David Frendo, Constantine’s Letter to Shapur II, Its Authenticity, Occasion, and Attendant Circumstances
In the fourth book of his "Life of Constantine," the Christian bishop
Eusebius of Caesarea quotes extensively in Greek from a letter which, he
alleges, Constantine wrote to Shapur II, and of the Latin original of which
he claims to have obtained a copy. The present paper examines, selectively,
the question of the letter's authenticity and attempts to analyse the significance
of its contents in relation to what can reasonably be reconstructed of the
immediate historical context. This letter, if genuine, is a truly remarkable
document since it affords us a glimpse into the earliest beginnings of Byzantine-Iranian
relations.
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