From Vergil to the Bible: leadership and literature under Constantine

The book offers a systematic exploration of the literary traditions that were fruitfully merged to construct the profile of Constantine as the first Christian Emperor, with emphasis on the diffusion of Vergilian themes in them. Constantine’s salvific restoration of the Empire was invested with themes from pagan, especially Vergilian, poetry but also the Sibylline oracular tradition and Biblical themes which were now reworked by writers such as Eusebius, Lactantius, Optatian, Juvencus, the authors of the Latin panegyrics, the anonymous author of the Laudes Domini, and even the emperor himself. Thus, the political crisis that Constantine resolved with his decisive battle at the Milvian Bridge was written in history based on a melange of literary traditions (weaved against a notably Vergilian background) that advocated the subjection of the Roman Empire to God’s apocalyptic plan. Posing as a new Moses, a new Aeneas, and a new Christ, Constantine reshaped radically the socio-political contours of the Empire by emphasizing its theological mission and actively invited the communities he addressed to reconfigure their role in Christian history. Thus, the book re-evaluates the role of literature in the construction of Christian self-definition under Constantine’s leadership.