Chapter XVIII: Constantine and his successors

[nwhyte]

Read it here or here.

1) Good quotes

Summary of Constantine's reign: The general peace which he maintained during the last fourteen years of his reign was a period of apparent splendour rather than of real prosperity; and the old age of Constantine was disgraced by the opposite yet reconcilable vices of rapaciousness and prodigality.
The peculiar

Comments

[unwholesome_fen]

I'd be interested to know more about Calocerus too - there seems to be next to nothing online, other than that calling him a "camel driver" is probably an insult: http://www.roman-emperors.org/calocaer.htm

[strange_complex]

I'd definitely agree from reading this chapter that not only Constantine but also the members of his immediate family are getting a rather tainted portrayal from Gibbon here. I also felt that Sapor was being set up as a glorious contrast to them, full of bravery, intelligence and honour which the Constantinian dynasty is insinuated to be lacking.

I enjoyed the 'furious' elephants in the Persian war, the description of the siege at Nisibis, and the temporary shift of scene to Gaul - especially Autun, which I visited as part of my DPhil research, and have always had a soft spot for. But other than that I don't have an enormous amount to say about this chapter.

For that very reason, I decided to take one of the prompts above, and see if I could find out more about Calocerus the camel-master. Actually, once I realised that his name could also be spelt 'Calocaerus', I discovered that he has his own Wikipedia page, as well as an entry at De Imperatoribus Romanis with further bibliography. Neither is very full, though, so I chased up