A review by Andrea Sterk in the Bryn Mawr Classical Review of Raymond Van Dam's The Roman Revolution of Constantine. It is a detailed analysis of what looks like a fascinating book. Her discussion of the image of the emperor caught my eye - the shift from the emperor as Christ to the emperor as Old Testament king between the reigns of Constantine and Theodosius:
[Eusebius'] Life of Constantine expressed a new
theology of Christian emperorship, Van Dam argues, presenting
Constantine as an analogue of Jesus Christ while at the same time
supporting Eusebius's own subordinationist theology. In contrast,
Chapter 12 considers a Nicene construction of the Christian emperor
shaped by bishops and church historians. Athanasius's Life of Antony became an "inverted reflection" of Eusebius's Life of Constantine
promoting Nicene theological views about the relationship between God
the Father and Christ the Son as well s a new model for a Christian
ruler. For later Nicene theologians and historians Theodosius the Great
embodied the new ideal of Christian emperorship, not an analogue of
Christ but of an Old Testament king, and they reinterpreted and
reshaped Constantine in light of this Theodosian paradigm. With the
reign of Theodosius the longstanding discourse about the emperor and
religion fundamentally changed as rival models of emperorship were
overturned and Augustus' Roman revolution came to an end.
Worth a look.
Comments