Life of Constantine

Eusebius wrote the Life between the death of Constantine in May 337 and his own, about two years later. It is a work of praise, and it says so: Eusebius states that he will pass over the emperor’s wars and laws and record only what bears on his religious character (1.11). It leaves out what does not fit that purpose, including the deaths of the emperor’s son Crispus and his wife Fausta.

Within those limits it is close to its subject. Eusebius attended the Council of Nicaea and describes its opening (3.6–14). He says that Constantine told him the story of the cross of light in the sky and the dream that followed, and confirmed it with an oath, long after the event (1.28–29); the earlier account by Lactantius mentions only a dream. The Life also copies out letters and edicts issued in the emperor’s name. One of them, the letter to the provincials of Palestine (2.24–42), is partly preserved on a papyrus of the fourth century, which shows that Eusebius reproduced a real document.