Adrian Murdoch's book on Julian was a pure pleasure to read. The story of how Julian came to wear the purple and his fight against the growing wave of Christianity is fascinating, and this book reads more like a novel than a book of history. The only complaint I had was not about the book itself, but was that I had to go to amazon.co.uk to purchase an affordable copy. This was a great book, but it is not worth $75-100, and can be purchased for E10-15 at the other site.

Very readable treatment of Julian, a.k.a. "The Apostate." Murdoch shows Julian to have been generally incorruptible, effective, inspiring, good leader. He was philosophically committed to a rule of law. I thought Murdoch downplayed a bit his inconsistency, immaturity and intolerance toward Christians. But his poor military decision in the way he waged war in Persia is clear.