by Tom Harper
The question posed in my undergraduate essay – did Constantine have a Christian mission? – is unanswerable. The imagery and narrative of Christianity, imperial Rome, Hercules, Apollo, the Unconquered Sun and other contemporary cults overlap so much that it’s impossible to draw clear lines; I don’t imagine Constantine did.
In the end, Constantine infuriates us for the same reason that Christianity angers its detractors: the painful gap between noble ideals and compromised reality. Constantine lived his life in that gap. How we judge him depends, ultimately, on how we judge ourselves.
Acknowledgements
A lot of people gave me a lot of help in researching and writing this book.
Jelena Mirković introduced me to Belgrade, and gave me three chapters I didn’t expect. In Kosovo, Nick Hawton and his colleagues in the EULEX Press Office, especially Irina Gudeljević, gave me invaluable insights into international life in Pristina. Captain Daniel Murphy showed me around Camp Bondsteel and gave me one of the most memorable days of any research trip; he was also unflagging in answering my questions when I tracked him down to North Dakota. I’m very grateful to Lieutenant Colonel Jerry Anderson, Major Robert Fugere and 1st Sergeant Rick Marschner, all of the North Dakota National Guard, for taking so much time to tell me about their work in Kosovo; also to Colonel Patrick Moran of the Irish Army, Major Hagen Messer of the German Army, and Lieutenant Toufik Bablah of the Moroccan Army for my visit to Camp Film City in Pristina.
A novel like this always trades in bad news and bad people. It’s worth saying that my overwhelming impression of the EU and NATO personnel I met in Kosovo was of thoughtful professionals doing a difficult and essential job in a small corner of the world a long way from home. I left with huge admiration for them and the work they do.
Back in England, my sister Iona told me about the Foreign Office; Emma Davies told me about war crimes; Kevin Anderson told me about gunshot wounds; Sue and David Hawkins told me about Istanbul; and Dr Tim Thompson told me about bones. Dr Linda Jones Hall steered me in the right direction for Porfyrius.
For every novel, there are a couple of books which become indispensable references. On this project, they were Paul Stephenson’s superb biography Constantine (Quercus), and Timothy D. Barnes’s meticulously detailed The New Empire of Diocletian and Constantine (Harvard University Press).
My colleagues in the Crime Writers’ Association, especially Michael Ridpath, made my year as Chair hugely enjoyable, and played their part in making sure I escaped the traditional ‘lost book’ curse of the CWA. My agent Jane Conway-Gordon kept my blood sugar up. My editors Kate Elton and Kate Burke, and all their talented colleagues at Random House, did a wonderful job improving, producing and promoting the book.
My son Owen crawled through catacombs with me and took a memorable train ride to Ostia. His brother Matthew arrived bang on time, and made the months writing this book a delight when he could easily have sabotaged it beyond repair. And my wife Emma, as usual, made everything better.
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Published in the United Kingdom by Arrow Books in 2011
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Copyright © Tom Harper 2011
Tom Harper has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.
This novel is a work of fiction. Names and characters are the product of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental
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