Legends about Ambrose had spread through the empire long before his biography was written, making it difficult for modern historians to understand his true character and fairly place his behaviour within the context of antiquity.

[8][9] This would make Ambrose a genuinely spiritual man who spoke up and defended his faith against opponents, an aristocrat who retained many of the attitudes and practices of a Roman governor, and also an ascetic who served the poor.

His siblings were Satyrus, the subject of Ambrose's De excessu fratris Satyri,[26] and Marcellina, who made a profession of virginity sometime between 352 and 355; Pope Liberius himself conferred the veil upon her.

Praetorian Prefect Sextus Claudius Petronius Probus first gave him a place as a judicial councillor,[30] and then in about 372 made him governor of the province of Liguria and Emilia, with headquarters in Milan.

Upon the unexpected appointment of Ambrose to the episcopate, his brother Satyrus resigned a prefecture in order to move to Milan, where he took over managing the diocese's temporal affairs.

Although the western Emperor Gratian (r. 367–383) supported orthodoxy, his younger half brother Valentinian II, who became his colleague in the empire in 375, adhered to the Arian creed.

In this state of religious ferment, two leaders of the Arians, bishops Palladius of Ratiaria and Secundianus of Singidunum, confident of numbers, prevailed upon Gratian to call a general council from all parts of the empire.

[59] Ambrose, on the other hand, had incurred the lasting enmity of Valentinian II's mother, the Empress Justina, in the winter of 379 by helping to appoint a Nicene bishop in Sirmium.

[62] Ambrose refused to surrender the basilica, and sent sharp answers back to his emperor: "If you demand my person, I am ready to submit: carry me to prison or to death, I will not resist; but I will never betray the church of Christ.

[71] On 28 February 380, Theodosius issued the Edict of Thessalonica, a decree addressed to the city of Constantinople, determining that only Christians who did not support Arian views were catholic and could have their places of worship officially recognized as "churches".

[87] The two men did not meet each other frequently, and documents that reveal the relationship between the two are less about personal friendship than they are about negotiations between two formidable leaders of the powerful institutions they represent: the Roman State and the Italian Church.

[102] In April 393 Arbogast (magister militum of the West) and his puppet Emperor Eugenius marched into Italy to consolidate their position against Theodosius I and his son, Honorius, now appointed Augustus to govern the western portion of the empire.

Arbogast and Eugenius courted Ambrose's support by very obliging letters; but before they arrived at Milan, he had retired to Bologna, where he assisted at the translation of the relics of Saints Vitalis and Agricola.

[113] Christian faith in the third century developed the monastic lifestyle which subsequently spread into the rest of Roman society in a general practice of virginity, voluntary poverty and self-denial for religious reasons.

He preached and celebrated the Eucharist multiple times a week, sometimes daily, and dealt directly with the needs of the poor, as well as widows and orphans, "virgins" (nuns), and his own clergy.

[117] As bishop, Ambrose undertook many different labours in an effort to unite people and "provide some stability during a period of religious, political, military, and social upheavals and transformations".

Both powers stood in a basically positive relationship to each other, but the innermost sphere of the Church's life--faith, the moral order, ecclesiastical discipline--remained withdrawn from the State's influence.

[124] Ambrose is recorded on occasions as taking a hostile attitude towards Jews,[125] for example in 388, when the Emperor Theodosius I was informed that a crowd of Christians had retaliated against the local Jewish community by destroying the synagogue at Callinicum on the Euphrates.

[144][145][146] Under Valentinian II, an effort was made to restore the Altar of Victory to its ancient station in the hall of the Roman Senate and to again provide support for the seven Vestal Virgins.

The pagan party was led by the refined senator Quintus Aurelius Symmachus, who used all his prodigious skill and artistry to create a marvellous document full of the maiestas populi Romani.

[147] Hans Lietzmann writes that "Pagans and Christians alike were stirred by the solemn earnestness of an admonition which called all men of goodwill to the aid of a glorious history, to render all worthy honour to a world that was fading away".

[148] Then Ambrose wrote to Valentinian asserting that the emperor was a soldier of God – not simply a personal believer, but one bound by his position to serve the faith; under no circumstances could he agree to something that would promote the worship of idols.

[63] Ambrose's intense episcopal consciousness furthered the growing doctrine of the Church and its sacerdotal ministry including teaching, leading services, administering sacraments, and giving pastoral advice.

The passage most often cited in support of Ambrose supposed belief in apokatastasis is his commentary on 1 Corinthians 15, it reads: A unity of power puts aside all idea of a degrading subjection.

[162]Other scholars interpret Ambrose's soteriology to be in agreement with Jerome of Stridon and the anonymous individuals whom Augustine criticized in his treatise "on faith and works", who argued that while the unbelievers would experience eternal judgement, all Christians who have believed in Jesus will be reunited to God at some point, even if they have sinned and fallen away.

[163][164] In De Officiis, the most influential of his surviving works, and one of the most important texts of patristic literature, he reveals his views connecting justice and generosity by asserting these practices are of mutual benefit to the participants.

In the late 380s, the bishop took the lead in opposing the greed of the elite landowners in Milan by starting a series of pointed sermons directed at his wealthy constituents on the need for the rich to care for the poor.

[169] Some scholars have suggested Ambrose's endeavours to lead his people as both a Roman and a Christian caused him to strive for what a modern context would describe as a type of communism or socialism.

In a culture that set a high value on oratory and public performances of all kinds, in which the production of books was very labour-intensive, the majority of the population was illiterate, and where those with the leisure to enjoy literary works also had slaves to read for them, written texts were more likely to be seen as scripts for recitation than as vehicles of silent reflection.

[63] Scholars such as the theologian Brian P. Dunkle have argued for the authenticity of as many as thirteen other hymns,[189] while the musicologist James McKinnon contends that further attributions could include "perhaps some ten others".