Paul Veyne, Collège de France

"Takes its readers on a fascinating journey through the crucial events ... As Veyne's book vividly made clear throughout, without Constantine's conversion Christianity could have been a mere 'historical parenthesis'."Kelvingrove Review"A vigorously written interpretative essay about the triumph of Christianity in late antiquity, by a selfprofessed unbeliever. Veyne, always as sensitive to the process of writing history as he is to the study of the past itself, approaches the early history of Christianity as an avant-garde religion. He examines the implications of its appropriation by the state with great energy and in an uncompromising manner."Rosamond McKitterick

• Acknowledgements vii1 Constantine: The Saviour of Humanity 12 Christianity: A Masterpiece 173 The Church: Another Masterpiece 334 The Dream of the Milvian Bridge: Constantine’s Faith and his Conversion 465 The Motives, Both Major and Minor, for Constantine’s Conversion 586 Constantine, the Church’s ‘President’ 737 An Ambivalent Century, with an Empire at Once Pagan and Christian 848 Christianity Wavers, Then Triumphs 989 A Partial and Mixed State Religion: The Fate of the Jews 10710 Was There an Ideology? 12311 Does Europe Have Christian Roots? 138Appendix: Polytheisms and Monolatry in AncientJudaism 150Notes 177Supplementary Notes 236Index 242

Paul Veyne, Collège de France

"Takes its readers on a fascinating journey through the crucial events ... As Veyne's book vividly made clear throughout, without Constantine's conversion Christianity could have been a mere 'historical parenthesis'."Kelvingrove Review"A vigorously written interpretative essay about the triumph of Christianity in late antiquity, by a selfprofessed unbeliever. Veyne, always as sensitive to the process of writing history as he is to the study of the past itself, approaches the early history of Christianity as an avant-garde religion. He examines the implications of its appropriation by the state with great energy and in an uncompromising manner."Rosamond McKitterick

• Acknowledgements vii1 Constantine: The Saviour of Humanity 12 Christianity: A Masterpiece 173 The Church: Another Masterpiece 334 The Dream of the Milvian Bridge: Constantine’s Faith and his Conversion 465 The Motives, Both Major and Minor, for Constantine’s Conversion 586 Constantine, the Church’s ‘President’ 737 An Ambivalent Century, with an Empire at Once Pagan and Christian 848 Christianity Wavers, Then Triumphs 989 A Partial and Mixed State Religion: The Fate of the Jews 10710 Was There an Ideology? 12311 Does Europe Have Christian Roots? 138Appendix: Polytheisms and Monolatry in AncientJudaism 150Notes 177Supplementary Notes 236Index 242