Constantine

Proud to introduce to you Constantine

Constantine

Gaius Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus (born February 27, 274, Naissus, Roman Empire; died May 23, 337, Nicomedia, Roman Empire), known as Constantine the Great (Greek: Konstantin the Great) or Constantine I, was Roman Emperor from 306 to 337 AD. From 324 onward, he ruled as the sole emperor of the Roman Empire. 

His official titles included: Imperator Caesar Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus Pius Felix Invictus Augustus, Germanicus Maximus, Sarmaticus Maximus, Carpicus Maximus, among others, reflecting military and political honors earned throughout his reign. 

In Eastern Orthodoxy, Constantine is venerated as “Isapostolos” (equal to the Apostles) for his foundational role in Christianity’s establishment.

Converting Constantine

Although Emperor Galerius had ended official Christian persecutions in 311, Constantine’s personal religious journey was complex and gradual. Early coinage suggests worship of Roman deities Mars and Apollo (Sol Invictus), aligned with the dominant pagan practices. 

Soon after capturing Rome, Constantine expressed favor toward Christianity: he communicated support to the Bishop of Carthage and African authorities, exempted clergy from public duties, and began disproportionately subsidizing the Christian Church from imperial funds, portraying himself as “servant of God.” 

In 312, Constantine embraced Christianity more openly, although he retained the title of Pontifex Maximus, the chief priest of traditional Roman religion, balancing pagan and Christian roles. 

The Milan Edict of 313, jointly issued with Licinius, mandated tolerance for Christianity and ordered restitution of confiscated properties. Contrary to popular tradition, this edict did not make Christianity the official state religion nor signify Licinius’ Christian conversion. Earlier, Galerius’ 311 Edict of Toleration legally acknowledged Christianity’s right to practice, marking a critical step toward religious freedom within the empire. 

Constantine's later policies consolidated Christianity’s position, culminating in its establishment as the state religion under Emperor Theodosius at the end of the 4th century.

His governance

The Roman Empire is thus reunified and subjected to the authority of a single emperor, an unprecedented political situation since 285. Constantine, who claims to be the chosen one on earth of the unique divinity, abandons the polytheism of tetrarchy in favor of Christian monotheism. The principle of adoption of future emperors is replaced by that of dynastic heredity. Constantine continued and perfected all the reforms initiated by Emperor Diocletian. The number of Roman provinces is raised to 117, grouped in 14 dioceses and 4 prefectures (Orient, Illyricum, Italy and Galia). By creating a new gold coin (solidus), the economic policy of the principality - which was based on silver - is in favor of gold, which becomes the basis of the Roman imperial monetary system.

The army is now finally divided into border troops and campaign troops (comitatenses). On the initiative of Constantine, a bridge over the Danube is inaugurated in 328 between Sucidava and Oescus, reflecting the importance acquired by the North-Danubian regions for the empire. Through its campaigns at the Danube border, it recovers some of the territories of Dacia (which had been abandoned by the legions of Emperor Aurelian). The territory reoccupied in Dacia is defended by the limes known today as Brazda of Novac, which started from the mouth of Topolniţa and passed under the hills near Drobeta, Drăgăşani, at the Roman Castrum at Pietroasele, near Buzău, continue then with the south of Moldova to Nistru (the earth wave sometimes called the Athanaric wave). On this occasion, Constantin added the title of Dacicus Maximus.

On a religious level, in Constantinus convened in Nicea the first ecumenical council of the Christian church, which laid down the dogmatic and canonical foundations of this religion, defining more precisely the Christian dogmas in response to the challenge represented by the Arian heresy. All the bishops present agreed to the major theological positions proposed by proto-orthodoxy, since at that time other forms of Christianity had been "already excluded, suppressed, reformed or destroyed." Although the proto-Orthodox had won previous disputes, following the more precise definition of Christian Orthodoxy, they were defeated in the 4th and 5th centuries by their successors with their own weapons, ultimately being hereticized, not because would have countered ideas regarded as correct, but because their position lacked the theological refinement and refinement required by the reconciliation of contradictory theses accepted simultaneously by the theologians.

Constantine is believed to have exiled those who have refused to accept the Creed of Nicaea - Arius, deacon Euzoios, the Libyan bishops Theonas of Marmarica and Secundus of Ptolemais - and also the bishops who had signed the Creed but refused to join his conviction Arius, Eusebius of Nicomedia, and Theognis of Nicea. The Emperor ordered that the copies of Thalia be burned, the book in which Arius expressed his teachings. However, there is no evidence that the son and his final successor, Constantius II, who was an Aryan Christian, were exiled.

Although he was determined to keep what the church had defined in Nicaea, Constantin also wanted to pacify the situation, and later became more tolerant of those condemned and exiled by the council. He first allowed Eusebius of Nicomedia, who was the protector of the emperor and Theognis sister, to return after signing confessions of ambiguous faith. Arius' two friends, plus his other friends, have worked to rehabilitate Arius. At the First Council of Tire in 335, they brought charges against Pope Athanasius I of Alexandria, then Bishop of Alexandria, Arius' main opponent; after which Constantine exiled Athanasius because he considered it a barrier to reconciliation. In the same Council of Jerusalem, under Constantine's command, he re-read Arius in communion in 336. However, Arius died on his journey to Constantinople. Some historians have suggested that Arius would have been poisoned by his enemies. Eusebius and Theognis continued to enjoy the emperor's favors, and when Constantine, who was catechumen for most of his adult life, accepted baptism on his deathbed, he was baptized by Eusebius of Nicomedia.

Family life
 

In September 307, Constantine married Fausta, daughter of Maximian, abandoning his earlier partner Minervina, mother of his first son Crispus. 

With Fausta, he had five children: Constantine II, Constantius II, Constans, Constantina, and Helena. 

Trier served as Constantine’s favored residence, where he also brought his mother Helena. His stepmother Constantia married Licinius around 311-312, creating a temporary familial alliance. 

On November 8, 324, Constantine appointed his son Constantius as Caesar, while elevating Fausta and Helena to the rank of Augusta. 

In 326, under tragic circumstances, Constantine executed his eldest son Crispus, falsely accused of adultery with Fausta. Shortly after, Fausta was also executed under mysterious conditions. Both were subjected to damnatio memoriae, erasing them from public record as per Roman customs.

Constantine in Roman art
 

Starting with the year 324, a new image of his face is noticed on Constantin's coins. His gaze is now directed up and down; this reflects his claim not to divinity, but to his divine mission and inspiration. He also gives up the crown of laurels and adopts a tiara.

At Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, one can see a huge marble head of Constantine, three times the natural size. It was dated 325/326. The best known resemblance to Constantine is the huge marble head of Cortile in the Palazzo dei Conservatori on the Capitol Hill in Rome. It has a height of 2.55 m and weighs between 8 and 9 tons. A remarkable portrait of Constantine can be seen at the Belgrade National Museum. It is a natural-sized bronze head that comes from Naissus, the birthplace of the emperor. It was dated in about 330. It is worth mentioning two other statues of Constantine both dated in about 320, where the Emperor appears in military garments. At Constantin's death four different types of homage coins were struck.

Contemporary Contests
 

Rodney Stark, a sociologist of religion, has a completely different assessment of Constantine's impact on Christianity:
"Indeed, laziness and corruption, along with the struggles for power and imposed conformism, have become the main features of the Christian movement of the fourth century, almost immediately after it became the official state church (Johnson 1976). Thus, for example, Christian bishops were no longer the leaders of a stigmatized, but growing fast, but were "quickly assimilated as quasi-worldly officials among the mandarins who administered the empire" (Fletcher, 1997, 22). Churches in people's homes have been replaced by splendid public buildings, maintained by imperial dedication. Contrary to what is generally believed, the conversion of Constantine did not produce the triumph of Christianity. Rather, it was the first and most important step that slowed down its progress, dragged it down, and altered its moral vision. Most of the evils associated with European Christianity since the middle of the fourth century can be identified as emerging from the formalization of Christianity." -Rodney Stark, Secularization, R.I.P.