This study on Flavia Julia Helena Augusta, mother of Constantine the Great, is divided into two parts. The purpose of the first part is to ascertain the facts of Helena's life on the basis of reliable historical sources. The second part deals with the legends concerning the discovery of the True Cross in Jerusalem by Helena. Fact and fiction, which are so often confused in the secondary literature, are carefully distinguished.
The first part deals with subjects like Helena's life before the reign of Constantine, her residences in Trier and Rome, her conversion, her position at the court of...

Centres of Learning deals with the relation between learning and the locations in which that learning is carried out. It is the editors' belief that the character (and, in part, the content) of a particular aspect of learning is determined -- or at least influenced -- by the circumstances in which the learning process takes place. The contributions in this book deal with various aspects of learning, in a broad historical and geographical perspective, which ranges from Ancient Babylon, via classical Greece and Rome, and the Middle East (both Christian and Islamic), through to the Latin...

Ammianus Marcellinus, Greek by birth but writing in Latin c. AD 390, was the last great Roman historian. His writings are an indispensable basis for our knowledge of the late Roman world. This book represents a collection of papers analysing Ammianus's writings from a variety of perspective, including Ammianus as historian of, and participant in, Julian's Persian campaign, his identification with traditional religious attitudes and values in Rome and his view of the Persian Magi. The contributors engage especially with the concept of self-identification. They address the tension of Ammianus'...

In Book 28 Ammianus describes the military activity of Valentinian on the Rhine. The historian speaks with admiration about his efforts to strengthen the northwestern border of the empire. He shows a similar esteem for the general Theodosius, who re-established order in Britain. However, in the greater part of Book 28 there is an air of gloom. Ammianus writes reluctantly about the judicial terror inflicted on the Roman aristocracy by powerful magistrates. In his digression about Roman manners he speaks with contempt about the senatorial elite and the Roman plebs, because they fail to live up...