Pt. 1: Faith and power in the third century.
1. Religion in the Later Roman Empire
Roman state religion and imperial cults
The cult of the standards
Private religious devotion and cults
The mysteries of Mithras
2. The rise of Christianity.
Women and the spread of Christianity
Christianity as an urban phenomenon
Christian exceptionalism and martyrdom
Early Christian attitudes to warfare
Christians in the Roman army
Military martyrs and warrior saints
3. The unconquered emperor and his Divine Patron.
The crisis of empire
The emperor and the army
The Roman theology of victory
The unconquered emperor and the Sun
Aurelian
Christ the true Sun
4. The Tetrarchy.
The first Tetrarchy
Jovians and Herculians
The Caesars at war
The army of the Tetrarchs
The Great Persecution
Lactantius: on the Deaths of the Persecutors
Pt. 2: Constantine Invictus.
5. Constantine Invictus
The second Tetrarchy
Constantine's accession
Trier
A vision
The road to Rome
The Battle of the Milvian Bridge
Constantine Invictus and the theology of victory
6. Constantine and Rome
Maxentius in Rome
Adventus Constantini
The Arch of Constantine
Meanwhile: Licinius and Maximinus Daia
Constantine confronts Licinius
7. Constantine's conversion
A Christian education
The setting sun?
Legislating toleration
The battle for toleration
Eusebius and the labarum
A common vision?
8. Constantinople.
Nikopolis: victory city
Location and foundation
The monumental core
A Christian city?
A second senate
A new Alexander, a new Moses
Pt. 3: Victor Constantine. 9. Victor Constantine
Victor eris
The new Flavians and the Great Cameo
The deaths of Crispus and Fausta
Goths and Sarmatians
Christian soldiers?
The Greatest Victor
10. Constantine Maximus Augustus.
Government
LIfe at court
Pentarchy
Persia
The Holy Places
11. Constantine and the bishops.
Constantine the universal bishop
The Donatist schism and the Council of Arles
The Arians and the Council of Nicaea
The Christian emperor after Nicaea
The Church after Constantine
12. Death and succession.
Constantine's death
Apotheosis
Constantine as Christ
The succession
Constantius Victor
Christian victory
Conclusion.