Imperial Religious Policy from Constantine to Theodosius I
Imperial Religious Policy from Constantine to Theodosius I is a concise but thorough history of Ancient Rome’s transition into a Christian empire.
Ferdinando Emilio Abbate’s meticulous monograph Imperial Religious Policy from Constantine to Theodosius I, details the turbulent period between 261 and 394 CE when Ancient Rome came to embrace Christianity.
Until the year 311 CE, the book says, the Roman Empire neither recognized nor permitted the practice of Christianity. In the absence of formal recognition, Roman leaders pursued different, ad-hoc policies toward Christians. Some, including Nero, were vicious; others were more benevolent, including Hadrian, who insisted that Christians could not be convicted of crimes without legitimate proof.
Summarizing the pre-311 period, the book delves into the years that followed Augustus Galerius’s edict, which gave Christianity legitimate standing within the Roman Empire. Alongside the shifting posture toward Christianity, the book tracks the development and chaos of Rome’s tetrarchic system of leadership, which divided the empire into four parts, as well as the battles, political machinations, and alliances that formed as Christianity became embedded in the empire.
In narrating the rises, falls, and various political decisions of different Roman leaders, the book displays an enormous degree of erudition. Descriptions of military turning points, as when Augustus Valentinian II fled to his brother-in-law Theodosius for help repelling a military rebellion, are expanded with details about traveling partners. Elsewhere, comparative commentary adjudicates the veracity of different primary and secondary sources, showing, for instance, that Maximian’s attempt to kill Constantine in 310 CE must have taken place in Arles rather than Tarsus as some sources claim. However, the absence of specific references, and the sparsity of the book’s bibliographic sources and footnotes, diminishes the credibility of these judgments.
The book is rich in facts and peculiar details but lacks an introduction, conclusion, or other broad, framing chapters. The topic of Christianity itself is not raised until six chapters into the text, and it is never made central to the book’s descriptions. Rather, Christianity appears as one among many subjects that characterized Roman power struggles and political decisions during the multidecade period in question. By using chronology as the organizing principle, the chapters and subchapters give a sense of the continuity of time without elevating any single theme. As a result, the overarching shifts in thinking and policy are somewhat amorphous.
The prose, though, is direct and precise, couching names in relation to the dates and other principal figures of the time. Its microscopic precision is belied by the occasional inclusion of general statements, as with oblique references to Galerius’s 311 CE edict. While this singular moment is referred to on numerous occasions, its specific language or repercussions are not addressed in thorough terms, nor are the motivations of Galerius, an erstwhile persecutor of Christians, explained. As such, holes remain in the book’s presentation of history, which can be fuzzy even at key moments.
Imperial Religious Policy from Constantine to Theodosius I is a succinct history text that tracks the power struggles and shifting political ground of fourth-century Rome.
Reviewed by
Willem Marx
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