ABSTRACT
After an official working for the seventeenth-century French government discovered the single extant manuscript copy of Lactantius’ De mortibus persecutorum, the early fourth-century Constantinian courtier’s view of Diocletian’s persecution shaped how historians from Gibbon forward would view the situation of Christians within the late Roman Empire. Although some historians (e.g., T. D. Barnes) have used Lactantius’ tract as a more or less neutral account of events between 299 and 313, a close examination of the text reveals how closely it follows an apocalyptic narrative such as the Book of Daniel. In such plots, groups victimized by a persecuting tyrant are rescued by a divine savior. Lactantius’ representation of Constantine as just such a divine agent betrays not only his attachment to the emperor’s court, but also his treatise’s apocalyptic frame. Taking this frame for granted has led scholars to misread Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History, which demonstrates the legality, status, and influence of Christianity from the sole reign of Gallienus through Diocletian’s first edict of persecution in 303 and helps explain the rationale behind the effort to strip Christians of their rights. Dispensing with the frame also reveals the structural weakness of Constantine’s position in his early years, allowing us to better understand some of the reasons for his ultimate success.
