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Rating: 
Summary: NOT FOR BEGINNERS
Review: I put myself on a summer reading course of important Late Roman/Early Byzantine Emperors. I started with Diocletian and hope to stop with Maurice. After reading Constantine the Great by Micheal Grant I began to cast around for a book on his successors. Of Constantine's three sons, this is the only major work in the past ten years that deals with any of them, the eventual victor in their succession struggle, Constantius. This book focuses on the Christian Bishop Athanasius' struggle for legitimacy within the late Empire. Barnes discusses, in overwhelming detail, the multitude of early Christian squabbles and power-struggles that sought to define Christian orthodoxy within the Christian Roman Empire. Little is known of Athanasius as a person but his religious impact is enormous and Barnes dives into this and drags his reader down with him. There are too many names, councils and conflicts for anyone other than a true expert to keep straight. One important idea I learned, though, was the absolute power the Emperors truly had. Most books give you an idea of this when they say, "Emperor So-And-So ordered the deaths of 10000 people." This book explains Imperial power in a new way. When Constantius wrote condemning letters about Athanasius, you can sense the man's panic as he tried to explain his way back into the Emperor's good graces. This is what saves the book. You begin to root for Athanasius to survive (which he did as the Bishop of Alexandria for 45 years) as conspiracy after conspiracy strives to destroy his reputation and anathemize him and his teachings. Don't try this book unless you have a good grasp of early Christian history or late Roman history.
Rating:
Summary: NOT FOR BEGINNERS
Review: I put myself on a summer reading course of important Late Roman/Early Byzantine Emperors. I started with Diocletian and hope to stop with Maurice. After reading Constantine the Great by Micheal Grant I began to cast around for a book on his successors. Of Constantine's three sons, this is the only major work in the past ten years that deals with any of them, the eventual victor in their succession struggle, Constantius. This book focuses on the Christian Bishop Athanasius' struggle for legitimacy within the late Empire. Barnes discusses, in overwhelming detail, the multitude of early Christian squabbles and power-struggles that sought to define Christian orthodoxy within the Christian Roman Empire. Little is known of Athanasius as a person but his religious impact is enormous and Barnes dives into this and drags his reader down with him. There are too many names, councils and conflicts for anyone other than a true expert to keep straight. One important idea I learned, though, was the absolute power the Emperors truly had. Most books give you an idea of this when they say, "Emperor So-And-So ordered the deaths of 10000 people." This book explains Imperial power in a new way. When Constantius wrote condemning letters about Athanasius, you can sense the man's panic as he tried to explain his way back into the Emperor's good graces. This is what saves the book. You begin to root for Athanasius to survive (which he did as the Bishop of Alexandria for 45 years) as conspiracy after conspiracy strives to destroy his reputation and anathemize him and his teachings. Don't try this book unless you have a good grasp of early Christian history or late Roman history.
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