This volume explores one of the most complex, multifaceted and momentous of all western cultural transformations: the refashioning of the Roman principate under Constantine in the early fourth century AD. It does so through the kaleidoscopic lens of one of antiquitys most fascinating (and maligned) artists: Publilius Optatianus Porfyrius. Optatians works are little known among classicists and historians. Nevertheless, his picture-poems uniquely reflect, figure, and shape the cultural dynamics of the period. By bringing together different disciplinary perspectives the volume demonstrates how the poems give unique form to the various political, intellectual and cultural currents of the age. Contributors champion Optatian as a uniquely creative artist - and one who anticipated some of our most pressing literary critical, art historical and philosophical concerns today.

Michael Squire is Reader in Classical Art at Kings College London, and has held research fellowships at Cambridge, Cologne, Harvard, Munich, Stanford and the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin. His research specialises in the interface between Graeco-Roman visual and literary cultures. Johannes Wienand teaches ancient history at the Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, having previously taught or held research fellowships at Berlin, Cambridge, Heidelberg, Konstanz, Munich and Pittsburgh. He has published widely on the transformation of the Roman monarchy between the principate and late antiquity, with a particular focus on imperial representation and Christianisation.