Serving the Christian State in Late Antiquity

How did the state become Christian in late antiquity? Many scholars have traced the Christianisation of the Roman world in the centuries following the conversion of the emperor Constantine in 312 CE. Robin Whelan, however, turns his attention away from the usual suspects in such accounts – emperors, empresses, bishops, ascetics, and other holy people – to consider a surprisingly understudied set of late ancient Christians: those who served the state as courtiers, bureaucrats, and governors. By tracing the requirements of regimes, the expectations of subjects, and patterns of engagement with churches and churchmen, he argues that that those who served the state in late antiquity could be seen – and indeed, could see themselves – as distinctly Christian authority figures – just as much as the emperors and kings whom they served and the bishops and ascetics whom they governed. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Robin Whelan is Senior Lecturer in Mediterranean History at the University of Liverpool. His first book, Being Christian in Vandal Africa (2018), was joint winner of the Ecclesiastical History Society Book Prize. He has published widely on the political, cultural, and religious history of the later Roman Empire, the post-imperial West, and early Byzantium.