Why I ever purchased this in 2012, I have no idea! Upon finally opening it up on my Kindle, I can tell you that most of the 980 pages were a slog. I did NOT read all 980 pages. I read about 400 pages written by Constantine the Great that deal with self-praise for his successes and his explanation on why he accepted Christianity, why he made it the national religion, and how men and women in the empire would reap the benefits of his conversion. This also included Eusebius' Oration of Praise in Honor of Constantine. In the scholarly historical sense, it wasn't "bad." In the enjoyment sense, pffft! There were as many notes as script and often they were more interesting. Off it goes into Kindle space! (The "original" is 32,400 pages, 38 volumes) ( )

The church history of Eusebius / tr. by Arthur Cushman McGiffert -- The life of Constantine / by Eusebius. Together with the Oration of Constantine to the assembly of the saints and the oration of Eusebius in praise of Constantine. A revised translation by Ernest Cushing Richardson ( )

I read the Church History by Eusebius in this volume (of the Church Fathers set), which covers about 3/5 of the book. I'll read The Life of Constantine (also by Eusebius in this volume) later.

The notes in this volume are prodigious. It would have taken me much longer to finish had I read all the notes. What notes I did read were very informative, I thought.

The translation and notes are old, however. They come from about 1890. I was surprised at how modern-sounding they were however - siding with the gnostics, for instance, or discrediting some of the more naive claims of Eusebius for Constantine. Very well done.

This is a good book to read if you want to know about the history of the persecutions of the church in the first three centuries after Christ. It's very graphic and in some places sounds like a modern journalistic expose of the many events. Heresy is the other subject that gets some attention in the book. ( )

Logos Library