Constantine and the Captive Christians of Persia Martyrdom Religious Identity in Late Antiquity

“Kyle Smith has written a provocative, engaging, and elegant book. . . . [He] demonstrates new possibilities and avenues for constructing the history of Persian Christians in the fourth century and their relationship to Constantine and the Roman Empire.”— Studies in Late Antiquity “Challenges the standard narrative that Constantine was planning an invasion of Persia to liberate Christians and that Shapur persecuted Persian Christians because he perceived them as fifth columnists loyal to Rome. . . . This book is stimulating.”— Church History “Smith’s work demonstrates well that our sources tell us more about the way in which their authors wished to remember a past than they tell us about the events of that past.”— Journal of Early Christian Studies It is widely believed that the Emperor Constantine’s conversion to Christianity politicized religious allegiances, dividing the Christian Roman Empire from the Zoroastrian Sasanian Empire and leading to the persecution of Christians in Persia. This account, however, is based on Greek ecclesiastical histories and Syriac martyrdom narratives that date to centuries after the fact. In this groundbreaking study, Kyle Smith analyzes diverse Greek, Latin, and Syriac sources to show that there was not a single history of fourth-century Mesopotamia. By examining the conflicting hagiographical and historical evidence, Constantine and the Captive Christians of Persia presents an evocative and evolving portrait of the first Christian emperor, uncovering how Syriac Christians manipulated the image of their western Christian counterparts to fashion their own political and religious identities during this century of radical change.