Elizabeth Finch: A novel

by Julian Barnes

Julian’s own religious practices were intense, constant, and conducted at the highest level. According to the orator Libanius, the emperor believed that: He lived in a perpetual intercourse with the gods and goddesses; that they descended upon earth, to enjoy the conversation of their favourite hero; that they gently interrupted his slumbers, by touching his hand or his hair; and that he had acquired such an intimate knowledge that they warned him of every impending danger, and conducted him, by their infallible wisdom, in every action of his life; and that he had acquired such an intimate knowledge of his heavenly guests, as readily to distinguish the voice of Jupiter from that of Minerva, and the form of Apollo from the figure of Hercules. Gibbon comments that such visions were just “the ordinary effects of abstinence and fanaticism” which “would almost degrade the emperor to the level of an Egyptian monk.” Almost: being an Egyptian monk was a comparatively cheap business, whereas being on hair-ruffling terms with the top gods was ferociously expensive. Julian sacrificed every morning and night, and left nothing to chance, or to others: It was the business of the emperor to bring the wood, to blow the fire, to handle the knife, to slaughter the victim, and, thrusting his hand into the bowels of the expiring animals, to draw forth the heart or liver, and to read, with the consummate skill of a haruspex, the imaginary signs of future events. Top gods naturally deserved and...