The Roman revolution of Constantine /

Just before WW II began, Ronald Syme published The Roman Revolution (1939), a seminal study of how the struggle that began with Julius Caesar's consulship in 59 BCE and ended with the death of his heir, Augustus Caesar, in 14 CE revolutionized the Roman Empire. Van Dam aims to do the same with Emperor Constantine, who Christianized the empire. He begins with a shrewd assessment study of the empire of the Tetrarchs--Diocletian and his colleagues, who harnessed religion to statesmanship--and then examines how Constantine won first the western empire and Rome and then the east, where he founded a new Rome. Constantine emerges as an able general, a shrewd statesman, and a convinced Christian, though, like the Tetrarchs, he considered religion a weapon to unite the empire. Van Dam concludes with an assessment of the theological debates that roiled Constantine's realm and brought the imperial office and the church into a holy alliance. This diverse, far-reaching book is a penetrating, original study of a second Roman revolution, when the Roman Empire switched to a new universal religion within a generation. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. J. A. S. Evans emeritus, University of British Columbia