Julian the Apostate.

Duckworth, London, 1978. 1st ed. XII,135,(8). ills.(B&W photographs and line drawings). Original red gilt stamped cloth with pictorial dust wrps. Cloth a little bit mottled to the edges. Signature in pencil on title page. ?Professor Bowersock?s book is a fine contribution to the revival of ?Julian? studies. It is of modest size, but rich in content, written in a fluent style, and also not too difficult for the non-specialist reader, In the first chapter, Bowersock argues that the primary sources for the reconstruction of Julian?s life are, besides the writings of the emperor himself, some orations of Libanius, the invectives of Gregory of Nazianzus, the imperial edicts of Julian in the Theodosian Code, (?) which ?have still to take their proper place in modern historical assessments of the ruler? (p.10). He also demonstrates that many historians have turned too uncritically and eagerly to the orderly and extensive account of Julian?s career by Ammianus Marcellinus. (?) After an informative chapter on ?The Personality of the Emperor? (?) there follows a reconstruction of the life of Julian based upon this critical reassessment of the sources. On several points of detail. Bowersock differs from previous scholars, in most cases convincingly. (?) Regrettable is the fact that the whole book, despite the chapter on Julian?s personality, is much more an ? outer? than an ?inner? biography. (?) what his major objections against the Christian faith were, is nowhere clearly set out. (?) Nevertheless I fully agree with Ronald Syme?s judgment that this book ?deserves a wide circulation? among classical philologists, historians, and theologians.? (P.W. VAN DER HORST in Mnemosyne, 1982, pp.207-208).