Description
Book SynopsisHere 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.
Trade ReviewAn 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 *
This remarkable and exemplary work of scholarship will be read with pleasure and profit…a gripping and complex story told in fresh and lucid prose. * History Today *
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 *
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
Table of ContentsPART 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
