Ad 361-63) in Julian (1964). Julian was the Roman emperor who attempted to re-set up Roman polytheism to counter Christianity. In the nineteen sixties, Vidal printed Julian (1964), about the Roman Emperor Julian the Apostate (r. In the historic novel genre, Vidal recreated the imperial earth of Julian the Apostate (r. Washington Cathedral, in February 1939, as "Eugene Luther Gore Vidal". His father, Eugene Luther Vidal, Sr.