Costantino e il cristianesimo. Una riflessione su Enzo Aiello a margine di un centenario

Some important topics of Calderone and Enzo Aiello are esamined to chek their collocation in the recent bibliography of Constantine and, specifically, in some results and trends that have emerged since 1962 – the date of publication of Costantino e il cattolicesimo – and the recent celebrations of the 17th centennial of Constantine, when Aiello wrote his book on the Anonymous Valesiano pars prior, one of the sources chronologically closest to Constantine and less marked by the intense historiographical and hagiographical elaboration (and mystification) which his figure underwent prematurely. With the use of the critical texts of Eusebius, that the “Maestro” applied to the “episcopal function” of Constantine, or the ‘so-called’ Edict of Milan, Aiello’s studies intersect with the genesis of the ‘problem of the baptism of Constantine’ and the figure (and legend) of bishop Sylvester. The Essay underlines the role of the School of Messina in the studies on Late Antiquity, to be understood as a ‘palingenesis’ of all sources for Constantine’s era; at the same time it identifies the points of intersection with an equally profound critical review that the Catholic episcopate developed in the name of the ‘end of the era of Constantine’, as reaction to its exploitation by Fascism and Nazism and in preparation for the Second Vatican Council. The result is a significant convergence of two Messina historians, and in general of historians of Late Antiquity, on the ‘demystification’ of Constantine and the need to return to the political sphere that characterized him.