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The Age of Constantine the Great
(AD 280?-337). Two important events marked the reign of Constantine the Great, the first Christian emperor of
Rome. He made Christianity a lawful religion in Roman society, and he founded the city of Constantinople, the brilliant
capital of the Eastern Roman Empire.
Flavius Valerius Constantinus was born in the Roman province of Moesia (later Serbia) about AD 280. His father,
Constantius, was a member of an important Roman family. His mother, Helena, was the daughter of an innkeeper. In
293 the emperor Diocletian made Constantius caesar, or emperor, of Gaul and Britain. Young Constantine was kept
at the court of Galerius, the Eastern emperor, virtually as a hostage. He escaped in 305 and joined his father.
Constantius died the next year, and the army hailed Constantine as caesar.
For five years Constantine was contented with ruling Gaul. Then he invaded Italy, making straight for Rome. Maxentius,
the emperor of Rome, came out of the city with his army and met Constantine at the Milvian Bridge. Constantine
swept the enemy into the Tiber River, and Maxentius was drowned. Constantine then entered Rome as sole master of
the Western half of the empire. In 313 he issued the Edict of Milan, which gave the Christians the right to practice
their religion openly.
By 323 Constantine had brought the entire Roman world under his own rule. At that time a quarrel threatened to
split the Christian church into two camps. Arius, a priest of Alexandria, Egypt, maintained that Christ was not
the equal of the Father but was created by Him. Athanasius, leader of the bishops in the West, claimed that the
Father and Son, though distinct, were equal, and of the same substance. To settle the matter, Constantine called
together an ecumenical, or worldwide, council of bishops at Nicaea, in Asia Minor, in 325. He himself ran the meeting.
An overwhelming majority condemned the Arian view as heresy. The Council drew up the Nicene Creed, which is still
accepted as the basic doctrine of most Christian churches.
Constantine next moved his seat of government from Rome to the East. For his capital he chose the ancient Greek
city of Byzantium on the Bosporus. He enlarged and enriched the city at enormous expense. In 330 it was dedicated
as New Rome, but it was generally called Constantinople, "the city of Constantine." The Eastern Roman,
or Byzantine, Empire, with its capital at Constantinople (now Istanbul) survived for more than 1,000 years. The
new city also became the capital of Christianity in the East, while Rome dominated the religion in the West. (See
also Byzantine Empire.)
Constantine ruled as a despot, surrounded by Oriental pomp. He admitted bishops to his council, and his laws concerning
the treatment of slaves and prisoners show the influence of Christian teachings. However, he put to death his oldest
son, Crispus, and his second wife, Fausta. Before his death he divided the empire among his three remaining sons.
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