Bishops and the Emperor within the Framework of Late Antiquity. The Council of Nicaea in De vita Constantini

The paper aims to detect in Eusebius of Caesarea’s Life of Constantine possible diverging viewpoints between the positions of Eusebius – and certain other bishops – and those of Constantine on a number of very speci c questions. e di erence in perspective between the bishop and the Emperor is closely linked to synodal history. Moreover, Eusebius portrays Constantine as the Emperor who summons God’s ministers to council. In so doing, Eusebius begins his Constantine’s biography by presenting the idea for posterity of an Emperor who is superior to the bishops but pays for that superiority through an overturning in the eschatological perspective