Julian Romance

Two pages from the Arabic version of the Julian Romance

The Julian Romance is fictionalized prose account of the reign of the Roman emperor Julian the Apostate. It was written sometime between Julian's death in 363 and the copying of the oldest known manuscript in the sixth century. It was probably written in Edessa in Syriac, the language of all surviving copies. An Arabic adaptation had been made by the tenth century.

The Romance is written from a Christian perspective. It is divided into three parts. The first describes the accession of Julian and his persecution of Christians. The second describes Julian's conflict with Eusebius of Rome. The third and longest part, written in the form of a letter, describes Julian's Persian expedition, his downfall and the accession of the Christian emperor Jovian.

There exists a short Syriac text known as the "second Romance".