proof of the wonders that had once taken place there, a
testimony to the resurrection of the Saviour louder than
any voice.
(Eusebius,Life of Constantine3.28)It was not a case of the excavators finding the tomb as much as
the tomb finding them. No books were consulted, no historical
specialists called to the scene: this was identification by faith in
miracles. The manner in which Christ’s tomb was held to have
revealed itself was a demonstration of the divine favour that
Constantine’s schemes seemed to enjoy. By archaeology and by
history, then, the triumphant coming together of church and
empire had been demonstrated. In terms of historiographical
and archaeological approaches to early Christianity, the age of
Constantine proved to be pivotal, and provided a model for later
research into the early Christian past.
Early Christianity from late antiquity to the middle agesEusebius of Caesarea’s Ecclesiastical History was destined to
enjoy considerable acclaim, to the extent that Eusebius’ basic
view of early Christian history came to be perpetuated throughout
late antiquity and into the middle ages. In the fifth century,
particularly at Constantinople under the emperor Theodosius II
(408–50), the Ecclesiastical Historyfound numerous continua-
tors – Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret, and Philostorgius – who
appended to Eusebius’ narrative accounts covering the period
from Constantine up to their own day. In time, their histories were
also continued by the sixth-century lawyer Evagrius, or edited
together into a synthesis, such as those compiled in the late fifth
century by Gelasius of Cyzicus or in the sixth by the Italian
aristocratic monk Cassiodorus (Momigliano 1990: 142–5). As a
result, Eusebius’ account was woven into a seamless narrative of
Christian history from the time of Christ up to the early middle
ages. Although these later authors made various innovations in
how ecclesiastical history was written, not least because many of
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