knows whether this was because the book was improving or whether I was excited as I could see the light and the end of the proverbial tunnel?

It's not all doom and gloom though. I liked the way the memoirs of Emperor Julian Augustus are broken up by letters between two old men who knew him, one of whom is compiling the memoirs for publication, and how this often gave a different perspective on the events of his life. These inserts are often humorous and help to lighten the book a little. Another thing I found fascinating, as a lover of the English language, was just how many words and phrases commonly used today originated from the ancient Greeks.

Julian was known as Julian the Apostate as he renounced his faith (Christianity) and reverted to Hellenism. It is interesting to read a record of that period when the Christian faith was in its infancy, reminding you that it is a man-made religion, adopting elements of other religions, created for political reasons. Julian was the last emperor to publicly worship the Pagan gods and originally stated that he would allow all religions to exist together. However, sadly he proves in the end to be just as blinkered, intolerant and supertitious of the Galileans as they are of others. It's also interesting to see the detrimental effect that power has on even the most gentle, intelligent and philosophical of men.

So how many stars do I award this? In terms of my enjoyment as a whole, it will have to be 2 stars, but if I'm playing devil's advocate then maybe it would creep up to a 3...partly for the elation I felt when I actually finished the thing!

Not for the feint-hearted.
What would the be the prerequisites for a sympathetic novel about Julian the Apostate? A detailed knowledge of the late Roman Empire, a detailed knowledge of early Christianity and a certain antipathy towards that religion. Gore Vidal demonstrates a virtuosity in all three that makes for one of the best reads of the last fifty years. This is, quite simply, a tour-de-force that has few parallels in historical fiction. For those who don't share Vidal's suspicion of organised religion, especially Christians, this novel might prove an uncomfortable experience. For those who like their history warts and all, it is simply brilliant. One of the few works of fiction that takes a serious look at the origins of Christianity and gives a reasoned account of its development, it refuses to even pay lip-service to the unthinking acceptance of Christianity as a religion that sprang fully formed into the world. Nor does he shrink from comparing the morality of two very different religious systems and finding Christianity wanting. It almost makes you wish that Julian had obtained his goal and had, after all, reinstated the ancient philosophy that was tolerant of all beliefs and had little concept of evangilism or heretical thinking.