Eusebius and Alcuin on Constantine And Charlemagne as Wise Rulers: Sapiential Rulership in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5944/etfiii.34.2021.30050Keywords:
Sapiential rulership; Wisdom Theology; Christian Roman Empire; Constantine the Great; Carolingian Empire; Charlemagne; Eusebius of Caesarea; Alcuin of YorkAbstract
Time and again Eusebius of Caesarea and Alcuin of York chose to present in their writings their imperial masters, Constantine the Great and Charlemagne, as wise rulers, dressing them with Platonic and Solomonic robes. It is our assumption that to understand this sapiential discourse on kingship we should trace its roots to the Christian reception of the Greco-Roman and Biblical Wisdom tradition. Both the first Christian Emperor and the first ever Theologian-Prince, Constantine the Great had been vilified as a ruthless tyrant and an ill-educated ruler by authors ancient and modern. However, there is every indication that he was the prince with the highest cultural training since the Second century AD and a devoted patron of the arts. He was able not only to actively participate in fluent Greek in the heated debates at the Council of Nicaea but also to write theological tracts espousing a profound political theology which incorporated ideas and expressions from a great array of sources, both Christian and Pagan. In this regard, Eusebius presents us with a portrait of the first Christian Emperor that is appropriately Solomonic. In Eusebius’ Constantinian narrative, the Emperor plays a sapiential role as a charismatic ‘Preacher-Emperor’ and a crowned theologian. In this regard, it seems that Christian theology was so important for Constantine only because religious wisdom had a clear political dimension, being as such a princely prerogative, and therefore integral part of the arcana Imperii. Five centuries later Alcuin of York presented Charlemagne as a Preacher-king (Rex praedicator) in Constantinian robes. If we compare the sapiential theme of rulership in the Constantinian and Carolingian texts, there is remarkable resemblance that points to a basic ideological continuity.
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