The Battle of the Milvian BridgeĮusebius of Caesarea, and other Christian sources, record that Constantine experienced a dramatic event in 312 at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, after which Constantine claimed the emperorship in the west, and converted to Christianity. One of his major political legacies, aside from moving the capital of the empire to Constantinople, was that, in leaving the empire to his sons, he replaced Diocletian’s tetrarchy with the principle of dynastic succession. The medieval church upheld him as a paragon of virtue, while secular rulers invoked him as a prototype, a point of reference, and the symbol of imperial legitimacy and identity. Constantine pursued successful campaigns against the tribes on the Roman frontiers-the Franks, the Alamanni, the Goths, and the Sarmatians-even resettling territories abandoned by his predecessors during the Crisis of the Third Century.Ĭonstantine’s reputation flourished during the lifetime of his children and for centuries after his reign. In military matters, the Roman army was reorganized to consist of mobile field units and garrison soldiers capable of countering internal threats and barbarian invasions. He called the First Council of Nicaea in 325, at which the Nicene Creed was professed by Christians. As the first Roman emperor to claim conversion to Christianity, Constantine played an influential role in the proclamation of the Edict of Milan in 313, which decreed tolerance for Christianity in the empire. It would become the standard for Byzantine and European currencies for more than a thousand years. A new gold coin, the solidus, was introduced to combat inflation. The government was restructured and civil and military authority separated. Acclaimed as emperor by the army at Eboracum (modern-day York) after his father’s death in 306 CE, Constantine emerged victorious in a series of civil wars against the emperors Maxentius and Licinius, to become sole ruler of both west and east by 324 CE.Īs emperor, Constantine enacted many administrative, financial, social, and military reforms to strengthen the empire. In 305, Constantius was raised to the rank of Augustus, senior western emperor, and Constantine was recalled west to campaign under his father in Britannia (modern Great Britain). Constantine was sent east, where he rose through the ranks to become a military tribune under the emperors Diocletian and Galerius. His father became Caesar, the deputy emperor in the west, in 293 CE. Constantine was the son of Flavius Valerius Constantius, a Roman army officer, and his consort, Helena. 306-337), as part of a military standard.Ĭonstantine the Great was a Roman Emperor from 306-337 CE. One of the earliest forms of christogram, which is used by some Christians, and was used by the Roman emperor, Constantine I (r. The February 313 CE agreement to treat Christians benevolently within the Roman Empire, thereby ending years of persecution. A battle that took place between the Roman Emperors, Constantine I and Maxentius, on October 28, 312, and is often seen as the beginning of Constantine’s conversion to Christianity.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |