Antioch and the larger Egypt behind Alexandria
The fourth and last piece of advice that even a contemporary might have given Justinian and that he should have heeded was straightforward—to take...
Coming down through the Caucusus
For that boundary to remain hostile, armed, and simultaneously attractive and difficult (attractive to merchants, difficult for all) created and perpetuated exactly the weakness...
Christians to be a political force
Finally, there were matters emperors were incapable of understanding, or understood but rarely. Chief among them were religion and economics. No one—unless we make...
Constantine saw Hosius of Cdrdoba
“One thing, Augustus.” It was Marcellinus. “Is it true that you have become a Christian?”
In his chair on the front row of seats in...
Political alliance between Maxentius and Maximin
“How could we, when it would mean our death?” the old nobleman cried. “We only managed to escape by smuggling ourselves aboard a galley...
Invited Maxentius
“We come at the peril of our lives and the certain loss of our positions and possessions, Augustus,” said the spokesman for the delegation,...
Codex Justinianus
But if any one were born either of a slave and a bondwoman or of a female slave and a bondman, he should follow...
Empress Prisca and Lady Valeria
The fire that consumed the scrolls and furnishings of the Christian church at Nicomedia marked the beginning of a holocaust that soon swept from...
Decurion Paulos
“Search the building,” he ordered the men behind him. “Take out the benches and set them afire in the square with whatever other furniture...
Put the Christian to death
Take him before a magistrate so he can be properly charged and imprisoned to await trial,” he ordered, and the three marched off, the...
