mountainman

A footnote in the review below states the following:
http://www.arts.ualberta.ca/JHS/reviews/review015.htm

1. On this controversial topic, see Andrew Louth, "The Date of Eusebius Historia Ecclesiastica," Journal of Theological Studies, NS 41 (1990): 111-23, which counters T.D. Barne's arguments for an early (prior to the outbreak of the Great Persecution in 303 CE) composition date for the first seven books of the HE. R.W. Burgess, "The dates and editions of Eusebius Chronici canones and Historia Ecclesiastica," JTS 48.2 (1997) offers further evidence in support of Louths position, dating the first edition of the HE to 313/14 CE, not long after Constantines victory over Maxentius in Italy.

Have any more recent articles (since 1997) contributed
to this topic, to alter the date of the (1st Ed.) Eusebian HE?




Pete Brown

Clivedurdle

Was Constantine an Arian or not?

Was Eusebius an arian or a trinitarian?

Did Constantine care about these squabbles in a superstitio? He had won a battle by praying to Jesus, who therefore became a superior battle god - except blinded by sunlight and crosses caused by the sun seem to be related, as if Jesus is a war representative of the sun!

I thought Constantine built Constantinople with arianism as the emperor's religion, and then there was a takeover - much later - by Ambrose.

http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/g...p/aa082499.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_I_(emperor)

And the edict of milan is an act of toleration for all religions, not supporting xianity at all - and in hind sight a major strategic error because the xians were then - and still are - committing treason by giving their allegiance to a god and not the state.

mountainman

The Emperor Constantine (or via: amazon.co.uk)
Hans A. Pohlsander, 1996

p.1
INTRO.

Edward Gibbon: (1776-1788)
held that Constantine degenerated
"into a cruel and dissolute monarch", one who
"could sacrifice, without reluctance, the laws
of justice and the feelings of nature to the
dictates either of his passions or of his interests.
He also held that C was indifferent to religion
and that his christian policy was motivated by purely
political considerations.

Jacob Burckhardt (1852) (Swiss Hist.)
"The Age of Constantine the Great"
saw Constantine as an essentially unreligious peron,
one entirely consumed by his ambition and lust for power;
worse yet, a "murderous egoist" and a habitual breaker of oaths.
In matter of religion not only inconsistent
but "intentionally illogical".


p.20
Constantine had Maxentius' head affixed to a pike and
carried through the streets of Rome (29-OCT-312); later
he sent it to Africa to deliver a forceful message there.

S.C.Carlson

I'm not aware of anyone since Burgess on the dating of Eusebius's Church History. Barnes's early date for it has not been widely adopted.

Roger Pearse

Cameron and Hall in their edition of the Vita Constantini consider that writing of this period, and if I recall correctly particularly Burckhardt, reflect the attempts of the revolutionaries of this period to undermine the ideological legitimacy of the Hapsburg emperor with its appeal to the concept of Christian empire.

All the best,

Roger Pearse

mountainman

Thanks Roger, I have seen your reviews on Amazon.
More to the point though, IMO, would be Cameron and
Hall's assessment of the writings of say, Sextus Aurelius Victor
(c. 320 - c. 390) (Amm. Marc. xxi. 10),


Extract re:

the RULE of Constantine
--- translated by Thomas M. Banchich


1. With all these men out of the way,
the rights of imperium fell
to Constantine and Licinius.

2. Constantine, son of imperator Constantius and Helena,
ruled thirty years. While a young man being held as a hostage
by Galerius in the city of Rome on the pretence of his religion,
he took flight and, for the purpose of frustrating his pursuers,
wherever his journey had brought him, he destroyed the public
transports, and reached his father in Britain; and by chance,
in those very days in the same place, ultimate destiny was
pressing on his parent, Constantius.

3. With him dead, as all who were present -- but especially
Crocus, King of the Alamanni, who had accompanied Constantius
for the sake of support -- were urging him on, he took imperium.

4. To Licinius, who was summoned to Mediolanum, he wed his own
sister Constantia; and his own son, Crispus by name, born by
Minervina, a concubine, and likewise Constantinus, born in those
same days at the city Arlate, and Licinianus, son of Licinius,
about twenty months old, he made Caesars.

5. But, indeed, as imperia preserve concord with difficulty,
a rift arose between Licinius and Constantine; and first, near
Cibalae, beside a lake named Hiulca, when Constantine burst
into Licinus' camps by night, Licinius sought escape and,
by a swift flight, reached Byzantium.

6. There Martinianus, Master of Offices, he made a Caesar.

7. Then Constantine, stronger in battle in Bithynia, pledged
through the wife to confer regal garb upon Licinius, his safety
having been guaranteed. Then, after he had been sent to
Thessalonica, a little later he ordered him and Martinianus
slaughtered.

8. Licinius died after about fourteen years of dominatio, and
near the sixtieth year of his life: through a love of avarice
he was the worst of all men and not a stranger to sexual
debauchery, harsh indeed, immoderately impatient, hostile
toward literature, which, as a result of his boundless
ignorance, he used to call a poison and a public pestilence,
especially forensic endeavor.

9. Obviously he was sufficiently salutary to farmers and
country folk, because he had sprung from and had been raised
from that group, and a most strict guardian of the military
according to the institutes of our forefathers.

10. He was a vehement suppressor of all eunuchs and courtiers,
calling them worms and vermin of the palace.

11. But Constantine, when mastery of the entire Roman empire
had been obtained through the wondrous good fortune of his wars,
with his wife, Fausta, inciting him, so men think, ordered his
son Crispus put to death.

12. Then, when his mother, Helena, as a result of excessive grief
for her grandson, chastised him, he killed his own wife, Fausta,
who was thrown into hot baths.

13. He was, to be sure, too desirous of praise, as is able to be
ascertained. On account of the legends inscribed on many structures,
he was accustomed to call Trajan "Wall Plant." He built a bridge
over the Danube.

14. The royal garb he adorned with gems, and his head, at all times,
with a diadem. Nevertheless, he was most agreeable in many matters:
by means of laws most severe he checked malicious prosecutions;
he nurtured the fine arts, especially studies of literature;
he himself read, wrote, reflected, and listened to legations
and the complaints of the provinces.

15. And when, with his children and his brother's son, Delmatius,
confirmed as Caesars, he had lived sixty-three years, half of which
thus, so that thirteen he alone ruled, he was consumed by disease.

16. He was a mocker rather than a flatterer.
From this he was called after Trachala in the folktale,
for ten years a most excellent man, (307-317)
for the following second ten a brigand, (317-327)
for the last, on account of his unrestrained prodigality,
a ward irresponsible for his own actions. (327-337)

17. His body was buried in Byzantium, called Constantinople.

18. With him dead, Delmatius was put to death
by the violence of the troops.

========={End text of Sextus Aurelius Victor}===========


The reference: "He was a mocker rather than a flatterer",
IMO is an important consideration in the understanding of
the man (Constantine) who in some manner sponsored the
writing of Eusebius Historia Ecclesiastica, it would now appear,
chronologically in the period after he took Rome, and had
"Maxentius' head affixed to a pike and carried through the
streets of Rome (29-OCT-312); later he sent it to Africa to
deliver a forceful message there"

I too like to develop an understanding of the political
environment at the time certain authors (and particularly
authors of antiquity) purportedly wrote their texts.

Best wishes,


Pete Brown