Res Gestae

Ammianus Marcellinus

Ammianus Marcellinus. Ammianus Marcellinus, with an English translation, Vols. I-III. Rolfe, John C., translator. Cambridge, MA; London: Harvard University Press; W. Heinemann, 1935-1940 (printing).

Constantine was also the first Christian emperor, with the exception of Philippus[*](Philip, the Arab, emperor from 244 to 249.) who seemed to me to have become a Christian merely in order that the one-thousandth year of Rome[*](The one-thousandth year since the founding of the city.) might be dedicated to Christ rather than to pagan idols.[*](The words are those of Orosius, vii. 28.) But from Constantine down to the present day all the emperors that have been chosen were Christians, with the exception of Julian, whose disastrous life forsook him in the midst of the impious plans which it was said that he was devising.