A.D. 381 heretics, pagans, and the dawn of the monotheistic state ( PDFDrive )

Chapter Two: The Divine Emperor
1 I have drawn heavily on Sabine MacCormack’s Art and Ceremony in Late
Antiquity, for this chapter. On the accession of the members of the House of
Valentinian, see Section II, Part One: 5. Themistius’ words come from his
Oration 5:64 b—c and are quoted in Garnsey and Humfress, p.25.
2 Quoted in MacCormack, pp.206—7. The quotation comes from Themistius’
Oration 15.
3 See Cameron and Hall. The quotation comes from 1:6 of this work. For the
Oration in Praise of Constantine (often referred to as the Laus Constantini), see
Drake, Chapter Ten, ‘The Fine Print’. See also Van Dam, ‘The Many
Conversions of the Emperor Constantine’, pp.127—51.
4 Themistius is quoted in MacCormack, p.210. Themistius, Oration 15:189 b-c.
For the quotation on rhetoric, see Cameron, p.132. Discussing the plea for
clemency made by the Bishop of Antioch, Flavianus, to Theodosius when tax
riots broke out in Antioch in 387, Cameron notes how one is surprised by ‘the
boldness of Christian writers, who unblushingly placed the emperor in the role
of God himself’.
5 Ammianus Marcellinus, The Later Roman Empire, tr. Walter Hamilton,
London, 1986, Book 16:10.
6 Quoted in Cameron, p.129. Synesius (died AD 413) is interesting because his
surviving speeches show him as a sceptical Christian who remains deeply
attracted to Greek philosophy. When asked to become a bishop, for instance, he
hesitates because he is uncertain whether the resurrection actually happened or
not. See the opening chapters of Cameron and Long.
7 I was not the only one to be reminded of this famous quotation when President
Bush was commenting on the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in July 2006. It comes
from Tacitus’ Agricola, as does the quotation about the Britons being seduced by
bathhouses.
8 A long quotation from Aelius Aristides’ panegyric to Rome can be found in
Lewis and Reinhold, pp.135—8.
9 600,000 is the figure given for the fourth-century Roman armies by Ward-