Constantīnus
1.
Flavius Valerius Aurelius Claudius, known as The Great, son of
the emperor Constantius Chlorus and
Helena (q.v.),
was born A.D. 272, at Naïsus, a city of Dacia Mediterranea. When Constantine's
father was associated in the government by Diocletian, the son was retained at court as a
kind of hostage, but was treated with great kindness at first, and was allowed several
opportunities of distinguishing himself. After the abdication of Diocletian, Constantius and
Galerius were elevated to the rank of Augusti, while two new Caesars, Severus and Maximin,
were appointed to second them. Constantine was not called to the succession. Diocletian,
partial to Galerius, his son-in-law, had left the nomination of the two new Caesars to the
latter; and the son of Constantius, whose popularity and talents had excited the jealousy of
Galerius, and whose departure, although earnestly solicited by his father, was delayed from
time to time under the most frivolous pretences, with difficulty at length obtained
permission to join his parent in the West, and only escaped the machinations of the emperor
by travelling with his utmost speed until he reached the western coast of Gaul. He came just
in time to join the Roman legions, which were about to sail under his father's command to
Britain, in order to make war upon the Caledonians. Having subdued the northern barbarians,
Constantius returned to York (Eboracum), where he died in the month of July, in the year 306.
Galerius, sure of the support of his two creatures, the Caesars, had waited impatiently
for the death of his colleague, to unite the whole Roman Empire under his individual sway.
But the moderation and justice of Constantius had rendered him the more dear to his soldiers
from the contrast of these qualities with the ferocity of his rival. At the moment of his
death, the legions stationed at York, as a tribute of gratitude and affection to his memory,
and, according to some, at his dying request, saluted his son Constantine with the title of
Caesar and decorated him with the purple. Whatever resentment Galerius felt at this, he soon
perceived the danger of engaging in a civil war. As the eldest of the emperors, and the
representative of Diocletian, he recognized the authority of the colleague imposed upon him
by the legions. He assigned to him the administration of Gaul and Britain, but gave him only
the fourth rank among the rulers of the Empire with the title of Caesar.
Under this official appellation Constantine administered the prefecture of Gaul for six
years (A.D. 306-312), perhaps the most glorious, and certainly the most virtuous, period of
his life. The title and rank of Augustus, which his soldiers had conferred upon Constantine,
but which Galerius had not allowed him to retain, the latter gave to Severus, one of his own
Caesars. This dignity had been expected by Maxentius, son of the abdicated emperor Maximian,
the former colleague of Diocletian. Indignant at his disappointment, Maxentius caused himself
to be proclaimed emperor by his army; and, to strengthen his usurpation, he induced his
father to leave his retreat and resume the imperial title. A scene of contention followed,
scarcely paralleled in the annals of Rome. Severus marched against the two usurpers; but was
abandoned by his own troops, surrendered, and was slain. Galerius levied a great army, and
marched into Italy against Maximian and Maxentius, who, dreading his power, retired to Gaul
and endeavoured to procure the support of Constantine. This politic chief did not consider it
expedient to provoke a war at that time and for no better cause; and, Galerius having
withdrawn from Italy and returned to the East, Maximian and Maxentius returned to Rome. To
aid him in the struggle, Galerius conferred the title of emperor on his friend Licinius; and
thus there were at once six pretenders to the sovereignty of the Empire—namely,
Galerius and Licinius; Maximian and his son Maxentius; Maximin, who had been nominated Caesar
by Galerius; and Constantine, the son and successor of Constantius. Among these rivals
Constantine possessed a decided superiority in prudence and abilities, both military and
political. The harsh temper of Maximian soon led to a quarrel between him and his son
Maxentius. Leaving Rome, he went to Gaul, to Constantine, who had become his son-in-law when
he and his son were endeavouring to make head against Galerius. Here also Maximian found
himself disappointed of that power which he so greatly longed to possess; and having plotted
against Constantine, was detected and put to death. Galerius died not long after (311 A.D.),
leaving his power to be divided between his Caesars, Maximin and Licinius; so that there were
now four competitors for the Empire: Constantine, Maxentius, Maximin, and Licinius. Maxentius
speedily provoked open hostilities with Constantine, who marched at the
head of a powerful army towards Rome.
It was while Constantine was proceeding on this momentous expedition that he made an open
and public declaration in favour of Christianity. Before that time, the persecuting edicts of
Diocletian had been much mitigated by the forbearance and leniency of Constantius; and
Constantine not only followed his father's example in being merciful to the persecuted
Christians, but even showed them some marks of positive favour. Very considerable numbers of
them, in consequence, flocked to his standard and swelled the ranks of his army.
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Constantine and Fausta.
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Their peaceful, orderly, and faithful conduct, contrasting most favourably with the
turbulent and dissolute behaviour of those who formed the mass of common armies, won his
entire confidence. To what extent this led Constantine to form a favourable opinion of
Christianity, or inclined him to view with esteem and respect the tenets which had produced
such results, cannot be ascertained. How far, also, his avowed reception of Christianity was
influenced by the prudence of the politician, how far by the conviction of the convert, it is
impossible to determine. The accounts of his dream and his vision (see
Labarum), which united to enforce his trust in Christianity, bear too
much the aspect of fiction, or of having been the illusive consequences of mental anxiety,
brooding intensely on the possible results of a great religious revolution, to be woven into
the narrative of sober history. The story goes, however, that on his march to Rome, either at
Autun in Gaul, or near the Rhine, or at Verona in Italy, Constantine beheld in the sky a
brilliant cross with the inscription
Ἐν τούτῳ νίκα,
“By this conquer!” and that on the night before his decisive battle with
Maxentius a vision appeared to him in his sleep, bidding him inscribe the shields of his
soldiers with the sacred monogram of the name of Christ. This, at least, is certain, that
Constantine caused the Cross to be employed as the imperial standard, and advanced with it to
promised victory. After the armies of Maxentius, led by his generals, had sustained two
successive defeats, that emperor himself, awakening from his sensual and inactive life at
Rome, advanced against his formidable assailant, and met him near the little river Cremera,
about nine miles from the city. Maxentius lost the day, after a bloody conflict, and, in
endeavouring to enter the city by the Milvian bridge, was precipitated into the Tiber,
where he perished (October 27th, 312).
Constantine was received at Rome with acclamations; Africa acknowledged him, as well as
Italy; and an edict of religious toleration, issued at Milan, extended the advantages,
hitherto enjoyed by Gaul alone, to this prefecture also. After a brief stay at Rome, during
which he restored to the Senate their authority, disbanded the Praetorian Guard, and
destroyed their fortified camp, from which they had so long awed the city and given rulers to
the Empire, Constantine proceeded to Illyricum to meet Licinius, with whom he had formed a
secret league before marching against Maxentius. The two emperors met at Milan, where their
alliance was ratified by the marriage of Licinius to Constantine's sister. During this calm
interview, Constantine prevailed upon Licinius to repeal the persecuting edicts of
Diocletian, and to issue a new one, by which Christianity was encouraged, its teachers were
honoured, and its adherents advanced to places of trust and influence in the State. After the
overthrow of Maximin by Licinius, and his death at Nicomedia, Constantine and his
brother-in-law were now the only two that remained of the six competitors for the Empire; and
the peace between them, which had seemed to be established on so firm a basis, was soon
interrupted by a strife for sole supremacy. In the first war (A.D. 315) Constantine wrested
Illyricum from his competitor. After an interval of eight years the contest was renewed.
Licinius was beaten before Adrianople, the 3d of July, 323, and Constantine the Great was
recognized as sole master of the Roman world.
The seat of empire was now transferred to
Byzantium (q.v.), which took from him the name of Constantinople. Several edicts were
issued for the suppression of idolatry; and the churches and property restored to the
Christians, of which they had been deprived during the last persecution. A reconstruction of
the Empire was effected upon a plan entirely new, and this renovated Empire was pervaded by
the worship and the institutions of Christianity. That much of the policy of the statesman
was mixed up with this patronage of the new religion can easily be imagined. But still, it
would be wrong to make him, as some have done, a mere hypocrite and dissembler. The state of
his religious knowledge, so far as we have any means of judging, was certainly very
inadequate and imperfect; but he was well aware of the characters of the two conflicting
religions, Christianity and Paganism, and the purity of the former could not but have made
some impression upon his mind.
The private character of Constantine has suffered, in the eyes of posterity, from his stern
treatment of Crispus, his son by his first wife, whom he had made the partner of his Empire
and the commander of his armies. Crispus was at the head of the administration in Gaul, where
he gained the hearts of the people. In the wars against Licinius he had displayed singular
talents, and had secured victory to the arms of his father. But from that moment a strong and
unnatural jealousy stifled every paternal feeling in the bosom of the monarch. He detained
Crispus in his palace, surrounded him with spies and informers, and at
length, in the month of July, 324, ordered him to be arrested in the midst of a grand
festival, to be carried off to Pola in Istria, and there put to death. A cousin of Crispus,
the son of Licinius and Constantine's sister, was at the same time sent, without trial,
without even an accusation, to the block. His mother implored in vain, and died of grief. It
is fair, however, to say that Niebuhr found evidence to support the view that Crispus aimed
at supplanting his father. Fausta, the daughter of Maximian, the wife of Constantine, and the
mother of the three princes who succeeded him, was shortly after stifled in the bath by order
of her husband for infidelity.
In the following year the celebrated Council of Nicaea was held, at which he opposed the
Arians, probably on political grounds only, as being the weaker party; for just before his
death he received baptism from an Arian bishop, Eusebius of Nicomedia.
Constantine died at the age of sixty-three, at Nicomedia, July 22d, 337, after a reign of
thirtyone years from the death of his father, and of fourteen from the conquest of the
Empire. He left three sons, Constantine, Constans, and Constantius, among whom he divided his
Empire. The first, who had Gaul, Spain, and Britain for his portion, was conquered by the
armies of his brother Constans, and killed in the twenty-fifth year of his age, A.D. 340.
Magnentius, the governor of the provinces of Rhaetia, murdered Constans in his bed, after a
reign of thirteen years; and Constantius, the only surviving brother, now become the sole
emperor, A.D. 353, punished his brother's murderer, and gave way to cruelty and oppression.
He visited Rome, where he enjoyed a triumph, and died (361 A.D.) in his march against Julian
, who had been proclaimed emperor by his soldiers at Paris.
See the works of Eusebius (
De Vita Constantini), Zosimus (Bk. II.),
Eutropius, Aurelius Victor, and the
Panegyrici Veteres (vi. 10); also Manso's
Leben Constantins des Grossen; Burckhardt,
Die Zeit Constantins des
Grossen; and Broglie,
L'Église et l'Empire Romain.
2.
The son of the preceding. See above.
3.
A usurper who had himself proclaimed emperor in Britain during the reign of Honorius and
Arcadius, in A.D. 407, reigning for four years and securing possession of Gaul and Spain,
until defeated in 411 by Constantius, the able general of Honorius. By him Constantine was
taken prisoner, carried to Ravenna, and there put to death.
4.
The name of several emperors of the Eastern Empire. See
Byzantinum Imperium.