ABSTRACT
Constantine was probably not aware of it at the time, but he had less than a year left in his eventful life when the festival for the thirtieth anniversary of his imperial accession came to a close in July 336. Intellectually acute and physically active to the end, the emperor spent his last ten months increasing his pious adherence to the Catholic faith, completing a magnificent monument for his Christian burial, and planning a military campaign against the Persian Empire. He would not be able to carry out his plans for the latter enterprise as a serious illness came upon him in the following spring. Realizing that he could not recover, he underwent the cleansing of Christian baptism and departed his mortal life on Pentecost of 337.1
Constantine had been so pleased with the panegyrical oration which Eusebius delivered at the tricennial festival that he granted the wish of the Caesarean bishop to remain at court for several months and gather material for a full biography of his pious actions and achievements. Many of the details concerning the daily routine and personal habits of Constantine which are found in the Vita Constantini probably came from this long sojourn of Eusebius in Constantinople.2 He reported that the emperor remained busy to the end of his days dealing with political and military issues; but that he also “continued to compose discourses on various subjects, to deliver frequent orations in public, and to instruct his listeners in the sacred doctrines of religion.” He found a copy of one of the imperial speeches in the palace archives, and had it attached to the Vita as an example of the kind of thinking and speaking of which the emperor was capable. It is known as the Oratio ad Coetum Sanctorum (“Oration to the Assembly of Saints”), and reveals much about the religious beliefs held and the sense of mission felt by Constantine.3 It was delivered before a Christian gathering in an eastern city on some Good Friday following the defeat of Licinius. After a short prologue previewing the subject matter and requesting a kindly hearing, the oration was divided into three parts. In the first section, Constantine expounded on the verity of Christian theology versus the falsity of pagan idolatry. He declaimed that the universal system of nature and the sound reasoning of wisdom proved that there was only one God and his Word who created the cosmos and implanted order within it. He opined that the musings of philosophers and the
fictions of poets had long kept humans in darkness. In the second section, he focused on the incarnation of the Lord, and the path to the light. He explained the mission of Christ and the work of the Apostles to direct humanity away from the ignorance of idol superstition and to the knowledge of the Supreme Father. He noted that the ruins of Memphis in Egypt and of Babylon in Persia witnessed to the folly of the past. And he explicated how not only the sacred writings of Moses and the Jewish prophets, but even the sayings of the Erythraean Sibyl and an eclogue of the poet Vergil foretold the coming of the Christ. In the third section, the emperor analyzed recent imperial history to prove that advocacy of paganism led to defeat and destruction while adherence to Christianity led to victory and salvation. He criticized the false rites and cruel deeds of his tyrannical predecessors, and reviewed their terrible ends. He claimed that his true faith and pious actions came from the inspiration of Heaven. In the epilogue, Constantine declared “that the holy service in which these hands have been employed has originated in pure and genuine faith towards God”; and urged his hearers “to render thanks to the Savior of all, first for our own individual security, and then for the happy state of public affairs.” Constantine had drawn upon his readings in the Bible, his studies in classical literature and in Christian apologetics, and his reflections on history to compose such a detailed tract on his religious convictions. If his words were not as eloquent as those of Cicero and his thoughts not as profound as those of Aurelius, nevertheless, Eusebius was right in maintaining that the first Christian emperor could “sustain the part of a philosopher” in his public orations.4
