...or anyway, that's what I'd do for an opening scene if I was making a movie about the exploits of Constantine The Great. But, if I was just doing a blog post about him and not making a movie, I'd open it with a drawing of Eusebius (one of Constantine's most ardent supporters) standing in front of a giant sculpted Constantine head as he describes the man in his panegyric Life of Constantine:
He's an interesting guy, Constantine. And if you'll indulge me for a few paragraphs (and a few crudely rendered black and white and gray illustrations), I'd like to say a couple of things about his life and times.
In last week's blog, I tried to explain the tetrarchy (what it was, how it worked, how it fell apart) and, when it was all said and done, only Constantine and Licinius remained; Constantine holding things down in the West and Licinius maintaining in the East. Their truce was an uneasy one, mainly because Constantine really wanted to be the sole ruler of the entire Roman Empire. He was looking for a pretext, any pretext, to get rid of Licinius. Finally, in 316, after having failed to find a pretext, Constantine decided to just go ahead and concoct one....
Constantine got his troops together and invaded the Balkans. He and Licinius first met in battle in Cibalae and Constantine secured a victory (against Licinius' much larger army) but failed to capture Licinius. Licinius fled to the commander of the Danubian frontier, a man named Valens, and convinced him to join up with team Licinius. In Thrace, Constantine matched his army against the combined forces of Licinius and Valens and things ended in a tie.
...except that it wasn't really a tie. Constantine didn't win the battle outright, but he'd beaten Licinius badly enough that when the two men decided on terms, Constantine came out on top; Licinius gave up the Balkans and Valens (good ol' Valens) was executed. And they came to some kind of agreement where all of their sons would be proclaimed junior emperors but it didn't matter much at the time because none of the boys were old enough to wield any actual authority.
During the 6 years of relative calm that followed their little Civil War, Constantine began to declare himself (at ever increasing volume) the advocate and protector of all Christians everywhere, even the ones in Licinius' half of the empire.
Licinius, as a result, began to grow suspicious of the Christian population working and living among the ranks of his soldiers and civil servants and advisors...
He decided to dismiss all Christians from his government and military. And then he executed a few bishops for good measure. Constantine, being the self-declared defender of all things Christian, couldn't very well sit back and do nothing. Once again, he rallied the soldiers and headed off to fight against the (now demonized) Licinius. In 324, after having decisively defeated Licinius at the Battle of Chrysopolis, Constantine accepted Licinius' surrender and had him and his son exiled to Thessalonica. But then he thought better of it and decided it would be best if Licinius (and his son) died.
And now, his dreams realized, Constantine stood atop the pinnacle of the 4th Century Roman Empire as its sole ruler.
Constantine had grand plans for Christianizing the Roman Empire, but he tended to keep those ideas in check during the period when he shared power with Licinius. He restored confiscated Church property (in some cases punishing those who had confiscated the property in the first place) but he remained tolerant of paganism. After Licinius was removed from the equation, Constantine decided the time was right to fully implement his religious reforms. He forbid pagan sacrifices (even though he retained his position as Pontifex Maximus, the highest priest, in the pagan college of priests) and looted pagan temples. He used the money taken from pagan temples to build elaborate Christian churches in places like Bethlehem and Jerusalem. And he passed a series of strict moral laws that were meant to guide the empire into righteousness.
He outlawed gladiators.
He outlawed prostitution.
He outlawed adultery.
In fact, Constantine's laws against sexual misconduct likely played a role in the mysterious circumstances that led to the execution of his son and the suicide of his wife.
Here's how that whole business went down...
So, Constantine had a son, named Crispus, with his first wife (Minerva). By all accounts, he was a pretty good guy. He joined his father in his wars against Licinius and was rewarded with control of the western regions of the empire. Constantine's new wife, Fausta, was supposedly in love with Crispus. When Crispus rejected her advances, she accused him of adultery, which had been outlawed under a severe set of sexual immorality laws that Constantine had recently put in place. When Constantine heard that his son was an adulterer, he had him executed.
Constantine's mother rebuked him for the murder and told him that the whole thing was a plot cooked up by Fausta. Figuring she'd save Constantine the trouble of having to commit another murder, Fausta went ahead and killed herself. She went into a sauna, raised the temperature all the way up, and suffocated herself.
But the thing is, no one really knows why any of this happened. The story I've just related is the only one I could find that made any real narrative sense, but it's just one of many plausible explanations put forward by historians. Maybe he killed them because they threatened his power in some way. Maybe he killed them to intimidate the rest of his family and/or anyone else who might have it in mind to cross him. All we know for certain is that Constantine had Crispus and Fausta, his own son and wife, executed and then he went to great lengths to erase their names and memory from the historical record.
When Constantine wasn't busy killing his own family members, he liked to spend his time trying to act as leader of the Christian Church. There were always matters of great theological importance that divided the various oppositional Christian groups that had risen since the ascension of Christ. In 314, there were the Donatists in Africa who were having issues with forgiveness. Constantine attended the council as a layman, but gave teeth to the final decision against the Donatists when he confiscated their property and handed it over to the non-heretical. Famously, in 325, Constantine took part in the Council of Nicea and tried to nail down the exact nature of Christ and the relationship between God and Christ.
Christians tended to like Constantine and pagans tended to dislike Constantine, but when it came to the issue of taxes, Constantine was hated by everyone. There was this special tax, called the chrysargyron, that was to paid every four years in gold and silver. Anyone who couldn't pay was beaten and tortured and it was not uncommon for children to be sold into slavery and women to be given up into prostitution in order to pay the tax collectors. Kind of extreme, yes, but Constantine needed all that gold and silver to pay for his new city, Constantinople.
When Constantine co-ruled with Licinius, he based his operations out of Trier. When he became sole ruler, he moved into a city called Byzantium, renamed it after himself (Constantinople), and went on a building spree. At this point in history, the city of Rome had lost much of its preeminence. When Constantine founded the city of Constantinople in 324, Rome was further reduced. Constantine did complete a few building projects in the old capital (he built a bath house and a couple of fancy mausoleums for his mother and daughter), but when he officially dismissed the Roman Praetorian Guard, everyone saw that Rome's future was no longer within the walls of the eternal city.
Let's see, what else is there to say about Constantine.... oh, he fought a lot of battles even after he took control of the empire. In 328, he fought the Alemanni along the Rhine. In 332, he fought the Goths along the Danube. In 336, he took on the Sarmatians in Dacia.
Around the time when he was battling the Sarmatians, Constantine decided to put his succession plans in order and he set up a crappy tetrarchy that was bound to failure. He divided the empire between his three horrible sons, Constantine II (West), Constantius II (East), Constans (Italy and Upper Danube), and his forgettable nephew Flavius Dalmatius (Greece and Lower Danube).
Constantine was putting together a massive campaign to conquer and convert the Persians when he fell ill around Easter of 337. He knew that he didn't have much time left, so he did something he'd been waiting to do until the last possible moment: be baptized. In those days of yore, it was not uncommon for someone to wait until the end of his life to be baptized. Some believers determined that baptism for the remission of one's sins was a one time thing and that any sins committed after the fact were not washed away. Constantine, knowing that he would have to commit many sins in the course of leading the empire, opted to put baptism off until he didn't have any more sins to perpetrate.
Constantine was buried in his new city in a specially built sarcophagus; it was surrounded by 12 empty sarcophagi, meant to represent each of the 12 apostles. Humility was not his strong suit.
You know what else? After spending all of his time converting the empire to Christianity, the senate, upon his death, decided to officially deify Constantine and add him to the constellation of existing deified Roman Emperors.
And there you have it, folks. An exhaustively comprehensive and all-encompassing study of the life and times of Constantine the Great. I didn't leave out any details at all at any point anywhere so there's no need for you to ever read anything else about his life. You're welcome.
Next week I'll try to do something less Romey for the Creek Blog, but I'm not making any promises.
Cheers.
And now, his dreams realized, Constantine stood atop the pinnacle of the 4th Century Roman Empire as its sole ruler.
Constantine had grand plans for Christianizing the Roman Empire, but he tended to keep those ideas in check during the period when he shared power with Licinius. He restored confiscated Church property (in some cases punishing those who had confiscated the property in the first place) but he remained tolerant of paganism. After Licinius was removed from the equation, Constantine decided the time was right to fully implement his religious reforms. He forbid pagan sacrifices (even though he retained his position as Pontifex Maximus, the highest priest, in the pagan college of priests) and looted pagan temples. He used the money taken from pagan temples to build elaborate Christian churches in places like Bethlehem and Jerusalem. And he passed a series of strict moral laws that were meant to guide the empire into righteousness.
He outlawed gladiators.
He outlawed prostitution.
He outlawed adultery.
In fact, Constantine's laws against sexual misconduct likely played a role in the mysterious circumstances that led to the execution of his son and the suicide of his wife.
Here's how that whole business went down...
So, Constantine had a son, named Crispus, with his first wife (Minerva). By all accounts, he was a pretty good guy. He joined his father in his wars against Licinius and was rewarded with control of the western regions of the empire. Constantine's new wife, Fausta, was supposedly in love with Crispus. When Crispus rejected her advances, she accused him of adultery, which had been outlawed under a severe set of sexual immorality laws that Constantine had recently put in place. When Constantine heard that his son was an adulterer, he had him executed.
Constantine's mother rebuked him for the murder and told him that the whole thing was a plot cooked up by Fausta. Figuring she'd save Constantine the trouble of having to commit another murder, Fausta went ahead and killed herself. She went into a sauna, raised the temperature all the way up, and suffocated herself.
But the thing is, no one really knows why any of this happened. The story I've just related is the only one I could find that made any real narrative sense, but it's just one of many plausible explanations put forward by historians. Maybe he killed them because they threatened his power in some way. Maybe he killed them to intimidate the rest of his family and/or anyone else who might have it in mind to cross him. All we know for certain is that Constantine had Crispus and Fausta, his own son and wife, executed and then he went to great lengths to erase their names and memory from the historical record.
When Constantine wasn't busy killing his own family members, he liked to spend his time trying to act as leader of the Christian Church. There were always matters of great theological importance that divided the various oppositional Christian groups that had risen since the ascension of Christ. In 314, there were the Donatists in Africa who were having issues with forgiveness. Constantine attended the council as a layman, but gave teeth to the final decision against the Donatists when he confiscated their property and handed it over to the non-heretical. Famously, in 325, Constantine took part in the Council of Nicea and tried to nail down the exact nature of Christ and the relationship between God and Christ.
Christians tended to like Constantine and pagans tended to dislike Constantine, but when it came to the issue of taxes, Constantine was hated by everyone. There was this special tax, called the chrysargyron, that was to paid every four years in gold and silver. Anyone who couldn't pay was beaten and tortured and it was not uncommon for children to be sold into slavery and women to be given up into prostitution in order to pay the tax collectors. Kind of extreme, yes, but Constantine needed all that gold and silver to pay for his new city, Constantinople.
When Constantine co-ruled with Licinius, he based his operations out of Trier. When he became sole ruler, he moved into a city called Byzantium, renamed it after himself (Constantinople), and went on a building spree. At this point in history, the city of Rome had lost much of its preeminence. When Constantine founded the city of Constantinople in 324, Rome was further reduced. Constantine did complete a few building projects in the old capital (he built a bath house and a couple of fancy mausoleums for his mother and daughter), but when he officially dismissed the Roman Praetorian Guard, everyone saw that Rome's future was no longer within the walls of the eternal city.
Let's see, what else is there to say about Constantine.... oh, he fought a lot of battles even after he took control of the empire. In 328, he fought the Alemanni along the Rhine. In 332, he fought the Goths along the Danube. In 336, he took on the Sarmatians in Dacia.
Around the time when he was battling the Sarmatians, Constantine decided to put his succession plans in order and he set up a crappy tetrarchy that was bound to failure. He divided the empire between his three horrible sons, Constantine II (West), Constantius II (East), Constans (Italy and Upper Danube), and his forgettable nephew Flavius Dalmatius (Greece and Lower Danube).
Constantine was putting together a massive campaign to conquer and convert the Persians when he fell ill around Easter of 337. He knew that he didn't have much time left, so he did something he'd been waiting to do until the last possible moment: be baptized. In those days of yore, it was not uncommon for someone to wait until the end of his life to be baptized. Some believers determined that baptism for the remission of one's sins was a one time thing and that any sins committed after the fact were not washed away. Constantine, knowing that he would have to commit many sins in the course of leading the empire, opted to put baptism off until he didn't have any more sins to perpetrate.
Constantine was buried in his new city in a specially built sarcophagus; it was surrounded by 12 empty sarcophagi, meant to represent each of the 12 apostles. Humility was not his strong suit.
You know what else? After spending all of his time converting the empire to Christianity, the senate, upon his death, decided to officially deify Constantine and add him to the constellation of existing deified Roman Emperors.
And there you have it, folks. An exhaustively comprehensive and all-encompassing study of the life and times of Constantine the Great. I didn't leave out any details at all at any point anywhere so there's no need for you to ever read anything else about his life. You're welcome.
Next week I'll try to do something less Romey for the Creek Blog, but I'm not making any promises.
Cheers.
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