Constantine and the Christian Empire

This biographical narrative is a detailed portrayal of the life and career of the first Christian emperor Constantine the Great (273 – 337). Combining vivid narrative and historical analysis, Charles Odahl relates the rise of Constantine amid the crises of the late Roman world, his dramatic conversion to and public patronage of Christianity, and his church building programs in Rome, Jerusalem and Constantinople which transformed the pagan state of Roman antiquity into the Christian empire medieval Byzantium.

The author’s comprehensive knowledge of the literary sources and his extensive research into the material remains of the period mean that this volume provides a more rounded and accurate portrait of Constantine than previously available.

This revised second edition includes:

• An expanded and revised final chapter
• A new Genealogy and an expanded Chronology
• New illustrations
• Revised and updated Notes and Bibliography

A landmark publication in Roman Imperial, early Christian, and Byzantine history, Constantine and the Christian Empire will remain the standard account of the subject for years to come.

Charles Matson Odahl long served as the Professor of Ancient and Medieval History and Latin Literature at Boise State University in Boise, Idaho (1975-2011) and now serves as Visiting Professor for Roman and Byzantine History at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon. His main research interests are Cicero and the late Roman Republic, early Christianity, and Constantine and the early Byzantine Empire. He has travelled, lived, studied and taught throughout Europe and around the Mediterranean Basin, and examined all of the historical sites and monuments of the Ciceronian and Constantinian Eras. Previous publications include Early Christian Latin Literature (1993), Cicero and the Catilinarian Conspiracy (Routledge, 2010), and first and second editions of Constantine and the Christian Empire (Routledge, 2004 and 2010).