The Last Pagan: Julian the Apostate and the Death of the Ancient World

by Adrian Murdoch

Hardcover, 2003

Status

Available

Call number

937.08092

Collection

Publication

Sutton Publishing (2003), Edition: First Edition, Hardcover, 288 pages

Description

The end of Emperor Julian (332-363) has become synonymous with the death of paganism. This work examines his emergence as the sole survivor of a dynasty soaked in blood, and traces his journey from an aristocratic Christian childhood to his initiation into pagan cults and his mission to establish paganism as the dominant faith of the Roman world.

User reviews

LibraryThing member Devil_llama
A history of Julian, only emperor of Rome for 18 months before he was killed in battle by an unknown source. The author tries to sort through all the embellishment and all the legend to get as close to the real man as possible; this is difficult, since he has become such a symbol: a symbol of evil
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for many Christians, and a symbol of freethought for many enlightenment thinkers. The real Julian was neither. He was an ordinary man raised to an extraordinary position who managed to leave his mark on history in spite of a rather mediocre set of accomplishments as emperor. He did this by bringing Paganism back to the post-Constantine Roman Empire. We are fortunate that many of Julian's writings have survived, which makes his story a bit easier to piece together, but it is still with caution that the author posits his idea of who killed the young emperor. The author writes with a lively, readable style, though there are some real clunkers in editing that lead to misplaced commas and strange sentences. Still, that seems to be the norm these days, and this book has fewer than most. Overall, a decent treatment of Julian that tries to avoid the mythologizing.
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LibraryThing member jerry-book
From the meager facts available, a good rendering of the last pagan emperor. Of course, the miracle is that he survived until adulthood.
LibraryThing member AldusManutius
Subtitle promises a broader study than the book actually delivers.

Language

Physical description

288 p.; 9.52 inches

ISBN

0750932953 / 9780750932950
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