Eusebius of Caesarea’s Laus Constantini has often been noted for its presentation of a distinctly Christian political philosophy. While it has been recognized that there was Hellenistic precedence for speaking of the imperial government as an earthly copy of the divine, it has also been understood that Eusebius’ theology informed his presentation of Constantine as Christian Emperor par excellence. In particular, it has been recently suggested that the model of Moses was the central image for how the emperor could function as a bishop. However, it has not been fully appreciated that it is Eusebius’ distinctive Christological view, as opposed to other views of his day, which provided the theological framework within which he developed his view of the Christian empire. In fact, as I will argue in this paper, Eusebius’ view of the Logos provided a particularly apt theological structure for his presentation of Constantine as Christian emperor that would not have been possible within at least some of the other competing Christologies of the day. I will briefly contrast Eusebius’ Christology with that of his contemporary Athanasius, especially with regard to the relation between the Logos and the Father. Then, I will show how Eusebius’ view of the divine Logos’ separate existence from, and subordinate relationship to, God the Father informed and shaped his view of Constantine as the ‘friend’ (philos) of God in the Laus Constantini. In this way, I hope to demonstrate how Eusebius’ logos theology both allows and informs strong parallels between the divine Logos and the emperor in a way that would be, at the very least, less easily accommodated by other theologies of his day.
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