"Simply great. . . . A truly monumental novel." --Associated Press

"Historical fiction in the true, honorable sense. . . . Full of vivid, richly wrought fictional detail." --The Wall Street Journal

"Impressive. . . . To the formidable task which Vidal sets himself, he brings an easy and fluent gift for narrative; a theatrical sense of scene and dramatic occasion; and a revealing eye and ear for character delineation-to say nothing of wide reading." -Newsweek

"A real hero. . . . An excellent book." -Chicago Daily News

"Gore Vidal has the sharpest sense of what political power consists of, how it is achieved and what it does to a man. And at the same time he is funny, roaringly funny. . . . Julian is a brilliant beacon of light in the dim grey landscape of the historical novel." -Louis Auchincloss

"A brilliant study of Julian's era. . . . That rare historical novel which enjoys all the virtues of good history and good fiction." -Washington Star

"No odder figure ever guided the destinies of the Roman Empire than the Emperor Julian Augustus. Here was a recluse and a scholar who became a great military leader, an ascetic who preached the life of the senses, a fatalist who believed he would remake the world. . . . He is endlessly fascinating." -Time