Costantino, Strategio Musoniano e i Manichei: ancora su Amm. Marc. Res Gestae 15.13.2

In a passage of Ammianus Marcellinus' Res Gestae, which is 15.13.2, we read that Constantine ordered to Strategius, a comes then remembered for his talent in speaking different languages as Musonianus, to investigate about the followers of some sects, among whom in particular the Manichaeans. The episode, still difficult to be understood, would be connected with the religious situation in the eastern part of the empire when the Christological controverse was arising, just before the Councile of Nicea. The knowledge, with a deep inquiry concerning the contents of Manichaeismus, externalized through the forms more or less outward of the rite, would represent an element of fundamental importance, in order to separate it from certain radical positions of Arianism and during its transformation, happened in a rather fast way, from foreign religion to Christian heresy.