Apollo, Christ, and Mithras: Constantine in Gallia Belgica

Résumé 0

Since the advent of history as a formal discipline, we have struggled to explain how Constantine I (r. 306-37) could reconcile devotion to the sun god with the veneration of Christ, especially during the first decade of his reign in Britain and Gaul. Rather than trying to reconcile disparate accounts to construct an image of an emperor who fits our categories of "Christian" or "pagan", however, I propose that we should not use these accounts as windows into the emperor’s soul. Instead, we should understand them as appealing to differing constituencies within the emperor’s domain. Overall, the provinces of Britain and Gaul – a de facto separate state in the third century – remained loyal to Constantine for the rest of his reign, even after he left the region for good in 316. His success testifies to the power of these seemingly contradictory portrayals, which continued to circulate in the region well into the Middle Ages and beyond. I argue that the principal pagan and Christian accounts share a vision of the emperor as the divine warrior who slays the beast of darkness – an image also compatible with the cult of Mithras, widely popular in this area. People across the variegated religious topography of the region found this image compelling because it spoke to different traditions in different ways. The deep and wide resonance of this image contributed not only to consolidating Constantine’s position, but also to sustaining its own remarkably long life as the archetype of the "good sovereign".