The Library
1693 works catalogued century by century, from the literature the Bible was written among to the present — each with a note on what it is, why it lasted, and where to read it.
101–200
1 work
c. 170–177; survives in fragments
Greek
Melito of Sardis · d. c. 180
A petition to the emperor arguing that the faith and the empire grew up together under Augustus and have prospered together since, and that only bad emperors — Nero and Domitian — have persecuted it.
301–400
5 works
c. 337–339
Greek
Vita Constantini
Eusebius of Caesarea · c. 260–339
A frankly admiring portrait of the first Christian emperor, including the vision of the cross before the Milvian Bridge and the documents of his religious policy quoted in full.
c. 346–350
Latin
De Errore Profanarum Religionum
Firmicus Maternus
An appeal to the sons of Constantine to suppress the mystery cults by force, describing their rites in detail in order to condemn them.
c. 358
Greek
Athanasius of Alexandria · c. 296–373
A partisan account of the persecution of Nicene bishops under Constantius, written in hiding, and among the earliest Christian arguments that an emperor has no authority over doctrine.
378–380
Latin
De Fide
Ambrose of Milan · c. 339 – 397
Written at the request of the young emperor Gratian, who was leaving for a war against the Goths and asked his bishop for an account of the faith he was defending. Ambrose supplies a defence of the Son's full divinity and, in the later books, a good deal of advice the emperor had not asked for.
379–397
Latin
Ambrose of Milan · c. 339–397
Correspondence including the letters in which a bishop refuses an emperor communion until he does public penance for a massacre.
401–500
2 works
417–418
Latin
Orosius · c. 375–c. 420
A world history commissioned by Augustine to prove that the pre-Christian past was at least as full of catastrophe as the present.
c. 440–450
Latin
De Gubernatione Dei
Salvian of Marseilles · c. 400–c. 490
An argument that the barbarians are overrunning the empire because Roman Christians are more corrupt than the pagans they despise, with the taxes and the arena as evidence.
501–600
5 works
511
Latin
Eugippius · c. 465–c. 535
The life of a monk who organised the defence, provisioning, and eventual evacuation of the Roman towns along the Danube as the frontier collapsed.
529–534, with the Novels to 565
Latin and Greek
Corpus Juris Civilis
Justinian I and the commission of Tribonian · Justinian, c. 482 – 565
A thousand years of Roman law compressed into a code, a digest of the jurists, a students' textbook, and the new laws that followed. It opens by declaring the Trinity, closes the Academy at Athens, legislates on heretics, Jews, and pagans, and regulates the clergy in detail.
543
Greek
Justinian I · 482–565
An imperial letter listing and condemning the errors attributed to Origen — pre-existent souls, the restoration of all things — and requiring bishops to subscribe.
547–548
Latin
Facundus of Hermiane · 6th century
Twelve books arguing that condemning long-dead theologians to appease the Miaphysites betrays Chalcedon, addressed to the emperor who was doing it.
c. 566–567
Latin
Corippus · 6th century
A verse panegyric describing an imperial accession in Constantinople in ceremonial detail — the lying-in-state, the coronation, the reception of barbarian envoys.
601–700
3 works
633–634
Greek
Sergius I of Constantinople · d. 638
A patriarch's attempt to reunite an empire split by Chalcedon: stop arguing about one energy or two, he rules, and simply confess one will in Christ. The letter to Rome presents this as a settled peace and asks for agreement.
638
Greek
Heraclius, drafted by Sergius · Heraclius, c. 575 – 641
Posted in the narthex of Hagia Sophia. It forbids anyone to speak of one energy or two in Christ, and requires the confession of a single will — imperial law settling a question the councils had left open, in the year Jerusalem fell.
648
Greek
Constans II · 630 – 668
Withdrawing the Ecthesis and going further: nobody may argue about one will or two at all, in either direction, on pain of deposition for clergy and exile and confiscation for everyone else. The disputed texts were to be taken down.
1101–1200
1 work
c. 1143–1146
Latin
Chronica sive Historia de Duabus Civitatibus
Otto of Freising · c. 1114–1158
A world history on Augustine's plan by a bishop who was also an emperor's uncle, written in a mood of deep pessimism about the age.
1201–1300
1 work
c. 1264–1265
Greek
Nikephoros Blemmydes · c. 1197–c. 1269
A scholar and monk defends his own career — including the day he barred an emperor's mistress from his chapel — and explains why he twice refused the patriarchate.
1301–1400
1 work
c. 1312–1317
Latin
Monarchia
Dante Alighieri · 1265–1321
Three books arguing that a universal empire is necessary for peace, that Rome held its authority by right, and that the emperor receives it from God directly and not through the pope.
19 of 1693 works