Maxentius as Xerxes in Eusebius of Caesarea's Accounts of the Battle of the Milvian Bridge
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9664447 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Adam Serfass (Kenyon College, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 72 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 822-833 |
| Publication date | 2022-12-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Classical Quarterly (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0009-8388 • E-ISSN: 1471-6844 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0009838822000660 |
| OpenAlex | W4361279695 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 15 |
Of the many accounts of the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in a.d. 312 written soon after the conflict, only those of Eusebius of Caesarea have Maxentius cross the Tiber on a bridge of boats to face the forces of Constantine. This detail, it is here argued, suggests that Maxentius may be seen as a latter-day Xerxes, the Persian emperor who, in preparation for his invasion of Greece in 480 b.c. , famously spanned the Hellespont with a pair of boat-bridges. The article first reviews the seminal accounts of Xerxes’ feat in Aeschylus’ Persians and Herodotus’ Histories , and next discusses the story's long afterlife in subsequent Greek (and Latin) authors, including those of Late Antiquity. Close analysis of Eusebius’ battle narratives in his Ecclesiastical History (9.9.3–8) and in his Life of Constantine (1.38) reveals that their vocabulary echoes the distinctive language used by Aeschylus, Herodotus and later writers in reference to Xerxes’ achievement. The article concludes by exploring the implications of this identification of Maxentius with Xerxes. It exemplifies two venerable tactics in Roman political propaganda: that of portraying a native rival as a foreign enemy and that of mapping the Persian Wars onto contemporary events. As Xerxes rediuiuus , Maxentius is cast as the quintessential barbarian tyrant, an Eastern despot resident in Rome
Ancient history · Art · Barbarian · Battle · Bridge (graph theory · Emperor · Late Antiquity · Literature · Politics · Byzantine Studies and History · Classical Antiquity Studies · Classics · Historical and Linguistic Studies · History · Law
Form and thought in Herodotus
Herodotus and the natural world
‘The Only Event Mightier Than Everyone’s Hope’
Jordanes and the Date of the Epitome de Caesaribus
The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Constantine
The Historical Method of Herodotus
Constantine and the Christian Empire
Greek Glory, Constantinian Legend
Symbiosis and Civil War
Reconsidering the frieze on the Arch of Constantine
The Greek Tyrant and Roman Political Invective of the Late Republic
The Rhetorical Tyrant in Roman Historiography
| Highly cited | No |
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