Professor Kyle Harper

powerful one is that with the conversion of Constantine to Christianity, you have the rapid spread of the faith and you have the sudden entry into what had been theretofore a minority religion of a highly educated elite. And so this is the social background of

the fourth century church, where you have people like Gregory of Nyssa, Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nazianzus, you have Ambrose of Milan, who's been a governor, and you have Augustine. And so for about a century, you have the entry into the church during a really formative phase when orthodoxy is sort of being finalized and there's still a lot to fill in.

the fourth century church, where you have people like Gregory of Nyssa, Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nazianzus, you have Ambrose of Milan, who's been a governor, and you have Augustine. And so for about a century, you have the entry into the church during a really formative phase when orthodoxy is sort of being finalized and there's still a lot to fill in.

the fourth century church, where you have people like Gregory of Nyssa, Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nazianzus, you have Ambrose of Milan, who's been a governor, and you have Augustine. And so for about a century, you have the entry into the church during a really formative phase when orthodoxy is sort of being finalized and there's still a lot to fill in.

You have these incredible people who are there in this century, and they become the fathers of the church. Their writings that fill out Trinitarian Orthodoxy have a huge impact in both the Greek, the Eastern tradition, and in the Latin West. Their writings are abundant, and they're preserved. We just have masses of material.

You have these incredible people who are there in this century, and they become the fathers of the church. Their writings that fill out Trinitarian Orthodoxy have a huge impact in both the Greek, the Eastern tradition, and in the Latin West. Their writings are abundant, and they're preserved. We just have masses of material.

You have these incredible people who are there in this century, and they become the fathers of the church. Their writings that fill out Trinitarian Orthodoxy have a huge impact in both the Greek, the Eastern tradition, and in the Latin West. Their writings are abundant, and they're preserved. We just have masses of material.

I wrote my dissertation long ago on slavery in this period, and there are hundreds of thousands of references to the slaves in the fourth century. You can write about the realities of life in the fourth century in a way you can't for any other period. The sermons of John Chrysostom, a priest of Antioch and one-time bishop of Constantinople, fill shelves. They're incredibly rich and vivid. So

I wrote my dissertation long ago on slavery in this period, and there are hundreds of thousands of references to the slaves in the fourth century. You can write about the realities of life in the fourth century in a way you can't for any other period. The sermons of John Chrysostom, a priest of Antioch and one-time bishop of Constantinople, fill shelves. They're incredibly rich and vivid. So

I wrote my dissertation long ago on slavery in this period, and there are hundreds of thousands of references to the slaves in the fourth century. You can write about the realities of life in the fourth century in a way you can't for any other period. The sermons of John Chrysostom, a priest of Antioch and one-time bishop of Constantinople, fill shelves. They're incredibly rich and vivid. So

All that's a little bit of a long way of saying, yes, there's recovery in certain ways. And if there had been a plague of Justinian-like pandemic that had wiped out some huge portion of the population, we would be more likely to know about it in the century after Constantine than any other period of the past. We know it in a level of detail that we don't know any other century of antiquity.

All that's a little bit of a long way of saying, yes, there's recovery in certain ways. And if there had been a plague of Justinian-like pandemic that had wiped out some huge portion of the population, we would be more likely to know about it in the century after Constantine than any other period of the past. We know it in a level of detail that we don't know any other century of antiquity.

All that's a little bit of a long way of saying, yes, there's recovery in certain ways. And if there had been a plague of Justinian-like pandemic that had wiped out some huge portion of the population, we would be more likely to know about it in the century after Constantine than any other period of the past. We know it in a level of detail that we don't know any other century of antiquity.

And there's nothing. There's nothing like the plagues of the second, third, or sixth century. There's some big outbreaks. There's clearly an outbreak in the 311, 312, and parts of the Eastern Mediterranean. There's some spikes in the death rate that are probably pretty serious. If you're a victim of them, they're nothing to minimize.

And there's nothing. There's nothing like the plagues of the second, third, or sixth century. There's some big outbreaks. There's clearly an outbreak in the 311, 312, and parts of the Eastern Mediterranean. There's some spikes in the death rate that are probably pretty serious. If you're a victim of them, they're nothing to minimize.

And there's nothing. There's nothing like the plagues of the second, third, or sixth century. There's some big outbreaks. There's clearly an outbreak in the 311, 312, and parts of the Eastern Mediterranean. There's some spikes in the death rate that are probably pretty serious. If you're a victim of them, they're nothing to minimize.

but nothing really of the scale and certainly nothing of the consequence that sort of has these cascading consequences where it sort of knocks out a pillar of the system and then things start to crash. We just don't have that in the fourth century.

but nothing really of the scale and certainly nothing of the consequence that sort of has these cascading consequences where it sort of knocks out a pillar of the system and then things start to crash. We just don't have that in the fourth century.

but nothing really of the scale and certainly nothing of the consequence that sort of has these cascading consequences where it sort of knocks out a pillar of the system and then things start to crash. We just don't have that in the fourth century.

Right. And this is a very, very active area of research. It's one that I think is interesting and I'm still open-minded and I'm kind of excited to see what we learn in the next 10 years or so. A lot of this is very difficult. I would even separate the Goths and the Huns. The Goths