"Come un bene ereditario". Costantino e la retorica dell'impero-patrimonio

The author discusses the transformation of some crucial political concepts during the Constantinian era by analyzing the change in usage of one particular rhetorical image (the association of empire and private patrimony). In classical (pre-Constantinian) times that image had a strongly negative connotation and was employed in polemical contexts in order to express disagreement with "deviant" political behavior and attitudes. In the last part of Constantine's reign however, it underwent a radical modification and was used positively to symbolise the new ideology of a mystical, dynastic monarchy. The origin of this development must be sought on the one hand in the evolution of political thought which occurred in the late third century and the Tetrarchic period, and on the other hand in the extrapolation and partial absorption of some Biblical models.