Imperial Invectives Against Constantius II

Richard Flower

"The Roman emperor Constantius II (337–361) has frequently been maligned as a heretic, standing in sharp contrast to his father Constantine I, who set in motion the Christianisation of the Roman world and the establishment of Nicene orthodoxy. This reputation is the result of the overwhelmingly negative presentation of Constantius in the surviving literature written by orthodox Christians, who regarded him as an ‘Arian’ persecutor. This volume presents new translations of texts that were central to the shaping of this hostile legacy: Athanasius of Alexandria's History of the Arians, Hilary of Poitiers' Against Constantius and Lucifer of Cagliari's The Necessity of Dying for the Son of God. These contemporary invectives against the emperor were composed by three bishops who all opposed Constantius’ religious policies and were exiled by the imperial and ecclesiastical authorities during...