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Constantine

Latin nameConstantine the Great

The Great who converted to Christianity and moved the capital to Constantinople

Born to the Purple · Kings & Emperors
The Milvian BridgeThe Edict of MilanConstantinople

Who they are

Constantine came out on top in the civil wars after the Tetrarchy collapsed, and reunified the empire. On the eve of the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312 he is said to have seen a vision of the cross with the words "by this, conquer," and so had his soldiers paint the sign of Christ on their shields and beat his rival Maxentius in one battle. The next year he and his eastern co-ruler issued the Edict of Milan, proclaiming religious toleration and ending the persecution of Christianity — a marginal sect that had been crucified and persecuted by Rome for three hundred years received, overnight, the emperor’s protection, and within decades became the state religion. He did another thing of millennial consequence: on the old site of Byzantium on the Bosporus he founded the new capital of "Constantinople" (New Rome), shifting the empire’s center east. The Western Empire fell a century and more later, while this city, as the capital of the Eastern Empire (Byzantium), lasted another thousand years — both of his decisions outlived Rome itself.

Primary sourcesEusebius, Life of ConstantineLactantius, On the Deaths of the Persecutors

Key stories

By this, conquer

Before the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, Constantine is said to have seen at noon a cross of light in the sky with the Greek words "ἐν τούτῳ νίκα" (by this sign you shall conquer). That night he dreamed Christ instructed him to use the sign as his standard (rendered in Latin as "in hoc signo vinces"). The next day his soldiers went out with the Chi-Rho of Christ on their shields, and Maxentius’s army was routed at the Tiber, Maxentius himself drowned. Whether the vision was true faith, political calculation, or a later retelling, historians dispute — but the verifiable result is that from that battle on, the Roman emperor’s standard bore the cross.

New Rome

In 330 Constantine moved the capital from Rome to the rebuilt and enlarged Byzantium, naming it "Constantinople" (city of Constantine) and styling it "New Rome." The site was exquisite: commanding the Bosporus between Europe and Asia and the entrance to the Black Sea, water on three sides, easy to defend and hard to take. When the Western Empire later broke apart under the barbarian tide, the Eastern Empire lived on this city another eleven hundred years, until it fell to the Ottomans in 1453. In today’s Istanbul, the Hagia Sophia and the remnants of the walls still tell of how one emperor staked the empire’s future on a single city — and staked it right.

Version differences

The "vision of the cross" at the Milvian Bridge is recorded by the Christian historians Eusebius and Lactantius, whose details differ (a sky-sign or a dream, in Latin or in Greek); historians have long argued over the ratio of sincere conversion to political calculation.

Relationships

Mentor
🥬Diocletian　Product and gravedigger of the Tetrarchic system

Echoes today

Below are how modern works borrow or reinterpret this name or story — not the original material. The two differ, so keep them apart.

Constantinople → Istanbul"Istanbul" is said to come from a slurring of the Greek "into the city" (εἰς τὴν πόλιν); the Hagia Sophia was built by his successors.

Appears in

Crisis, Reform & ChristianityConstantine Converts to Christianity
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