Free Republic

In the years following the victory of Constantine the Great over Maxentius at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge outside Rome in AD 312, something unprecedented in human history happened. A religion embraced by a small, despised, unwarlike minority cult became the dominant faith of the mighty Roman Empire. How this happened has been the subject of endless scholarly debate ever after. Did the ascendant Christians impose their faith on the multitude of pagans by brute force? Did examples of miraculous events or prophecies play a role? Or did the Christian emperors simply make it so advantageous to become a...

Late Antiquity is full of epoch-making, history-changing events, but up there among the most momentous was the voluntary resignation of Diocletian Jovius and Maximian Herculius from the height of imperial power to private life in AD 305. The announcement of this occurrence must have sent shockwaves throughout the Roman world, particularly considering both men had together celebrated their Vicennalia, or 20th anniversary of their reign, less than two years before. This made them the longest reigning Roman emperors since Antoninus Pius who ruled nearly 150 years previous. And considering how short, miserable, and bloody the reigns of their predecessors of...

It is a common these days to hear folks opine about how the glories of ancient science were snuffed out ignominiously by triumphalist, fanatical Christians sometime in the Dark Ages. Normally, specific instances of this destruction are not called out, save for the case of Hypatia of Alexandria who has been elevated by modern audiences to a sort of proto-feminist demi-goddess of science for her slaying at the hands of a Christian mob. Yet, for those who maintain the trope that Christianity was responsible for the destruction of centuries of amazing scientific advancements wrought by Greco-Roman civilization, please allow me...

March 12 is the feast day of Pope Saint Gregory the Great on the traditional Catholic calendar. It also marks the date of his death in AD 604. One of the greatest Popes, Gregory reigned for 14 of the most tumultuous years in Church history, preoccupied as it was with the ongoing Lombard invasion of Italy. Wracked with a chronic illness, Gregory nonetheless managed Church and civil affairs with vigor and aplomb as prompted by the Holy Spirit. His reign is often considered the bridge between the ancient Papacy and the medieval Papacy in which the Pope played the role...

January 25 is the feast day of the ancient martyrs, Juventius and Maximus (sometimes called Juventinus and Maximinus). These two were soldiers during the time of Julian the Apostate and suffered martyrdom at his hands, most likely in AD 363. You may remember from similar posts on this blog that although Julian had a deep animosity toward Christianity, he refrained from enacting a wholesale persecution in the style of Diocletian because he had seen that such methods failed to suppress the Faith and indeed, seemed to enhance its appeal. As a result, Julian had taken a more subtle approach to...

Readers of this blog will recall that I have written frequently on the eventful life of Saint Ambrose, bishop of Milan and Doctor of the Church, including his acclamation as bishop even before he was baptized, his discovery of the remains of Saints Protase and Gervase, his conflicts with the Empress Justina, and his confrontation with Theodosius the Great. On this feast day of Ambrose, let us examine some of the strange and portentous events which attended his death in AD 397, as attested by his secretary, Paulinus, who was witness to these things and wrote at the behest of...

Click above for a video excerpt from The Ecclesiastical History of Evagrius describing a personal encounter with the dreaded Plague of Justinian. The thought of pandemic troubles many souls these days. It is well to keep in mind that as bad as things may seem with regard to the deaths caused by the COVID-19 virus, we are not even within shouting distance of the type of utter and absolute societal devastation caused by the typical catastrophic historical plague. One of these epic pestilential events was the so-called Plague of Justinian of the mid-to-late 6th century AD. Erupting in AD 542,...

The life of Belisarius, the greatest military commander of the Roman Empire, came to a close in early March AD 565. Considering how much detail we have of his middle life and military career thanks to his secretary, the historian Procopius of Caesarea, we possess comparatively very little information about his final days. The chronicler John Malalas, writing perhaps 10 years after Belisarius's death, provides some of the only reliable notices of the hero's last acts, beginning with the plot against Justinian which was hatched in AD 562 and in which Belisarius was implicated as a co-conspirator. Malalas offers the...

These books contain important accounts and teachings from the early Church that every Christian should at least be familiar with. Unfortunately, many of these ancient resources are unknown to Christians today. How many of these have you read? Take the challenge here: Fifty Works From the Early Church That Every Christian Should ReadIf you have read less than 5 of these, you rank as a catechumen. If you have read at least 5, you are a novice. If you have read at least 10, you are an acolyte. If you have read at least 20, you would qualify as a...

December 7 is the feast day of Aurelius Ambrosius, known to history as Saint Ambrose of Milan. He was born in Trier to a wealthy Roman family—his father, also named Ambrose, was Praetorian Prefect of Gaul according to Ambrose's ancient biographer, Paulinus of Milan. Paulinus relates a miracle associated with Ambrose's youth that seemed to presage a great future for the child: When he, as an infant placed in a cradle within the courtyard of the governor's residence, was sleeping with open mouth, suddenly a swarm of bees came and covered his face and lips in such a way that...

November 27 marks the anniversary of one of the most cruel and lamentable acts in all of human history -- the execution of the Eastern Roman Emperor Maurice, and five of his six sons, at the hands of the usurper Phocas in AD 602. Having been proclaimed as emperor by the Balkan army who had numerous grievances against Maurice, Phocas entered Constantinople with the assent of the people, and Maurice and the imperial family fled. Their ship was forced ashore by a storm, however, and they sought sanctuary in a church near Chalcedon across the strait from Constantinople. According to...

October 28 marks the anniversary of the Battle of the Milvian Bridge (AD 312) at which Constantine the Great defeated the usurper Maxentius who had set himself up as emperor in Rome. Son of the emperor Maximian Herculius, Maxentius claimed the same right to the throne that Constantine had claimed from his own father, the emperor Constantius I Chlorus. The difference was that Constantius conferred the imperial power upon his son Constantine on his deathbed, whereas Maxentius took his father's authority by force and drove the old man from Rome. After several failed attempts of the eastern emperors to end...

For this date in the year AD 420, the Chronicon of Prosper of Aquitaine (written in the mid-5th century) contains the following notice: Hieronimus presbyter moritur anno aetatis suae XCI pridie kalendas Octobris. That is, in English: “The priest Jerome died at the age of 91 on 30 September.” His full name was Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus, but he is known to later ages simply as Saint Jerome, Doctor of the Church. Along with Augustine of Hippo, Jerome was one of the most voluminous scholars of antiquity whose works have come down to us. In his own book entitled: De Viris...

Here is a new book that is about to publish: The Life of Saint Ambrose by Paulinus of Milan, also known as the Vita Sancti Ambrosii. Well, in truth, it’s a reprint of a text that was originally published in 1928. It has been out of print for nearly 100 years and is the only stand-alone English translation of this ancient work currently available. Aurelius Ambrosius is one of the towering figures of Late Antiquity. A voluminous writer and homilist, and a spiritual father to other great saints including Augustine of Hippo, Ambrose was deeply involved in the theological and...

Today, September 14, is the 1,611th anniversary of the death of Saint John Chrysostom, the great patriarch of Constantinople. St. John perished while on his way to a more distant exile on the shores of the Black Sea in AD 407. Though an outstanding orator and one of the greatest theologians of the early Church, John became embroiled in the religious and political factions in Constantinople. He was particularly known for railing against the excesses of the imperial court, drawing the ire of the Empress Eudoxia, wife of Arcadius, who felt that John’s invectives against immodest and gaudy female dress...

January 19 is the birthday of Saint Pulcheria. Though little remembered today, Pulcheria played an important role in helping the Eastern Roman Empire survive the 5th century intact. She is commemorated as a saint by the Eastern and Western Churches on September 10. Daughter of the Eastern Emperor Arcadius and granddaughter of Theodosius the Great, Pulcheria was pushed into imperial politics at the tender age of 10. When her father died in AD 408, her younger brother, Theodosius II, inherited the throne as a small child, under the regency of two powerful men at court, the praetorian prefects Anthemius and...

Dark political machinations occur. Huge sums of money change hands. The secular power intrudes upon the domain of the Church, creating a situation whereby the reigning Pope is deposed and another is set up in his place. The deposed Pope is silenced, made a monk and sent into exile. The new Pope is secretly beholden to the secular powers who afforded him his seat. They now expect to see their temporal and ecclesiastical goals supported and advanced by the authority of the Papal office. Indeed, they are willing to coerce the Holy Father if he shows any reticence —and they’ve...

On the 26th of June AD 363, the last pagan Roman Emperor, Flavius Claudius Julianus, known to history as Julian the Apostate, perished from a wound he received while fighting off a Persian ambush. The pagan historian Ammianus Marcellinus—a witness to the event and an admirer of Julian—described the scene as follows: When we marched on from this place, the Persians, since their frequent losses made them dread regular battles with the infantry, laid ambuscades, and secretly attended us, from the high hills on both sides watching our companies as they marched, so that the soldiers, suspicious of this, all...

The Roman Emperor Valens is an enigmatic and paradoxical historical figure. Placed on the throne of the Eastern Empire by his brother, Valentinian I in AD 364, Valens was a reasonably effective ruler for much of his reign, but lacked much of the political, military and religious acumen of his elder sibling. In his Ecclesiastical History, Hermias Sozomen compares the religious views of the two brothers as follows: Valens, when he was baptized, employed Eudoxius as his initiator, and was zealously attached to the doctrines of Arius, and would readily have compelled all mankind by force to yield to them....

On June 7, AD 421, the 20 year-old Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius II married a beautiful young Greek girl. Though born into a pagan family and given the name Athenais, the young bride had converted to Christianity shortly before her nuptials and took the name Aelia Eudocia. She would go on to become a devout Christian and a controversial figure in the Eastern Roman court dominated by another powerful woman, the empress Pulcheria. Here is the brief biography of Eudocia provided in the 6th century Ecclesiastical History of Evagrius Scholasticus, written about a century after her death: Theodosius II espoused...