Nicaea, Constantine, and Gender

Abstract

The canons of the Council of Nicaea appear to confirm what some might consider today to be stereotypical views of gender identity. However, according to Philostorgius, a Christian church historian of Late Antiquity, Constantine's stepsister Constantia played an influential role in the decisions of some sceptical key players to sign the creed. Some non-Christian sources on Constantine's religious policy at the time of Nicaea ascribe an even greater role to women. They explain the emperor's conversion as an effect of the influence of the imperial court, in which, according to them, women played a key role. These sources even see the conversion of the emperor resulting in what they consider to be a “feminization” of the Roman Empire. This article briefly presents Constantia as a key female actor of imperial religious politics according to Philostorgius and looks at the non-Christian polemical accusation of “feminization” against Christianity in the age of Constantine. The concluding section examines the Roman Empire's reception of feminization in two historical interpretations of Constantine which are still influential in Western European discourses.