Chapter 6. Constantine’s Grandfather and Father

¹ Nor has the excellence of your parents escaped me, through whom God shaped you for every good thing. For you, fair child, dearer to me than any emperor, do not have a nature such as my discourse has modestly sketched only to be put to shame by the baseness of your parents—as the proverb says befalls the odd-eyed, who shine on one side and are darkened on the other. No: your lineage on your father’s side is royal and most righteous. Your blessed grandfather was known, even more than for his rule, for the unbending and impartial rectitude of his judgments; and as for your most godly father, what form of virtue did he fail to shape in his soul? To whom else did he yield first place, whether in love of learning or in concern for the things of God? For him, imperial rule was nothing other than books, conversation with learned men, and the old pursuit of speaking and listening.