Review of D. Trout, Damasus of Rome: The Epigraphic Poetry (2015). (original) (raw)
around autumn 324. His desire was an outcome that would provide unassailable unity. His fetish was to avoid regrettable 'public contentions occasioned by' dispute, in much the same way as modern leaders are averse to reputational controversy. The capacity of the Christian Church to respond strategically and politically is witnessed in Pietras's critique of the historical accounts, revealing an urgent, even panic, reaction to Constantine's invitation on all sides. All welcomed the opportunity to exploit the twentieth-anniversary celebrations, seeking to address contentious issues in Constantine's presence, to gain from that occasion a proclamation of victory for their arguments and parties over their enemy's. The event needed to be a fully exploited opportunity: to ensure that the unfurling of the Holy Peace of the Kingdom across the empire at this Council would contain the correct magic words to enchant the whole Christian community represented by its bishops. All (apart from three bishops) did, of course, choose to be signatories of the ultimately Nicene formula aYrming the consubstantiality of the Son's relation to the Father. I find this all rather pleasingly plausible, and a convincing, creative reconstruction, refreshing in its transparency and engagement with the diverse material in a scholarly and attentive manner. However, I remain at a loss as to how to test the actual claims about the slow postal service in the empire, distracted in the preparation (no doubt) of parcelling bishops from across the empire to Nicaea. Pietras's is not, however, an unrealistic speculation, but a tantalizing, committed series of arguments. I hope that scholars will seriously engage in the multidisciplinary task of establishing not the likelihood of Pietras's argument, but demonstrating it beyond all reasonable doubt.