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This biographical narrative is a detailed portrayal of the life and career of the first Christian emperor Constantine the Great (273–337). Combining vivid narrative and historical analysis, Charles Odahl relates the rise of Constantine amid the crises of the late Roman world, his dramatic conversion to and public patronage of Christianity, and his church-building programs in Rome, Jerusalem, and Constantinople which transformed the pagan state of Roman antiquity into the Christian empire of medieval Byzantium. The author’s comprehensive knowledge of the literary sources and his extensive research into the material remains of the period mean that this volume provides a more rounded and accurate portrait of Constantine than previously available. This revised second edition includes: • An expanded and revised final chapter • A new genealogy and an expanded chronology • New illustrations • Revised and updated notes and bibliography A landmark publication in Roman imperial, early Christian, and Byzantine history, Constantine and the Christian Empire will remain the standard account of the subject for years to come. Charles Matson Odahl is Professor of Ancient and Medieval History and Classical and Patristic Latin at Boise State University. His main research interests are Cicero and the late Roman Republic, early Christianity, and Constantine and the early Byzantine Empire. He has traveled, lived, studied, and taught throughout Europe and around the Mediterranean Basin, and examined the extant texts, coins, monuments, and historical sites of the Constantinian Era. Previous publications include some forty articles and reviews in scholarly journals, and books on Early Christian Latin Literature (1993), the first edition of Constantine and the Christian Empire (Routledge, 2004), and Cicero and the Catilinarian Conspiracy (Routledge, 2010). Roman Imperial Biographies Also available from Routledge: Galerius and the Will of Diocletian, Bill Leadbetter Julius Caesar: The Colossus of Rome, Richard A. Billows Constantine and the Christian Empire, Charles M. Odahl Nerva and the Roman Succession Crisis of AD 96–99, John D. Grainger Year of the Four Emperors, Kenneth Wellesley Aurelian and the Third Century, Alaric Watson Septimius Severus, Anthony R. Birley Tiberius the Politician, Barbara Levick Vespasian, Barbara Levick Augustus, Pat Southern Domitian, Pat Southern Trajan, Julian Bennett Allie Hadrian, Antony R. Birley Diocletian and the Roman Recovery, Stephen Williams Agrippina, Anthony A. Barrett The Age of Justinian, J.A.S. Evans Theodosius, Gerard Friell & Stephen Williams Caligula, Anthony A. Barrett Claudius, Barbara Levick Marcus Aurelius, Antony R. Birley Nero, Miriam T. Griffin Constantine and the Christian Empire Second Edition Charles Matson Odahl First published 2004 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA by Routledge 270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 First published in paperback 2006 Routledge is an imprint of Taylor and Francis Group, an informa business This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2010. To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk. © 2004, 2010 Charles Matson Odahl All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book has been applied for Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book has been requested ISBN 0-203-85028-9 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 10: 0-415-57534-6 (hbk) ISBN 10: 0-203-85028-9 (ebk) ISBN 13: 978-0-415-57534-8 (hbk) ISBN 13: 978-0-203-85028-2 (ebk) DEDICATED TO MY SPECIAL MUSE HELOISA Allie CONTENTS Prefaces viii Illustrations List xv Genealogy xxi Chronology xxii I The Subject and the Ancient Sources 1 II The Imperial Crisis and the Illyrian Emperors 15 III The First Tetrarchy and the Caesar’s Son 42 IV The Gallic Emperor and the Dying Persecutors 75 V The Italian Campaign and Constantine’s Conversion 98 VI Religious Concerns and Apostolic Rome 121 VII The Eastern Crusade and the Nicene Council 162 VIII The Dynastic Tragedy and Helena’s Pilgrimage 202 IX Imperial Concerns and Christian Constantinople 221 X The Final Campaigns and the Emperor’s Heirs 245 XI The Thirteenth Apostle and the Christian Empire 269 XII The Legacy and Modern Interpretations 281 Abbreviations List 289 Notes 291 Bibliography 377 Index 402 vii PREFACE (To the First Edition) During a summer vacation at Yellowstone National Park after the comple- tion of my minor fields in ancient history and before the start of my major field in medieval history for a doctorate from the University of California, I spent the evenings reading the classic work of Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, and became fascinated with the person and legacy of the first Christian emperor of the late Roman world, Constantine the Great (AD 306–37). Over the next few years, I did some extensivereading in the Greek and Latin texts of the fourth- and fifth-century Church Fathers with my mentors at UCSD, and some intensive field work in Constantinian numismatics with museum curators in Europe. While teaching ancient and medieval history and classical and patristic Latin at Boise State University, and offering conference papers and publishing articles on Constantine in subsequent years, I noticed that many scholars in the field seemed to be arguing from the same old texts without having much knowledge of the geographic locations and the material culture of the Constantinian Era. As Constantine was a man who was constantly traveling across the roads of the Roman Empire from Britain to Syria, fighting significant battles at important sites along those routes, meeting with Catholic bishops for Church councils at key sites, filling the great cities of the empire with Christian basilicas, and minting coins which circulated throughout and beyond the empire, I came to the conclusion that the only authentic way to truly understand Constantine and his times was to travel with him. Therefore, I have spent the last thirty years following his itineraries across Europe and the Near East – reconnoitering the sites of his key battles at Turin, Verona, the Mulvian Bridge, Hadrianople, Byzantium, and Chrysopolis; examining the remains of his building projects in York, Trier, Autun, Arles, Rome, Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Mamre, and, of course, Constantinople; and analyzing coins and artifacts from his period in the great museum collections from Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C., to the Istanbul Archaeological Museum below the Bosporus. I have utilized two sabbaticals, have taken leaves of absence to teach at European universities, haveemployed private vacations, and served as a tour guide in Britain, France, Italy, Greece, viii PREFACE Turkey, and Israel in order to carry out these travels. Along the way I have mastered the disciplines of topographical archaeology, numismatics, epigraphy, art history (and how to survive in east European and Near Eastern war zones), and worked with the top experts in these fields to gain the knowledge (as well as thousands of slides, coins, and artifacts) necessary to teach and write about Constantine and the fourth-century Roman world with authority. Because of my academic training and field work over several traditional historical eras, I have been able to teach about Constantine in college upper division ancient Roman, early Christian, Byzantine imperial, and medieval European history courses; in patristic Latin classes; in special senior and graduate seminars on Constantine and the Late Roman Empire; and, over the past decade, out in the field in tricennial “Classical andChristian Study Tour-Seminars” on Constantine held in Rome, Thessalonica, Nicaea, and Istanbul. This book on Constantine and the Christian Empire is the result of my extensive research, travel, and teaching on Constantine. It is a detailed biographical narrative which reveals how this important emperor transformed Christianity from a persecuted minority cult into an established majority religion, and changed the pagan state of classical Rome into the Christian empire of the Byzantine Era. I have used all of the ancient literary sources traditionally employed by scholars writing on this subject, but have integrated them with the material sources of the era to give a deeper and fuller portrait of the emperor and his achievements than has heretofore been attempted. I truly believe that a book about someone as important as Constantine should be written in such a manner that it is both interesting and intelligible to the educated public as well as useful and challenging to fellow scholars. Thus, I have attempted to make the book as “reader friendly” as possible. The text of the work contains twelve chapters for all readers. There is an initial chapter on the subject and the ancient sources relevant to it, and a final chapter on the legacy and modern interpretations about it. In between are ten chapters which tell the story of the late Roman world and Constantine’s place in it from ca. 235 to 395. These twelve chapters have hopefully been written in a lucid and understandable style, and not littered with the arcane debates of scholars. Curious and intelligent people who just want a “good read” and some knowledge about their cultural heritage may stop here. The scholarly apparatus at the back of the book contains notes, a bibliography, and an index supporting the text. I have used the notes to cite the ancient sources of my information, and to refer to modern scholarship useful on particular topics; and have dealt with problems of interpretation and scholarly disputes therein. The bibliography offers listings of both the more important ancient sources and modern scholarship relevant to the book. The index, of course, lists the pages of particular topics. Students and scholars who wish to go deeper into the subject may avail themselves of the scholarly apparatus at the back of the book. Throughout the book, readers ix