1982/01/01 by S. P. Brock · 225 citations
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Ancient history #Archaeology and Historical Studies #Art #Byzantine Studies and History #Classics #Demography #Emperor #Empire #Eurasian Exchange Networks #History #Law #Literature #Panegyric #Persecution #Philosophy #Poetry #Political science #Politics #Population #Sociology
paper · doi:10.1017/s0424208400016004
published in Studies in Church History 18, 1-19 (Cambridge University Press)
openalex publication_date 1982/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
In that much discussed panegyric, the Life of Constantine, Eusebius tells how the emperor, having heard that there were ‘many churches of God in Persia and that large numbers were gathered into the fold of Christ, resolved to extend his concern for the general welfare to that country also, as one whose aim it was to care for all alike in every nation.’ He goes on to give what purports to be a letter from Constantine to the Sasanid shah, Shapur II; in this, not only does the emperor neatly explain away his predecessor Valerian’s humiliating capture by the Persians in 260 as divine punishment for his persecution of Christians but he presumes to draw a lesson from this for Shapur as well: by protecting his own Christian population Shapur will experience the beneficence of Constantine’s Deity.