of Constantine; the inscription around the portrait is "Constantinus P[ius] F[elix] Aug[ustus]" Constantine's share of the empire consisted of Britain, Gaul, and Spain, and he commanded one of the largest Roman armies which was stationed along the important
Rhine frontier. He remained in Britain after his promotion to emperor, driving back the tribes of the Picts and securing his control in the northwestern dioceses. He completed the reconstruction of military bases begun under his father's rule, and he ordered the repair of the region's roadways. He then left for
Augusta Treverorum (
Trier) in Gaul, the Tetrarchic capital of the northwestern Roman Empire. The Franks learned of Constantine's acclamation and invaded Gaul across the lower Rhine over the winter of 306–307. He drove them back beyond the Rhine and captured kings
Ascaric and
Merogais; the kings and their soldiers were fed to the beasts of
Trier Amphitheater in the
adventus (arrival) celebrations which followed. '';
Trier Imperial Baths) built in
Trier by Constantine, more than wide by long and capable of serving several thousand at a time, built to rival those of Rome , which probably decorated the
Baths of Constantine in Rome Constantine began a major expansion of Trier. He strengthened the circuit wall around the city with military towers and fortified gates, and he 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. He sponsored many building projects throughout Gaul during his tenure as emperor of the West, especially in Augustodunum (
Autun) and Arelate (
Arles). According to Lactantius, Constantine followed a tolerant policy towards Christianity, although he may not have yet adopted the Christian faith. There is no consensus among scholars on Constantine's religious convictions at the beginning of his reign, and some suggest an adoption of Christianity from his youth. Regardless, he probably judged toleration a more sensible policy than open persecution and a way to distinguish himself from the "great persecutor" Galerius. He decreed a formal end to persecution and returned to Christians all that they had lost under the first of the persecuting edicts. Constantine was largely untried and had a hint of illegitimacy about him; he relied on his father's reputation in his early propaganda, which gave as much coverage to his father's deeds as to his. His military skill and building projects, however, soon gave the panegyrist the opportunity to comment favourably 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". Constantinian coinage, sculpture, and oratory also show a tendency for disdain towards the "barbarians" beyond the frontiers. He minted a coin issue after his victory over the Alemanni which depicts weeping and begging Alemannic tribesmen, "the Alemanni conquered" beneath the phrase "Romans' rejoicing". There was little sympathy for these enemies; as his panegyrist declared, "It is a stupid clemency that spares the conquered foe."
Maxentius's rebellion , who was defeated by Constantine at the
Battle of the Milvian Bridge Following Galerius's recognition of Constantine as caesar, Constantine's 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. Maxentius, envious of Constantine's authority, seized the title of emperor on 28 October 306. Galerius refused to recognise him but failed to unseat him. Severus was sent against Maxentius in April 307, but during the campaign, Severus' armies, previously under command of Maxentius' father Maximian, defected, and Severus was seized and imprisoned. Maximian, brought out of retirement by his son's rebellion, left for Gaul to confer with Constantine. He offered to marry his daughter
Fausta to Constantine 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 summer 307. Constantine gave Maxentius his meagre support, offering Maxentius political recognition. Constantine remained aloof from the Italian conflict, however. Over the spring and summer of 307 he had left Gaul for Britain to avoid any involvement in the Italian turmoil; now, instead of giving Maxentius military aid, he sent his troops 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. Maximian returned to Rome in the winter of 307–308 but soon fell out with his son. In early 308, after a failed attempt to usurp Maxentius' title, Maximian returned to Constantine's court. On 11 November 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.
Licinius, one of Galerius' old military companions, was appointed augustus in the western regions. 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 passed 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", but neither accepted the new title. By the spring of 310, Galerius was referring to both men as augusti.
Maximian's rebellion of "Unconquered Constantine" with the god
Sol Invictus behind him, struck in AD 313. The use of Sol's image stressed Constantine's status as his father's successor, appealed to the educated citizens of Gaul, and was considered less offensive than the traditional pagan pantheon to the Christians. In 310 a dispossessed 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 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. When Constantine heard of the rebellion, he abandoned his campaign against the Franks and marched his army up the Rhine. 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). 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. He began minting coins with his father's deified image, proclaiming his desire to avenge Maximian's death. 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. Along with using propaganda, Constantine instituted a
damnatio memoriae on Maximian, destroying all inscriptions referring to him and eliminating any public work bearing his image. The death of Maximian required 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. In a speech delivered in Gaul on 25 July 310, the anonymous orator reveals a previously unknown dynastic connection to
Claudius II, a 3rd-century emperor famed for defeating the
Goths and restoring order to the empire. Breaking away from tetrarchic models, the speech emphasises 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. Indeed, the orator emphasises ancestry to the exclusion of all other factors: "No chance agreement of men, nor some unexpected consequence of favour, made you emperor," the orator declares to Constantine. 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 recognised himself as the saving figure to whom would be granted "rule of the whole world", as the poet
Virgil had once foretold. 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. 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.
Civil wars War against Maxentius By the middle of 310 Galerius had become too ill to involve himself in imperial politics. His final act survives: a letter to provincials posted in
Nicomedia on 30 April 311, proclaiming an end to the persecutions, and the resumption of religious toleration. Eusebius maintains "divine providence [...] took action against the perpetrator of these crimes" and gives a graphic account of Galerius' demise: "Without warning suppurative inflammation broke out round the middle of his genitals, then a deep-seated fistula ulcer; these ate their way incurably into his innermost bowels. From them came a teeming indescribable mass of worms, and a sickening smell was given off, for the whole of his hulking body, thanks to over eating, had been transformed even before his illness into a huge lump of flabby fat, which then decomposed and presented those who came near it with a revolting and horrifying sight." Galerius died soon after the edict's proclamation, destroying what little remained of the Tetrarchy. Maximinus mobilised against Licinius and seized
Asia Minor. A hasty peace was signed on a boat in the middle of the
Bosphorus. While Constantine toured Britain and Gaul, Maxentius prepared for war. He fortified northern Italy and strengthened his support in the Christian community by allowing it to elect
Eusebius as
bishop of Rome., Germany, possibly depicting
Constantia 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; and
Domitius Alexander was able to briefly usurp his authority in Africa. By 312, he was a man barely tolerated, not one actively supported, even among Christian Italians. In the summer of 311, Maxentius mobilised against Constantine while Licinius was occupied with affairs in the East. He declared war on Constantine, vowing to avenge his father's "murder". To prevent Maxentius from forming an alliance against him with Licinius, Constantine forged his own alliance with Licinius over the winter of 311–312 and offered him his sister
Constantia in marriage. Maximinus 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, which Maxentius accepted. 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". in the Hall of Constantine in the
Raphael Rooms in the
Vatican), copy c. 1650 by
Lazzaro Baldi, now at the University of Edinburgh Constantine's advisers and generals cautioned against preemptive attack on Maxentius; even his soothsayers recommended against it, stating that the sacrifices had produced unfavourable omens. Constantine, with a spirit that left a deep impression on his followers, inspiring some to believe that he had some form of supernatural guidance, ignored all these cautions. Early in the spring of 312, Constantine crossed the
Cottian Alps with a quarter of his army, a force numbering about 40,000. The first town his army encountered was
Segusium (
Susa, Italy), a heavily fortified town that shut its gates to him. Constantine ordered his men to set fire to its gates and scale its walls. He took the town quickly. Constantine ordered his troops not to loot the town and advanced into northern Italy. In the ensuing
Battle of Turin Constantine's army 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. Turin refused to give refuge to Maxentius' retreating forces, opening its gates to Constantine instead. 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). Brescia's army was easily dispersed, and Constantine quickly advanced to
Verona where a large Maxentian force was camped.
Ruricius Pompeianus, general of the Veronese forces and Maxentius' praetorian prefect, was in a strong defensive position since the town was surrounded on three sides by the
Adige. Constantine sent a small force north of the town in an attempt to cross the river unnoticed. Ruricius sent a large detachment to counter Constantine's expeditionary force but was defeated. Constantine's forces successfully surrounded the town and laid siege. 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. Verona surrendered soon afterwards, followed by
Aquileia, Mutina (
Modena), and
Ravenna. The road to Rome was now wide open to Constantine. ) over the
River Tiber, north of Rome, where Constantine and Maxentius fought in the
Battle of the Milvian Bridge Maxentius prepared for the same type of war he had waged against Severus and Galerius: he occupied Rome and prepared for a siege. He still controlled Rome's
Praetorian Guard, 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, and left the rest of central Italy undefended; Constantine secured that region's support without challenge. Constantine progressed slowly along the
Via Flaminia, allowing the weakness of Maxentius to draw his regime further into turmoil. 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. On 28 October 312, the sixth anniversary of his reign, he approached the keepers of the
Sibylline Books for guidance. The keepers prophesied that, on that very day, "the enemy of the Romans" would die. Maxentius advanced north to meet Constantine in battle.
Milvian Bridge of 315; Constantine with a
chi-rho symbol as the crest of his
helmet Maxentius' forces were still twice the size of Constantine's, and he organised them in long lines facing the battle plain with their backs to the river. Constantine's army arrived on the field bearing unfamiliar symbols on their standards and their shields. According to Lactantius "Constantine was directed in a dream to cause the heavenly sign to be delineated on the shields of his soldiers, and so to proceed to battle. He did as he had been commanded, and he marked on their shields the letter Χ, with a perpendicular line drawn through it and turned round thus at the top, being the cipher of Christ. Having this sign (☧), his troops stood to arms." Eusebius describes a vision that Constantine had while marching at midday in which "he saw with his own eyes the trophy of a cross of light in the heavens, above the sun, and bearing the inscription,
In Hoc Signo Vinces" ("In this sign thou shalt conquer"). In Eusebius' account, Constantine had a dream the following night in which Christ appeared with the same heavenly sign and told him to make an army standard in the form of the
labarum. Eusebius is vague about when and where these events took place, but it enters his narrative before the war begins against Maxentius. He describes the sign as
Chi (Χ) traversed by
Rho (Ρ) to form ☧, representing the first two letters of the Greek word (Christos). A medallion was issued at
Ticinum in 315 which shows Constantine
wearing a helmet emblazoned with the
Chi Rho, and coins issued at Siscia in 317/318 repeat the image. The figure was otherwise rare and is uncommon in imperial iconography and propaganda before the 320s. It was not completely unknown, however, being an abbreviation of the Greek word chrēston (good), having previously appeared on the coins of
Ptolemy III Euergetes in the 3rd century BC. Following Constantine, centuries of Christians invoked the miraculous or the supernatural when justifying or describing their warfare. Constantine deployed his own forces 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. and Maxentius' troops were broken before the first charge. His horse guards and praetorians initially held their position, but they 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 (
Ponte Milvio), but he was pushed into the Tiber and drowned by the mass of his fleeing soldiers.
In Rome , now in the
Capitoline Museums Constantine entered Rome on 29 October 312 and staged a grand
adventus in the city which was met with jubilation. Maxentius' body was fished out of the Tiber and decapitated, and his head was paraded through the streets for all to see. After the ceremonies, the disembodied head was sent to Carthage, and Carthage offered no further resistance. Unlike his predecessors, Constantine neglected to make the trip to the
Capitoline Hill and perform customary sacrifices at the
Temple of Jupiter. However, he did visit the Senatorial
Curia Julia, and 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. In response, the
Senate decreed him "title of the first name", which meant that his name would be listed first in all official documents, and they acclaimed him as "the greatest augustus". He issued decrees returning property that was lost under Maxentius, recalling political exiles, and releasing Maxentius' imprisoned opponents. An extensive propaganda campaign followed, during which Maxentius' image was purged from all public places. He was written up as a "tyrant" and set against an idealised image of Constantine the "liberator". Eusebius is the best representative of this strand of Constantinian propaganda. Maxentius' rescripts were declared invalid, and the honours that he had granted to leaders of the Senate were also invalidated. Constantine also attempted to remove Maxentius' influence on Rome's urban landscape. All structures built by him were rededicated to Constantine, including the
Temple of Romulus and the
Basilica of Maxentius. At the focal point of the basilica, a stone statue was erected of Constantine holding the Christian
labarum in its hand. Its inscription bore the message which the statue illustrated: "By this sign, Constantine had freed Rome from the yoke of the tyrant." Constantine also sought to upstage Maxentius' achievements. For example, the
Circus Maximus was redeveloped so that its seating capacity was 25 times larger than that of Maxentius' racing complex on the
Via Appia. Maxentius' strongest military supporters were neutralised when Constantine disbanded the Praetorian Guard and
Imperial Horse Guard. The tombstones of the Imperial Horse Guard were ground up and used in a basilica on the
Via Labicana, and their former base was redeveloped into the
Lateran Basilica on 9 November 312—barely two weeks after Constantine captured the city. The
Legio II Parthica was removed from
Albano Laziale,
Wars against Licinius of the emperor
Licinius In the following years, Constantine 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 Christianity and all religions in the empire. The document had special benefits for Christians, legalising their religion and granting them restoration for all property seized during Diocletian's persecution. It repudiates past methods of religious coercion and used only general terms to refer to the divine sphere—"Divinity" and "Supreme Divinity",
summa divinitas. The conference was cut short, however, when news reached Licinius that his rival
Maximinus had crossed the Bosporus and invaded European territory. Licinius departed and eventually defeated Maximinus, gaining control over the entire eastern half of the Roman Empire. Relations between the two remaining emperors deteriorated, as Constantine suffered an assassination attempt at the hands of a character that Licinius wanted elevated to the rank of Caesar; Licinius, for his part, had Constantine's statues in Emona destroyed. In either 314 or 316 the two augusti fought against one another at the
Battle of Cibalae, with Constantine being victorious. They clashed again at the
Battle of Mardia in 317 and agreed to a settlement in which Constantine's sons
Crispus and
Constantine II, and Licinius' son
Licinius Junior were made
caesars. After this arrangement, Constantine ruled the dioceses of Pannonia and Macedonia and took residence at
Sirmium, whence he could wage war on the Goths and Sarmatians in 322, and on the Goths in 323, defeating and killing their leader
Rausimod. generally without bloodshed, but resorting to confiscations and sacking of Christian office-holders. Although this characterisation of Licinius as anti-Christian is somewhat doubtful, the fact is that he seems to have been far less open in his support of Christianity than Constantine. Therefore, Licinius was prone to see the Church as a force more loyal to Constantine than to the Imperial system in general, as the explanation offered by the Church historian
Sozomen. This dubious arrangement eventually became a challenge to Constantine in the West, climaxing in the great civil war of 324. Constantine's Christian eulogists present the war as a battle between Christianity and paganism; Licinius, aided by Gothic mercenaries, represented the past and ancient paganism, while Constantine and his
Franks marched under the standard of the
labarum. Outnumbered but fired by their zeal, Constantine's army emerged victorious in the
Battle of Adrianople. Licinius fled across the Bosphorus and appointed
Martinian, his
magister officiorum, as nominal augustus in the West, but Constantine next won the
Battle of the Hellespont and finally the
Battle of Chrysopolis on 18 September 324. Licinius and Martinian surrendered to Constantine at
Nicomedia on the promise their lives would be spared: they were sent to live as private citizens in Thessalonica and Cappadocia respectively, but in 325 Constantine accused Licinius of plotting against him and had them both arrested and hanged; Licinius' son (the son of Constantine's half-sister) was killed in 326. Thus Constantine became the sole emperor of the Roman Empire.
Later rule Foundation of Constantinople Diocletian had chosen
Nicomedia in the East as his capital during the Tetrarchy—not far from Byzantium, well situated to defend Thrace, Asia, and Egypt, all of which had required his military attention. Constantine had recognised the shift of the empire from the remote and depopulated West to the richer cities of the East, and the military strategic importance of protecting the Danube from barbarian excursions and Asia from a hostile Persia in choosing his new capital as well as being able to monitor shipping traffic between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. Licinius' defeat came to represent the defeat of a rival centre of pagan and Greek-speaking political activity in the East, as opposed to the Christian and Latin-speaking Rome, and it was proposed that a new Eastern capital should represent the integration of the East into the Roman Empire as a whole, as a centre of learning, prosperity, and cultural preservation for the whole of the Eastern Roman Empire. Among the various locations proposed for this alternative capital, Constantine appears to have toyed earlier with
Serdica (present-day
Sofia), as he was reported saying that "
Serdica is my Rome". Sirmium and
Thessalonica were also considered. Eventually, however, Constantine decided to work on the Greek city of
Byzantium, which offered the advantage of having already been extensively rebuilt on Roman patterns of urbanism during the preceding century by Septimius Severus and
Caracalla, who had already acknowledged its strategic importance. The city was thus founded in 324, dedicated on 11 May 330 The figures of old gods were either replaced or assimilated into a framework of
Christian symbolism. 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. The capital would often be compared to the 'old' Rome as
Nova Roma Constantinopolitana, the "New Rome of Constantinople".
Religion and religious policy Constantine was the first emperor to stop the persecution of Christians and to legalise Christianity, along with all other religions and cults in the Roman Empire. In February 313, he met with Licinius in Milan and developed the Edict of Milan, which stated that Christians should be allowed to follow their faith without oppression. This removed penalties for professing Christianity, under which
many had been martyred previously, and it returned confiscated Church property. The edict protected all religions from persecution, not only Christianity, allowing anyone to worship any deity that they chose. A similar edict had been issued in 311 by Galerius, senior emperor of the Tetrarchy, which granted Christians the right to practise their religion but did not restore any property to them. The Edict of Milan included several clauses which stated that all confiscated churches would be returned, as well as other provisions for previously persecuted Christians. Some scholars think that Helena adopted Christianity as an adult, and according to Eusebius she was converted by Constantine, but other historians debate whether Constantine adopted his mother Helena's Christianity in his youth or whether he adopted it gradually over the course of his life. and Emperor Constantine Constantine possibly retained the title of
pontifex maximus which emperors bore as heads of the ancient Roman religion until
Gratian renounced the title. According to Christian writers, Constantine was over 40 years old when he finally declared himself a Christian, making it clear that he owed his successes only to the protection of the Christian God. Despite these declarations of being a Christian, he waited to be baptised until on his deathbed, believing that the baptism would release him of any sins he committed in the course of carrying out his policies while emperor. He supported the Church financially, built basilicas, granted privileges to clergy (such as exemption from certain taxes), promoted Christians to high office, and returned property confiscated during the long period of persecution. His most famous building projects include the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre and
Old St. Peter's Basilica. In constructing the Old St. Peter's Basilica, Constantine went to great lengths to erect the basilica on top of
St. Peter's resting place, so much so that it even affected the design of the basilica, including the challenge of erecting it on the hill where St. Peter rested, making its complete construction time over 30 years from the date Constantine ordered it to be built. Constantine might not have patronised Christianity alone. A
triumphal arch was built in 315 to celebrate his victory in the Battle of the Milvian Bridge which was decorated with images of the goddess
Victoria, and sacrifices were made to pagan gods at its dedication, including
Apollo,
Diana, and
Hercules. Absent from the arch are any depictions of Christian symbolism. However, the arch was commissioned by the Senate, so the absence of Christian symbols may reflect the role of the
Curia at the time as a pagan redoubt. In 321, he legislated that the
venerable Sunday should be a day of rest for all citizens. In 323, he issued a decree banning Christians from participating in state sacrifices. After the pagan gods had disappeared from his coinage, Christian symbols appeared as Constantine's attributes, the chi rho between his hands or on his labarum, as well on the coinage. The reign of Constantine established a precedent for the emperor to have great influence and authority in the early Christian councils, most notably the dispute over Arianism. Constantine disliked the risks to societal stability that religious disputes and controversies brought with them, preferring to establish an orthodoxy. His influence over the Church councils was to enforce doctrine, root out heresy, and uphold ecclesiastical unity; the Church's role was to determine proper worship, doctrines, and dogma. North African bishops struggled with Christian bishops who had been ordained by Donatus in opposition to
Caecilian from 313 to 316. The African bishops could not come to terms, and the Donatists asked Constantine to act as a judge in the dispute. Three regional Church councils and another trial before Constantine all ruled against Donatus and the
Donatism movement in North Africa. In 317, Constantine issued an edict to confiscate Donatist church property and to send Donatist clergy into exile. More significantly, in 325 he summoned the First Council of Nicaea, most known for its dealing with Arianism and for instituting the
Nicene Creed. He enforced the council's prohibition against celebrating the Lord's Supper on the day before the Jewish
Passover, which marked a definite break of Christianity from the Judaic tradition. From then on, the solar
Julian calendar was given precedence over the lunisolar
Hebrew calendar among the Christian churches of the Roman Empire. Constantine made some new laws regarding the Jews; some of them were unfavourable towards Jews, although they were not harsher than those of his predecessors. It was made illegal for Jews to seek converts or to attack other Jews who had converted to Christianity. On the other hand, Jewish clergy were given the same exemptions as Christian clergy.
Administrative reforms of Constantine the Great in the centre, AD 321, now in the
British Museum Beginning in the mid-3rd century, the emperors began to favour members of the
equestrian order over senators, who had a monopoly on the most important offices of the state. Senators were stripped of the command of legions and most provincial governorships, as it was felt that they lacked the specialised military upbringing needed in an age of acute defense needs; such posts were given to equestrians by Diocletian and his colleagues, following a practice enforced piecemeal by their predecessors. The emperors, however, still needed the talents and the help of the very rich, who were relied on to maintain social order and cohesion by means of a web of powerful influence and contacts at all levels. Exclusion of the old senatorial aristocracy threatened this arrangement. In 326 Constantine reversed this pro-equestrian trend, raising many administrative positions to senatorial rank and thus opening these offices to the old aristocracy; at the same time, he elevated the rank of existing equestrian office-holders to senator, degrading the equestrian order in the process (at least as a bureaucratic rank). The title of
perfectissimus was granted only to mid- or low-level officials by the end of the 4th century. By the new Constantinian arrangement, one could become a senator by being elected
praetor or by fulfilling a function of senatorial rank. From then on, holding actual power and social status were melded together into a joint imperial hierarchy. Constantine gained the support of the old nobility with this, as the Senate was allowed to elect praetors and
quaestors in place of the usual practice of the emperors directly creating magistrates (
adlectio). An inscription in honour of
city prefect Ceionius Rufus Albinus states that Constantine had restored the Senate "the
auctoritas it had lost at Caesar's time". The Senate as a body remained devoid of any significant power; nevertheless, the senators had been marginalised as potential holders of imperial functions during the 3rd century but could dispute such positions alongside more upstart bureaucrats. Some modern historians see in those administrative reforms an attempt by Constantine at reintegrating the senatorial order into the imperial administrative elite to counter the possibility of alienating pagan senators from a Christianised imperial rule; however, such an interpretation remains conjectural, given the fact that we do not have the precise numbers about pre-Constantine conversions to Christianity in the old senatorial milieu. Some historians suggest that early conversions among the old aristocracy were more numerous than previously supposed. Constantine's reforms had to do only with the civilian administration. The military chiefs had risen from the ranks since the
Crisis of the Third Century but remained outside the Senate, in which they were included only by Constantine's children.
Monetary reforms of Constantine In the 3rd century the production of
fiat money to pay for public expenses resulted in
runaway inflation, and Diocletian tried unsuccessfully to re-establish trustworthy minting of silver coins, as well as silver-bronze "
billon" coins (the term "billon" meaning an alloy of precious and base metals that is mostly base metal). Silver currency was overvalued in terms of its actual metal content and therefore could only circulate at much discounted rates. Constantine stopped minting the Diocletianic "pure" silver
argenteus soon after 305, while the "billon" currency continued to be used until the 360s. From the early 300s on, Constantine forsook any attempts at restoring the silver currency, preferring instead to concentrate on minting large quantities of the gold
solidus, 72 of which made a pound of gold. New and highly debased silver pieces continued to be issued during his later reign and after his death, in a continuous process of retariffing, until this "billon" minting ceased in 367, and the silver piece was continued by various denominations of bronze coins, the most important being the
centenionalis. depicting Constantine the Great with his eyes raised to heaven, minted in Heraclea circa 327-329AD, commemorating his vision at the
Battle of the Milvian Bridge. These bronze pieces continued to be devalued, assuring the possibility of keeping fiduciary minting alongside a gold standard. The author of
De Rebus Bellicis held that the rift widened between classes because of this monetary policy; the rich benefited from the stability in purchasing power of the gold piece, while the poor had to cope with ever-degrading bronze pieces. Later emperors such as
Julian the Apostate insisted on trustworthy mintings of the bronze currency. Constantine's monetary policies were closely associated with his religious policies; increased minting was associated with the confiscation of all gold, silver, and bronze statues from pagan temples between 331 and 336 which were declared to be imperial property. Two imperial commissioners for each province had the task of getting the statues and melting them for immediate minting, with the exception of a number of bronze statues that were used as public monuments in Constantinople.
Executions of Crispus and Fausta Constantine had his eldest son Crispus seized and put to death by "cold poison" at Pola (
Pula, Croatia) sometime between 15 May and 17 June 326. In July, he had his wife Empress Fausta (stepmother of Crispus) killed in an overheated bath. Their names were wiped from the face of many inscriptions, references to their lives were eradicated from the literary record, and their memory was condemned. Eusebius, for example, edited out any praise of Crispus from later copies of
Historia Ecclesiastica, and his
Vita Constantini contains no mention of Fausta or Crispus. Few ancient sources are willing to discuss possible motives for the events, and the few that do are of later provenance and are generally unreliable. At the time of the executions it was commonly believed that Empress Fausta was either in an illicit relationship with Crispus or was spreading rumours to that effect. A popular myth arose, modified to allude to the
Hippolytus–
Phaedra legend, with the suggestion that Constantine killed Crispus and Fausta for their immoralities; the largely fictional
Passion of Artemius explicitly makes this connection. The myth rests on slim evidence as an interpretation of the executions; only late and unreliable sources allude to the relationship between Crispus and Fausta, and there is no evidence for the modern suggestion that Constantine's "godly" edicts of 326 and the irregularities of Crispus are somehow connected. Adrian Goldsworthy speculates an alternative explanation for the execution of Crispus was Constantine's desire to keep a firm grip on his prospective heirs, this—and Fausta's desire for having her sons inheriting instead of their half-brother—being reason enough for killing Crispus; the subsequent execution of Fausta, however, was probably meant as a reminder to her children that Constantine would not hesitate in "killing his own relatives when he felt this was necessary".
Later campaigns Constantine considered Constantinople his capital and permanent residence. He lived there for a good portion of his later life. In 328, construction was completed on
Constantine's Bridge at
Sucidava, (today
Celei in
Romania) in hopes of reconquering
Dacia, a province that had been abandoned under Aurelian. In the late winter of 332, Constantine campaigned with the
Sarmatians against the
Goths. The weather and lack of food reportedly cost the Goths dearly before they submitted to Rome. In 334, after Sarmatian commoners had overthrown their leaders, Constantine led a campaign against the tribe. He won a victory in the war and extended his control over the region, as remains of camps and fortifications in the region indicate. Constantine resettled some Sarmatian exiles as farmers in Illyrian and Roman districts and conscripted the rest into the army. Constantine reconquered the South of Dacia and the new frontier in Dacia was along the wall and ditch called
Brazda lui Novac line supported by new
castra. Constantine took the title
Dacicus maximus in 336. In the last years of his life, Constantine made plans for a campaign against
Persia. In a letter written to the king of Persia,
Shapur, Constantine had asserted his patronage over Persia's Christian subjects and urged Shapur to treat them well. The letter is undatable. In response to border raids, Constantine sent Constantius to guard the eastern frontier in 335. In 336, Prince Narseh invaded Armenia (a Christian kingdom since 301) and installed a Persian client on the throne. Constantine then resolved to campaign against Persia. He treated the war as a Christian crusade, calling for bishops to accompany the army and commissioning a tent in the shape of a church to follow him everywhere. Constantine planned to be baptised in the
Jordan River before crossing into Persia. Persian diplomats came to Constantinople over the winter of 336–337, seeking peace, but Constantine turned them away. The campaign was called off, however, when Constantine became sick in the spring of 337.
Illness and death '', as imagined by students of
Raphael From his recent illness, Constantine knew death would soon come. Within the
Church of the Holy Apostles, which he had built in Constantinople, Constantine had secretly prepared a final resting-place for himself. It came sooner than he had expected. Soon after the Feast of Easter 337, Constantine fell seriously ill. He left Constantinople for the hot baths near his mother's city of
Helenopolis (
Altınova), on the southern shores of the Gulf of Nicomedia (present-day
Gulf of İzmit). Once in Helenopolis, in a church he had built in honour of
Lucian the Martyr, he began to pray and offer supplications for God. He soon felt that his life was ending and desired to seek purification of the sins he had committed through baptism. He made his way to the suburbs of Nicomedia, where he summoned the local bishops. He then told them of his hope to be baptised in the
Jordan River, where Christ was baptised, yet praised God, saying that it would be befitting for him to receive the blessing here instead. He then professed the desire to live the rest of his life united with the people of God and His Church. Eusebius records that "the prelates performed the sacred ceremonies in the usual manner". He chose the
Arian bishop
Eusebius of Nicomedia, bishop of the city where he lay dying, as his baptiser. It has been thought that Constantine put off baptism as long as he did to be absolved from as much of his sin as possible. Constantine died soon after at a suburban villa called Achyron, on the last day of the fifty-day festival of
Pentecost directly following Pascha (or
Easter), on 22 May 337. Although Constantine's death follows the conclusion of the Persian campaign in Eusebius's account, most other sources report his death as occurring in its middle. Emperor
Julian (a nephew of Constantine), writing in the mid-350s, observes that the Sassanians escaped punishment for their ill-deeds, because Constantine died "in the middle of his preparations for war". Similar accounts are given in the
Origo Constantini, an anonymous document composed while Constantine was still living, which has Constantine dying in
Nicomedia; the
Historiae abbreviatae of Sextus
Aurelius Victor, written in 361, which has Constantine dying at an estate near
Nicomedia called Achyrona while marching against the Persians; and the
Breviarium of
Eutropius, a handbook compiled in 369 for the Emperor
Valens, which has Constantine dying in a nameless state villa in
Nicomedia. From these and other accounts, some have concluded that Eusebius's
Vita was edited to defend Constantine's reputation against what Eusebius saw as a less congenial version of the campaign. sarcophagus that is believed to be Constantine's. Following his death, his body was transferred to Constantinople and buried in the Church of the Holy Apostles, in a
porphyry sarcophagus that was described in the 10th century by
Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus in the
De Ceremoniis. His body survived the plundering of the city during the
Fourth Crusade in 1204 but was destroyed at some point afterwards. A fragment of a sarcophagus that is believed to be Constantine's is currently on display at the
Istanbul Archaeology Museums. Constantine was succeeded by his three sons born of Fausta, Constantine II,
Constantius II and
Constans. His sons, along with his nephew
Dalmatius, had already received one division of the empire each to administer as caesars; Constantine may have intended his successors to resume a structure akin to Diocletian's Tetrarchy. A number of relatives were killed by followers of Constantius, notably Constantine's nephews Dalmatius (who held the rank of caesar) and
Hannibalianus, presumably to eliminate possible contenders to an already complicated succession. He also had two daughters,
Constantina and
Helena, wife of Emperor Julian. == Assessment and legacy ==