Defending Constantine: The Twilight of an Empire and the Dawn of Christendom by Peter J. Leithart Page A
Authors: Peter J. Leithart
Tags: Non-Fiction
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G. Kousoulas, The Life and Times of Constantine the Great: The First Christian Emperor, 2nd ed. (author, 2007), pp. 157-59, 197-201, is vivid but not always reliable.
3The abundance of important figures with names beginning with "Max-" makes this history even more complicated than it would otherwise be. For clarity, I refer to Maximinus Daia as Daia throughout. His name is also sometimes rendered as Daza.
'The description of the scene is derived from Lactantius Death 19.2-6.
'David S. Potter, The Roman Empire at Bay, AD 180-395, Routledge History of the Ancient World (London: Routledge, 2004), pp. 340-41, summarizes the evidence concerning the timing of the decision.
'Ibid., p. 662, n. 36. Mark Humphries, "From Usurper to Emperor: The Politics of Legitimation in the Age of Constantine," Journal ofLateAntiquity 1, no. 1 (2008), makes it clear that the Tetrarchy's attitude toward a blood-based dynastic succession is much more ambiguous. The imperial college, after all, did not simply rely on the good faith of the members but rested on the ancient method of intermarriage.
'Timothy D. Barnes, Constantine and Eusebius (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1981), p. 29.
10Potter, Roman Empire, p. 343.
"Some scholars place his birth a decade later, but Barnes has convincingly argued, from the age of his son Crispus, that Constantine must have been born in the 270s.
"Barnes, Constantine andEusebius, p. 3.
7Lactantius Death 18.12-13, 20.2-4; Potter, Roman Empire, pp. 343-44.
'Potter, Roman Empire, p. 344.
"The story is told in an anonymous Byzantine Life of Constantine, translated in Samuel N. C. Lieu and Dominic Montserrat, eds., From Constantine to, Julian: Pagan and Byzantine ViewsA Source History (London: Routledge, 1996), pp. 106-8. Kousoulas (Life and Times, p. 9) is virtually the only contemporary scholar who gives any credence to the story. See also Bill Leadbetter, "The Illegitimacy of Constantine and the Birth of the Tetrarchy," in Constantine: History, Historiography andLegend, ed. Samuel Lieu and Dominic Montserrat (London: Routledge, 1998), pp. 74-85, for a discussion of Constantine's illegitimacy.
14Leadbetter, "Illegitimacy," p. 79.
"Raymond Van Dam, The Roman Revolution of Constantine (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), pp. 293-94. Van Dam emphasizes that Constantine associated these memories with the biblical accounts of Moses in Egypt and Daniel in Babylon.
16Translation in Lieu and Montserrat, From Constantine to fulian, p. 43. Eusebius clearly presents Constantine as a Moses figure in his Life, but the exploits recounted in the Origo suggest a closer analogy with David or Jonathan. To say that the Origo employs typology is not to cast doubt on its accuracy. Types work because similar things happen at different times. Galerius could be depicted as Saul to Constantine's David because Galerius was as paranoid as the first king of Israel.
17Potter, Roman Empire, pp. 344-45, analyzes the alternative accounts of his escape. The Origo states that Constantine killed the post horses along the route (Lieu and Montserrat, From Constantine to, ju/ian, p. 43).
18Many scholars have suggested that Constantine was first proclaimed Augustus and later demoted by Galerius to the position of Caesar. The evidence is too sketchy to allow us to know for sure, but it is clear from milestones throughout the Western Empire that Constantine for a time labeled himself nobilissimus Caesar (Humphries, "From Usurper to Emperor," pp. 87-88).
"Simon Corcoran, "Before Constantine," in The Cambridge Companion to theAge of Constantine, ed. Noel Lenski (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), p. 54, points to the deaths of Licinius and of the relatives of Constantine after Constantine's death in 337.
20Potter, Roman Empire, p. 340, speaks of a "tacit" agreement that the sons of Constantius and Maximian would succeed them.
21Leadbetter, "Illegitimacy," p. 82.
22H. A. Drake, Constantine and
3The abundance of important figures with names beginning with "Max-" makes this history even more complicated than it would otherwise be. For clarity, I refer to Maximinus Daia as Daia throughout. His name is also sometimes rendered as Daza.
'The description of the scene is derived from Lactantius Death 19.2-6.
'David S. Potter, The Roman Empire at Bay, AD 180-395, Routledge History of the Ancient World (London: Routledge, 2004), pp. 340-41, summarizes the evidence concerning the timing of the decision.
'Ibid., p. 662, n. 36. Mark Humphries, "From Usurper to Emperor: The Politics of Legitimation in the Age of Constantine," Journal ofLateAntiquity 1, no. 1 (2008), makes it clear that the Tetrarchy's attitude toward a blood-based dynastic succession is much more ambiguous. The imperial college, after all, did not simply rely on the good faith of the members but rested on the ancient method of intermarriage.
'Timothy D. Barnes, Constantine and Eusebius (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1981), p. 29.
10Potter, Roman Empire, p. 343.
"Some scholars place his birth a decade later, but Barnes has convincingly argued, from the age of his son Crispus, that Constantine must have been born in the 270s.
"Barnes, Constantine andEusebius, p. 3.
7Lactantius Death 18.12-13, 20.2-4; Potter, Roman Empire, pp. 343-44.
'Potter, Roman Empire, p. 344.
"The story is told in an anonymous Byzantine Life of Constantine, translated in Samuel N. C. Lieu and Dominic Montserrat, eds., From Constantine to, Julian: Pagan and Byzantine ViewsA Source History (London: Routledge, 1996), pp. 106-8. Kousoulas (Life and Times, p. 9) is virtually the only contemporary scholar who gives any credence to the story. See also Bill Leadbetter, "The Illegitimacy of Constantine and the Birth of the Tetrarchy," in Constantine: History, Historiography andLegend, ed. Samuel Lieu and Dominic Montserrat (London: Routledge, 1998), pp. 74-85, for a discussion of Constantine's illegitimacy.
14Leadbetter, "Illegitimacy," p. 79.
"Raymond Van Dam, The Roman Revolution of Constantine (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), pp. 293-94. Van Dam emphasizes that Constantine associated these memories with the biblical accounts of Moses in Egypt and Daniel in Babylon.
16Translation in Lieu and Montserrat, From Constantine to fulian, p. 43. Eusebius clearly presents Constantine as a Moses figure in his Life, but the exploits recounted in the Origo suggest a closer analogy with David or Jonathan. To say that the Origo employs typology is not to cast doubt on its accuracy. Types work because similar things happen at different times. Galerius could be depicted as Saul to Constantine's David because Galerius was as paranoid as the first king of Israel.
17Potter, Roman Empire, pp. 344-45, analyzes the alternative accounts of his escape. The Origo states that Constantine killed the post horses along the route (Lieu and Montserrat, From Constantine to, ju/ian, p. 43).
18Many scholars have suggested that Constantine was first proclaimed Augustus and later demoted by Galerius to the position of Caesar. The evidence is too sketchy to allow us to know for sure, but it is clear from milestones throughout the Western Empire that Constantine for a time labeled himself nobilissimus Caesar (Humphries, "From Usurper to Emperor," pp. 87-88).
"Simon Corcoran, "Before Constantine," in The Cambridge Companion to theAge of Constantine, ed. Noel Lenski (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), p. 54, points to the deaths of Licinius and of the relatives of Constantine after Constantine's death in 337.
20Potter, Roman Empire, p. 340, speaks of a "tacit" agreement that the sons of Constantius and Maximian would succeed them.
21Leadbetter, "Illegitimacy," p. 82.
22H. A. Drake, Constantine and
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