ABSTRACT

This study, first published in 1969, presents an astute and authoritative depiction of the cultural, religious and secular developments which shook the Roman world in the late 3rd and early 4th centuries AD, much of it under the auspices of the Emperor, Constantine the Great.

Constantine was at the heart of the transition from pagan antiquity to Christendom. Rejecting the collegiate imperial system of his recent predecessors, he reunited the two halves of the Empire; established Christianity as its formal religion; and shifted the capital of the Roman world definitively to the city which would survive the collapse of the West and persevere for another thousand years, Constantinople.

The general reader will enjoy Constantine as a lucidly composed and accessible synthesis of ancient sources and modern contributions to the study of this towering figure.

chapter I|15 pages

The Role Is Set

chapter II|15 pages

In the East

chapter III|21 pages

In the West

chapter IV|23 pages

The God of Battles

chapter V|19 pages

Rome, and Licinius

chapter VI|21 pages

Rome, and the Church

chapter VII|17 pages

Eastward

chapter VIII|17 pages

Constantinople

chapter IX|27 pages

Nicaea

chapter X|20 pages

The Spirit of Constantine's Government

chapter XI|21 pages

The Court

chapter XII|13 pages

Assessment