Table of Contents

Introduction: Identity Politics in the Later Roman Empire
Chapter 1. Philosophers, Apologists, and Empire
Chapter 2. Porphyry on Greeks, Christians, and Others
Chapter 3. Vera Religio and Falsae Religiones: Lactantius's Divine Institutes
Chapter 4. What Difference Does an Emperor Make? Apologetics and Imperial Ideology in Constantine's Oration to the Saints and Imperial Letters
Chapter 5. From Hebrew Wisdom to Christian Hegemony: Eusebius of Caesarea's Apologetics and Panegyrics
Epilogue: Empire's Palimpsest
Appendix: Porphyry's Polemics and the Great Persecution
List of Abbreviations
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments

Promotional Information

In Christianity, Empire, and the Making of Religion in Late Antiquity, Jeremy M. Schott examines the ways in which conflicts between Christian and pagan intellectuals over religious, ethnic, and cultural identity contributed to the transformation of Roman imperial rhetoric and ideology in the early fourth century C.E.

About the Author

Jeremy M. Schott teaches religious studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

Reviews

"Jeremy M. Schott has done a masterful job of elucidating the points of connection--even debate--between Porphyry of Tyre, Lactantius, Constantine, and Eusebius. These men were the most prominent participants in the conversations, debates, and policies that guided Rome's transformations from pagan to Christian state. How their ideas respond to one another has, until now, not been satisfactorily mapped out."--Elizabeth Digeser, University of California, Santa Barbara