ABSTRACT
The life of Constantine was the subject of a major literary and historical work completed shortly after his death in May 337. The original goal of its author, Eusebius of Caesarea, was to compose a panegyric in the classical tradition of a basilikos logos (see below, pp. 159-61), or more precisely an epitaphios logos as the hero was dead, which lays stress on the personal virtues and political achievements, especially in war, of the imperial person being praised. (Cf. Barnes, 1994:3.) However, for a Christian panegyrist Constantine was no ordinary emperor. He was the first emperor to grant Christianity the status of religio licita in the Roman Empire and his achievement in the religious field (especially on behalf of the Christian Church) was unprecedented; Eusebius had no literary model which could do justice to his subject matter. A Christian Cyropaedia would in any case not have been an easy task for Eusebius whose knowledge of Constantine’s personal history was not very deep. He had certainly conversed with Constantine on several occasions during the latter’s lifetime but he was anything but the emperor’s confidant and religious advisor as has sometimes been alleged. Besides these conversations which formed the basis of the accounts of two miraculous events in his hero’s life (viz. the famous dream and vision before the Battle of Milvian Bridge and the anecdote on the salvific standard of the cross in battle against Licinius), Eusebius had to resort to imperial propaganda as his main source for the historical events.
