Arguments of Celsus, Porphyry, and the Emperor Julian, Against the Christians

An ancient Greek historian from Sicily, he is best known for trying to tell the story of the world from mythic times to his own age. His surviving work preserves countless details from earlier sources that would otherwise have been lost.

Flavius Josephus

b. 37

A firsthand witness to one of the most dramatic periods in ancient Jewish and Roman history, this 1st-century historian turned war, politics, and faith into vivid narrative. His books remain some of the richest surviving sources on Judea, Jerusalem, and the world of the early Roman Empire.

Emperor of Rome Julian

331–363

Raised amid dynastic violence and educated in Greek philosophy, this late Roman emperor remains one of antiquity’s most debated figures. He is remembered both as a capable military leader and as the ruler who tried to revive traditional pagan worship in an increasingly Christian empire.

Porphyry

A major voice in late ancient philosophy, this Neoplatonist thinker is remembered for shaping how later readers encountered Plotinus and Aristotle. His writings on logic, metaphysics, and religion influenced centuries of debate in both the Greek East and the Latin West.

Cornelius Tacitus

56–117

A sharp-eyed Roman historian and senator, he is best known for turning the drama and danger of imperial Rome into gripping history. His major works, including the Annals, Histories, Germania, and Agricola, still shape how readers imagine the early Roman Empire.