Constantine and the Christian Empire Book

As the Roman emperor series goes, this is definitely one of the easier reads I have experienced along the way. I knew a little bit about Constantine through Dan Brown which isn't saying a ton and I learned about him through my Roman history courses during my BA which was a delight. One of the long held arguments in the classical academic field as far as I understand is whether Constantine became a christian, during his reign and was openly christian, or whether he became a christian on his death. Odahl definitely takes the stance that Constantine was a christian through most of his reign largely for both political reasons and because he likely genuinely believed in a god.

In the early years of Constantines life, he would be brought up in the East with his mother Helena who was no longer with Constantines father Constantius Chlorus, as he was part of the tetrarchy which Emperor Diocletian had constructed and was living mostly in Britain and Trier. While in the East Diocletian would take Constantine under his wing as he likely wished to have Constantius son become part of the tetrachy in the West once Diocletian and Constantius decided to retire. At this time however, the emergence of the once small cult of christianity was beginning to influence Roman society on a larger scale then had previously, largely threatening pagan customs and traditions in Rome and abroad. It became so bad to the point where even military conscription in the army -which had become an urgency for the empire with usurpers everywhere you looked - became an issue as some young men refused to join or to kill.

Eventually Galerius, another member of the Diocletians tetrarchy in the east - or Diocletians emperor in training encouraged Diocletian to resolve the issue of the christian problem and begin a persecution of the lot of them. Diocletian - so Odahl says- was apprehensive and reluctant to agree to this persecution but Galerius who would have a cruel streak was adament of the necessity of such a move.

Eventually when the persecution was underway, Constantius Chlorus (Constantines father) was reluctant to enforce these new persecutions and mandates in Britain and was very easy on the people living there, which only helped his popularity in ruling as he was very even handed. Constantine would eventually go over to join his father and learn a tremendous amount about not only administration and good governance, but a tremendous amount of religious tolerance and how to use it to his benefit politically.

When the tetrachy began to unravel Constantine stayed out of it, refusing to take part and instead keeping his people happy in Trier Gaul and Britain while members of the Tetrarchy such Maximian Dia and his son Maxentius and Galerius in the East began to fight for power. This civil dispute would force Diocletian out of his retirement in Spalatum in Croatia and he would elect a man named Licinius as part of the tetrarchy. Eventually such members of the tetrarchy would begin to fall out or come to unfortunate ends such as Maximian Dio who, after betraying Constantine, would kill himself and Galerius who would die from cancer of the penis. Constantine would then march onto Italy where Maxentius was becoming a bit of a known tyrant and Constantine would defeat him at the Battle of Mulvian Bridge.

Upon Constantines victory at Mulvian Bridge he would largely show acceptance to the christian religion as he believed that god had delivered him his victory - when in reality it was likely just Constantine's ability of a general over Maxentius. But he would largely devote himself to the christian cause. He would also create the Edict of Milan which finally allowed Romans to openly be christians. This would eventually becomes problematic for Licentius and Constantine.

Eventually Constantine and Licentius would come to blows as Licentius wanted his own empire to be pagan and he refused toleration of the christians and continued prosecuting them as Diocletian had. Odahl makes an interesting argument that when Constantine and Licentius did finally come to blows it was the first religious war or crusade. But the role of the empire would be decided at the battle of Chrysopolis where Licentius had been roundly defeated.

It would be at the conclusion of this battle that Constantine would make the once solid tetrarchy into a Constantian tetrachy where his sons would act as Caesars while he would take the role of Augustus.

To conclude out of my crazy thoughts, this book was very readable and quite good, I was a little apprehensive when I jumped into it as not all of the Roman biographies of the emperors have been pleasurable to read such as Vespasian which was very dry. But Odahl was very lively and exciting to read, my only real complaint is that he didn't spend very much time on the Nicene Council which was disappointing and what I thought to be one of the highlighting actions of his reign.

All in all the book was solid and I'd probably read it again!