Constantine and the Christian Empire

Front Cover
Routledge, Jul 2, 2010 - History - 440 pages

This biographical narrative is a detailed portrayal of the life and career of the first Christian emperor Constantine the Great (273 – 337). Combining vivid narrative and historical analysis, Charles Odahl relates the rise of Constantine amid the crises of the late Roman world, his dramatic conversion to and public patronage of Christianity, and his church building programs in Rome, Jerusalem and Constantinople which transformed the pagan state of Roman antiquity into the Christian empire medieval Byzantium.

The author’s comprehensive knowledge of the literary sources and his extensive research into the material remains of the period mean that this volume provides a more rounded and accurate portrait of Constantine than previously available.

This revised second edition includes:

  • An expanded and revised final chapter
  • A new Genealogy and an expanded Chronology
  • New illustrations
  • Revised and updated Notes and Bibliography

A landmark publication in Roman Imperial, early Christian, and Byzantine history, Constantine and the Christian Empire will remain the standard account of the subject for years to come.

 

Contents

I THE SUBJECT AND THE ANCIENT SOURCES
1
II THE IMPERIAL CRISIS AND THE ILLYRIAN EMPERORS
15
III THE FIRST TETRARCHY AND THE CAESARS SON
42
IV THE GALLIC EMPEROR AND THE DYING PERSECUTORS
75
V THE ITALIAN CAMPAIGN AND CONSTANTINES CONVERSION
98
VI RELIGIOUS CONCERNS AND APOSTOLIC ROME
121
VII THE EASTERN CRUSADE AND THE NICENE COUNCIL
162
VIII THE DYNASTIC TRAGEDY AND HELENAS PILGRIMAGE
202
X THE FINAL CAMPAIGNS AND THE EMPERORS HEIRS
245
XI THE THIRTEENTH APOSTLE AND THE CHRISTIAN EMPIRE
269
XII THE LEGACY AND MODERN INTERPRETATIONS
281
ABBREVIATIONS LIST
289
NOTES
291
BIBLIOGRAPHY
377
INDEX
402
Copyright

IX IMPERIAL CONCERNS AND CHRISTIAN CONSTANTINOPLE
221

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About the author (2010)

Charles Matson Odahl long served as the Professor of Ancient and Medieval History and Latin Literature at Boise State University in Boise, Idaho (1975-2011) and now serves as Visiting Professor for Roman and Byzantine History at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon. His main research interests are Cicero and the late Roman Republic, early Christianity, and Constantine and the early Byzantine Empire. He has travelled, lived, studied and taught throughout Europe and around the Mediterranean Basin, and examined all of the historical sites and monuments of the Ciceronian and Constantinian Eras. Previous publications include Early Christian Latin Literature (1993), Cicero and the Catilinarian Conspiracy (Routledge, 2010), and first and second editions of Constantine and the Christian Empire (Routledge, 2004 and 2010).

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