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Constantine the Great

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Constantine the Great was a Roman emperor. He was declared emperor in 306 and ruled until his death in 337.[1][2]

Early life

Constantine's father was Constantius.[1] According to the historian David Potter, his mother Helena came from Drepanum in Bithynia.[3]

Becoming emperor

When his father Constantius died in 306, the army in Britain proclaimed Constantine emperor.[1] In 312 he won the battle of the Milvian Bridge, just north of Rome.[1] "This battle of the Milvian Bridge has long been associated with the conversion of Constantine to Christianity."[4] The earliest accounts of his conversion were written by Lactantius, around 314 or 315, and by Eusebius, in his Ecclesiastical History and Life of Constantine.[4] By 323, according to Thompson, the whole Roman Empire was united again under his rule.[5]

Ruler

Constantine built a new capital, Constantinople. It was begun in 324 and formally consecrated in 330.[6] Thompson described him as an energetic law-maker.[7]

Constantine and the Church

The historian James Westfall Thompson, writing in 1931, described several of Constantine's actions towards the Church. According to Thompson, Constantine issued the Edict of Milan in 313,[8] called the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, a great meeting of church leaders, in 325,[9] and built the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem with his mother.[9] Thompson also noted that, like earlier emperors, Constantine kept the title pontifex maximus,[9] and that he was baptised by Eusebius of Nicaea before he died.[9]

Death

Constantine died in 337. His sons Constantius and Constans had already been made Caesars, junior emperors, in 324 and 333.[2]

See also


References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Collins, Roger (2010). Early Medieval Europe 300–1000 (3rd ed.). Red Globe Press. p. 17. ISBN 978-0-230-00673-7.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Collins, Roger (2010). Early Medieval Europe 300–1000 (3rd ed.). Red Globe Press. p. 26. ISBN 978-0-230-00673-7.
  3. ↑ Potter, David S. (2014). The Roman Empire at Bay, AD 180–395. Routledge History of the Ancient World (2nd ed.). Routledge. p. 332. ISBN 978-0-415-84055-2.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Collins, Roger (2010). Early Medieval Europe 300–1000 (3rd ed.). Red Globe Press. p. 18. ISBN 978-0-230-00673-7.
  5. ↑ Thompson, James Westfall (2016) [1931]. History of the Middle Ages, 300–1500. Routledge Revivals. Routledge. p. 16. ISBN 978-1-138-65906-3.
  6. ↑ Collins, Roger (2010). Early Medieval Europe 300–1000 (3rd ed.). Red Globe Press. p. 24. ISBN 978-0-230-00673-7.
  7. ↑ Thompson, James Westfall (2016) [1931]. History of the Middle Ages, 300–1500. Routledge Revivals. Routledge. p. 17. ISBN 978-1-138-65906-3.
  8. ↑ Thompson, James Westfall (2016) [1931]. History of the Middle Ages, 300–1500. Routledge Revivals. Routledge. p. 24. ISBN 978-1-138-65906-3.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 Thompson, James Westfall (2016) [1931]. History of the Middle Ages, 300–1500. Routledge Revivals. Routledge. p. 26. ISBN 978-1-138-65906-3.
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