Constantine the Great

Roman Emperor Constantine is one of the most momentous figures in the history of Christianity, a ruler whose conversion turned the cult of Jesus into a world religion. Classical scholar Baker tells of the changing Roman world in which Constantine rose to power—an empire where feudalism was replacing the old senatorial government and the lands of the empire were split into two regions. It was also a place where customs from the East were replacing the old Roman values, preparing the way for the Byzantine Empire. Baker describes Constantine's unique conversion (which apparently did not prevent him from sacrificing to idols), his wars to control first the Roman army and then the Germans and the lands of Asia Minor, and finally the founding of Constantinople and the establishment of the monarchial system that dominated Europe for over a thousand years.

Mr. Baker makes an absorbing narrative out of Constantine's reign. His fluid, swiftly moving diction makes intricate situations clear and easy to comprehend. He has an admirable gift of selection, with a keen eye for essentials. Moreover, the fact that he has obviously been over all the ground he describes makes the geography of the most important scenes in Constantine's career as vivd and familiar to us as Long Island., Mr. Baker writes well. His narrative is intelligent, well organized, often witty and stimulating. The book is never dull; and such of its passages as the description of Constantine's campaigns against Maxentius, Licinius, and his other rivals (by which he rose to the role of the empire's sole Augustus) are vivid and dramatic and read with great interest., Historical and biographical writing reaches a very high level in this thoroughly scholarly and just as thoroughly readable account of the life and work of Constantine.

Historian G. P. Baker (1879-1951) is the author of Hannibal, Augustus, Sulla the Fortunate, and Tiberius Caesar.