ABSTRACT
From 305, when Diocletian abdicated, until Constantine became sole Emperor in 324, and indeed throughout his reign, recorded history depends almost totally upon the version that this ambitious ruler endorsed, little tempered by totally reliable alternative sources. The life of Constantine is beset by the problem that even contemporaries were polarized with regard to his achievements and character, and modern scholars are no less divided. There seems to be no middle ground in the sources, which tend to be either wholly or even eulogistically favourable or totally antagonistic towards Constantine.1 For Constantine’s career, especially for his early years, a strict chronology is not easy to ascertain, so cause and effect cannot always be established, but using the various sources that are available T. D. Barnes worked out a plausible timeline, even though the year of Constantine’s birth is not known and the sources are not certain about his age at death, which is listed anywhere between sixty and sixty-ve.2 In order to assess Constantine it is also necessary to evaluate his biographer Eusebius, and Lactantius, who were contemporaries of the Emperor, and the panegyrics addressed to Constantine and his colleagues, which on some occasions are the only contemporary literary sources for signicant events.3
