Of the Death of Constantine.

Of the Death of Constantine.

Already³⁰⁴⁹ have all mankind united in celebrating with joyous festivities the completion of the second and third decennial period of this great emperor’s reign; already have we

ourselves received him as a triumphant conqueror in the assembly of God’s ministers, and greeted him with the due meed of praise on the twentieth anniversary of his reign:³⁰⁵⁰ and

still more recently we have woven, as it were, garlands of words, wherewith we encircled his sacred head in his own palace on his thirtieth anniversary.³⁰⁵¹

3049 Literally “recently” or “not long since,” and so it is rendered by Tr. 1709, Stroth, Molzberger, Valesius (“nuper”), and Portesius. Christophorson and Cousin avoid the awkwardness by circumlocution or simple omission, while our translator shows his one characteristic excellence of hitting nearly the unliteral meaning in a way which is hard to improve.

3050 The assembly referred to was the Council of Nicæa. Constantine’s vicennial celebration was held at Nicomedia during the session of the Council at Nicæa (July 25), according to Hieronymus and others, but cel-ebrated again at Rome the following year. The speech of Eusebius on this occasion is not preserved. Valesius thinks the one spoken of in the V. C. 3. 11, as delivered in the presence of the council, is the one referred to.

3051 This oration is the one appended by Eusebius to this Life of Constantine, and given in this translation (cf. V. C. 4. 46).

1152

Preface.–Of the Death of Constantine.

But now, while I desire³⁰⁵² to give utterance to some of the customary sentiments, I stand perplexed and doubtful which way to turn, being wholly lost in wonder at the ex-traordinary spectacle before me. For to whatever quarter I direct my view, whether to the east, or to the west, or over the whole world, or toward heaven itself, everywhere and always I see the blessed one yet administering the self-same empire. On earth I behold his sons, like some new reflectors of his brightness, diffusing everywhere the luster of their father’s character,³⁰⁵³ and himself still living and powerful, and governing all the affairs of men

more completely than ever before, being multiplied in the succession of his children. They had indeed had previously the dignity of Cæsars;³⁰⁵⁴ but now, being invested with his very self, and graced by his accomplishments, for the excellence of their piety they are proclaimed by the titles of Sovereign, Augustus, Worshipful, and Emperor.3052 [In the text it is ὁ λόγος, “my power of speech, or of description, much desires,” and so throughout this preface: but this kind of personification seems scarcely suited to the English idiom.—Bag.] This usage of Logos is most interesting. Both he and his friend, the emperor, are fond of dwelling on the circles of philosophical thought which center about the word Logos (cf. the Oration of Constantine, and especially the Vicennial Oration of Eusebius). “My Logos desires” seems to take the place in ancient philosophical slang which “personality” or “self” does in modern. In ancient usage the word includes “both the ratio and the oratio” (Liddell and Scott), both the thought and its expression, both reasoning and saying,—the “internal” and “expressed” of the Stoics, followed by Philo and early Christian theology. He seems to use it in the combined sense, and it makes a pretty good equivalent for “personality,” “my personality desires,” &c. The idiom is kept up through the chapter.

3053   Constantine II., Constantius, and Constans proved on the whole sorry reflectors of glory.

3054    The first had been Cæsar more than twenty years; the second, ten; and the third, less than five.

The Preface Continued.

Chapter II.—The Preface Continued.

And I am indeed amazed, when I consider that he who was but lately visible and present with us in his mortal body, is still, even after death, when the natural thought disclaims everything superfluous as unsuitable, most marvelously endowed with the same imperial dwellings, and honors, and praises as heretofore.³⁰⁵⁵ But farther, when I raise my thoughts even to the arch of heaven, and there contemplate his thrice-blessed soul in communion with God himself, freed from every mortal and earthly vesture, and shining in a refulgent robe of light, and when I perceive that it is no more connected with the fleeting periods and occupations of mortal life, but honored with an ever-blooming crown, and an immortality of endless and blessed existence, I stand as it were without power of speech or thought³⁰⁵⁶ and unable to utter a single phrase, but condemning my own weakness, and imposing silence on myself, I resign the task of speaking his praises worthily to one who is better able, even

to him who, being the immortal God and veritable Word, alone has power to confirm his own sayings.³⁰⁵⁷

3055   Referring to special honors paid after death, as mentioned in Bk. 4.

3056 Here there is play on the word Logos. My logos stands voiceless and a-logos, “un-logosed.” If the author meant both to refer to expression, the first relates to the sound, and the second to the power of construction or composition. The interchangeableness of the weaving of consecutive thought in the mind, and the weaving it in expressed words, is precisely the question of the “relation of thought and language,” so warmly contested by modern philosophers and philologians (cf. Müller, Science of Thought, Shedd’s Essays, &c.). The old use of logos for both operations of “binding together” various ideas into one synthetical form has decided advantages.

3057 Here there is again the play on the word Logos. For Eusebius’ philosophy of the logos, and of Christ as the Logos or Word, see the second half of his tricennial oration and notes.

1154

How God honors Pious Princes, but destroys Tyrants.

Chapter III.—How God honors Pious Princes, but destroys Tyrants.

Having given assurance that those who glorify and honor him will meet with an abundant recompense at his hands, while those who set themselves against him as enemies and adversaries will compass the ruin of their own souls, he has already established the truth

of these his own declarations, having shown on the one hand the fearful end of those tyrants who denied and opposed him,³⁰⁵⁸ and at the same time having made it manifest that even

the death of his servant, as well as his life, is worthy of admiration and praise, and justly claims the memorial, not merely of perishable, but of immortal monuments.

Mankind, devising some consolation for the frail and precarious duration of human life, have thought by the erection of monuments to glorify the memories of their ancestors with immortal honors. Some have employed the vivid delineations and colors of painting³⁰⁵⁹; some have carved statues from lifeless blocks of wood; while others, by engraving their in-scriptions deep on tablets³⁰⁶⁰ and monuments, have thought to transmit the virtues of those whom they honored to perpetual remembrance. All these indeed are perishable, and con-sumed by the lapse of time, being representations of the corruptible body, and not expressing the image of the immortal soul. And yet these seemed sufficient to those who had no well-grounded hope of happiness after the termination of this mortal life. But God, that God, I say, who is the common Saviour of all, having treasured up with himself, for those who love godliness, greater blessings than human thought has conceived, gives the earnest and first-fruits of future rewards even here, assuring in some sort immortal hopes to mortal eyes. The ancient oracles of the prophets, delivered to us in the Scripture, declare this; the lives of pious men, who shone in old time with every virtue, bear witness to posterity of the same; and our own days prove it to be true, wherein Constantine, who alone of all that ever wielded the Roman power was the friend of God the Sovereign of all, has appeared to all mankind so clear an example of a godly life.

3058   Compare Lactantius, De mortibus persecutorum, which doubtless the author had in mind.

3059 [Κηροχύτου γραφῆς, properly encaustic painting, by means of melted wax.—Bag] Compare admirable description of the process in the Century Dictionary, ed. Whitney, N.Y. 1889, v. 2.

3060 Κύβεις, at first used of triangular tablets of wood, brass, or stone, but afterwards of any inscribed “pillars or tablets.” Cf. Lexicons.