It’s been a minute, but the podcast is back with an episode we recorded over the summer with Dr. David Litwa. I reached out to Dr. Litwa after reading (listening to) his book “Julian Against the Apostates“. He agreed to come on the podcast which gave us this episode. During our talk, Dr. Litwa covers Julian’s religious and philosophical origins including the dangers he faced for simply believing in non-Christian gods. He also discusses Julian’s traditional Hellenic religious beliefs including the importance of sacrifice and how Julian received an honorable burial. This shows that the state honored him as a military hero and that, despite subsequent criticism by religious enemies, Julian was a respected figure in the Empire.
One topic that we cover in detail is whether Julian missed his calling as a philosopher and religious theorist which is apparently something that Julian wanted to ultimately do. After listening to this episode, I think you’ll see that if history had unfolded a little differently, Julian may have been able to leave decades of Hellenic religious writings behind him. Maybe that wouldn’t have done much to alter the course of history that unfolded, but as Mal Reynolds once observed, “May have been on the losing side, still not convinced it was the wrong one.”
You can keep up with Dr. Litwa at his YouTube channel or his website linked to above.
Your reading assignments include Julian Augustus by friend of the pod Jeremy Swist.
The theme music is from Brent Arehart. Please call the pod (540-632-0160), leave a message and you’ll get in an episode. Let me know what you think about what we think in the comments, on Bluesky, on Mastodon, on Reddit, or on Instagram.
And never forget that The Classical Antiquity Sidequest is a podcast without end.
The Classical Antiquity Sidequest 