Eusebius And Maximin: An Analysis

It’s obvious that Eusebius loves Constantine more than Maximin. On pages 291, Eusebius states that “Constantine, an emperor and son of an emperor, a religious man and son of a most religious man, most prudent in every way”. On the other hand when he talks about Maximin he describes as, “more to the wiles of a trickster than to the goodwill of his subjects and could not pluck up courage to go an inch beyond the city gates” (Eusebius 292). Based on Eusebius’ diction, it’s clearly to state that even in his diction, anyone can see the basis towards Constantine. Historical wise, Constantine was more of the people than Maximin. Constantine was the first emperor that stop the persecution of the Christians, and to set liberty to all Christians everywhere.

The most interesting fact that shows the different of leadership comes from the letter that they wrote. Eusebius states that Maximin
put the order in writing for each other’s information. For example, the man they had honored with the title of His Excellency the Prefect, Sabinus, informed the provincial governors of the emperor’s wishes in a letter written in Latin. (Eusebius 282)
This quote demonstrates that Maximin had people to write his letter from him. This can be interpreted as a leader that does not care about the people. The letter was not written by him, so anything in the letter he can defense himself by saying, “I did not write this or that letter”. On the other hand, Constantine wrote his letter personally to many bishops during his era. There you can see the difference of rulers when it comes to their writing.
To conclude, Eusebius’ hero is no doubt Constantine because he was a ruler that was for the people. One thing that a ruler can be tested is by their writing. Eusebius demonstrates the differences between this two leaders by showing the letters that each ruler have done. Constantine can be proven as a ruler of the people based on his honesty in his writing.