ABSTRACT
One of the shaping influences most easily followed and most important through Constantine's career is that of government power. He made no contribution to absolute monarchy. When he turned to the expression of his religious beliefs through his official position, his first acts, though prompt and energetic, nevertheless wholly lacked imagination. In dealing with the Church in Africa, his favor was characteristically directed to the official structure. Orthodox priests were to enjoy certain valuable immunities. Toward the end of its sessions, Constantine had invited it to a celebration in honor of God and homonota, though the occasion coincided also with the ceremonies that opened his twentieth year of rule. At this point the Procrustean concord of Nicaea dissolves into obscurities, tergiversations, and unedifying feuds. Ossius disappears from the picture. Presumably he accompanied the emperor to Rome for the twenty-year festival, and went on from there to retirement at Cordova.
