Finished Mo 10/17/22
This is one of my ancient paperbacks that I had never read. It was really a treat to 'discover' this lovely novel. A light approach and an interesting format.
Julian is the Roman emperor who tried to restore Hellenism to the empire. The emperor Constantine made Christianity the state religion.
Julian does not refer to the followers of Jesus as 'Christians'. He calls them 'Galileans' because Jesus was from Galilee.
The Council of Nicea was in 325 and this meeting established the overall thrust of Christianity. What books would be included in the bible and they tried to settle the controversy of 'the three headed god'. If god was 'the one and only god', where does Jesus fit the equation?
Most of the historical novel is 'first person' in Julian's voice. Frequently, the narration is broken up by two commentators, Libanius & Priscus, two friends of Julian's.
All of Gore Vidal's historical novels are chock full of interesting details; Julian declared a tax exemption for families with more than thirteen children. He did this because some Romans believed that the Gauls would 'replace' the indigenous population.
Here's the book's page at Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_(novel)
No comments:
Post a Comment