The Last Pagan: Julian the Apostate and the Death of the Ancient World
“A thoroughly engaging book about one of the fourth century’s most interesting emperors.” (The Journal of Classics Teaching)“Keenly paced and beautifully written . . . quite simply one of the best historical biographies of the year.” (Catholic Herald)“Friendly to its controversial subject and an easy read.” (Church Times)"Although this is a book written for the general reading public, and not particularly aimed at Pagan readership, it contains a wealth of information concerning Pagan/Christian relations. It also shows a number of concerns expressed by Julian that are still valid today. . . . This is an excellent book, and I highly recommend it to everyone." (Michael Gleason, Witchgrove.com, May 08)"An eye-opening alternate history uses over 700 pages of Julian's original writings to provide some eye-opening new revelations on his beliefs." (The Midwest Book Review, July 2008)"Murdoch, a Roman historian, sees the short reign of Julian as the real end of ancient Rome. His biography of the young emperor is based on Julian's own words, the angry response of Christian writers, and the comments of other pagans." (Book News, Inc., Aug 2008)"With the current end of the Twentieth Century we are also witnessing the death throes of the most influential religious movements of the last twenty centuries--Christianity and Islam. . . . This end of the Christian Era as some call it, is however, not without its own dangers and precedence. By looking back to the early centuries of the Christian Era, we can in fact, get a better understanding of its origins and what may be awaiting us in the future. . . " (Institute of Hermetic Studies, Aug 2008)"British historian Adrian Murdoch'sThe Last Pagan(the phrase comes from the English poet Swinburne)is a thorough-going biography of Julian. In this book, we get a strong sense of the history of the fourth century, which is the age of the decline of the Roman empire made famous by English historian Edward Gibbon, who Murdoch asserts, made Julian the hero of his work." (Barbara Ardinger, reviewer, Aug 2009)