The Devil's Brood: The Sons of Constantine

Aleksander's Antiquities #8

by Aleksander Krawczuk, Tom Pinch (Translator)

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Biography

230 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1972

About the author

Aleksander Krawczuk is a Polish historian and academic. He was a Minister of Culture from 1986 to 1989.

During World War II he was a soldier in the Home Army . In 1949 he graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy and History of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow . He worked at the same university, specialized in the history of antiquity. Since 1985 - professor. He published many scientific and popular science works on ancient history, as well as novels on historical topics and essays.

In 1986-1989 he was the Minister of Culture of Poland in the governments of Zbigniew Messner and Mieczysław Rakowski . From 1991 to 1997 - Deputy of the Seimas from the Union of Democratic Left Forces.

November 11, 1997 was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of the Rebirth of Poland. In 2009 he received the gold medal "For merit in the culture of Gloria Artis"

Reviews

[Lili · Rating 5 out of 5]

I find Aleksander Krawczuk's writings interesting not only for their accessible style, but also for painting the respective historical times with details regarding religion, politics, economics and social aspects. It helps me keep things into perspective, as their ways might very well have been more brutal and discretionary than in the countries we now call democratic, but the thirst for power and riches, the plotting, the intrigue, the cowardice, the cruelty and the methods are very much the same.

Constantine's legacy was in no way one in the Christian spirit:
"Like most men of power, both in antiquity and in much later times, he had an idolatrous reverence for monolithic structures, he desired to integrate, unite, cohere, and unify in the hope that he could finally get to control everything by the mere breath of his will. He would not have been able to understand— even if someone had tried to explain it to him— that the beauty and meaning of life consists in its richness, diversity, and complexity, in its apparently confusing contradiction of all forms that develop freely and spontaneously, chaotically and multi- directionally, and yet, their result is not just variety, but also viability."

His heirs began by being cruel and unfair, despite having some positive traits. For instance, the emperor Constantius is said to have judged the merits of his subordinates with great scrupulousness. He only conferred court dignities after conducting a thorough evaluation of the candidate. It never happened that someone unexpected— a total greenhorn— reached high office on some personal whim. People reached higher administrative and treasury posts after decades of service, after they have proven themselves.

Amminius presents those times as truly dark . What is particularly depressing about the world depicted by him "is the total absence of any saving grace. For while it is true that human beings are capable of all kinds of horrors, it is also true that these horrors incessantly produce countervailing phenomena; and that even in most awful eras, great vital powers of the human spirit are also revealed: love and sacrifice, heroism, and the search for a nobler existence."

Krawczuk presents a world where absolute, tyrannical rules are difficult to resist, for if someone can forcibly impose his will, his request is sufficient to induce and convince. At some point, nobody dares to contradict them without consciously risking death - and the fate of some of the Roman upstanding aristocrats is so sad and heart-rending as the feeling that honor is dead and there's too little goodness left in the world.

Julian seems to show promise of bringing some light into this dismal world, so I really look forward to reading the last book in the trilogy.

I received an advance review copy for free via BookSirens, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Astor Teller · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This book brings us close to the years of (mis)rule of Constantine’s son, of which I didn’t know much about, with Julian (the future emperor who resuscitated paganism) hovering in the background as a glimmer of hope and goodness.

I read this like newspaper articles of today as they delve deeply into the politics to bring to life obscure persons of the past, some who had unintentional effects on future outcomes (like the usurper Magnentius who used the Rhine armies in battles in Italy and lost and therefore opened up to incursions from the German tribes into Gaul).

This is an exciting read, and you learn a lot about Christianity in the making and the church affairs that still have an impact on us today. You also meet a lot of persons whose destinies are intertwined and learn the background for Julian’s upbringing and the choices he later makes as an emperor.

Ammianus Marcellinus, an author who lived at this time, is quoted a lot, with good effect.

I really hope there will be a book about Julian as we leave him on a cliffhanger, taking his first step into politics and warfare.

[Annarella · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's an interesting book, well researched and well plotted. It's quite serious, there's a bit of judgmental view on the characters and it seems they are compared to Constantine who is seen as an example even if we know he was not a candid soul.
I would recommend it if you are interested in the family of Constatine.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine