This English translation is the first based on modern critical editions. [32], Flavius Valerius Constantinus, as he was originally named, was born in the city of Naissus (today Niš, Serbia), part of the Dardania province of Moesia on 27 February,[33] probably c. AD 272. [287] His body survived the plundering of the city during the Fourth Crusade in 1204, but was destroyed at some point afterwards. [3] Eusebius moved on to describe Constantine’s next military campaign, the war against Licinius. Drake, H. A. How to Travel to Constantine in Algeria: There are busses to and from Algiers every half hour throughout the day, the trip between the two cities takes around 5 hours. [201] New and highly debased silver pieces continued to be issued during his later reign and after his death, in a continuous process of retariffing, until this bullion minting ceased in 367, and the silver piece was continued by various denominations of bronze coins, the most important being the centenionalis. [307] Piganiol's Constantine is a philosophical monotheist, a child of his era's religious syncretism. [240], Constantine made some new laws regarding the Jews; some of them were unfavorable towards Jews, although they were not harsher than those of his predecessors. Constantine gained his honorific of "the Great" from Christian historians long after he had died, but he could have claimed the title on his military achievements and victories alone. Constantine might not have patronized Christianity alone. Our cost of living indices are based on a US average of 100. [77] He requested recognition as heir to his father's throne, and passed off responsibility for his unlawful ascension on his army, claiming they had "forced it upon him". Sandro Mazzarino, according to Christol & Nony. [158] Maxentius' support continued to weaken: at chariot races on 27 October, the crowd openly taunted Maxentius, shouting that Constantine was invincible. Constantine is one of Algeria's oldest and most spectacular cities. German humanist Johannes Leunclavius discovered Zosimus' writings and published a Latin translation in 1576. When not campaigning, he toured his lands advertising his benevolence and supporting the economy and the arts. [71], From Bononia, they crossed the Channel to Britain and made their way to Eboracum (York), capital of the province of Britannia Secunda and home to a large military base. Barnes has argued for an adoption of an early date for the letter, around AD324/5, and fitting into Book 2 after the defeat of Licinius. [37] Constantine probably spent little time with his father[38] who was an officer in the Roman army, part of the Emperor Aurelian's imperial bodyguard. [119] There is little reason to believe that either the dynastic connection or the divine vision are anything other than fiction, but their proclamation strengthened Constantine's claims to legitimacy and increased his popularity among the citizens of Gaul. The name "Constantine" itself enjoyed renewed popularity in western France in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. He seeks salvation from eternal damnation to hell for a suicide attempt in his youth, by sending half-demons back to Hell with his sidekick Chas (Shia LaBeouf). This section has generated ample controversy, as there is much suspicion regarding the validity of the story. INTRA Lifestyle by Constantine, Angeles City. [222] The capital would often be compared to the 'old' Rome as Nova Roma Constantinopolitana, the "New Rome of Constantinople". Thomas M. Finn, Marilena Amerise, 'Il battesimo di Costantino il Grande.". [12] These imperial letters, described or transcribed, frequently relate to religious matters concerning the treatment of pagans and Christians. Kōnstantînos; 27 February c. 272 – 22 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was a Roman emperor from 306 to 337. Barnes, "Statistics and the Conversion of the Roman Aristocracy", Walter Scheidel, "The Monetary Systems of the Han and Roman Empires", 174/175. [43] Maximian ruled in the West, from his capitals at Mediolanum (Milan, Italy) or Augusta Treverorum (Trier, Germany), while Diocletian ruled in the East, from Nicomedia (İzmit, Turkey). In February 313, he met with Licinius in Milan and developed the Edict of Milan, which stated that Christians should be allowed to follow their faith without oppression. The Cost of Living in Constantine is low. [31] Eusebius consistently neglects relevant information to portray Constantine in a favorable light. In Scheidel, ed.. Udoh, Fabian E. "Quand notre monde est devenu chretien", review, Warmington, Brian. [300] The Renaissance rediscovery of anti-Constantinian sources prompted a re-evaluation of his career. [64] It was not to be: Constantius and Galerius were promoted to augusti, while Severus and Maximinus Daia, Galerius' nephew, were appointed their caesars respectively. [261] Few ancient sources are willing to discuss possible motives for the events, and the few that do are of later provenance and are generally unreliable. [247] From then on, holding actual power and social status were melded together into a joint imperial hierarchy. [210] Thus Constantine became the sole emperor of the Roman Empire. [177], Constantine entered Rome on 29 October 312 AD,[179][180] and staged a grand adventus in the city which was met with jubilation. Kōnstantînos; 27 February c. 272 – 22 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was a Roman emperor from 306 to 337. [315] The Donation of Constantine appeared in the eighth century, most likely during the pontificate of Pope Stephen II (752–757), in which the freshly converted Constantine gives "the city of Rome and all the provinces, districts, and cities of Italy and the Western regions" to Sylvester and his successors. [189], An extensive propaganda campaign followed, during which Maxentius' image was purged from all public places. [230] He supported the Church financially, built basilicas, granted privileges to clergy (such as exemption from certain taxes), promoted Christians to high office, and returned property confiscated during the long period of persecution. [104], On 11 November 308 AD, Galerius called a general council at the military city of Carnuntum (Petronell-Carnuntum, Austria) to resolve the instability in the western provinces. Constantine built the new Church of the Holy Apostles on the site of a temple to Aphrodite. In spite of a large donative pledge to any who would support him as emperor, most of Constantine's army remained loyal to their emperor, and Maximian was soon compelled to leave. Odahl, 82–83. A popular myth arose, modified to allude to the Hippolytus–Phaedra legend, with the suggestion that Constantine killed Crispus and Fausta for their immoralities;[263] the largely fictional Passion of Artemius explicitly makes this connection. Bowman, p. 70; Potter, 283; Williams, 49, 65. Constantine received a formal education at Diocletian’s court where he learnt Latin and Greek and was able to mix with a variety of pagan and Christian scholars. His original name was Flavius Valerius Constantinus and his father was an officer in the Roman army. [298], Constantine was presented as a paragon of virtue during his lifetime. The section includes the only continuous contemporary account of the Council of Nicaea[5] as well as the pilgrimage to Bordeaux. [115] Indeed, the orator emphasizes ancestry to the exclusion of all other factors: "No chance agreement of men, nor some unexpected consequence of favor, made you emperor," the orator declares to Constantine. In the 12th century Henry of Huntingdon included a passage in his Historia Anglorum that the Emperor Constantine's mother was a Briton, making her the daughter of King Cole of Colchester. [127], Maxentius' rule was nevertheless insecure. [186] In response, the Senate decreed him "title of the first name", which meant that his name would be listed first in all official documents,[187] and they acclaimed him as "the greatest Augustus". [46], Diocletian divided the Empire again in AD 293, appointing two caesars (junior emperors) to rule over further subdivisions of East and West. He restructured the government, separating civil and military authorities. With the exile of Licinius, Constantine becomes the sole emperor of East and West. His trip to Persia is painted in an apologetic universal Christian theme, his laws forbidding idol worship of his own image and the reiteration of the suppressing of idol worship and sacrifice. Eusebius claimed that he heard the story from the mouth of Constantine himself, however much of modern scholarship agrees that the stories is a distortion of facts or completely fabricated. Life of Constantine the Great (Greek: Βίος Μεγάλου Κωνσταντίνου; Latin: Vita Constantini) is a panegyric written in Greek in honor of Constantine the Great by Eusebius of Caesarea in the 4th century AD. In 336, Prince Narseh invaded Armenia (a Christian kingdom since 301) and installed a Persian client on the throne. Skeptics hold that the marriage between the panegyric and bibliographical styles mixes legend with fact, making the text wholly unreliable. Eusebius often quotes verbatim both his own work and the imperial documents; however, he also quotes without citing, often to help build his narrative of Constantine as a god-sent emperor. Eusebius' Life of Constantine is the most important single record of Constantine, the emperor who turned the Roman Empire from prosecuting the Church to supporting it, with huge and lasting consequences for Europe and Christianity. [139] Early in the spring of 312 AD,[140] Constantine crossed the Cottian Alps with a quarter of his army, a force numbering about 40,000. He lived there for a good portion of his later life. By 311 AD, however, he was spreading another version. Relations between the two remaining emperors deteriorated, as Constantine suffered an assassination attempt at the hands of a character that Licinius wanted elevated to the rank of Caesar;[202] Licinius, for his part, had Constantine's statues in Emona destroyed. The new ideology expressed in the speech made Galerius and Maximian irrelevant to Constantine's right to rule. Its Introduction and Commentary open up the many important issues the Life of Constantine raises. [18] It has been dated between 324-336. They clashed again at the Battle of Mardia in 317, and agreed to a settlement in which Constantine's sons Crispus and Constantine II, and Licinius' son Licinianus were made caesars. He rode from post-house to post-house at high speed, hamstringing every horse in his wake. Italics indicates a junior co-emperor, while underlining indicates a usurper. [213] Constantine had recognized the shift of the center of gravity of the Empire from the remote and depopulated West to the richer cities of the East, and the military strategic importance of protecting the Danube from barbarian excursions and Asia from a hostile Persia in choosing his new capital[214] as well as being able to monitor shipping traffic between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. [122] He died soon after the edict's proclamation,[123] destroying what little remained of the tetrarchy. This opening sets the tone for the rest of the work, a general glorification and deification of the Emperor and his works on Earth. Cameron and Hall, 206–7; Drake, "Impact of Constantine on Christianity" (CC), 114; Nicholson, 311. [229] Despite these declarations of being a Christian, he waited to be baptized on his deathbed, believing that the baptism would release him of any sins he committed in the course of carrying out his policies while emperor. When Galerius took power, he saw both Constantine and his father as potential threats to his rule. [321] According to Geoffrey, Cole was King of the Britons when Constantius, here a senator, came to Britain. Maxentius' forces were still twice the size of Constantine's, and he organized them in long lines facing the battle plain with their backs to the river. It was never completed due to the death of Eusebius in 339. He minted a coin issue after his victory over the Alemanni which depicts weeping and begging Alemannic tribesmen, "the Alemanni conquered" beneath the phrase "Romans' rejoicing". Maxentius advanced north to meet Constantine in battle.[162]. Most of the work is devoted to the illustration of Constantine’s personal piety. An amount below 100 means Constantine is cheaper than the US average. In its preface, he argued that Zosimus' picture of Constantine offered a more balanced view than that of Eusebius and the Church historians. Eusebius’ vehicle for this narrative is metaphor, and he explicitly paints Constantine in the image of Moses. [8] Eusebius advanced the idea of divine right on Constantine, as he was Emperor due to God’s will, and is God imitator on earth. Norman H. Baynes began a historiographic tradition with Constantine the Great and the Christian Church (1929) which presents Constantine as a committed Christian, reinforced by Andreas Alföldi's The Conversion of Constantine and Pagan Rome (1948), and Timothy Barnes's Constantine and Eusebius (1981) is the culmination of this trend. He won a victory in the war and extended his control over the region, as remains of camps and fortifications in the region indicate. Ruricius sent a large detachment to counter Constantine's expeditionary force, but was defeated. [14] Similarly, Curran argues that anti-pagan pronouncements were not actually put into practice, rather reflecting the emperor’s personal stance. [42], In July AD 285, Diocletian declared Maximian, another colleague from Illyricum, his co-emperor. Constantine went to the court of Diocletian, where he lived as his father's heir presumptive. Constantine planned to be baptized in the Jordan River before crossing into Persia. [96] There was little sympathy for these enemies; as his panegyrist declared, "It is a stupid clemency that spares the conquered foe. In the months that followed, churches and scriptures were destroyed, Christians were deprived of official ranks, and priests were imprisoned. [276] He chose the Arianizing bishop Eusebius of Nicomedia, bishop of the city where he lay dying, as his baptizer. Exclusion of the old senatorial aristocracy threatened this arrangement. Bleckmann, "Sources for the History of Constantine" (CC), 14; Corcoran. His early support dissolved in the wake of heightened tax rates and depressed trade; riots broke out in Rome and Carthage;[128] and Domitius Alexander was able to briefly usurp his authority in Africa. [1] In addition to detailing the religious policies of the Roman Empire under Constantine, Eusebius uses Life of Constantine to engage several of his own religious concerns, such as apologetics, as well as a semi-bibliographic account of Constantine. Bleckmann, "Sources for the History of Constantine" (CC), 20–21; Johnson, "Architecture of Empire" (CC), 288–91; Odahl, 11–12. [232], In 321, he legislated that the venerable Sunday should be a day of rest for all citizens. [293] Charlemagne used monumental Constantinian forms in his court to suggest that he was Constantine's successor and equal. (1) And in the midst of these, Constantine, who was shortly to become their destroyer, but at that time of tender age, and blooming with the down of early s youth, dwelt, as that other servant of God had done, in the very home of the tyrants, (2) but t young as he was did not share the manner of life of the ungodly: for from that early period his noble nature, under the leading of the Divine Spirit, inclined him to piety and a … The Ecclessiastical History itself has many imperial documents and letters from Constantine, some repeating their appearance in Life of Constantine. [87] He drove them back beyond the Rhine and captured Kings Ascaric and Merogais; the kings and their soldiers were fed to the beasts of Trier's amphitheatre in the adventus (arrival) celebrations which followed. The letter is distinctive in style from Eusebius’ own writing, and its content and tone is similar to that of the other Constantinian documents in the Life. [198], In the following years, Constantine gradually consolidated his military superiority over his rivals in the crumbling Tetrarchy. [15] Regarding the pro-Christian imperial letters such as his letter to the Palestinians (Vita Constantini 2.24-44), various interpretations have been offered as well. Directed by Francis Lawrence. A similar edict had been issued in 311 by Galerius, senior emperor of the Tetrarchy, which granted Christians the right to practise their religion but did not restore any property to them. He enforced the council's prohibition against celebrating the Lord's Supper on the day before the Jewish Passover, which marked a definite break of Christianity from the Judaic tradition. Constantine granted some clemency, but strongly encouraged his suicide. These are abundant and detailed,[13] but they have been strongly influenced by the official propaganda of the period[14] and are often one-sided;[15] no contemporaneous histories or biographies dealing with his life and rule have survived. [266], Constantine considered Constantinople his capital and permanent residence. The medieval church held him up 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. Galerius refused to recognize him but failed to unseat him. Galerius offered to call both Maximinus and Constantine "sons of the augusti",[105] but neither accepted the new title. [103] Maximian returned to Rome in the winter of 307–308 AD, but soon fell out with his son. [170][171] A medallion was issued at Ticinum in 315 AD which shows Constantine wearing a helmet emblazoned with the Chi Rho,[172] and coins issued at Siscia in 317/318 AD repeat the image. As emperor, Constantine enacted administrative, financial, social and military reforms to strengthen the empire. Licinius' defeat came to represent the defeat of a rival centre of pagan and Greek-speaking political activity in the East, as opposed to the Christian and Latin-speaking Rome, and it was proposed that a new Eastern capital should represent the integration of the East into the Roman Empire as a whole, as a center of learning, prosperity, and cultural preservation for the whole of the Eastern Roman Empire. He was written up as a "tyrant" and set against an idealized image of Constantine the "liberator". [92] He decreed a formal end to persecution and returned to Christians all that they had lost during them. Fausta learned of the plot and warned Constantine, who put a eunuch in his own place in bed. [140], At the approach to the west of the important city of Augusta Taurinorum (Turin, Italy), Constantine met a large force of heavily armed Maxentian cavalry. [313] Paul Veyne's 2007 work Quand notre monde est devenu chrétien holds a similar view which does not speculate on the origin of Constantine's Christian motivation, but presents him as a religious revolutionary who fervently believed that he was meant "to play a providential role in the millenary economy of the salvation of humanity". [231] His most famous building projects include the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and Old Saint Peter's Basilica. [312] Certain themes in this school reached new extremes in T.G. Before dying, he declared his support for raising Constantine to the rank of full augustus. The African bishops could not come to terms, and the Donatists asked Constantine to act as a judge in the dispute. Istoria Militară a Daciei Post Romane 275–376. [7] As the work concludes, Eusebius give much effort to uncover a personal Constantine, taking time to describe the Emperor as a remarkable public speaker and preacher, as well as a listener. [61] Although no contemporary Christian challenged Constantine for his inaction during the persecutions, it remained a political liability throughout his life. With Keanu Reeves, Rachel Weisz, Djimon Hounsou, Shia LaBeouf. [275] He summoned the bishops, and told them of his hope to be baptized in the River Jordan, where Christ was written to have been baptized. [254], The third century saw runaway inflation associated with the production of fiat money to pay for public expenses, and Diocletian tried unsuccessfully to re-establish trustworthy minting of silver and billon coins. [211], Diocletian had chosen Nicomedia in the East as his capital during the Tetrarchy[212] - not far from Byzantium, well situated to defend Thrace, Asia, and Egypt, all of which had required his military attention. [13] They are thus an important source for Constantine’s religious politics. [19] The Vita creates a contentiously positive image of Constantine,[20] and modern historians have frequently challenged its reliability. [120], By the middle of 310 AD, Galerius had become too ill to involve himself in imperial politics. [25], The reliability and motives of Eusebius as a biographer must be considered when analysing the authenticity of the letter and its contents. [72] Constantius' campaign, like that of Septimius Severus before it, probably advanced far into the north without achieving great success. Breaking away from tetrarchic models, the speech emphasizes Constantine's ancestral prerogative to rule, rather than principles of imperial equality. The age of Constantine marked a distinct epoch in the history of the Roman Empire. In his early reign, the coinage of Constantine advertised Mars as his patron. This new Roman imperial fashion lasted until the reign of Phocas. [34] Only a select amount of pagan accounts of the reign exist or have been discovered, with only one pagan panegyric known to exist. An inscription in honor of city prefect (336–337) Ceionius Rufus Albinus states that Constantine had restored the Senate "the auctoritas it had lost at Caesar's time". He probably judged it a more sensible policy than open persecution[91] and a way to distinguish himself from the "great persecutor" Galerius. Constantine gained the support of the old nobility with this,[248] as the Senate was allowed itself to elect praetors and quaestors, in place of the usual practice of the emperors directly creating new magistrates (adlectio). Obviously, he failed in all of these attempts. Constantine was well educated and served at the court of Diocletian in Nicomediaas a kind of hostage after the appointment of his father Constantius, a general, as one of the two Caesars (at that time a junior emperor), in the Tetrarchy in 293. Additional Information About Constantine. He also had two daughters, Constantina and Helena, wife of Emperor Julian.[289]. Late in life, Constantine even permitted a small town in Umbria, Italy, to construct a temple to his family and himself and to appoint priests to serve there. He disembarked at Lugdunum (Lyon). [81] Wishing to make it clear that he alone gave Constantine legitimacy, Galerius personally sent Constantine the emperor's traditional purple robes. See reviews, photos, directions, phone numbers and more for the best Life Insurance in Constantine, MI. Family of four estimated monthly costs are 1,296.33$ (172,356.95DZD) without rent (using our estimator). He has historically been referred to as the "First Christian Emperor" and he did favour the Christian Church. The term is a misnomer as the act of Milan was not an edict, while the subsequent edicts by Licinius—of which the edicts to the provinces of Bythinia and Palestine are recorded by Lactantius and Eusebius, respectively—were not issued in Milan. [95] Constantinian coinage, sculpture, and oratory also show a new tendency for disdain towards the "barbarians" beyond the frontiers. He sponsored many building projects throughout Gaul during his tenure as emperor of the West, especially in Augustodunum (Autun) and Arelate (Arles). [7] The Church of the Holy Sepulchre was built on his orders at the purported site of Jesus' tomb in Jerusalem and became the holiest place in Christendom. It made little difference, however, as loyal citizens opened the rear gates to Constantine. [314], Latin Rite Catholics considered it inappropriate that Constantine was baptized only on his death bed by an unorthodox bishop, as it undermined the authority of the Papacy, and a legend emerged by the early fourth century that Pope Sylvester I (314–335) had cured the pagan emperor from leprosy. [131] In the summer of 311 AD, Maxentius mobilized against Constantine while Licinius was occupied with affairs in the East. Maximian was captured and reproved for his crimes. [78] Galerius was put into a fury by the message; he almost set the portrait and messenger on fire. [291][292], The Holy Roman Empire reckoned Constantine among the venerable figures of its tradition. He played an influential role in the proclamation of the Edict of Milan in 313, which declared tolerance for Christianity in the Roman Empire. [302] Edward Gibbon aimed to unite the two extremes of Constantinian scholarship in his work The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–89) by contrasting the portraits presented by Eusebius and Zosimus. 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. Guthrie, 326; Woods, "Death of the Empress," 70–72. The first Life of Constantine describes its subject as "resplendent with every virtue that godliness bestows." [108] At Cabillunum (Chalon-sur-Saône), he moved his troops onto waiting boats to row down the slow waters of the Saône to the quicker waters of the Rhone. 1880). [88], Constantine began a major expansion of Trier. [30] Contemporary architecture, such as the Arch of Constantine in Rome and palaces in Gamzigrad and Córdoba,[31] epigraphic remains, and the coinage of the era complement the literary sources. [303] He presents a noble war hero who transforms into an Oriental despot in his old age, "degenerating into a cruel and dissolute monarch". Henry Charles Lea, "The 'Donation of Constantine'". [23] Elizabeth Fowden argues for the letters authenticity, viewing its content as in keeping with Constantine's' vision of himself as an ambassador of God on earth and his desire for a universal Christian empire. The work provides scholars with one of the most comprehensive sources for the religious policies of Constantine's reign. Constantine served with distinction under emperors Diocletian and Galerius campaigning in the eastern provinces against barbarians and the Persians, before being recalled west in 305 to fight under his father in Britain. Constantine acquired a mythic role as a warrior against heathens. The troops loyal to Constantius' memory followed him in acclamation. Life Insurance in Constantine on YP.com. [116], The oration also moves away from the religious ideology of the Tetrarchy, with its focus on twin dynasties of Jupiter and Hercules. Eusebius wrote his life and preserved his letters so that his policy would continue. Constantine and his Franks marched under the standard of the labarum, and both sides saw the battle in religious terms. During the medieval period, Britons regarded Constantine as a king of their own people, particularly associating him with Caernarfon in Gwynedd. [294], The Niš Constantine the Great Airport is named in honor of him. He emerged victorious in the civil wars against emperors Maxentius and Licinius to become sole ruler of the Roman Empire by 324. [32] Eusebius was himself a participating member of the Council of Nicaea and his motivations in writing on the matter in which he was an active participant must be approached with caution. Lenski, "Introduction" (CC), 8–9; Odahl, 283. The Life of Constantine in four books, Written in Greek, by Eusebius Pamphilus, Bishop of Cæsarea in Palestine; done into English from that edition set forth by Valesius, and Printed at Paris in the Year 1659. [35], National Library of Russia, Codex Syriac 1, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Life_of_Constantine&oldid=974551776, Cultural depictions of Constantine the Great, Articles containing Ancient Greek (to 1453)-language text, Wikipedia articles with WorldCat-VIAF identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Elliott's The Christianity of Constantine the Great (1996), which presented Constantine as a committed Christian from early childhood. It wasn’t until 25 years later that Eusebius would meet the Emperor, at the Council of Nicaea. Constantine Lifestyle. [236], The reign of Constantine established a precedent for the emperor to have great influence and authority in the early Christian councils, most notably the dispute over Arianism. [203] In either 314 or 316 AD, the two Augusti fought against one another at the Battle of Cibalae, with Constantine being victorious. [143] Turin refused to give refuge to Maxentius' retreating forces, opening its gates to Constantine instead.