This study of the last pagan Roman emperor provides remarkable insight into the man and his times.
The figure of Julian demands the attention of historians. As the last pagan Roman Emperor, he provides a focus for studying the religious transformations that were taking place in the empire in the fourth century. Further, his secular policies and concerns concentrate attention on other transformations--social and political--within the period.
Notably, Julian elicited sharply divided opinion from his contemporaries, which is largely polarised between pagan supporters and Christian...

This was a time of civil war, anarchy, intrigue, and assassination.Between 193 and 284 the Roman Empire knew more than twenty-five emperors, and an equal number of usurpers. All of them had some measure of success, several of them often ruling different parts of the Empire at the same time. Rome's traditional political institutions slid into vacuity and armies became the Empire's most powerful institutions, proclaiming their own imperial champions and deposing those they held to be incompetent.Yet despite widespread contemporary dismay at such weak government this period was also one in which...