by Thomas Taylor (Translator), Julian (Author)
Emperor Julian, popularly known as "Julian the Apostate," was the last pagan Emperor of Rome. His reign was characterized by his energetic, yet ultimately failed, attempts at revitalizing paganism and halting the advance of Christianity. In this work, many of Julian's arguments against the Christian faith are presented, providing the reader with a fascinating window into the minds of those who struggled against Christianity during its rise to power in Europe.From the introduction by the translator, Thomas Taylor: "As man is naturally a religious animal, and as the true knowledge of divinity is, as Jamblichus beautifully observes, virtue, wisdom, and consummate felicity, nothing can be so important as the acquisition of this knowledge, and, as one of the means of obtaining it, a purification from theological error. Julian, who was certainly one of the most excellent emperors recorded in the annals of history, wrote, I am persuaded, the treatise from which these fragments are taken with no other view than to lead the reader of it to this most sublime knowledge, and the translator of these extracts can most solemnly affirm this was his only aim in translating and printing them."