Constantine the Great

Roman emperor (r. 324-337 c.e.)

• Born: February 17 or 27, c. 272-285
• Birthplace: Naissus, Moesia (now Niš, Serbia)
• Died: May 22, 0337
• Place of death: Nicomedia, Bithynia (now İzmit, Turkey)

As the first Christian emperor of Rome, Constantine was primarily responsible for initiating the great changes that in a few decades turned the pagan empire into a Christian one. Constantine refounded the old Greek city of Byzantium as the New Rome, which, as Constantinople, became Europe’s greatest city during the following millennium.

Early Life

Flavius Valerius Constantinus, or Constantine (KAHN-stuhn-teen), was born at a crucial time in the long history of Rome. According to the eighteenth century English historian Edward Gibbon, the second century c.e. had been a golden age, but the third century saw economic decline, barbarian invasions, and political instability, the last often brought about by the ambitions of Rome’s many generals. Constantine’s father, Constantius Chlorus, born in the militarily crucial Danubian provinces, was a successful general who rose to high political position. Constantine’s mother, Helena, came from a lower-class background and was probably not married to Constantius, who himself later married a daughter of Marcus Aurelius Valerius Maximianus (Maximian), with whom he had several additional children. Little is known of Constantine’s early life; even the year of his birth is unknown, but it was probably between 272 and 285 c.e.

In 293, the emperor Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus (Diocletian), in a continuing attempt to stem the long Imperial decline, created a tetrarchy for administrative and defensive reasons. He retained the position of augustus in the east and appointed Maximian as augustus in the west. Constantius became Maximian’s caesar, or assistant, and Gaius Galerius Valerius Maximianus (Galerius) was caesar to Diocletian. During the years that followed, young Constantine remained in the east at Diocletian’s Imperial court, possibly as a guarantee of good behavior by Constantius. What type of formal education Constantine received is unknown, and historians have long argued over his intellectual abilities. There is, however, no question that he successfully learned the military arts.

Diocletian abdicated his throne in 305, forcing Maximian to do the same. Galerius became augustus in the east, as did Constantius in the west. When the latter requested that Constantine be allowed to join him, Galerius was reluctant, but in 306 Constantine was reunited with Constantius in Britain. When Constantius died later that year in York, Constantine was acclaimed the new western augustus by his army. Galerius, however, only reluctantly granted Constantine the lesser rank of caesar, the position of the western augustus going to one of Galerius’s favorites.

Conflict dominated the next several years, as a result of the ambitions of the Empire’s many leaders. Maximian’s son, Marcus Aurelius Valerius Maxentius, seized power in Rome with the help of his father. They joined forces with Constantine and resisted attempts at deposition by Galerius. Maximian, who had earlier given his daughter, Fausta, in marriage to Constantine, then attempted to seize power himself, first from his son and then from his son-in-law, Constantine, but the latter forced him to commit suicide. In the east, Galerius still ruled, joined by Valerius Licinianus Licinius, who had also become an augustus. In the west, Maxentius and Constantine survived as rivals, each claiming the rank of augustus. Diocletian’s tetrarchy no longer had subordinate caesars, only ambitious and warring augusti.

Life’s Work

Despite his important role in furthering Christianity, Constantine’s religious beliefs remain uncertain. During the previous century the worship of the sun, Sol Invictus, had spread throughout the Empire, and that religion seemed more important to Constantius and Constantine than the traditional pantheon of Roman gods. Christianity had also taken root in parts of the Empire, although it was still a movement that lacked general acceptability. After several decades of toleration, Diocletian instituted a period of Christian persecution, but in the west, Constantius apparently refused to pursue that policy. The connection, or the confusion, between the Christian God and Sol Invictus is still unclear as regards Constantine’s beliefs.

Whatever his religious convictions were, they soon became inextricably tied to his political ambitions. After Galerius died in 311, Constantine invaded Italy in early 312, hoping to unite the Empire under his rule. Constantine and Licinius became allies through Licinius’s marriage to Constantine’s sister, and Maxentius seemed reluctant to face Constantine on the battlefield. Favorable omens from the gods eventually encouraged Maxentius, and on October 28, 312, he led his army out of the city gates of Rome and across the Tiber River on the Milvian Bridge. Constantine’s army fought with the sign of the Christian cross on their shields and banners, and at battle’s end, Maxentius lay drowned in the Tiber, leaving Constantine sole ruler in the west.

When Constantine and Licinius met at Milan in 313, just prior to Licinius’s struggle against the other eastern augustus, Galerius, they granted religious toleration to all sects. This edict especially benefited the Christian minority, the primary victims of persecution during the past decade. In his subsequent victory against Galerius, Licinius upheld the cause of monotheism against the traditional Roman gods. It had become impossible to divide politics and war from religion.

There is considerable difficulty when it comes to determining Constantine’s religious beliefs at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge. In the first biography of Constantine, the Vita Constantini (339; Life of Constantine, 1845) by Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea, written after the emperor’s death, Eusebius recalls that Constantine told him of a vision he had on his journey from Gaul to Italy in 312. He saw a cross in the sky, an apparition visible to his entire army. Later he said that he had a dream in which Christ appeared with the cross. Another version, by Lactantius, writing only a few years after 312, tells that Constantine, on the very eve of the battle at Milvian Bridge, had a dream in which he was told to put the sign of the cross on the shields of his soldiers. Some later historians have accepted those stories as sufficient evidence of Constantine’s Christian commitment before his conquest of Rome, and they have argued that he was a sincere believer. Others have expressed doubts, contending instead that he was always primarily a hypocritical opportunist. Also, the depth of Constantine’s perception of the Christian beliefs is still in question. Did he have a fundamental knowledge of the doctrines of Christianity in 312, or were his actions merely a superstitious adoption of a new god of battle against other, older gods?

What is not in question is that in the years that followed, Constantine favored more and more the Christian religion and its adherents. Property seized during the persecutions was returned, Christian bishops were freed from taxes and certain public obligations in order to pursue their religious calling, and Christian advisers at court became commonplace. Other religions and their followers were not immediately discriminated against or proscribed. In Rome, in particular, where the old religion was so much a part of the political and social fabric of the city, the upper classes remained generally in favor of the traditional gods. Many of the soldiers in Constantine’s armies probably remained pagan, and he never dispensed entirely, even among his close advisers, with some who opposed, peacefully, the new religion.

Two continuing disputes between Christian factions, the Donatist and the Arian heresies, posed the greatest problems to Constantine in the years that followed his victory. In North Africa, the Donatists, who believed that the efficacy of Christianity depended on the sanctity of the priest or bishop, argued that those Christian clerics who had surrendered holy writings during the period of persecution were unfit either to consecrate other clergy or to distribute the sacraments to believers. The opposition claimed that the institution of the church itself was sufficient, not the personal holiness of the individual cleric. Constantine sided against the Donatists, for he believed that the church should be inclusive, or catholic, an attitude largely based on his belief that both his well-being and that of the Empire depended on a unified church. The issue remained unresolved.

Meanwhile, in the east, in a dispute over the relationship between Christ and God, the Arians argued that the Son was subordinate to the Father. Constantine participated at the first general church council in Nicaea in 325, which issued the Nicene Creed and condemned the Arian position as a heresy. Until the end of his reign, however, Constantine was to waver between the two positions, often influenced by whichever advocate had last caught his ear. Constantine was the first Christian emperor of Rome, but it was often easier to win victories on the battlefield than over one’s fellow believers.

Licinius, who still ruled the eastern part of the Empire, acknowledged Constantine’s position as senior augustus, but Constantine refused to accept permanently such a division, even with his brother-in-law. The friction continued for many years, sometimes resulting in war, usually at Constantine’s instigation. When Licinius began to persecute Christians, possibly in reaction to Constantine’s active support of Christianity, Constantine found justification for a final confrontation, from which he emerged victorious. In 324, Licinius was allowed to abdicate, but within a short time he was executed. Constantine stood alone as ruler of the Empire.

Following Licinius’s defeat, Constantine, as befitting a great conqueror, founded a New Rome in the east. For more than a century, Rome had not been the effective capital of the Empire; a government positioned closer to the Rhine and Danube Rivers was better able to defend against the ever-threatening barbarian tribes. In addition, Rome had proved to be less tractable to Constantine’s rule and religion. The site picked for the New Rome was the old Greek city of Byzantium, a natural crossroads between Europe and Asia Minor and between the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea, rededicated as Constantinople in 330. Unlike Rome, Constantinople was a Christian city, and the emperor spent lavishly on his new creation, as he had in constructing churches throughout the Empire, particularly in Jerusalem, where basilicas were erected to commemorate Christian holy places. Constantine’s New Rome became in time the greatest city in Europe.

Initially, Constantine intended to be buried in Rome, but after the founding of Constantinople he made the decision to be buried there, and he directed the building of his own tomb in the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople. As was usual in his era, he was only baptized a Christian on the eve of his death. He had hoped to have that ceremony performed in the Jordan River, but in the spring of 337, his health began to fail. He left Constantinople in order to seek a cure at the springs of Helenopolis, named after his mother, who on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land had purportedly discovered the cross on which Christ had been crucified. On his return to Constantinople, Constantine worsened in Nicomedia, was baptized there, and died on May 22.

Significance

The Empire under Constantine’s rule was prosperous and secure, at least in comparison to the previous century, if not to Gibbon’s golden age of the second century c.e. By the time he died, Constantine had eliminated his rivals, so that there were only members of his family, sons and nephews, to inherit the Empire; heredity was to determine once again the ruler, or rulers, of Rome. In 326 he had ordered the execution of his eldest son, Crispus, and then his own wife, Fausta, in reaction to an unknown scandal. After Constantine’s death, his nephews were summarily executed, leaving the Empire divided among his three surviving sons. Constantine II was killed by his brother, Constans, in 340, who in turn was killed in 350. The last brother, Constantius II, died while suppressing a rebellion by Julian, the son of one of Constantine’s half brothers.

At the time of his death, the force of Constantine’s influence was yet to be realized. Militarily, he had created a reserve force, mobile and supposedly better able to respond to the barbarian threat than the less mobile legions. Perhaps more ominously, increasing numbers of German barbarians were enlisted in the Empire’s armies. This was not new, but it was a portent for the future. Constantinople was still a secondary city, whose ultimate importance would arrive only after the sack of Rome in 410, the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476, and the consolidation of the Eastern Roman Empire under Justinian in the sixth century. Julian, who succeeded Constantius II, followed the old gods of Rome, and the various heretical movements within the Church continued long after 337. Julian, however, was the last of the pagan emperors, and the Empire, governed from Constantine’s New Rome, survived to protect the west and to preserve the ancient heritage for the next thousand years before falling to Islam in 1453. As the first Christian emperor of the Roman Empire, Constantine became, for better or worse, one of the founders of the medieval world.

Roman Emperors

Constantine the Great to Theodosius the Great

306-337

• Constantine the Great (East)

308-324

• Licinius (East)

324-337

• Constantine the Great (all)

337-340

• Constantine II (West)

337-350

• Constans I (West)

337-361

• Constantius II (East)

350-353

• Magnentius (West, usurper)

361-363

• Julian (all)

363-364

• Jovian (all)

364-375

• Valentinian I (West)

364-378

• Valens (East)

365-366

• Procopius (East)

375-383

• Gratian (West)

375-392

• Valentinian II (West)

379-395

• Theodosius I (all)

Bibliography

Baker, G. P. Constantine the Great: And the Christian Revolution. New York: Cooper Square Press, 2001. Examines the dynamics of the Roman world and the rise of Christianity and its significance for the governing of the Empire.

Barnes, Timothy D. Constantine and Eusebius. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1981. The author accepts the reality and the sincerity of Constantine’s religious commitments and his desire to create a Christian empire. Concentrates particularly on religious issues, using as a focus Constantine’s contemporary biographer, Eusebius of Caesarea, and the various issues, doctrinal and otherwise, which affected the Church and Empire, especially in the east.

Baynes, Norman H. Constantine the Great and the Christian Church. Reprint. New York: Haskell House, 1975. The author argues that Constantine was a sincere Christian who believed that he had a mission to maintain unity in the Church and convert the nonbelievers to his new faith, in part because of his belief that his future and that of Rome depended on the Christian God.

Burckhardt, Jacob. The Age of Constantine the Great. 1852. Reprint. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983. Burckhardt portrays Constantine not as a sincere Christian but rather as a worldly and accomplished politician who aimed only at success and whose religious beliefs were a combination of superstition and opportunism.

Eadie, John W., ed. The Conversion of Constantine. Huntington, N.Y.: R. E. Krieger, 1977. The author has collected and edited a number of historical works, from the fourth century onward, which discuss the question of the meaning and importance of Constantine’s religious beliefs. An excellent summary of different viewpoints on one of the central issues of his reign.

Gibbon, Edward. History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. 1828. Reprint. New York: Penguin, 1994. This elegantly written work by the eighteenth century historian is one of the literary classics of Western civilization. Gibbon’s writings have posed questions about the fall of empires that historians have been pursuing ever since. Reflecting the Enlightenment era, Gibbon has little empathy with any religious movement, thus Constantine is pictured finally in negative terms.

Jones, A. H. M. Constantine and the Conversion of Europe. New York: Collier Books, 1967. This work, by an eminent scholar, was written for the general reader. Jones argues that Constantine was not a great ruler, that his major abilities were military, but his impact on religion and politics was profound because of his control over both church and state as the first Christian emperor.

MacMullen, Ramsay. Constantine. New York: Croom Helm, 1987. This well-written biography of Constantine by a serious scholar is written for the general reader. An excellent summary of the various aspects of the life of the emperor, including war, politics, and religion. The author sees Constantine in many ways as a traditional Roman emperor, but of great significance because he was the first Christian emperor.

Pelikan, Jaroslav. The Excellent Empire: The Fall of Rome and the Triumph of the Church. San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1987. In this provocative series of lectures, Constantine’s establishment of Christianity is perceived as the key to both fall and triumph. The author particularly focuses on the ideas and writings of Saint Augustine of Hippo and Edward Gibbon.