Book excerpt: An account, and assessment, of the career of St Ambrose (339-397), from 374 bishop of Milan and one of the four Doctors of the Christian Church (with Sts. Jerome, Augustine and Gregory the Great). A key figure in the transition of the later Roman Empire into its medieval successor, Western Christendom, Ambrose was deeply involved in the political, social and religious issues of his day: struggles between church and state (especially with Emperor Theodosius), the fight against heresy, but he also had a deep influence on Church thought such as the role and status of women. John Moorhead considers all these dimensions in a book that will be of compelling interest to historians of the Church and the late classical world and classical studies.