Constantine and the Christian Empire (review)

In his work Constantine and the Christian Empire, Charles Odahl strives to present a biographical study of Constantine in a style that will be useful for both the educated public and fellow scholars (p. ix). He begins the work with a chapter on the ancient sources, followed by ten chapters that cover the era of Constantine, with a final chapter dedicated to modern historiography. Odahl's stated aim is to incorporate the material sources of the period such as coins, buildings, and monuments in order to add depth to the large body of existing biographies of Constantine.

One highlight of this work is the detailed description of the political landscape of the late third and early fourth centuries. Chapters 2-5 provide a very thorough and useful description of the Crisis of the Third Century, the tetrarchy of Diocletian, and other events leading up to the emergence of Constantine as emperor in the west. Chapters 6-11 outline the reign of Constantine, highlighting the role that his faith played in his imperial policies, material building programs, and imperial coinage. The heavily-illustrated chapters make clear Odahl's emphasis upon the material sources and serve the work well. In the final chapter on modern interpretations, Odahl situates his work within recent studies on Constantine. In this chapter, he states that he follows T. D. Barnes' interpretation in Constantine and Eusebius (1981) that Constantine was a religious reformer who intended to convert the empire to Christianity (p. 283). The contribution of this book, according to the author, is to augment Barnes' work by providing a more complete biographical account of the reign of Constantine.

The intended aim to meet the needs of both the educated reader and scholar might explain some of the drawbacks of this work. For example, the discussion of modern historiography would be more useful for scholars if placed at the beginning of the work. As it stands, scholars familiar with the historiography of the period will recognize the influence of Barnes's interpretation of Constantine throughout the work. When this is revealed in the final chapter, it comes as little surprise. This organizational decision was a conscious one to make the work more "reader friendly" (p. ix), but it limits the work's usefulness for scholars in my view. An exploration of these "arcane" (p. ix) debates surrounding questions such as the relationship between Constantine's faith and his imperial policies and the reliability of Eusebius as a source would add to the value of this work. Similarly, the very detailed chronology of Constantine's reign and his military campaigns, and the many detailed illustrations that make the work a valuable introduction for scholars may be too detailed for a more general audience. In the end, the attempt to satisfy both the educated public and scholars is an admirable one, but may prevent the work from being entirely satisfying to either audience.