The Roman emperor Constantius II (337-361) has frequently been maligned as a heretic, standing in sharp contrast to his father Constantine I, who set in motion the Christianisation of the Roman world and the establishment of Nicene orthodoxy. This reputation is the result of the overwhelming negative presentation of Constantius in the surviving literature written by orthodox Christians, who regarded him as an 'Arian' persecutor.
This volume presents new translations of texts that were central to the shaping of this hostile legacy: contemporary invectives against the emperor by three...