Noel Lenski - The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Constantine

THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO

THE AGE OF CONSTANTINE

The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Constantine offers students a comprehensive one-volume introduction to this pivotal emperor and his times. Richly illustrated and designed as a readable survey accessible to all audiences, it also achieves a level of scholarly sophistication and a freshness of interpretation that will be welcomed by the experts. The volume is divided into five sections that examine political history, religion, social and economic history, art, and foreign relations during the reign of Constantine, a ruler who gains in importance because he steered the Roman Empire on a course parallel with his own personal development. Each chapter examines the intimate interplay between emperor and empire and between a powerful personality and his world. Collectively, the chapters show how both were mutually affected in ways that shaped the world of late antiquity and even affect our own world today.

Noel Lenski is Associate Professor of Classics at the University of Colorado, Boulder. A specialist in the history of late antiquity, he is the author of numerous articles on military, political, cultural, and social history and the monograph Failure of Empire: Valens and the Roman State in the Fourth Century ad.

THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO

THE AGE OF CONSTANTINE

Edited by

NOEL LENSKI

University of Colorado

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

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Cambridge University Press

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Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521818384

Cambridge University Press 2006

This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 2006

Printed in the United States of America

A catalog record for this publication is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

The Cambridge companion to the Age of Constantine / edited by Noel Lenski.

p. cm.

Text in English; includes one essay translated from German.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN-13: 978-0-521-81838-4 (hardback)

ISBN-10: 0-521-81838-9 (hardback)

ISBN-13: 978-0-521-52157-4 (pbk.)

ISBN-10: 0-521-52157-2 (pbk.)

1. Rome History Constantine I, the Great, 306337. 2. Constantine I, Emperor of Rome, d. 337. 3. Church history Primitive and early church, ca. 30600. I. Lenski, Noel Emmanuel, 1965 II. Title.

DG315.c36 2005

937.08092 dc22 2005011724

ISBN-13 978-0-521-81838-4 hardback

ISBN-10 0-521-81838-9 hardback

ISBN-13 978-0-521-52157-4 paperback

ISBN-10 0-521-52157-2 paperback

Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of urls for external or third-party Internet Web sites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Web sites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

piissimae et venerabili matri

CONTENTS

NOEL LENSKI

BRUNO BLECKMANN

SIMON CORCORAN

NOEL LENSKI

ROBERT M. FRAKES

H. A. DRAKE

MARK EDWARDS

A. D. LEE

CHRISTOPHER KELLY

CAROLINE HUMFRESS

GEORGES DEPEYROT

JA ELSNER

MARK J. JOHNSON

SAMUEL N. C. LIEU

HUGH ELTON

MICHAEL KULIKOWSKI

ELIZABETH KEY FOWDEN

ILLUSTRATIONS

FIGURES

PLANS

COINS

CONTRIBUTORS

BRUNO BLECKMANN is Professor of Ancient History at the University of Mnster. His many publications on Constantine include the outstanding introduction Konstantin der Groe.

SIMON CORCORAN is Senior Research Fellow in the Department of History, University College London. His The Empire of the Tetrarchs: Imperial Pronouncements and Government AD 284324 is now a standard work.

GEORGES DEPEYROT is a member of the Centre de recherche historique of the CNRS in Paris. His numerous publications on late Roman economic history include Les monnaies dor de Diocltien Constantin I (284337).

H. A. DRAKE is Professor of History at the University of California at Santa Barbara. A long-time Constantinian scholar, he has recently published Constantine and the Bishops: The Politics of Intolerance to critical acclaim.

MARK EDWARDS is University Lecturer in Patristics and a Fellow of Christ Church Oxford. His masterful translations include Constantine and Christendom and Optatus: Against the Donatists, both excellent companions to this volume.

JAS ELSNER, a Fellow of Corpus Christi College Oxford, has published widely on Roman and Late Antique Art, including his sweeping Art and the Roman Viewer: The Transformation of Art from the Pagan World to Christianity.

HUGH ELTON is the Director of the British School of Archaeology at Ankara. His Warfare in Roman Europe: AD 350425 is the best study of its kind.

ELIZABETH KEY FOWDEN is an independent scholar who has published broadly on Late Antiquity, including her brilliant The Barbarian Plain: Saint Sergius between Rome and Iran.

ROBERT M. FRAKES is Professor of Roman History at Clarion University. His many publications include the important revisionist study Contra Potentium Iniurias: The Defensor Civitatis and Late Roman Justice.

CAROLINE HUMFRESS is Lecturer in Ancient History at Birkbeck College London. Her work on late Roman law and society has culminated in her monograph Orthodoxy and the Courts in Late Antiquity.

MARK J. JOHNSON is Professor of Art History at Brigham Young University. He has published a number of major articles on Late Antique and Byzantine architecture.

CHRISTOPHER KELLY is University Lecturer in Classics and Fellow of Corpus Christi College Cambridge. He has recently published the masterful Ruling the Later Roman Empire.

MICHAEL KULIKOWSKI is Associate Professor of History at the University of Tennessee. His important study, Late Roman Spain and Its Cities, will soon be joined by a book on the Goths.

A. D. LEE is Senior Lecturer in Classics at the University of Nottingham. His excellent source collection Pagans and Christians in Late Antiquity is a useful complement to this volume.

NOEL LENSKI is Associate Professor of Classics at the University of Colorado. He has published widely on late Roman history, including the monograph Failure of Empire: Valens and the Roman State in the Fourth Century ad.

SAMUEL N. C. LIEU is Professor of Ancient History at Macquarie University in Sydney. He has published extensively on Constantine, including two volumes co-edited with D. Montserrat, From Constantine to Julian: Pagan and Byzantine Views and Constantine: History, Historiography and Legend.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS