Danica-Christine.
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Post by Danica-Christine. on Jul 3, 2008 6:54:29 GMT -5
This article is about Constantine as an Emperor. For Constantine as a Saint, see Constantine I and Christianity.
Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus[2] (27 February ca. 272[1] – 22 May 337), commonly known as Constantine I, Constantine the Great (among Roman Catholics), or Saint Constantine (among Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic Christians), was Roman Emperor from 306, and the undisputed holder of that office from 324 to his death. Best known for being the first Christian Roman Emperor, Constantine reversed the persecutions of his predecessor, Diocletian, and issued (with his co-emperor Licinius) the Edict of Milan in 313, which proclaimed religious toleration throughout the empire.
The Byzantine liturgical calendar, observed by the Eastern Orthodox Church and Eastern Catholic Churches of Byzantine rite, lists both Constantine and his mother Helena as saints. Although he is not included in the Latin Church's list of saints, which does recognize several other Constantines as saints, he is revered under the title "The Great" for his contributions to Christianity.
Constantine also transformed the ancient Greek colony of Byzantium into a new imperial residence, Constantinople, which would remain the capital of the Byzantine Empire for over a thousand years.
As the Emperor who empowered Christianity throughout the Roman Empire and moved the Roman capital to the banks of the Bosphorus, Constantine was a ruler of major historical importance, but he has always been a controversial figure.[3] The fluctuations in Constantine's reputation reflect the nature of the ancient sources for his reign. These are abundant and detailed,[4] but have been strongly influenced by the official propaganda of the period,[5] and are often one-sided.[6] There are no surviving histories or biographies dealing with Constantine's life and rule.[7] The nearest replacement is Eusebius of Caesarea's Vita Constantini, a work that is a mixture of eulogy and hagiography.[8] Written between 335 and circa 339,[9] the Vita extols Constantine's moral and religious virtues.[10] The Vita creates a contentiously positive image of Constantine,[11] and modern historians have frequently challenged its reliability.[12] The fullest secular life of Constantine is the anonymous Origo Constantini.[13] A work of uncertain date,[14] the Origo focuses on military and political events, to the neglect of cultural and religious matters.[15]
Lactantius' De Mortibus Persecutorum, a polemical Christian pamphlet on the reigns of Diocletian and the Tetrarchy, provides valuable but tendentious detail on Constantine's predecessors and early life.[16] The ecclesiastical histories of Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret describe the ecclesiastic disputes of Constantine's later reign.[17] Written during the reign of Theodosius II (408–50), a century after Constantine's reign, these ecclesiastic historians obscure the events and theologies of the Constantinian period through misdirection, misrepresentation and deliberate obscurity.[18] The contemporary writings of the Orthodox Christian Athanasius and the ecclesiastical history of the Arian Philostorgius also survive, though their biases are no less firm.[19]
The epitomes of Aurelius Victor (De Caesaribus), Eutropius (Breviarium), Festus (Breviarium), and the anonymous author of the Epitome de Caesaribus offer compressed secular political and military histories of the period. Although pagan, the epitomes paint a favorable image of Constantine, but omit reference to Constantine's religious policies.[20] The Panegyrici Latini, a collection of panegyrics from the late third and early fourth centuries, provide valuable information on the politics and ideology of the tetrarchic period and the early life of Constantine.[21] Contemporary architecture, like the Arch of Constantine in Rome and palaces in Gamzigrad and Córdoba,[22] epigraphic remains, and the coinage of the era complement the literary sources.[23]
Early Life:
Constantine, named Flavius Valerius Constantinus, was born in the Moesian military city of Naissus (Niš, Serbia) on the 27th of February of an uncertain year,[24] probably near 272.[25] His father was Flavius Constantius, a native of Moesia Superior (later Dacia Ripensis).[26] Constantius was a tolerant and politically skilled man.[27] Constantine probably spent little time with his father.[28] Constantius was an officer in the Roman army in 272, part of the Emperor Aurelian's imperial bodyguard. Constantius advanced through the ranks, earning the governorship of Dalmatia from Emperor Diocletian, another of Aurelian's Illyrian companions, in 284 or 285.[26] Constantine's mother was Helena, a Bithynian Greek of humble origin. It is uncertain whether she was legally married to Constantius or merely his concubine.[29]
In July 285, Diocletian declared Maximian, another colleague from Illyricum, his co-emperor. Each emperor would have his own court, his own military and administrative faculties, and each would rule with a separate praetorian prefect as chief lieutenant.[30] Maximian ruled in the West, from his capitals at Mediolanum (Milan, Italy) or Augusta Treverorum (Trier, Germany), while Diocletian ruled in the East, from Nicomedia (İzmit, Turkey). The division was merely pragmatic: the Empire was called "indivisible" in official panegyric,[31] and both emperors could move freely throughout the Empire.[32] In 288, Maximian appointed Constantius to serve as his praetorian prefect in Gaul. Constantius left Helena to marry Maximian's stepdaughter Theodora in 288 or 289.[33]
Diocletian divided the Empire again in 293, appointing two Caesars (junior emperors) to rule over further subdivisions of East and West. Each would be subordinate to their respective Augustus (senior emperor) but would act with supreme authority in his assigned lands. This system would later be called the Tetrarchy. Diocletian's first appointee for the office of Caesar was Constantius; his second was Galerius, a native of Felix Romuliana (Gamzigrad, Serbia). According to Lactantius, Galerius was a brutal, animalistic man. Although he shared the paganism of Rome's aristocracy, he seemed to them an alien figure, a semi-barbarian.[34] On March 1, Constantius was promoted to the office of Caesar, and dispatched to Gaul to fight the rebels Carausius and Allectus.[35] In spite of meritocratic overtones, the Tetrarchy retained vestiges of hereditary privilege,[36] and Constantine became the prime candidate for future appointment as Caesar as soon as his father took the position. Constantine left the Balkans for the court of Diocletian, where he lived as his father's heir presumptive.[37]
In the East:
Constantine received a formidable education at Diocletian's court, where he learned Latin literature, Greek, and philosophy.[38] The cultural environment in Nicomedia was open, fluid and socially mobile, and Constantine could mix with intellectuals both pagan and Christian. He may have attended the lectures of Lactantius, a Christian scholar of Latin in the city.[39] Because Diocletian did not completely trust Constantius—none of the Tetrarchs fully trusted their colleagues—Constantine was held as something of a hostage, a tool to ensure Constantius' best behavior. Constantine was nonetheless a prominent member of the court: he fought for Diocletian and Galerius in Asia, and served in a variety of tribunates; he campaigned against barbarians on the Danube in 296, and fought the Persians under Diocletian in Syria (297) and under Galerius in Mesopotamia (298–99).[40] By late 305, he had become a tribune of the first order, a tribunus ordinis primi.[41]
Constantine had returned to Nicomedia from the eastern front by the spring of 303, in time to witness the beginnings of Diocletian's "Great Persecution", the severest persecution of Christians in Roman history.[42] In late 302, Diocletian and Galerius sent a messenger to the oracle of Apollo at Didyma with an inquiry about Christians.[43] Constantine could recall his presence at the palace when the messenger returned, when Diocletian accepted his court's demands for universal persecution.[44] On February 23, 303, Diocletian ordered the destruction of Nicomedia's new church, condemned its scriptures to the flame, and had its treasures seized. In the months that followed, churches and scriptures were destroyed, Christians were deprived of official ranks, and priests were imprisoned.[45]
It is unlikely that Constantine played any role in the persecution.[46] In his later writings he would attempt present himself as an opponent of Diocletian's "sanguinary edicts" against the "worshipers of God",[47] but nothing indicates that he opposed it effectively at the time.[48] Although no contemporary Christian challenged Constantine for his inaction during the persecutions, it remained a political liability throughout his life.[49]
On May 1, 305, Diocletian, as a result of a debilitating sickness taken in the winter of 304–5, announced his resignation. In a parallel ceremony in Milan, Maximian did the same.[50] Lactantius states that Galerius manipulated the weakened Diocletian into resigning, and forced him to accept Galerius' allies in the imperial succession. According to Lactantius, the crowd listening to Diocletian's resignation speech believed, until the very last moment, that Diocletian would choose Constantine and Maxentius (Maximian's son) as his successors.[51] It was not to be: Severus and Maximin were appointed, while Constantine and Maxentius were ignored.[52]
Some of the ancient sources detail plots that Galerius made on Constantine's life in the months following Diocletian's abdication. They assert that Galerius assigned Constantine to lead an advance unit in a cavalry charge through a swamp on the middle Danube, made him enter into single combat with a lion, and attempted to kill him in hunts and wars. Constantine always emerged victorious: the lion emerged from the contest in a poorer condition than Constantine; Constantine returned to Nicomedia from the Danube with a Sarmatian captive to drop at Galerius' feet.[53] It is uncertain how much these tales can be trusted.[54]
In the West:
Constantine's recognized the implicit danger in remaining at Galerius' court, where he was held as a virtual hostage. His career depended on being rescued by his father in the west. Constantius was quick to intervene.[55] In the late spring or early summer of 305, Constantius requested leave for his son, to help him campaign in Britain. After a long evening of drinking, Galerius granted the request. Constantine's later propaganda describes how Constantine fled the court in the night, before Galerius could change his mind. He rode from post-house to post-house at high speed, mutilating every horse in his wake.[56] By the time Galerius awoke the following morning, Constantine had fled too far to be caught.[57] Constantine joined his father in Gaul, at Bononia (Boulogne) before the summer of 305.[58]
rom Bononia they crossed the Channel to Britain and made their way to Eboracum (York), capital of the province of Britannia Secunda and home to a large military base. Constantine was able to spend a year in northern Britain at his father's side, campaigning against the Picts beyond Hadrian's Wall in the summer and autumn.[59] Constantius' campaign, like that of Septimius Severus before it, probably advanced far into the north without achieving great success.[60] Constantius had become severely sick over the course of his reign, and died on July 25, 306 in Eboracum (York). Before dying, he declared his support for raising Constantine to the rank of full Augustus. The Alamannic king Chrocus, a barbarian taken into service under Constantius, then proclaimed Constantine as Augustus. The troops loyal to Constantius' memory followed him in acclamation. Gaul and Britain quickly accepted his rule;[61] Iberia, which had been in his father's domain for less than a year, rejected it.[62]
Constantine sent Galerius an official notice of Constantius' death and his own acclamation. Along with the notice, he included a portrait of himself in the robes of an Augustus.[63] The portrait was wreathed in bay.[64] He requested recognition as heir to his father's throne, and passed off responsibility for his unlawful ascension on his army, claiming they had "forced it upon him".[65] Galerius was put into a fury by the message; he almost set the portrait on fire. His advisers calmed him, and argued that outright denial of Constantine's claims would mean certain war.[66] Galerius was compelled to compromise: He granted Constantine and the title "Caesar" rather than "Augustus" (The latter office went to Severus instead).[67] Wishing to make it clear that he alone gave Constantine legitimacy, Galerius personally sent Constantine the emperor's traditional purple robes.[68] Constantine accepted the decision,[67] knowing that it would remove doubts as to his legitimacy.[69]
Early rule:
Constantine's share of the Empire consisted of Britain, Gaul, and Spain. He therefore commanded one of the largest Roman armies, stationed along the important Rhine frontier.[70] After his promotion to emperor, Constantine remained in Britain, and secured his control in the northwestern dioceses. He completed the reconstruction of military bases begun under his father's rule, and ordered the repair of the region's roadways.[71] He soon left for Augusta Treverorum (Trier) in Gaul, the Tetrarchic capital of the northwestern Roman Empire.[72] The Franks, after learning of Constantine's acclamation, invaded Gaul across the lower Rhine over the winter of 306–7.[73] Constantine drove them back beyond the Rhine and captured two of their kings, Ascaric and Merogaisus. The kings and their soldiers were fed to the beasts of Trier's amphitheater in the adventus (arrival) celebrations that followed.[74]
Constantine began a major expansion of Trier. He strengthened the circuit wall around the city with military towers and fortified gates, and began building a palace complex in the northeastern part of the city. To the south of his palace, he ordered the construction of a large formal audience hall, and a massive imperial bathhouse. Constantine sponsored many building projects across Gaul during his tenure as Emperor of the West, especially in Augustodunum (Autun) and Arelate (Arles).[76] According to Lactantius, Constantine followed his father in following a tolerant policy towards Christianity. Although not yet a Christian, he probably judged it a more sensible policy than open persecution,[77] and a way to distinguish himself from the "great persecutor" himself, Galerius.[78] Constantine decreed a formal end to persecution, and returned to Christians all they had lost during the persecutions.[79]
Because Constantine was still largely untried and had a hint of illegitimacy about him, he relied on his father's reputation in his early propaganda: the earliest panegyrics to Constantine give as much coverage to his father's deeds as to those of Constantine himself.[80] Constantine's military skill and building projects soon gave the panegyrist the opportunity to comment favorably on the similarities between father and son, and Eusebius remarked that Constantine was a "renewal, as it were, in his own person, of his father's life and reign".[81] Constantinian coinage, sculpture and oratory also shows a new tendency for disdain towards the "barbarians" beyond the frontiers. After Constantine's victory over the Alemanni, he minted a coin issue depicting weeping and begging Alemannic tribesmen—"The Alemanni conquered"—beneath the phrase "Romans' rejoicing".[82] There was little sympathy for these enemies. As his panegyrist declared: "It is a stupid clemency that spares the conquered foe."[83]
Maxentius' rebellion:
Following Galerius' recognition of Constantine as emperor, his portrait was brought to Rome, as was customary. Maxentius mocked the portrait's subject as the son of a harlot, and lamented his own powerlessness.[84] Maxentius, jealous of Constantine's authority,[85] seized the title of emperor on October 28, 306. Galerius refused to recognize him, but failed to unseat him. During his first campaign against Maxentius, Severus' armies defected, and he was seized and imprisoned.[86] Over the spring and summer of 307, he left Gaul for Britain to avoid any involvement in the Italian turmoil.[87] Maximian, brought out of retirement by his son's rebellion, left for Gaul to confer with Constantine in late 307. He offered to marry his daughter Fausta to him, and elevate him to Augustan rank. In return, Constantine would reaffirm the old family alliance between Maximian and Constantius, and offer support to Maxentius' cause in Italy. Constantine accepted, and married Fausta in Trier in late summer 307. Constantine now gave Maxentius his meager support, offering Maxentius political recognition.[88]
onstantine remained aloof from military conflict, however. Instead of sending his troops into a civil war, he sent them against Germanic tribes along the Rhine. In 308, he raided the territory of the Bructeri, and made a bridge across the Rhine at Colonia Agrippinensium (Cologne). In 310, he marched to the northern Rhine and fought the Franks. When not campaigning, he toured his lands advertising his benevolence, and supporting the economy and the arts. His refusal to participate in the war increased his popularity among his people, and strengthened his power base in the West.[91] Maximian returned to Rome in the winter of 307–8, but soon fell out with his son. In early 309, after a failed attempt to usurp Maxentius' title, Maximian returned to Constantine's court.[92]
On November 11, 308, Galerius called a general council at the military city of Carnuntum (Petronell-Carnuntum, Austria) to resolve the instability in the western provinces. In attendance were Diocletian, briefly returned from retirement, Galerius, and Maximian. Maximian was forced to abdicate again and Constantine was again demoted to Caesar. Severus, one of Galerius' old military companions, was appointed Augustus of the west. The new system did not last long: Constantine refused to accept the demotion, and continued to style himself as Augustus on his coinage, even as other members of the Tetrarchy referred to him as a Caesar on theirs. Maximinus was frustrated that he had been turned over for promotion while the newcomer Licinius had been raised to the office of Augustus, and demanded that Galerius promote him. Galerius offered to call both Maximinus and Constantine "sons of the Augusti",[93] but neither accepted the new title. By the spring of 310, Galerius was referring to both men as Augusti.[94]
In 310, a dispossessed and power-hungry Maximian rebelled against Constantine while Constantine was away campaigning against the Franks. Maximian had been sent south to Arles with a contingent of Constantine's army, in preparation for any attacks by Maxentius in southern Gaul. He there announced that Constantine was dead, and took up the imperial purple. In spite of a large donative pledge to any who would support him as emperor, most of Constantine's army remained loyal to their emperor, and Maximian was soon compelled to leave. Constantine soon heard of the rebellion, abandoned his campaign against the Franks, and marched his army up the Rhine.[96] At Cabillunum (Chalon-sur-Saône), he moved his troops onto waiting boats to row down the slow waters of the Saône to the quicker waters of the Rhone. He disembarked at Lugdunum (Lyon).[97] Maximian fled to Massilia (Marseille), a town better able to withstand a long siege than Arles. It made little difference, however, as loyal citizens opened the rear gates to Constantine. Maximian was captured and reproved for his crimes. Constantine granted some clemency, but strongly encouraged his suicide. In July 310, Maximian hanged himself.[96]
In spite of the earlier rupture in their relations, Maxentius was eager to present himself as his father's devoted son after his death.[98] He began printing coins with his father's deified image, proclaiming his desire to avenge Maximian's death.[99] Constantine initially presented the suicide as an unfortunate family tragedy. By 311, however, he was spreading another version. According to this, after Constantine had pardoned him, Maximian planned to murder Constantine in his sleep. Fausta learned of the plot and warned Constantine, who put a eunuch in his own place in bed. Maximian was apprehended when he killed the eunuch and was offered suicide, which he accepted.[100] In addition to the propaganda, Constantine instituted a damnatio memoriae on Maximian, destroying all inscriptions referring to him and eliminating any public work bearing his image.[101]
The death of Maximian necessitated a shift in Constantine's public image. He could no longer rely on his connection to the elder emperor Maximian, and needed a new source of legitimacy.[102] In a speech delivered in Gaul on July 25, 310, the orator reveals a previously unknown dynastic connection to Claudius II, a third-century emperor famed for defeating the Goths and restoring order to the empire. Breaking away from tetrarchic models, the speech emphasizes Constantine's ancestral prerogative to rule, rather than principles of imperial equality. The new ideology expressed in the speech made Galerius and Maximian irrelevant to Constantine's right to rule.[103] Indeed, the orator emphasizes ancestry to the exclusion of all other factors: "No chance agreement of men, nor some unexpected consequence of favor, made you emperor," the orator declares to Constantine.[104]
The oration also moves away from the religious ideology of the Tetrarchy, with its focus on twin dynasties of Jupiter and Hercules. Instead, the orator proclaims that Constantine experienced a divine vision of Apollo and Victory granting him laurel wreaths of health and a long reign. In the likeness of Apollo Constantine recognized himself as the saving figure to whom would be granted "rule of the whole world",[105] as the poet Virgil had once foretold.[106] The oration's religious shift is paralleled by a similar shift in Constantine's coinage. In his early reign, the coinage of Constantine advertised Mars as his patron. From 310 on, Mars was replaced by Sol Invictus, a god conventionally identified with Apollo.[107] There is little reason to believe that either the dynastic connection or the divine vision are anything other than fiction, but their proclamation strengthened Constantine's claims to legitimacy and increased his popularity among the citizens of Gaul.[108]
Wars by Constantine:
By the middle of 310 Galerius had had become too ill to involve himself in imperial politics.[109] As his last political act, Galerius decided to rescind his failed policies of persecution. In a letter to his provincials posted in Nicomedia on April 30, 311, Galerius proclaimed an end to the persecutions, and a resumption of official religious toleration.[110] He died soon after.[111] Galerius' death destabilized what remained of the tetrarchic system.[112] Maximinus mobilized against Licinius, and seized Asia Minor. Licinius and Maximinus arranged a temporary peace on the Bosphorus soon thereafter.[113] While Constantine toured Britain and Gaul, Maxentius prepared for war.[114] He fortified northern Italy, and strengthened his support in the Christian community by allowing it to elect a new Bishop of Rome, Eusebius.[115]
Maxentius' rule was nevertheless insecure. His early support dissolved in the wake of heightened tax rates and depressed trade; riots broke out in Rome and Carthage;[116] and Domitius Alexander was able to briefly usurp his authority in Africa.[90] By 312, he was a man barely tolerated, not one actively supported,[117] even among Christian Italians.[118] In the summer of 311, Maxentius mobilized against Constantine while Licinius was occupied with affairs in the East. He declared war on Constantine, vowing to avenge his father's "murder".[119] Constantine, in an attempt to prevent Maxentius from forming a hostile alliance with Licinius,[120] forged his own alliance with the man over the winter of 311–12 by offering to him his sister Constantia in marriage. Maximin considered Constantine's arrangement with Licinius an affront to his authority. In response, he sent ambassadors to Rome, offering political recognition to Maxentius in exchange for a military support. Maxentius accepted.[121] According to Eusebius, inter-regional travel became impossible, and there was military buildup everywhere. There was "not a place where people were not expecting the onset of hostilities every day".[122]
Constantine's advisers and generals cautioned against preemptive attack on Maxentius;[123] even his soothsayers recommended against it, stating that the sacrifices had produced unfavorable omens.[124] Constantine, with a spirit that left a deep impression on his followers, inspiring some to believe that he had some form of supernatural guidance,[125] ignored all these cautions, and attacked Maxentius without a casus belli.[126] Early in the spring of 312,[127] Constantine crossed the Cottian Alps with a quarter of his total army, approximately 40,000 men.[128] He first came to Segusium (Susa, Italy), a heavily fortified town containing a military garrison, which shut its gates to him. Constantine ordered his forces set its gates on fire, scaled its walls, and took the town quickly. Constantine forbade the plunder of the town, and advanced into northern Italy.[127]
At the approach to the west of the important city of Augusta Taurinorum (Turin, Italy), Constantine encountered a large force of heavily armed Maxentian cavalry.[129] In the ensuing battle Constantine encircled Maxentius' cavalry, flanked them with his own cavalry, and dismounted them with blows from his soldiers' iron-tipped clubs. Constantine's armies emerged victorious.[130] Turin refused to give refuge to Maxentius' retreating forces, opening its gates to Constantine instead.[131] Other cities of the north Italian plain sent Constantine embassies of congratulation for his victory. He moved on to Milan, where he was met with open gates and jubilant rejoicing. Constantine rested his army in Milan until mid-summer 312, when he moved on to Brixia (Brescia).[132]
Brescia's army was easily dispersed,[133] and Constantine quickly advanced to Verona, where a large Maxentian force was camped.[134] Ruricius Pompeianus, general of the Veronese forces and Maxentius' praetorian prefect,[135] was in a strong defensive position. Constantine sent a small force to cross the river at a point north of the city. Ruricius sent a large detachment to counter Constantine's expeditionary force, but it was defeated. Constantine's forces successfully surrounded the town and laid siege.[136] Ruricius gave Constantine the slip and returned with a larger force to oppose Constantine. Constantine refused to let up on the siege, and sent only a small force to oppose him. In the desperately-fought encounter that followed, Ruricius was killed and his army destroyed.[137] Verona surrendered soon afterwards, followed by Aquileia,[138] Mutina (Modena),[139] and Ravenna.[140] The road to Rome was now wide open to Constantine.[141]
Maxentius prepared for the same type of war he had waged against Severus and Galerius: he sat in Rome and prepared for a siege.[142] He still controlled Rome's praetorian guards, was well-stocked with African grain, and was surrounded on all sides by the seemingly-impregnable Aurelian Walls. He ordered all bridges across the Tiber cut, reportedly on the counsel of the gods,[143] and left the rest of central Italy undefended; Constantine secured that region's support without challenge.[144] Constantine progressed slowly,[145] along the Via Flaminia,[146] allowing the weakness of Maxentius to draw his regime further into turmoil.[145] Maxentius' support continued to weaken: at chariot races on October 27, the crowd openly taunted Maxentius, shouting that Constantine was invincible.[147] Maxentius, no longer certain that he would emerge from a siege victorious, built a temporary boat bridge across the Tiber in preparation for a field battle against Constantine.[148] On October 28, 312, the sixth anniversary of his reign, he approached the keepers of the Sibylline Books for guidance. The keepers found in them a prophecy stating that, on that very day, "the enemy of the Romans" would die. Maxentius advanced north to meet Constantine in battle.[149]
Maxentius organized his forces—still twice the size of Constantine's—in long lines facing the battle plain, with their backs to the river.[150] When Constantine's army made its appearance, some of its soldiers bore unusual markings on their shields: instead of the traditional pagan standards, a new sign, the labarum, was mounted.[151] According to Lactantius, Constantine was visited by a dream the night before the battle, wherein he was advised "to mark the heavenly sign of God on the shields of his soldiers...by means of a slanted letter X with the top of its head bent round, he marked Christ on their shields."[152] Eusebius describes another version, where, while marching at midday, "he saw with his own eyes in the heavens a trophy of the cross arising from the light of the sun, carrying the message, Conquer By This".[153] During the following night, in a dream, Christ appeared with the heavenly sign and told him to make standards for his army in that form.[154] Although Eusebius is vague about when and where this event took place,[155] it enters his narrative before the war against Maxentius begins.[156] Eusebius describes the sign as Chi (Χ) traversed by Rho (Ρ), or ☧.[157] The Eusebian description of the vision has been explained as an example of the meteorological phenomenon known as the "solar halo", which can produce similar effects.[158]
Constantine deployed his own forces in along the whole length of Maxentius' line. He ordered his cavalry to charge, and they broke Maxentius' cavalry. He then sent his infantry against Maxentius' infantry, pushing many into the Tiber where they were slaughtered and drowned.[150] The battle was brief:[159] Maxentius' troops were broken before the first charge.[160] Maxentius' horse guards and praetorians initially held their position, but broke under the force of a Constantinian cavalry charge; they also broke ranks and fled to the river. Maxentius rode with them, and attempted to cross the bridge of boats, but he was pushed by the mass of his fleeing soldiers into the Tiber, and drowned.[161]
Constantine entered Rome on October 29.[162] He staged a grand adventus in the city, and was met with popular jubilation.[163] Maxentius' body was fished out of the Tiber and decapitated. His head was paraded through the streets for all to see.[164] After the ceremonies, Maxentius' disembodied head was sent to Carthage, after which Africa gave no further resistance.[165] He entered as a Christian: unlike his predecessors, he neglected to make the trip to the Capitoline Hill and perform customary sacrifices at the Temple of Jupiter.[166] He did, however, choose to honor the Senatorial Curia with a visit,[167] where he promised to restore its ancestral privileges and give it a secure role in his reformed government: there would be no revenge against Maxentius' supporters.[168] In response, the Senate decreed him "title of the first name", which meant his name would be listed first in all official documents,[169] and acclaimed him as "the greatest Augustus".[170] He issued decrees returning property lost under Maxentius, recalling political exiles, and releasing Maxentius' imprisoned opponents.[171]
In an extensive propaganda campaign followed: Maxentius' image was systematically purged from all public places. Maxentius was written up as a "tyrant", and set against an idealized image of the "liberator", Constantine. Eusebius, in his later works, is the best representative of this strand of Constantinian propaganda.[172] Constantine also attempted to remove Maxentius' influence on Rome's urban landscape. All structures built by Maxentius were re-dedicated to Constantine, including the Temple of Romulus and the Basilica of Maxentius.[173] Where he did not overwrite Maxentius' achievements, he upstaged them: the Circus Maximus was redeveloped so that its total seating capacity was twenty-five times larger than that of Maxentius' racing complex on the Via Appia.[174] Maxentius' strongest supporters in the military were neutralized when the Praetorian Guard and Imperial Horse Guard (equites singulares) were disbanded.[175] Their tombstones were ground up and put to use in a basilica on the Via Labicana.[176] Early in Constantine's reign, the former base of the Imperial Horse Guard was chosen for redevelopment into the Lateran Basilica. Art historian Richard Krautheimer dated the event to November 9, 312, barely two weeks after Constantine captured the city.[177] The Legio II Parthica was removed from Alba (Albano Laziale),[178] and the remainder of Maxentius' armies were sent to do frontier duty on the Rhine.[179]
There's more...but I'll add more important info on him later.
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Post by Cepha on Jun 18, 2009 9:36:14 GMT -5
He turned the Catholic Church into the Roman Catholic Church making it a political institution. Ironically Constantine's church started persecuting people who didn't agree with the Roman Catholic Church. Again, your history is wrong. The Catholic Church wouldn't be called Roman until the Schism between us and The East (chime in here anytime Ramon). It is a designation. We could also be called "The Western Church". Fact is, The Catholic Church to this day is not named The Roman Catholic Church. It's just The Catholic Church. And Constantine went after those who attacked Christian. He never forced anybody to convert to Christianity and in fact, protected the right to freedom of religion for the citizens and protected Christianity from other religions who tried to misindoctrinate them into believing that Jesus wasn't The Son of God. Where are you getting your history from? How? When all he said was that God used Him to protect The Church but that he in know way had anything to do with it's doctrines. Read his own quotes: Religious policyConstantine the Great, mosaic in Hagia Sophia, c. 1000Constantine is perhaps best known for being the first Christian Roman emperor; his reign was certainly a turning point for the Christian Church.
In 313 Constantine announced toleration of Christianity in the Edict of Milan, which removed penalties for professing Christianity (under which many had been martyred in previous persecutions of Christians) and returned confiscated Church property.
Though a similar edict had been issued in 311 by Galerius, then senior emperor of the Tetrarchy, Galerius' edict granted Christians the right to practice their religion but did not restore any property to them. [193]
Throughout his rule, Constantine supported the Church financially, built various basilicas, granted privileges (e.g. exemption from certain taxes) to clergy, promoted Christians to high ranking offices, and returned property confiscated during the Great Persecution of Diocletian.[197] His most famous building projects include the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and Old Saint Peter's Basilica.
Constantine burning Arian booksThe reign of Constantine established a precedent for the position of the emperor in the Christian Church. Constantine himself disliked the risks to societal stability, that religious disputes and controversies brought with them, preferring where possible to establish an orthodoxy.[199] [200]
The emperor saw it as his duty to ensure that God was properly worshipped in his empire; what proper worship consisted of was for the Church to determine.[201] In 316, Constantine acted as a judge in a North African dispute concerning the validity of Donatism; after making a decision against the Donatists, Constantine led an army of Christians against the Donatist Christians.
After 300 years of pacifism, this was the first intra-Christian persecution.
More significantly, in 325 he summoned the Council of Nicaea, effectively the first Ecumenical Council (unless the Council of Jerusalem is so classified, Pre Ecumenical councils include the Council of Rome 155 AD, Second Council of Rome 193 AD, Council of Ephesus 193 AD, Council of Carthage 251 AD, Council of Iconium 258 AD, Councils of Antioch, 264 AD, Council of Elvira 306 AD, Council of Carthage 311 AD, Council of Ancyra 314 AD, Council of Arles 314 AD and the Council of Neo-Caesarea 315 AD), Nicaea was to deal mostly with the heresy of Arianism. Constantine also enforced the prohibition of the First Council of Nicaea against celebrating Easter on the day before the Jewish Passover (14 Nisan) (see Quartodecimanism and Easter controversy).[202]
Constantine made new laws regarding the Jews. They were forbidden to own Christian slaves or to circumcise their slaves.
Jews were forbidden to proselytize or accept converts to Judaism. Any Jew found converting a Christian to Judaism by force would be burned alive.[203]
Jewish clergy were given the same exemptions as Christian clergy.[204] Congregations for religious services were restricted, but Jews were allowed to enter Jerusalem on one day each year.[205] Constantine also supported conversion efforts in Judaea. He raised Josephus of Tiberias (a Jewish convert to Christianity) the rank of comes and gave him the money to build churches in the largely Jewish towns of Galilee.[206]en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_I#Religious_policyThe Church wasn't corrupted. How is counting wafers corruption?  You're making a lot of statements, but posted no unbiased references that could be cited. Again, you really need to read history. Christianity was the minority of Rome. It was the persecuted minority. Why would people start to call themselves Christian just because Constantine protected Christianity, when Paganism was The Religion of Rome just before that? That makes no sense. You should think about it...what happened was the complete opposite of Matthew 16. Jesus said that the Gates of Hell would never overcome His Church. What happened? The Gates of Heaven overcame His enemies home! Rome! Rome persecuted and killed Christ (along with The Jews). And what does Jesus do? He takes over Rome and converts The World to Christianity! Why do you see evil where there is good like The Pharisees used to? Jesus overtook His enemies. That is good. The fruit of this work? The whole civilized world was evangelized and brought to Christ. That is a good fruit. And what does Scripture say about good fruits? That they come from good trees! Therefore, the fruits of Constantine's labors were good fruits because he did God's work. That is why Christianity went from being a persecuted sect to becomming the world's greatest religion and why it is still here today outliving the very Empire that once persecuted it. Can I get an AMEN? |
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