Constantine the Great Born: Emperor Who Christianized Rome

Constantine the Great was the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity. Or perhaps he wasn't. He was baptized on his deathbed in May 337, which cynics have pointed out was a reasonable hedge: live as a pagan emperor, die as a Christian, and cover your bets in both directions. Born in Naissus (modern Nis, Serbia) around 272 AD, he was the son of Constantius Chlorus, a Roman military officer who rose to become one of the four co-emperors under Diocletian's tetrarchy. His mother, Helena, was of humble origins. Constantine was raised partly as a political hostage at Diocletian's court, ensuring his father's loyalty. When Constantius died at York in 306, the legions in Britain proclaimed Constantine emperor. What followed was eighteen years of civil war as Constantine fought and eliminated rival emperors one by one. The decisive moment came at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge outside Rome in 312, where he defeated Maxentius. Before the battle, Constantine reportedly saw a vision: a cross in the sky with the words "In this sign, conquer." He fought under a Christian symbol and won. In 313, he and his co-emperor Licinius issued the Edict of Milan, granting legal toleration to Christianity throughout the empire. Constantine went further: he funded church construction, granted clergy tax exemptions, and intervened directly in theological disputes. He convened the Council of Nicaea in 325, the first ecumenical council, to settle the Arian controversy over the nature of Christ. The Nicene Creed that emerged remains the foundational statement of Christian orthodoxy. He moved the capital from Rome to Byzantium, which he rebuilt and renamed Constantinople. The city became the seat of the Eastern Roman Empire for over a thousand years. His personal morality complicated the Christian narrative. He had his eldest son Crispus executed on unrecorded charges in 326, then had his wife Fausta killed, reportedly suffocated in a bath. The sequence suggests a court intrigue whose details have been lost. He died on May 22, 337, in Nicomedia, the most powerful man in the Western world.