[Verginius Rufus]

Well, Julian gets good press (mostly) from Ammianus Marcellinus, the last major Roman historian writing in Latin, who was a pagan himself. Julian seems to have been an honest administrator (a rarity in the Roman Empire) and a competent general.

So, apart from the religious issue, he had some good points. "Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?"

[Antoninus]

Well, Julian gets good press (mostly) from Ammianus Marcellinus, the last major Roman historian writing in Latin, who was a pagan himself.

Indeed. Julian's own writings have largely survived as well and, as this post points out, he was a complicated individual, to be sure.

Julian seems to have been an honest administrator (a rarity in the Roman Empire) and a competent general.

Well, he was competent until his campaign in Persia anyway, which was on the way to failure already even before he was killed.