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Constantine I

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   Constantine I
   Emperor of the Roman Empire
   Head of Constantine's colossal statue at the Capitoline Museums
   Reign 306 - 312 (hailed as Augustus in the West, officially made Caesar
   by Galerius with Severus as Augustus, by agreement with Maximian,
   refused relegation to Caesar in 309);
   312 - 324 (undisputed Augustus in the West);
   324 - 22 May 337 (emperor of the whole empire)
   Full name Gaius Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus
   Born 27 February 272 or 273
   Naissus (modern Niš, Serbia)
   Died 22 May 337
   Buried Constantinople
   Predecessor Constantius Chlorus
   Successor Constantine II, Constantius II and Constans
   Wife/wives Minervina, died or divorced before 307
   Fausta
   Issue Constantina, Helena, Crispus, Constantine II, Constantius II and
   Constans
   Dynasty Constantinian
   Father Constantius Chlorus
   Mother Helena
   Bronze statue of Constantine I in York, England, near the spot where he
   was proclaimed Emperor in 306
   Enlarge
   Bronze statue of Constantine I in York, England, near the spot where he
   was proclaimed Emperor in 306

   Gaius Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus ( February 27, 272– May
   22, 337), commonly known as Constantine I, Constantine the Great, or
   (among Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Christians) Saint
   Constantine, was a Roman Emperor, proclaimed Augustus by his troops on
   July 25, 306 and who ruled an ever-growing portion of the Roman Empire
   until his death.

   Constantine is best remembered in modern times for the Edict of Milan
   in 313, which fully legalized Christianity in the Empire, for the first
   time, and the Council of Nicaea in 325; these actions are considered
   major factors in the spreading of the Christian religion. His
   reputation as the "first Christian Emperor" has been promulgated by
   historians from Lactantius and Eusebius of Caesarea to the present day,
   although there has been debate over the veracity of his faith. This
   debate stems from his continued support for pagan deities and the fact
   that he was baptized very close to his death.

Life

Early life

   Constantine was born in Naissus (modern Niš, Serbia) in the province of
   Moesia Superior on 27 February 272 or 273, to Roman general,
   Constantius Chlorus, and his first wife Helena, an innkeeper's daughter
   who at the time was only sixteen years old. His father left his mother
   around 292 to marry Flavia Maximiana Theodora, daughter or
   step-daughter of the Western Roman Emperor Maximian. Theodora would
   give birth to six half-siblings of Constantine, including Julius
   Constantius.

   Young Constantine served at the court of Diocletian in Nicomedia, after
   the appointment of his father as one of the two caesares (junior
   emperors) of the Tetrarchy in 293. In 305, both augusti (senior
   emperors), Diocletian and Maximian, abdicated, and Constantius
   succeeded to Maximian's position of western augustus. Although two
   legitimate sons of emperors were available (Constantine and Maxentius,
   the son of Maximian), both of them were ignored in the transition of
   power. Instead, Severus and Maximinus Daia were made caesares.
   Constantine subsequently left Nicomedia to join his father in Roman
   Gaul. However, Constantius fell sick during an expedition against the
   Picts of Caledonia, and died on July 25, 306 in Eboracum (York). The
   general Chrocus, of Alamannic descent, and the troops loyal to
   Constantius' memory immediately proclaimed Constantine an augustus.

   Under the Tetrarchy, Constantine's succession was of dubious
   legitimacy. While Constantius as senior emperor could "create" a new
   caesar, Constantine's (or, his troops') claim to the title of augustus
   ignored the system of succession established in 305. Accordingly,
   Constantine asked Galerius, the eastern augustus, to be recognized as
   heir to his father's throne. Galerius granted him the title of caesar,
   confirming Constantine's rule over his father's territories, and
   promoted Severus to augustus of the West.

Ruler of the West

   Constantine's share of the empire consisted of Britain, Gaul, the
   Germanic provinces, and Spain. He therefore commanded one of the
   largest Roman armies, stationed along the important Rhine frontier.
   While Gaul was one of the richer regions of the empire, it had suffered
   much during the Crisis of the Third Century. Many areas were
   depopulated, the cities ruined. During his years in Gaul, from 306 to
   316, Constantine continued his father's efforts to secure the Rhine
   frontier and rebuild the Gallic provinces. His main residence during
   that time was Trier.

   Immediately after his promotion to emperor, Constantine abandoned his
   father's British campaign and returned to Gaul to quell an uprising by
   Franks. Another expedition against Frankish tribes followed in 308.
   After this victory, he began to build a bridge across the Rhine at
   Cologne to establish a permanent stronghold on the right bank of the
   river. A new campaign in 310 had to be abandoned because of Maximian's
   rebellion (below). The last of Constantine's wars on the Rhine frontier
   took place in 313, after his return from Italy, and saw him again
   victorious. Constantine's main goal was stability, and he tried to
   achieve that by immediate, often brutal punitive expeditions against
   rebellious tribes, demonstrating his military power by conquering the
   enemies on their own side of the Rhine frontier, and slaughtering many
   prisoners during games in the arena. The strategy proved successful, as
   the Rhine frontier remained relatively quiet during the rest of
   Constantine's reign.

   In the interior conflicts of the Tetrarchy, Constantine tried to remain
   neutral. In 307, the senior emperor Maximian (recently returned to the
   political scene after his abdication in 305) visited Constantine to get
   his support in the war of Maxentius against Severus and Galerius.
   Constantine married Maximian's daughter Fausta to seal the alliance and
   was promoted to Augustus by Maximian. He did not interfere on
   Maxentius' behalf, though. Maximian returned to Gaul in 308 after he
   had failed to depose his son. At the conference of Carnuntum, where
   Diocletian, Galerius and Maximian met later that year, Maximian was
   forced to abdicate again and Constantine reduced to caesar. In 309,
   Maximian rebelled against his son-in-law while Constantine was
   campaigning against the Franks. The rebellion was quickly quelled, and
   Maximian was killed or forced to commit suicide. Both Constantine and
   Maximinus Daia were disappointed over their relegation to caesar and
   Licinius' appointment, and subsequently defied that ruling and styled
   themselves Augustus, which was granted to them by Galerius in 310, thus
   officially creating four Augusti. With Galerius' death in 311, the last
   ruler with enough authority interested in continuing the tetrarchy left
   the stage, and the system rapidly declined. In the struggle for power
   that ensued, Constantine allied himself with Licinius, while Maximinus
   approached Maxentius, who was still officially regarded as an usurper.

312-324

   Early in 312, Constantine crossed the Alps with his army and attacked
   Maxentius. He quickly conquered Northern Italy in the battles of Turin
   and Verona and then moved on to Rome. There he defeated Maxentius in
   the Battle of Milvian Bridge, which resulted in his becoming Western
   Augustus, or ruler of the entire Western Roman Empire. During the next
   years, he gradually consolidated his military superiority over his
   rivals in the crumbling Tetrarchy.

   In 313, he met Licinius in Milan to secure their alliance by the
   marriage of Licinius and Constantine's half-sister Constantia. During
   this meeting, the emperors agreed on the so-called Edict of Milan,
   officially granting full tolerance to all religions in the empire,
   especially Christianity. The conference was cut short, however, when
   news reached Licinius that his rival Maximinus Daia had crossed the
   Bosporus and invaded Licinian territory. Licinius departed and
   eventually defeated Maximinus, gaining control over the entire eastern
   half of the Roman Empire. Relations between the two remaining emperors
   declined, though, and either in 314 or 316, Constantine and Licinius
   fought against one another in the war of Cibalae, with Constantine
   being victorious. They clashed again in the Battle of Campus Ardiensis
   in 317, and agreed to a settlement in which Constantine's sons Crispus
   and Constantine II, and Licinius' son Licinianus were made caesars.

   In the year 320, Licinius reneged on the religious freedom promised by
   the Edict of Milan in 313 and began another persecution of the
   Christians. It became a challenge to Constantine in the west, climaxing
   in the great civil war of 324. Licinius, aided by Goth mercenaries,
   represented the past and the ancient faith of Paganism. Constantine and
   his Franks marched under the Christian standard of the labarum, and
   both sides saw the battle in religious terms. Supposedly outnumbered,
   but fired by their zeal, Constantine's army emerged victorious in the
   battles of Adrianople, the Hellespont, and at Chrysopolis. With the
   defeat and death of Licinius a year later (he was accused of plotting
   against Constantine and executed), Constantine then became the sole
   emperor of the entire Roman Empire.

Founding of New Rome

   Constantine the Great, mosaic in Hagia Sophia, Constantinople, c. 1000.
   Enlarge
   Constantine the Great, mosaic in Hagia Sophia, Constantinople, c. 1000.

   Licinius' defeat represented the passing of old Rome, and the beginning
   of the role of the Eastern Roman Empire as a centre of learning,
   prosperity, and cultural preservation. Constantine rebuilt the city of
   Byzantium, and renamed it Nova Roma (New Rome), providing it with a
   Senate and civic offices similar to those of Rome, and the new city was
   protected by the alleged True Cross, the Rod of Moses and other holy
   relics, though a cameo now at the Hermitage Museum also represented
   Constantine crowned by the tyche of the new city . The figures of old
   gods were replaced and often assimilated into Christian symbolism. On
   the site of a temple to Aphrodite was built the new Basilica of the
   Apostles. Generations later there was the story that a Divine vision
   led Constantine to this spot, and an angel no one else could see, led
   him on a circuit of the new walls. After his death, his capital was
   renamed Constantinopolis (in English Constantinople, " Constantine's
   City").

326-death

   The Baptism of Constantine, as imagined by students of Raphael.
   Enlarge
   The Baptism of Constantine, as imagined by students of Raphael.

   In 326, Constantine had his eldest son Crispus tried and executed, as
   he believed accusations that Crispus had an affair with Fausta,
   Constantine's second wife. A few months later he also had Fausta killed
   as the apparent source of these false accusations.

   Eusebius reports that Constantine was baptized only shortly before his
   death in 337. With this, he followed one custom at the time which
   postponed baptism till old age or death. According to Jerome,
   Constantine's choice fell upon the Arian bishop Eusebius of Nicomedia,
   who happened, despite his being an ally of Arius, to still be the
   bishop of the region.

   Notwithstanding his conversion to Christianity, Constantine was
   deified, like several other Christian emperors after him. By this late
   stage of the Empire, deification had lost much of its original
   religious meaning, and had simply become little more than a posthumous
   honour.^[ citations needed] His body was transferred to Constantinople
   and buried in the Church of the Holy Apostles there.

Succession

   He was succeeded by his three sons by Fausta, Constantine II,
   Constantius II and Constans. A number of relatives were murdered by
   followers of Constantius. He also had two daughters, Constantina and
   Helena, wife of Emperor Julian.

Constantine and Christianity

   Constantine is best known for being the first Roman Emperor to embrace
   Christianity, although he may have continued in his pre-Christian
   beliefs, and along with his co-Emperor Licinius was the first to grant
   Christianity the status of a legalized religion (religio licita)
   through the 313 Edict of Milan.

Constantine and the Jews

   Constantine instituted several legislative measures regarding the Jews:
   they were forbidden to own Christian slaves or to circumcise their
   slaves. Conversion of Christians to Judaism was outlawed. Congregations
   for religious services were restricted, but Jews were allowed to enter
   Jerusalem on Tisha B'Av, the anniversary of the destruction of the
   Temple. Constantine also supported the separation of the date of Easter
   from the Jewish Passover (see also Quartodecimanism), stating in his
   letter after the First Council of Nicaea: "... it appeared an unworthy
   thing that in the celebration of this most holy feast we should follow
   the practice of the Jews, who have impiously defiled their hands with
   enormous sin, and are, therefore, deservedly afflicted with blindness
   of soul. ... Let us then have nothing in common with the detestable
   Jewish crowd; for we have received from our Saviour a different way." .
   Theodoret's Ecclesiastical History 1.9 records the Epistle of the
   Emperor Constantine addressed to those Bishops who were not present at
   the Council: "It was, in the first place, declared improper to follow
   the custom of the Jews in the celebration of this holy festival,
   because, their hands having been stained with crime, the minds of these
   wretched men are necessarily blinded. ... Let us, then, have nothing in
   common with the Jews, who are our adversaries. ... avoiding all contact
   with that evil way. ... who, after having compassed the death of the
   Lord, being out of their minds, are guided not by sound reason, but by
   an unrestrained passion, wherever their innate madness carries them.
   ... a people so utterly depraved. ... Therefore, this irregularity must
   be corrected, in order that we may no more have any thing in common
   with those parricides and the murderers of our Lord. ... no single
   point in common with the perjury of the Jews."

Reforms

Constantine's iconography and ideology

   Coins struck for emperors often reveal details of their personal
   iconography. During the early part of Constantine's rule,
   representations first of Mars and then (from 310) of Apollo as Sun god
   consistently appear on the reverse of the coinage. Mars had been
   associated with the Tetrarchy, and Constantine's use of this symbolism
   served to emphasize the legitimacy of his rule. After his breach with
   his father's old colleague Maximian in 309–310, Constantine began to
   claim legitimate descent from the 3rd century emperor Marcus Aurelius
   Claudius Gothicus, the hero of the Battle of Naissus (September, 268).
   The Augustan History of the 4th century reports Constantine's paternal
   grandmother Claudia to be a daughter of Crispus, Crispus being a
   reported brother of both Claudius II and Quintillus. Historians however
   suspect this account to be a genealogical fabrication to flatter
   Constantine.
   Follis by Constantine. On the reverse, a labarum with the chi-rho.
   Enlarge
   Follis by Constantine. On the reverse, a labarum with the chi-rho.

   Gothicus had claimed the divine protection of Apollo-Sol Invictus. In
   mid-310, two years before the victory at the Milvian Bridge,
   Constantine reportedly experienced the publicly announced vision in
   which Apollo-Sol Invictus appeared to him with omens of success.
   Thereafter the reverses of his coinage were dominated for several years
   by his "companion, the unconquered Sol" — the inscriptions read SOLI
   INVICTO COMITI. The depiction represents Apollo with a solar halo,
   Helios-like, and the globe in his hands. In the 320s Constantine has a
   halo of his own. There are also coins depicting Apollo driving the
   chariot of the Sun on a shield Constantine is holding and another in
   312 shows the Christian chi-rho on a helmet Constantine is wearing.
   An example of "staring eyes" on later Constantine coinage.
   Enlarge
   An example of "staring eyes" on later Constantine coinage.

   The great staring eyes in the iconography of Constantine, though not
   specifically Christian, show how official images were moving away from
   early imperial conventions of realistic portrayal towards schematic
   representations: the Emperor as Emperor, not merely as this particular
   individual Constantine, with his characteristic broad jaw and cleft
   chin. The large staring eyes will loom larger as the 4th century
   progresses: compare the early 5th century silver coinage of Theodosius
   I

Constantine's Courts and Appointees

   Constantine respected cultivation and Christianity, and his court was
   composed of older, respected, and honored men. Leading Roman families
   that refused Christianity were denied positions of power, yet
   two-thirds of his top government was non-Christian.

   "From Pagan temples Constantine had his statue removed. The repair of
   Pagan temples that had decayed was forbidden. These funds were given to
   the favored Christian clergy. Offensive forms of worship, either
   Christian or Pagan, were suppressed. At the dedication of
   Constantinople in 330 a ceremony half Pagan and half Christian was
   performed, in the market place, the Cross of Christ was placed over the
   head of the Sun-God's chariot. There was a singing of hymns."

Constantine's legal standards

   Constantine passed laws making the occupations of butcher and baker
   hereditary, and more importantly, supported converting the coloni (
   tenant farmers) into serfs — laying the foundation for European society
   during the Middle Ages.

   Constantine's laws in many ways improved those of his predecessors,
   though they also reflect his more violent age. Some examples:
     * For the first time, girls could not be abducted (this may actually
       refer to elopements, which were considered kidnapping because girls
       could not legally consent to the elopement).
     * A punishment of death was mandated to anyone collecting taxes over
       the authorized amount.
     * A prisoner was no longer to be kept in total darkness, but must be
       given the outdoors and daylight.
     * A condemned man was allowed to die in the arena, but he could not
       be branded on his "heavenly beautified" face, just on the feet
       (because God made man in His image).
     * Slave "nurses" or chaperones caught allowing the girls they were
       responsible for to be seduced were to have molten lead poured down
       their throats.
     * Gladiatorial games were ordered to be eliminated in 325, although
       this had little real effect.
     * A slave master's rights were limited, but a slave could still be
       beaten to death.
     * Crucifixion was abolished for reasons of Christian piety, but was
       replaced with hanging, to show there was Roman law and justice.
     * Easter could be publicly celebrated.
     * Sunday was declared a day of rest, on which markets were banned and
       public offices were closed (except for the purpose of freeing
       slaves). However, there were no restrictions on farming work (which
       was the work of the great majority of the population).

Constantine's legacy

   Contemporary bronze head of Constantine.
   Enlarge
   Contemporary bronze head of Constantine.

   Although he earned his honorific of "The Great" from Christian
   historians long after he had died, he could have claimed the title on
   his military achievements and victories alone. In addition to reuniting
   the empire under one emperor, Constantine won major victories over the
   Franks and Alamanni (306–308), the Franks again (313–314), the
   Visigoths in 332 and the Sarmatians in 334. In fact, by 336,
   Constantine had actually reoccupied most of the long-lost province of
   Dacia, which Aurelian had been forced to abandon in 271. At the time of
   his death, he was planning a great expedition to put an end to raids on
   the eastern provinces from the Persian Empire.

   The Byzantine Empire considered Constantine its founder and also the
   Holy Roman Empire reckoned him among the venerable figures of its
   tradition. In both East and West, Emperors were sometimes hailed as a
   "new Constantine". Most Eastern Christian churches, both Catholic and
   Orthodox, consider Constantine a saint. In the East he is sometimes
   called " isapostolos" or the "13th apostle" .

Legend and Donation of Constantine

   In later years, historical facts were clouded by legend. It was
   considered inappropriate that Constantine was baptized only on his
   death-bed and by a bishop of questionable orthodoxy, and hence a legend
   emerged that Pope Silvester I (314-335) had cured the pagan Emperor
   from leprosy. According to this legend, Constantine was baptized after
   that and donated buildings to the Pope. In the 8th century, a document
   called the " Donation of Constantine" first appeared, in which the
   freshly converted Constantine hands the temporal rule over Rome, Italy
   and the Occident to the Pope. In the High Middle Ages, this document
   was used and accepted as the basis for the Pope's temporal power,
   though it was denounced as a forgery by Emperor Otto III and lamented
   as the root of papal worldliness by the poet Dante Alighieri. The 15th
   century philologist Lorenzo Valla proved the document was indeed a
   forgery.

Constantine in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia

   Because of his fame and his being proclaimed Emperor on Great Britain,
   Constantine was later also considered a British King. In the 11th
   century, the English writer Geoffrey of Monmouth published a fictional
   work called Historia Regum Britanniae, in which he narrates the
   supposed history of the Britons and their kings from the Trojan War to
   King Arthur and the Anglo-Saxon conquest. In this work, Geoffrey
   claimed that Constantine's mother Helena was actually the daughter of "
   King Cole", the mythical King of the Britons and eponymous founder of
   Colchester. A daughter for King Cole had not previously figured in the
   lore, at least not as it has survived in writing, and this pedigree is
   likely to reflect Geoffrey's desire to create a continuous line of
   regal descent. It was indecorous, Geoffrey considered, that a king
   might have less-than-noble ancestors. Monmouth also said that
   Constantine was proclaimed " King of the Britons" at York, rather than
   Roman Emperor.
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