Constantine I
57th Emperor of the Roman Empire
Head of Constantine's colossal statue at the Capitoline Museums. The original statue of marble was acrolithic with the torso consisting of a cuirass in bronze.[1]
Reign	25 July 306 AD – 29 October 312 AD[notes 1] 29 October 312 – 19 September 324[notes 2] 19 September 324 – 22 May 337[notes 3]
Full name	Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus Augustus
Born	27 February ca. 272[2]
Birthplace	Naissus, Moesia Superior, Present day Serbia
Died	22 May 337(337-05-22) (aged 65)
Place of death	Nicomedia
Predecessor	Constantius I
Successor	Constantine II Constantius II Constans I
Consort	Minervina, died or divorced before 307 Fausta
Offspring	Constantina Helena Crispus Constantine II Constantius II Constans
Dynasty	Constantinian dynasty
Father	Constantius Chlorus
Mother	Helena

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Constantine the Great (Latin: Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus Augustus;^[3] c. 27 February 272^[2] – 22 May 337), also known as Constantine I or Saint Constantine,^[4] was Roman Emperor from 306 to 337. Well known for being the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity,^{[notes 4]} Constantine and co-Emperor Licinius issued the Edict of Milan in 313, which proclaimed religious tolerance of all religions throughout the empire.

The foremost general of his time, Constantine defeated the emperors Maxentius and Licinius during civil wars. He also fought successfully against the Franks, Alamanni, Visigoths, and Sarmatians during his reign—even resettling parts of Dacia which had been abandoned during the previous century. Constantine built a new imperial residence in place of Byzantium, naming it New Rome. However, in Constantine's honour, people called it Constantinople, which would later be the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire for over one thousand years. Because of this, he is thought of as the founder of the Eastern Roman Empire.

Sources[link]

Constantine was a ruler of major historical importance, and he has always been a controversial figure.^[6] The fluctuations in Constantine's reputation reflect the nature of the ancient sources for his reign. These are abundant and detailed,^[7] but have been strongly influenced by the official propaganda of the period,^[8] and are often one-sided.^[9] There are no surviving histories or biographies dealing with Constantine's life and rule.^[10] The nearest replacement is Eusebius of Caesarea's Vita Constantini, a work that is a mixture of eulogy and hagiography.^[11] Written between 335 and circa 339,^[12] the Vita extols Constantine's moral and religious virtues.^[13] The Vita creates a contentiously positive image of Constantine,^[14] and modern historians have frequently challenged its reliability.^[15] The fullest secular life of Constantine is the anonymous Origo Constantini.^[16] A work of uncertain date,^[17] the Origo focuses on military and political events, to the neglect of cultural and religious matters.^[18]

Lactantius' De Mortibus Persecutorum, a political Christian pamphlet on the reigns of Diocletian and the Tetrarchy, provides valuable but tendentious detail on Constantine's predecessors and early life.^[19] The ecclesiastical histories of Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret describe the ecclesiastic disputes of Constantine's later reign.^[20] 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.^[21] 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.^[22]

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 not Christian, the epitomes paint a favorable image of Constantine, but omit reference to Constantine's religious policies.^[23] 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.^[24] Contemporary architecture, like the Arch of Constantine in Rome and palaces in Gamzigrad and Córdoba,^[25] epigraphic remains, and the coinage of the era complement the literary sources.^[26]

Early life[link]

Constantine's parents and siblings. Dates in square brackets indicate the possession of minor titles, like "Caesar".

The remains of luxurious residence palace of Mediana, which was erected by Constantine I near his birth town of Naissus.

Flavius Valerius Constantinus, as he was originally named, was born in the city of Naissus, Moesia, in present-day Niš, Serbia, on 27 February of an uncertain year,^[27] probably near 272.^[28] His father was Flavius Constantius, a native of Moesia (later Dacia Ripensis).^[29] Constantius was a tolerant and politically skilled man.^[30] Constantine probably spent little time with his father.^[31] 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 companions from Illyricum, in 284 or 285.^[29] Constantine's mother was Helena (a Bithynian Greek). It is uncertain whether she was legally married to Constantius or merely his concubine.^[32]

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.^[33] 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,^[34] and both emperors could move freely throughout the Empire.^[35] 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.^[36]

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. 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.^[37] On 1 March, Constantius was promoted to the office of Caesar, and dispatched to Gaul to fight the rebels Carausius and Allectus.^[38] In spite of meritocratic overtones, the Tetrarchy retained vestiges of hereditary privilege,^[39] and Constantine became the prime candidate for future appointment as Caesar as soon as his father took the position. Constantine went to the court of Diocletian, where he lived as his father's heir presumptive.^[40]

In the East[link]

Constantine received a formal education at Diocletian's court, where he learned Latin literature, Greek, and philosophy.^[41] 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.^[42] 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 behaviour. 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).^[43] By late 305, he had become a tribune of the first order, a tribunus ordinis primi.^[44]

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 most severe persecution of Christians in Roman history.^[45] In late 302, Diocletian and Galerius sent a messenger to the oracle of Apollo at Didyma with an inquiry about Christians.^[46] Constantine could recall his presence at the palace when the messenger returned, when Diocletian accepted his court's demands for universal persecution.^[47] On 23 February 303, Diocletian ordered the destruction of Nicomedia's new church, condemned its scriptures to the flames, 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.^[48]

Head from a statue of Diocletian, Augustus of the East

It is unlikely that Constantine played any role in the persecution.^[49] In his later writings he would attempt to present himself as an opponent of Diocletian's "sanguinary edicts" against the "worshippers of God",^[50] but nothing indicates that he opposed it effectively at the time.^[51] Although no contemporary Christian challenged Constantine for his inaction during the persecutions, it remained a political liability throughout his life.^[52]

On 1 May 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.^[53] 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.^[54] It was not to be: Constantius and Galerius were promoted to Augusti, while Severus and Maximin were appointed their Caesars respectively. Constantine and Maxentius were ignored.^[55]

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.^[56] It is uncertain how much these tales can be trusted.^[57]

In the West[link]

Constantine 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.^[58] 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, hamstringing every horse in his wake.^[59] By the time Galerius awoke the following morning, Constantine had fled too far to be caught.^[60] Constantine joined his father in Gaul, at Bononia (Boulogne) before the summer of 305.^[61]

Bronze statue of Constantine I in York, England, near the spot where he was proclaimed Augustus in 306

From 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.^[62] Constantius's campaign, like that of Septimius Severus before it, probably advanced far into the north without achieving great success.^[63] Constantius had become severely sick over the course of his reign, and died on 25 July 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;^[64] Iberia, which had been in his father's domain for less than a year, rejected it.^[65]

Constantine sent Galerius an official notice of Constantius's death and his own acclamation. Along with the notice, he included a portrait of himself in the robes of an Augustus.^[66] The portrait was wreathed in bay.^[67] 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".^[68] 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.^[69] Galerius was compelled to compromise: he granted Constantine the title "Caesar" rather than "Augustus" (the latter office went to Severus instead).^[70] Wishing to make it clear that he alone gave Constantine legitimacy, Galerius personally sent Constantine the emperor's traditional purple robes.^[71] Constantine accepted the decision,^[70] knowing that it would remove doubts as to his legitimacy.^[72]