A Century of Miracles

In this clearly-argued and vividly-illustrated book, H.A. Drake takes a fresh look at a well-worn topic in late antique studies: the fourth-century transformation of the once-pluralistic Roman Empire into a self-consciously Christian, persecuting state. Was it a result of imperial expediency, episcopal meddling, or popular opinion? What explains the "demise" of official paganism over the long fourth century?

Drake contributes a new angle to these questions by examining the ways miracle stories functioned in religious polemic, particularly that concerned with emperors' (il)legitimacy and signs of divine protection for the empire. Taking into account the Mediterranean-wide assumptions that Christians and pagans shared about the meaning of miracle, he examines the ways late antique bishops shifted this discourse to assert Christian dominance over Roman state and culture. He demonstrates his point by bookending this century with two prominent miracles: Constantine's vision of the cross in 312 and Theodosius' miraculous victory over the usurper Eugenius in 394. In brief, Drake sees in contemporary portrayals of these miracles a subtle but monumental shift in the relationship between emperor, empire, and church: whereas Constantine's vision confirmed his status as a divinely-favord person (while leaving the divinity involved ambiguous), Theodosius' victory was conceived as a divine reward for the emperor's piety. In other words, the Christian God, not the emperor, came to be conceived as the sole arbiter of imperial fortunes.

Of course, it was the bishops who spoke for God on earth, and much of this book explains how bishops such as Eusebius of Caesarea, Athanasius of Alexandria, and Ambrose of Milan intervened in various contexts of miraculous discourse to tip the rhetorical scales against pagans and more moderate Christians. Julian's failure to rebuild the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem due to divinely-sent fires, for example, served as an example of God's distaste for pagans and intolerance for religious pluralism. Less obvious examples, such as Christian ascetics' success in fighting demons (chapter 7) and Helena's discovery of the cross (chapter 5) demonstrate how bishops' interpretation of miracle served to draw sharper boundaries between religious communities and narrow popular notions of what it meant to be Roman and Christian.

Drake suggests that the turn to coercion in the late fourth century was a consequence of this appropriation of miracle by bishops, insofar as it increasingly allowed them to wield influence over emperors, who, as Ambrose pointed out, are "within, not above, the church."

Yet even this configuration tied the fortunes of the empire to those of the church in ways that were not necessarily advantageous to the latter. This became abundantly clear in 410, discussed in the epilogue, when the Goths sacked the city of Rome in a historic embarrassment for the now nominally Christian (and thus presumably safe) empire. Drake argues that what became the standard Christian response to this calamity also ended the "century of miracles," or "imperial miracles," in which interlocutors pitted their gods against each other by appealing to the good or bad fortunes of the empire. This response was waged by Augustine in his "City of God," which famously argued against reading divine messages in mortal events. Positing the events of 410 as proof of God's indifference, as opposed to his absence or anger, then, effectively freed Christians from imperial miracle discourse altogether and further cemented the empire's Christian identity.