Julian by Gore Vidal Read Free Book Online Page A

head with his cloak and would not take it off until we were outside the city gate. No one expected to see us alive again. All travellers agree that Macellum is one of the beautiful places of the world. I hate it to this day. Macellum is not a town but an imperial residence originally used by the ancient Cappadocian kings as a hunting lodge. Constantine enlarged it so that it is now a complex of many buildings set in lonely woods at the foot of Mount Argaeus, some four hundred miles south-east of Constantinople. When Constantius inherited the principate, he acquired the lodge, along with a number of other properties in the neighbourhood; in fact, our family's private income derives almost entirely from the Cappadocian crown lands.
    Tonight when I was telling Priscus about my childhood, he said that it sounded enviable. "After all, you lived in a palace, with gardens, baths, fountains, a private chapel," he enjoys teasing me, "in the very best hunting country with nothing to do but read. You had the perfect life." Well, it was not perfect. Gallus and I might just as well have been hostages in a Persian prison. We had no one to talk to, except for a series of schoolmasters from nearby Caesarea. None stayed with us very long because of Gallus. He could not resist tormenting them. He got on better with our jailers, particularly the young officers. Gallus could be very winning when he wanted to be, and he soon had them training him in the use of sword and spear, shield and axe. Gallus was a natural athlete, with a gift for weaponry. I would have liked to practise with him but he preferred to keep his military companions to himself. "You read your books," he said sharply. "I'm the one who's to be a soldier." So I read my books.
    We were nominally in the charge of Bishop George of Cappadocia who lived at Caesarea. He visited us at least once a month, and it was he who insisted that our education be essentially Galilean. "Because there is no reason why you should not be a priest." He pointed a long finger at me. He was a small thin man whose lean face always looked in need of shaving.
    While I was respectfully trying to think of a number of reasons why I should not become a priest, Gallus with an engaging smile said, "Julian dreams of the priesthood, Bishop. It's his whole life. He does nothing but read."
    "I was that way myself at your age." Bishop George looked pleased at finding this likeness.
    "But I read philosophy…" I began.
    "So do we all, of course. But then we come to the story of Jesus which is the beginning and the end of knowledge. But I am sure you have had a good training already from your late cousin, my old friend, the Bishop Eusebius. Those of us who are true Christians miss him greatly." Bishop George began to pace up and down the room, snapping his fingers, a characteristic habit. Gallus grinned at me, very pleased with what he had done. Bishop George suddenly spun round; the long finger was again pointed at me.
    " Homoiousios. What does that mean?"
    I knew. I rattled my answer like a crow taught to speak. "It means that Jesus the son is of similar substance to God the father."
    " Homoousios. What does that mean?"
    "That Jesus the son is of one substance with God the father."
    "The difference?"
    "In the first case, Jesus was created by the father before this world began. He is God's son by grace but not by nature."
    "Why?"
    "Because God is one. By definition singular. God cannot be many, as the late Bishop Arius maintained at the council of Nicaea."
    "Excellent." I received a series of finger-snappings as applause.
    "Now in the second case?"
    " Homoousios in that pernicious doctrine"—I had been welldrilled by old Eusebius—"which maintains that the father and the son and the holy spirit are one and the same."
    "Which cannot be!"
    "Which cannot be," I chirruped obediently.
    "Despite what happened at Nicaea."
    "Where in the year 325 Bishop Athanasius of Alexandria…"
    "A mere deacon at the time…"
    "Opposed my