Synopses & Reviews
This study of the Roman Empire in the age of Constantine offers a thoroughly new assessment of the part Christianity played in the Roman world of the third and fourth centuries. Mr. Barnes gives the fullest available narrative history of the reigns of Diocletian and Constantine. He analyzes Constantine's rise to power and his government, demonstrating how Constantine's sincere adherence to Christianity advanced his political aims. He explores the whole range of Eusebius' writings, especially those composed before Constantine became emperor, and shows that many attitudes usually deemed typical of the "Constantinian revolution" were prevalent before the new Christian empire came into existence. This authoritative political and cultural history of the age of Constantine will prove essential to students and historians of the ancient world.
Review
Already an acknowledged expert on the history of the later Roman Empire and early Christianity. Barnes now offers a narrative account of the reigns of the two most important emperors after Augustus...The portrait of Constantine is realistic and convincing. (A main value of the book lies in its assessment of the intellectual, doctrinal, and political activities of the early Christians...Essential reading. Choice
Review
This remarkable and exemplary work of scholarship will he read with pleasure and profit...a gripping and complex story told in fresh and lucid prose. History Today
Review
An original work of scholarship, rich in detail and minute researches, liberally supplied with fresh observations and new interpretations...The work is characterized by an astonishing mastery of evidence...Barnes is lucid and concise. Classical Outlook
Review
A book that scholars would be very ill-advised to neglect on any topic treated in it. It is marked at every turn with Barnes' magnificent obsession with getting the record straight. Its implications for the role of Christianity in the Roman Empire are quite revolutionary. Peter Brown
Synopsis
Here is the fullest available narrative history of the reigns of Diocletian and Constantine, and a new assessment of the part Christianity played in the Roman world of the third and fourth centuries.
About the Author
Timothy D. Barnes is Professor of Classics at the University of Toronto.
Professor of Classics, University of Toronto
Table of Contents
PART ONE: Constantine 1. Diocletian and Maximiam
2. Galerius and the Christians
3. The Rise of Constantine
4. The Christian Emperor of the West
5. Constantine and Licinius
PART TWO: Eusebius
6. Origen and Caesarea
7. Biblical Scholarship and the Chronicle
8. The History of the Church
9. Persecution
10. Eusebius as Apologist
PART THREE: The Christian Empire
11. Before Constantine
12. The Council of Nicaea
13. Ecclesiastical Politics
14. The New Monarchy
15. Eusebius and Constantine
Epilogue
Chronological Table
Editions and Translations of Eusebius
Abbreviations
Notes
Bibliography
Index of Passages of Eusebius Discussed
General Index