Constantine the Emperor

Constantine the Emperor

Author: David Potter | Language: English | ISBN: 0199755868 | Format: PDF

Constantine the Emperor Description

Review

"Vividly detailed and energetically told biography..." --Publishers Weekly

" A good fit for academics and students of Roman history."--Kirkus

"David Potter's Constantine the Emperor is a fresh look by a veteran scholar at one of the most pivotal reigns in Western history. Almost all studies of this emperor take his conversion to Christianity as their starting point. Potter broadens the focus to show a shrewd field commander who can diagnose and exploit his opponents' weaknesses and an able ruler with a deeply held belief that his 'job' committed him to protecting the weak and ensuring fairness for all his subjects." --Harold Drake, University of California, Santa Barbara

"Crisp in its prose and comprehensive in its coverage, Constantine the Emperor grounds its much mythologized subject in the solid realities of imperial governance." --Noel Lenski, University of Colorado

"This is a penetrating and original analysis, closely based on contemporary evidence, of the step-by-step evolution of Constantine's role as Emperor, and of his conception of that role. Within that wider framework, the nature of Constantine's commitment to Christianity, and of his self-representation as a Christian, is carefully re-evaluated." --Sir Fergus Millar, University of Oxford

Potter, a professor of Greek and Roman history at the University of Michigan, actually offers this major hunk of history in a surprisingly readable and compelling manner. His description is excellent of Constantine's complicated world with its spreading Christian influence, altogether as good a story as the sordid family strife surrounding this emperor. Ancient Tides

"The interested reader could find no better starting point for exploring the man and the era than David Potter's Constantine the Emperor." "rewarding" l The Wall Street Journal

"A good fit for academics and students of Roman history." KIRKUS REVIEWS

"ELvividly detailed and energetically told biography, Constantine was also one of Rome's greatest emperors and one of history's greatest leaders, with savvy leadership skills, great passion, and desire for an ordered society" Publishers Weekly

"Potter's interpretation of Constantine as transforming the world without intending to have that effect remains deeply provocative." l The History Book Club

About the Author

David Potter is Francis W. Kelsey Collegiate Professor of Greek and Roman History and Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Greek and Latin at the University of Michigan. His books include The Victor's Crown (OUP), Emperors of Rome, and Ancient Rome: A New History.

• Product Details
• Table of Contents
• Reviews

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 1ST edition (December 11, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0199755868
• ISBN-13: 978-0199755868
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

For an emperor so late in the saga of the Roman Empire, Constantine gets a surprising amount of attention and is up there with the early Julio-Claudian emperors in inhabiting, in however misunderstood, inaccurate, and mutated form, a place in the minds of the putatively educated western public. They know he saw a vision of the cross floating in the sky, heard the words "Conquer, in my name", and went on to win a major battle and converted to Christianity as the result. And Potter's claim that he is father of the imperial Roman utterance most widely known, the Nicene Creed, is certainly true.

Of course, Constantine is most simply known as the man who officially made the Roman Empire Christian, and, given that he moved the imperial capital to the newly consecrated Constantinople, it's fitting many histories of Rome end with his death though the western part of the empire limped on for another 137 years and the last vestiges died in the east in 1453.

I'm of two minds about this book.

Potter tries really hard to make this book user friendly. There is a map of the empire with all the post-Diocletian political sub-divisions noted if not any cities. There are some informative pictures of archaeological ruins and recreations. There is a time line that starts with the capture of the Roman emperor Valerian by the Persians in 260 and emperor Julian's death in 363. There is a dramatis personae which you will appreciate when trying to keep Constantius, Constantine, Constantia, and Constantus straight or multiple church men named Donatus or Eusebius. Though the book has no index, Potter makes his chapters so short and specifically titled that you can usually find what you are looking for by searching chapter titles.

Constantine the Great (282-337) has been the subject of many previous biographies - some of them very dry and many which dwell on his conversion to Christianity and its impact. It is true to say that without Constantine's conversion and his military success in uniting the (then) disparate Roman Empire, Christianity might never have been able to become the major religion it is today. The Niciion Creed he also presided over is a pillar of the Church's faith today. However there is even more to Constantine than this. Throughout history the founder of Constantinople has inspired very different views from writers and historians alike.

In this new biography, David Potter comprehensively covers the whole of the life of Constantine. In fact the book goes back to the events of 260AD, when with the capture by the Persians of the Roman Empire, Valerian, the empire split into three. This background material helps the reader to understand and appreciate the achievements of Constantine.

The book details Constantine's training at the court of Diocletion, his military brilliance, the enormously successful administration with which he ruled and, of course, his conversion to Christianity and his impact on the emerging church. It also examines more personal matters - the divorce of his beloved mother by his father and Constantine's close relationship with her throughout her life, his early marriage and his devotion to his children and the happy years of his second marriage.

What emerges from the pages of Potter's biography is a man who was very complex in character.

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