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Subject: TMR 09.10.06 Van Dam, The Roman Revolution (Gwynn)
Van Dam, Raymond. <i>The Roman Revolution of Constantine</i>.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Pp. xv, 441. £50.00.
ISBN: 978-0-521-88209-5.
Reviewed by David M. Gwynn
Royal Holloway, University of London
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The age of Constantine the Great has never lacked for scholarly
attention. The conversion of the first Christian Roman emperor and
the impact of his reign upon the Empire and the Church have been
assessed and reassessed in numerous studies, which have appeared
almost annually in recent years. In this intriguing contribution to
the debates, Raymond Van Dam has conceived a new approach that
avoids the traditional Christian-centred interpretation of
Constantine. Taking his model (and his title) from <i>The Roman
Revolution</i> of Ronald Syme, Van Dam seeks to set Constantine
within his wider social and political as well as religious context,
and so to re-evaluate his contribution to the transformation of the
Later Roman Empire.
Like Syme's famous study of Augustus and the Roman transition from
Republic to Empire, Van Dam's book is in no sense a biography. The
structure is more fluid and the canvas explored much broader.
Constantine's own life and personality receive only limited
attention, and similarly there is little in-depth analysis of the
literary sources for his reign, with the partial exception of
Eusebius of Caesarea. Instead, Van Dam exploits a number of
previously undervalued sources, particularly inscriptions. He
constructs a tripartite argument, tracing across three sections the
political, social, religious and ideological impact of Constantine
upon the fourth century and beyond.
Section I (A Roman Empire Without Rome) opens with one of the most
famous inscriptions from Constantine's reign: the rescript that the
emperor sent to Hispellum in Italian Umbria in c.333-335 (Chapter 1;
the text and a translation are helpfully provided in Appendix 1).
The common interest in this inscription lies in its approval by the
openly Christian emperor for a temple of the imperial cult
dedicated to his Flavian family. While Van Dam does discuss this
theme, his primary interest lies in setting the inscription within
the shifting status of Italy and Rome in the Empire (Chapter 2) and
the evolution of Flavian dynastic ideology (Chapter 3). Constantine
accelerated the political marginalisation of the city of Rome which
had already begun in the third century, most notably of course
through his foundation of "New Rome," Constantinople. Nevertheless,
Rome remained a focus for dynastic propaganda. Constantine drew on
Tetrarchic precedents in his exploitation of monuments, coins and
panegyrics to proclaim his image, but, as Van Dam observes, he
differed markedly in his emphasis on a Flavian family identity.
Hispellum received Constantine's permission to adopt the name
Flavia Constans. The monumental head and hand from Constantine's
colossal statue in Rome (Chapter 4), itself a reworked monument of
his defeated rival Maxentius, expresses at several different levels
his imperial image and his complex relationship with old Rome.
Section II (A Greek Roman Empire) opens with another inscription,
the pillar that preserves Constantine's dialogue with Orcistus in
central Asia Minor (Chapter 5; text and translation in Appendix 2).
Like the text from Hispellum, the Orcistus pillar highlights again
the importance of the petition relationship between the provinces
and the emperor. The religious changes that Constantine brought to
the Empire added a new dimension to that relationship, and the
citizens of Orcistus were carefully ambiguous in avoiding
identifying their precise religious affiliation (Chapter 6). Their
petition was also presented in Latin, the language of
administration, rather than the more popular Greek (Chapter 7).
Here it is unfortunate that Van Dam was unable to consult Fergus
Millar's <i>A Greek Roman Empire: Power and Belief under Theodosius
II (408-450)</i> (2006), a work which addresses the same theme a
century after Constantine. The tension between Latin and Greek in
the fourth-century Empire merits further attention, as is hinted by
Van Dam in his references to the importance of language in early
Christianity and in the reign of Constantine's nephew Julian 'the
Apostate'. For the citizens of Orcistus, the success of their
petition merited permanent commemoration (Chapter 8), a physical
symbol of one of the most valuable themes of this book, that it is
essential to trace questions of administration, language and
ideology on a local as well as on an imperial scale.
Certain limitations weaken Van Dam's presentation of the thought-
provoking material collected in these two Sections. References to
Diocletian, the Tetrarchy and the third-century "crisis" of the
Empire occur throughout the eight chapters. Yet there is not always
sufficient analysis of the social and political precedents set by
Constantine's predecessors in the Tetrarchy, which must qualify any
assessment of his reign as a "Revolution." The absence of a
traditional biographic structure, although part of this book's
appeal, likewise makes the argument at times rather shallow,
particularly in the assessment of Constantine and his motives.
Sections I and II of <i>The Roman Revolution of Constantine</i> are
therefore best read in combination with a work which provides that
wider background in greater detail, such as T.D. Barnes'
<i>Constantine and Eusebius</i> (1981).
Section III (Emperor and God) takes Van Dam's argument in a new
direction. "Modern scholarship typically discusses the development
of Christian theology separately from political philosophy" (226).
Yet as he rightly insists, such a separation makes little sense,
especially in studies of the Later Roman Empire. The authority of
the emperor and the authority of God or the gods were permanently
intertwined. This was strongly visible under the Tetrarchy, with
its ideology of harmony and the close association of the Tetrarchs
with Jupiter and Hercules (Chapter 9). Constantine's interaction
with Christianity must be set within this context. But the
Christian Emperor faced a new challenge with the theological
controversies that divided the Church when he attained sole rule in
324 (Chapter 10). The Council of Nicaea that Constantine summoned
in 325 failed to resolve the disputes that had begun with a
conflict between the presbyter Arius and his bishop Alexander of
Alexandria over the relationship of the Son and the Father. These
disputes inevitably impacted upon Eusebius of Caesarea's conception
of Constantine as God's representative on earth and upon
Constantine's representation of himself and his relationship with
Christ (Chapter 11). The image and legacy of the first Christian
Roman Emperor were to remain the subject of debate for centuries to
come (Chapter 12), a debate that Van Dam and ourselves as his
readers are still engaged in today.
Van Dam is emphatically correct that the gulf between theology,
political philosophy and history in modern scholarship urgently
needs to be closed. His book is a step in that direction. The
difficulties that this challenge faces, however, are reflected in
his own argument. Van Dam is not a theological specialist, as he
clearly acknowledges (259 n.9), and this is visible for example in
his at times rather simplistic approach to the so-called "Arian"
controversy. Thus he has made little use of Lewis Ayres' <i>Nicaea
and Its Legacy: An Approach to Fourth-Century Trinitarian
Theology</i> (2004), preferring the more straightforward but
increasingly outdated work of R.P.C. Hanson, <i>The Search for the
Christian Doctrine of God: The Arian Controversy 318-381</i> (1988).
The theological debates of the fourth-century were more nuanced and
less polarised than Hanson and in turn Van Dam tend to imply, and
this to a degree weakens the interesting political-theological
assessment of Constantine and his successors presented in Van Dam's
final two chapters. Perhaps the way forward lies in more
collaborative work between specialists in the different disciplines,
although this of course is far more simply said than done.
This is not an easy book for a student to read. The structure and
argument can be difficult to follow, and the evidence cited does
not always receive the required degree of analysis. Nevertheless,
at a time when so many books on Constantine have flooded onto
academic shelves, it is a significant achievement to have opened
new approaches and raised new questions, and this Van Dam has
undoubtedly done. Seen on these terms, <i>The Roman Revolution of
Constantine</i> is a worthy contribution to Constantinian studies
and to the ongoing reinterpretation of Constantine and his age.
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