Constantine I the Great 313AD Ancient Roman Coin Sol Sun God Cult i47639

Item: i47639

 Authentic Ancient 

Coin of:

Constantine I ‘The Great’
–
Roman Emperor
: 307-337 A.D. –

Bronze Follis 23mm (2.94 grams) Rome mint: 313 A.D.
Reference: RIC 2 (VII Rome)
IMPCONSTANTINVSPFAVG – Laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right.
SOLIINVICTOCOMITI Exe: R/F/RS – Sol standing left, raising hand and holding globe.

 
Royal/Imperial symbols of power

Ruling dynasties often exploit pomp and ceremony with the use of regalia: 
crowns, robes, orb and sceptres, some of which are reflections of formerly 
practical objects. The use of language mechanisms also support this 
differentiation with subjects talking of “the crown” and/or of “the throne” 
rather than referring directly to personal names and items.

Monarchies
provide the most explicit 
demonstration of tools to strengthen the elevation of leaders. Thrones sit high 
on daises
leading to subjects lifting their gaze 
(if they have permission) to contemplate the ruler. Architecture in general can 
set leaders apart: note the symbolism inherent in the very name of the Chinese 
imperial
Forbidden City
.

You are bidding on the exact item pictured, 

Authenticity.

Sol Invictus (“Unconquered Sun”) was the official
sun god
of the later
Roman Empire
and a patron of soldiers. In 274 
the Roman emperor

Aurelian
made it an official

cult alongside the traditional Roman cults. Scholars disagree whether 
the new deity was a refoundation of the ancient
Latin
cult of
Sol
,
a revival of the cult of
Elagabalus
or completely new.The god was 
favored by emperors after Aurelian and appeared on their coins until
Constantine
.The last inscription referring to 
Sol Invictus dates to 387 AD and there were enough devotees in the 5th century 
that
Augustine
found it necessary to preach against 
them.
It is commonly claimed that the date of 25 December for
Christmas
was selected in order to correspond 
with the Roman festival of Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, or “Birthday of 
the Unconquered Sun”, but this view is challenged

Invictus as 
epithet

Invictus
(“Unconquered, Invincible”) was an
epithet
for
several deities
of
classical Roman religion
, including the supreme 
deity
Jupiter
, the war god
Mars
,
Hercules
,
Apollo
and
Silvanus
.^[8]
Invictus was in use from the 3rd century BC, and was well-established as 
a
cult
title when applied to
Mithras
from the 2nd century onwards. It has a 
clear association^[vague] 
with solar deities and solar monism; as such, it became the preferred epithet of 
Rome’s traditional
Sol
and the novel, short-lived Roman state cult 
to
Elagabalus
, an
Emesan
solar deity who headed Rome’s official 
pantheon under his
namesake emperor
.

The earliest dated use of Sol invictus is in a dedication from Rome, 
AD 158. Another, stylistically dated to the 2nd century AD, is inscribed on a 
Roman
phalera
: “inventori lucis soli invicto 
augusto” (to the contriver of light, sol invictus augustus ). Here 
“augustus” is most likely a further epithet of Sol as “august” (an elevated 
being, divine or close to divinity), though the association of Sol with the 
Imperial house would have been unmistakable and was already established in 
iconography and stoic monism. These are the earliest attested examples of Sol as
invictus, but in AD 102 a certain
Anicetus
restored a shrine of Sol; Hijmans 
(2009, 486, n. 22) is tempted “to link Anicetus’ predilection for Sol with his 
name, the
Latinized
form of the Greek word ἀνίκητος, 
which means invictus“.

Elagabalus

The first sun god consistently termed invictus was the
provincial Syrian
god
Elagabalus
. According to the
Historia Augusta
, the
teenaged Severan heir
adopted the name of his 
deity and brought his cult image from Emesa to Rome. Once installed as emperor, 
he neglected Rome’s traditional State deities and promoted his own as Rome’s 
most powerful deity. This ended with his murder in 222.

The Historia Augusta refers to the deity Elagabalus as “also called 
Jupiter and Sol” (fuit autem Heliogabali vel Iovis vel Solis).This has 
been seen as an abortive attempt to impose the Syrian sun god on Rome;
but because it is now clear that the Roman cult of Sol remained 
firmly established in Rome throughout the Roman period,this Syrian
Sol Elagabalus
has become no more relevant to 
our understanding of the Roman
Sol
than, for example, the Syrian
Jupiter Dolichenus
is for our understanding of 
the Roman Jupiter.

 

Sol Invictus

Aurelian

The Roman gens
Aurelian was associated with the cult 
of Sol. After his victories in the East, the Emperor
Aurelian
thoroughly reformed the Roman cult of 
Sol, elevating the sun-god to one of the premier divinities of the Empire. Where 
previously priests of Sol had been simply
sacerdotes
and tended to belong to lower 
ranks of Roman society, they were now pontifices and members of the new
college of pontifices
instituted by Aurelian. 
Every pontifex of Sol was a member of the senatorial elite, indicating that the 
priesthood of Sol was now highly prestigious. Almost all these senators held 
other priesthoods as well, however, and some of these other priesthoods take 
precedence in the inscriptions in which they are listed, suggesting that they 
were considered more prestigious than the priesthood of Sol.Aurelian also built 
a new temple for Sol, bringing the total number of temples for the god in Rome 
to (at least) four^[21] 
He also instituted games in honor of the sun god, held every four years from AD 
274 onwards.

The identity of Aurelian’s Sol Invictus has long been a subject of scholarly 
debate. Based on the
Historia Augusta
, some scholars have argued 
that it was based on
Sol Elagablus
(or Elagabla) of
Emesa
. Others, basing their argument on
Zosimus
, suggest that it was based on the
Helios
, the solar god of
Palmyra
on the grounds that Aurelian placed and 
consecrated a cult statue of Helios looted from Palmyra in the temple of Sol 
Invictus. Professor Gary Forsythe discusses these arguments and add a third more 
recent one based on the work of Steven Hijmans. Hijmans argues that Aurelian’s 
solar deity was simply the traditional Greco-Roman Sol Invictus.

Constantine

Emperors portrayed Sol Invictus on their official coinage, with a wide range 
of legends, only a few of which incorporated the epithet invictus, such 
as the legend SOLI INVICTO COMITI, claiming the Unconquered Sun 
as a companion to the Emperor, used with particular frequency by Constantine.
Statuettes of Sol Invictus, carried by the standard-bearers, 
appear in three places in reliefs on the
Arch of Constantine
. Constantine’s official 
coinage continues to bear images of Sol until 325/6. A
solidus
of Constantine as well as a gold 
medallion from his reign depict the Emperor’s bust in profile twinned (“jugate”) 
with Sol Invictus, with the legend INVICTUS CONSTANTINUS

Constantine decreed (March 7, 321) dies Solis—day of the sun, “Sunday“—as 
the Roman day of rest [CJ3.12.2]:

On the venerable day of the Sun let the magistrates and people residing 
in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed. In the country however 
persons engaged in agriculture may freely and lawfully continue their 
pursuits because it often happens that another day is not suitable for 
grain-sowing or vine planting; lest by neglecting the proper moment for such 
operations the bounty of heaven should be lost.

Constantine’s triumphal arch was carefully positioned to align with the
colossal statue of Sol
by the
Colosseum
, so that Sol formed the dominant 
backdrop when seen from the direction of the main approach towards the arch.^[26]

Sol and the 
other Roman Emperors

Berrens
deals with coin-evidence of Imperial connection to the Solar 
cult. Sol is depicted sporadically on imperial coins in the 1st and 2nd 
centuries AD, then more frequently from
Septimius Severus
onwards until AD 325/6.
Sol invictus appears on coin legends from AD 261, well before the reign of 
Aurelian.
Connections between the imperial radiate crown and the cult of 
Sol are postulated.
Augustus
was posthumously depicted with radiate 
crown, as were living emperors from

Nero (after AD 65) to
Constantine
. Some modern scholarship interprets 
the imperial radiate crown as a divine, solar association rather than an overt 
symbol of Sol; Bergmann calls it a pseudo-object designed to disguise the divine 
and solar connotations that would otherwise be politically controversial
 but there is broad agreement that coin-images showing the 
imperial radiate crown are stylistically distinct from those of the solar crown 
of rays; the imperial radiate crown is depicted as a real object rather than as 
symbolic light. Hijmans argues that the Imperial radiate crown represents the 
honorary wreath awarded to
Augustus
, perhaps posthumously, to commemorate 
his victory at the
battle of Actium
; he points out that 
henceforth, living emperors were depicted with radiate crowns, but state divi 
were not. To Hijmans this implies the radiate crown of living emperors as a link 
to Augustus. His successors automatically inherited (or sometimes acquired) the 
same offices and honours due to Octavian as “saviour of the Republic” through 
his victory at Actium, piously attributed to Apollo-Helios. Wreaths awarded to 
victors at the Actian Games were radiate.

Sol 
Invictus and Christianity and Judaism

Mosaic of Christ as
Sol
or
Apollo-Helios
in Mausoleum M in the 
pre-4th-century necropolis beneath^[33]
St. Peter’s in the Vatican
, which 
many interpret as representing Christ

The
Philocalian calendar
of AD 354 gives a festival 
of “Natalis Invicti” on 25 December. There is limited evidence that this 
festival was celebrated before the mid-4th century.
The idea that Christians chose to celebrate the birth of Jesus on 25 December 
because this was the date of an already existing festival of the Sol Invictus 
was expressed in an annotation to a manuscript of a work by 12th-century Syrian 
bishop
Jacob Bar-Salibi
. The scribe who added it 
wrote: “It was a custom of the Pagans to celebrate on the same 25 December the 
birthday of the Sun, at which they kindled lights in token of festivity. In 
these solemnities and revelries the Christians also took part. Accordingly when 
the doctors of the Church perceived that the Christians had a leaning to this 
festival, they took counsel and resolved that the true Nativity should be 
solemnised on that day.”

This idea became popular especially in the 18th and 19th centuries
 and is still widely accepted.

In the judgement of the Church of England Liturgical Commission, this view 
has been seriously challenged
 by a view based on an old tradition, according to which the 
date of Christmas was fixed at nine months after 25 March, the date of the 
vernal equinox, on which the
Annunciation
was celebrated.
 The Jewish calendar date of 14 Nisan was believed to be that 
of the beginning of creation, as well as of the Exodus and so of Passover, and 
Christians held that the new creation, both the death of Jesus and the beginning 
of his human life, occurred on the same date, which some put at 25 March in the 
Julian calendar.^[40][42][43] 
It was a traditional Jewish belief that great men lived a whole number of years, 
without fractions, so that Jesus was considered to have been conceived on 25 
March, as he died on 25 March, which was calculated to have coincided with 14 
Nisan.^[44]
Sextus Julius Africanus
(c.160 – c.240) gave 25 
March as the day of creation and of the conception of Jesus.
 The tractate De solstitia et aequinoctia conceptionis et 
nativitatis Domini nostri Iesu Christi et Iohannis Baptistae falsely 
attributed to
John Chrysostom
also argued that Jesus was 
conceived and crucified on the same day of the year and calculated this as 25 
March.
A passage of the Commentary on the prophet Daniel by
Hippolytus of Rome
, written in about 204, has 
also been appealed to.

Among those who have put forward this view are Louis Duchesne,Thomas J. 
Talley, David J. Rothenberg, J. Neil Alexander, and Hugh Wybrew.

Not all scholars who view the celebration of the birth of Jesus on 25 
December as motivated by the choice of the winter solstice rather than 
calculated on the basis of the belief that he was conceived and died on 25 March 
agree that it constituted a deliberate Christianization of a festival of the 
Birthday of the Unconquered Sun. Michael Alan Anderson writes:

Both the sun and Christ were said to be born anew on December 25. But 
while the solar associations with the birth of Christ created powerful 
metaphors, the surviving evidence does not support such a direct association 
with the Roman solar festivals. The earliest documentary evidence for the 
feast of Christmas makes no mention of the coincidence with the winter 
solstice. Thomas Talley has shown that, although the Emperor Aurelian’s 
dedication of a temple to the sun god in the Campus Martius (C.E. 274) 
probably took place on the ‘Birthday of the Invincible Sun’ on December 25, 
the cult of the sun in pagan Rome ironically did not celebrate the winter 
solstice nor any of the other quarter-tense days, as one might expect. The 
origins of Christmas, then, may not be expressly rooted in the Roman 
festival.

The same point is made by Hijmans: “It is cosmic symbolism…which inspired 
the Church leadership in Rome to elect the southern solstice, December 25, as 
the birthday of Christ … While they were aware that pagans called this day the 
‘birthday’ of Sol Invictus, this did not concern them and it did not play any 
role in their choice of date for Christmas.” He also states that, “while the 
winter solstice on or around December 25 was well established in the Roman 
imperial calendar, there is no evidence that a religious celebration of Sol on 
that day antedated the celebration of Christmas”.

The Oxford Companion to Christian Thought also remarks on the 
uncertainty about the order of precedence between the celebrations of the 
Birthday of the Unconquered Sun and the birthday of Jesus: “This ‘calculations’ 
hypothesis potentially establishes 25 December as a Christian festival before 
Aurelian’s decree, which, when promulgated, might have provided for the 
Christian feast both opportunity and challenge.”

Susan K. Roll also calls “most extreme” the unproven hypothesis that “would 
call Christmas point-blank a ‘christianization’ of Natalis Solis Invicti, a 
direct conscious appropriation of the pre-Christian feast, arbitrarily placed on 
the same calendar date, assimilating and adapting some of its cosmic symbolism 
and abruptly usurping any lingering habitual loyalty that newly-converted 
Christians might feel to the feasts of the state gods”.
The comparison of Christ with the astronomical
Sun 
is common in ancient Christian writings.
 In the 5th century,
Pope Leo I
(the Great) spoke in several sermons 
on the Feast of the Nativity of how the celebration of Christ’s birth coincided 
with increase of the sun’s position in the sky. An example is: “But this 
Nativity which is to be adored in heaven and on earth is suggested to us by no 
day more than this when, with the early light still shedding its rays on nature, 
there is borne in upon our senses the brightness of this wondrous mystery.

Mosaic in the
Beth Alpha
synagogue, with the sun 
in the centre, surrounded by the twelve zodiac constellations and 
with the four seasons associated inaccurately with the 
constellations

A study of
Augustine of Hippo
remarks that his exhortation 
in a Christmas sermon, “Let us celebrate this day as a feast not for the sake of 
this sun, which is beheld by believers as much as by ourselves, but for the sake 
of him who created the sun”, shows that he was aware of the coincidence of the 
celebration of Christmas and the Birthday of the Unconquered Sun, although this 
pagan festival was celebrated at only a few places and was originally a 
peculiarity of the Roman city calendar. It adds: “He also believes, however, 
that there is a reliable tradition which gives 25 December as the actual date of 
the birth of our Lord.”
By “the sun of righteousness” in
Malachi 4:2
“the
fathers
, from
Justin
downward, and nearly all the earlier 
commentators understand Christ, who is supposed to be described as the 
rising sun”.
 The
New Testament
itself contains a hymn fragment: 
“Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

Clement of Alexandria
wrote of “the Sun of the 
Resurrection, he who was born before the dawn, whose beams give light”.

Christians adopted the image of the Sun (Helios 
or Sol Invictus) to represent Christ. In this portrayal he is a beardless figure 
with a flowing cloak in a chariot drawn by four white horses, as in the mosaic 
in Mausoleum M discovered under
Saint Peter’s Basilica
and in an 
early-4th-century catacomb fresco.
 Clement of Alexandria had spoken of Christ driving his chariot 
in this way across the sky. The nimbus of the figure under Saint Peter’s 
Basilica is described by some as rayed,
as in traditional pre-Christian representations, but another 
has said: “Only the cross-shaped nimbus makes the Christian significance 
apparent” (emphasis added). Yet another has interpreted the figure as a 
representation of the sun with no explicit religious reference whatever, pagan 
or Christian.

The traditional image of the sun is used also in Jewish art. A mosaic floor 
in Hamat Tiberias
presents
David
as Helios surrounded by a ring with the 
signs of the zodiac
.As well as in Hamat Tiberias, figures of 
Helios or Sol Invictus also appear in several of the very few surviving schemes 
of decoration surviving from Late Antique
synagogues
, including
Beth Alpha
,
Husefah
(Husefa) and
Naaran
, all now in
Israel
. He is shown in floor mosaics, with the 
usual radiate halo, and sometimes in a
quadriga
, in the central roundel of a circular 
representation of the zodiac or the seasons. These combinations “may have 
represented to an agricultural Jewish community the perpetuation of the annual 
cycle of the universe or … the central part of a calendar”.

Constantine the Great (Latin:
Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus Augustus; 
27 February c. 272 – 22 May 337), also known as Constantine I or Saint 
Constantine, was
Roman Emperor
from 306 to 337. Well known for 
being the first Roman emperor to
be converted
to
Christianity
, Constantine and co-Emperor
Licinius
issued the
Edict of Milan
in 313, which proclaimed
tolerance of all religions
throughout the 
empire.

Constantine defeated the emperors
Maxentius
and
Licinius
during civil wars. He also fought 
successfully against the
Franks
,
Alamanni
,
Visigoths
, and
Sarmatians
during his reign — even resettling 
parts of Dacia
which had been abandoned during the 
previous century. Constantine built a new imperial residence at
Byzantium
, naming it
New Rome
. However, in Constantine’s honor, 
people called it
Constantinople
, which would later be the 
capital of what is now known as the
Byzantine Empire
for over one thousand years. 
Because of this, he is thought of as the founder of the Byzantine Empire.

Flavius Valerius Constantinus, as he was originally named, was born in the 
city of Naissus,
Dardania
province of
Moesia
, in present-day
Niš,
Serbia
, on 27 February of an uncertain year, 
probably near 272.
His father was
Flavius Constantius
, a native of
Dardania
province of Moesia (later
Dacia Ripensis
). Constantius was a tolerant and 
politically skilled man. Constantine probably spent little time with his father. 
Constantius was an officer in the Roman army, part of the Emperor
Aurelian
‘s imperial bodyguard. Constantius 
advanced through the ranks, earning the
governorship
of
Dalmatia
from Emperor
Diocletian
, another of Aurelian’s companions 
from
Illyricum
, in 284 or 285.Constantine’s mother 
was
Helena
, a
Bithynian
woman of low social standing.It is 
uncertain whether she was legally married to Constantius or merely his concubine

Helena gave birth to the future emperor
Constantine I
on 27 February of an uncertain 
year soon after 270 (probably around 272). At the time, she was in
Naissus
(Niš,
Serbia
). In order to obtain a wife more 
consonant with his rising status, Constantius divorced Helena some time before 
289, when he married
Theodora
, Maximian’s daughter.(The narrative 
sources date the marriage to 293, but the
Latin panegyric
of 289 refers to the couple as 
already married). Helena and her son were dispatched to the court of
Diocletian
at Nicomedia, where Constantine grew 
to be a member of the inner circle. Helena never remarried and lived for a time 
in obscurity, though close to her only son, who had a deep regard and affection 
for her.

She received the title of
Augusta
in 325 and died in 330 with her son 
at her side. She was buried in the
Mausoleum of Helena
, outside

Rome on the
Via Labicana
. Her
sarcophagus
is on display in the
Pio-Clementine Vatican Museum
, although the 
connection is often questioned, next to her is the sarcophagus of her 
granddaughter Saint Constantina (Saint Constance). The elaborate reliefs contain 
hunting scenes. During her life, she gave many presents to the poor, released 
prisoners and mingled with the ordinary worshippers in modest attire.

Constantine received a formal education at Diocletian’s court, where he 
learned Latin literature, Greek, and philosophy.

On 1 May 305, Diocletian, as a result of a debilitating sickness taken in the 
winter of 304–5, announced his resignation. In a parallel ceremony in Milan, 
Maximian did the same. Lactantius states that Galerius manipulated the weakened 
Diocletian into resigning, and forced him to accept Galerius’ allies in the 
imperial succession. According to Lactantius, the crowd listening to 
Diocletian’s resignation speech believed, until the very last moment, that 
Diocletian would choose Constantine and
Maxentius
(Maximian’s son) as his successors. 
It was not to be: Constantius and Galerius were promoted to Augusti, while
Severus
and
Maximin
were appointed their Caesars 
respectively. Constantine and Maxentius were ignored.

Constantine recognized the implicit danger in remaining at Galerius’ court, 
where he was held as a virtual hostage. His career depended on being rescued by 
his father in the west. Constantius was quick to intervene. In the late spring 
or early summer of 305, Constantius requested leave for his son, to help him 
campaign in Britain. After a long evening of drinking, Galerius granted the 
request. Constantine’s later propaganda describes how he fled the court in the 
night, before Galerius could change his mind. He rode from
post-house
to post-house at high speed,
hamstringing
every horse in his wake.By the 
time Galerius awoke the following morning, Constantine had fled too far to be 
caught. Constantine joined his father in
Gaul
, at Bononia (Boulogne) 
before the summer of 305.

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. Constantine was able to spend a year in northern Britain at his father’s 
side, campaigning against the
Picts
beyond
Hadrian’s Wall
in the summer and autumn. 
Constantius’s campaign, like that of
Septimius Severus
before it, probably advanced 
far into the north without achieving great success. Constantius had become 
severely sick over the course of his reign, and died on 25 July 306 in
Eboracum
(York). 
Before dying, he declared his support for raising Constantine to the rank of 
full Augustus. The
Alamannic
king
Chrocus
, a barbarian taken into service under 
Constantius, then proclaimed Constantine as Augustus. The troops loyal to 
Constantius’ memory followed him in acclamation. Gaul and Britain quickly 
accepted his rule; Iberia, which had been in his father’s domain for less than a 
year, rejected it.

Constantine sent Galerius an official notice of Constantius’s death and his 
own acclamation. Along with the notice, he included a portrait of himself in the 
robes of an Augustus. The portrait was wreathed in
bay
. 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”.Galerius was put into a fury by the 
message; he almost set the portrait on fire. His advisers calmed him, and argued 
that outright denial of Constantine’s claims would mean certain war.Galerius was 
compelled to compromise: he granted Constantine the title “Caesar” rather than 
“Augustus” (the latter office went to Severus instead). Wishing to make it clear 
that he alone gave Constantine legitimacy, Galerius personally sent Constantine 
the emperor’s traditional
purple robes
. Constantine accepted the 
decision. Constantine’s share of the Empire consisted of Britain, Gaul, and 
Spain.

Because Constantine was still largely untried and had a hint of illegitimacy 
about him, he relied on his father’s reputation in his early propaganda: the 
earliest panegyrics to Constantine give as much coverage to his father’s deeds 
as to those of Constantine himself.
Constantine’s military skill and building projects soon gave 
the panegyrist the opportunity to comment favorably on the similarities between 
father and son, and Eusebius remarked that Constantine was a “renewal, as it 
were, in his own person, of his father’s life and reign”. Constantinian coinage, 
sculpture and oratory also shows a new tendency for disdain towards the 
“barbarians” beyond the frontiers. After Constantine’s victory over the 
Alemanni, he minted a coin issue depicting weeping and begging Alemannic 
tribesmen—”The Alemanni conquered”—beneath the phrase “Romans’ rejoicing”.There 
was little sympathy for these enemies. As his panegyrist declared: “It is a 
stupid clemency that spares the conquered foe.”

In 310, a dispossessed and power-hungry Maximian rebelled against Constantine 
while Constantine was away campaigning against the Franks. Maximian had been 
sent south to Arles with a contingent of Constantine’s army, in preparation for 
any attacks by Maxentius in southern Gaul. He announced that Constantine was 
dead, and took up the imperial purple. 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. Constantine soon 
heard of the rebellion, abandoned his campaign against the Franks, and marched 
his army up the Rhine. 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
. He disembarked at
Lugdunum
(Lyon).Maximian 
fled to Massilia (Marseille), 
a town better able to withstand a long siege than Arles. It made little 
difference, however, as loyal citizens opened the rear gates to Constantine. 
Maximian was captured and reproved for his crimes. Constantine granted some 
clemency, but strongly encouraged his suicide. In July 310, Maximian hanged 
himself.

The death of Maximian required a shift in Constantine’s public image. He 
could no longer rely on his connection to the elder emperor Maximian, and needed 
a new source of legitimacy.In a speech delivered in Gaul on 25 July 310, the 
anonymous orator reveals a previously unknown dynastic connection to
Claudius II
, a third-century emperor famed for 
defeating the Goths and restoring order to the empire. Breaking away from 
tetrarchic models, the speech emphasizes Constantine’s ancestral prerogative to 
rule, rather than principles of imperial equality. The new ideology expressed in 
the speech made Galerius and Maximian irrelevant to Constantine’s right to rule. 
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.

The oration also moves away from the religious ideology of the Tetrarchy, 
with its focus on twin dynasties of
Jupiter
and
Hercules
. Instead, the orator proclaims that 
Constantine experienced a divine vision of
Apollo
and
Victory
granting him
laurel wreaths
of health and a long reign. In 
the likeness of Apollo Constantine recognized himself as the saving figure to 
whom would be granted “rule of the whole world”, as the poet Virgil had once 
foretold. The oration’s religious shift is paralleled by a similar shift in 
Constantine’s coinage. In his early reign, the coinage of Constantine advertised
Mars
as his patron. From 310 on, Mars was 
replaced by
Sol Invictus
, a god conventionally identified 
with Apollo.

By the middle of 310, Galerius had become too ill to involve himself in 
imperial politics. His final act survives: a letter to the provincials posted in 
Nicomedia on 30 April 311, proclaiming an end to the persecutions, and the 
resumption of religious toleration. He died soon after the edict’s proclamation, 
destroying what little remained of the tetrarchy. Maximin mobilized against 
Licinius, and seized Asia Minor. A hasty peace was signed on a boat in the 
middle of the Bosphorus. While Constantine toured Britain and Gaul, Maxentius 
prepared for war.He fortified northern Italy, and strengthened his support in 
the Christian community by allowing it to elect a new
Bishop
of
Rome
,
Eusebius
.

Constantine’s advisers and generals cautioned against preemptive attack on 
Maxentius; even his soothsayers recommended against it, stating that the 
sacrifices had produced unfavorable omens. Constantine, with a spirit that left 
a deep impression on his followers, inspiring some to believe that he had some 
form of supernatural guidance, ignored all these cautions. Early in the spring 
of 312,Constantine crossed the
Cottian Alps
with a quarter of his army, a 
force numbering about 40,000.The first town his army encountered was Segusium (Susa,
Italy
), a heavily fortified town that shut its 
gates to him. Constantine ordered his men to set fire to its gates and scale its 
walls. He took the town quickly. Constantine ordered his troops not to loot the 
town, and advanced with them into northern Italy.

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. In the 
ensuing
battle
Constantine’s army encircled Maxentius’ 
cavalry, flanked them with his own cavalry, and dismounted them with blows from 
his soldiers’ iron-tipped clubs. Constantine’s armies emerged victorious. Turin 
refused to give refuge to Maxentius’ retreating forces, opening its gates to 
Constantine instead.
Other cities of the north Italian plain sent Constantine 
embassies of congratulation for his victory. He moved on to Milan, where he was 
met with open gates and jubilant rejoicing. Constantine rested his army in Milan 
until mid-summer 312, when he moved on to
Brixia
(Brescia).

Brescia’s army was easily dispersed, and Constantine quickly advanced to
Verona
, where a large Maxentian force was 
camped. Ruricius Pompeianus, general of the Veronese forces and Maxentius’ 
praetorian prefect, was in a strong defensive position, since the town was 
surrounded on three sides by the
Adige
. Constantine sent a small force north of 
the town in an attempt to cross the river unnoticed. Ruricius sent a large 
detachment to counter Constantine’s expeditionary force, but was defeated. 
Constantine’s forces successfully surrounded the town and laid siege. Ruricius 
gave Constantine the slip and returned with a larger force to oppose 
Constantine. Constantine refused to let up on the siege, and sent only a small 
force to oppose him. In the desperately fought
encounter
that followed, Ruricius was killed 
and his army destroyed.Verona surrendered soon afterwards, followed by
Aquileia
, Mutina (Modena),
and
Ravenna
. The road to Rome was now wide open to 
Constantine.

Maxentius prepared for the same type of war he had waged against Severus and 
Galerius: he sat in Rome and prepared for a siege. He still controlled Rome’s 
praetorian guards, was well-stocked with African grain, and was surrounded on 
all sides by the seemingly impregnable
Aurelian Walls
. He ordered all bridges across 
the Tiber
cut, reportedly on the counsel of the 
gods, and left the rest of central Italy undefended; Constantine secured that 
region’s support without challenge. Constantine progressed slowly along the
Via Flaminia
, allowing the weakness of 
Maxentius to draw his regime further into turmoil. Maxentius’ support continued 
to weaken: at chariot races on 27 October, the crowd openly taunted Maxentius, 
shouting that Constantine was invincible. Maxentius, no longer certain that he 
would emerge from a siege victorious, built a temporary boat bridge across the 
Tiber in preparation for a field battle against Constantine. On 28 October 312, 
the sixth anniversary of his reign, he approached the keepers of the
Sibylline Books
for guidance. The keepers 
prophesied that, on that very day, “the enemy of the Romans” would die. 
Maxentius advanced north to meet Constantine in battle.

Maxentius organized his forces—still twice the size of Constantine’s—in long 
lines facing the battle plain, with their backs to the river. Constantine’s army 
arrived at the field bearing unfamiliar symbols on either its standards or its 
soldiers’ shields.  Constantine was visited by a dream the night before the 
battle, wherein he was advised “to mark the heavenly sign of God on the shields 
of his soldiers…by means of a slanted letter X with the top of its head bent 
round, he marked Christ on their shields.” Eusebius describes the sign as
Chi
(Χ) traversed by
Rho
(Ρ): ☧, a symbol representing the first two 
letters of the Greek spelling of the word Christos or Christ.

Constantine deployed his own forces along the whole length of Maxentius’ 
line. He ordered his cavalry to charge, and they broke Maxentius’ cavalry. He 
then sent his infantry against Maxentius’ infantry, pushing many into the Tiber 
where they were slaughtered and drowned. The battle was brief: Maxentius’ troops 
were broken before the first charge. Maxentius’ horse guards and praetorians 
initially held their position, but broke under the force of a Constantinian 
cavalry charge; they also broke ranks and fled to the river. Maxentius rode with 
them, and attempted to cross the bridge of boats, but he was pushed by the mass 
of his fleeing soldiers into the Tiber, and drowned.

In Rome

Constantine entered Rome on 29 October.He staged a grand
adventus
in the city, and was met with 
popular jubilation. Maxentius’ body was fished out of the Tiber and decapitated. 
His head was paraded through the streets for all to see. Unlike his 
predecessors, Constantine neglected to make the trip to the
Capitoline Hill
and perform customary 
sacrifices at the
Temple of Jupiter
. He did, however, choose to 
honor the
Senatorial

Curia
with a visit, where he promised to 
restore its ancestral privileges and give it a secure role in his reformed 
government: there would be no revenge against Maxentius’ supporters.In response, 
the Senate decreed him “title of the first name”, which meant his name would be 
listed first in all official documents, and acclaimed him as “the greatest 
Augustus”. He issued decrees returning property lost under Maxentius, recalling 
political exiles, and releasing Maxentius’ imprisoned opponents.

In the following years, Constantine gradually consolidated his military 
superiority over his rivals in the crumbling Tetrarchy. In 313, he met
Licinius
in
Milan
to secure their alliance by the marriage 
of Licinius and Constantine’s half-sister
Constantia
. During this meeting, the emperors 
agreed on the so-called
Edict of Milan
,officially granting full 
tolerance to Christianity and all religions in the Empire.The document had 
special benefits for Christians, legalizing their religion and granting them 
restoration for all property seized during Diocletian’s persecution.

In the year 320,
Licinius
reneged on the religious freedom 
promised by the
Edict of Milan
in 313 and began to oppress 
Christians anew, generally without bloodshed, but resorting to confiscations and 
sacking of Christian office-holders.That became a challenge to Constantine in 
the West, climaxing in the great civil war of 324. Licinius, aided by
Goth

mercenaries
, represented the past and the 
ancient Pagan
faiths. Constantine and his
Franks
marched under the standard of the
labarum
, and both sides saw the battle in 
religious terms. Outnumbered, but fired by their zeal, Constantine’s army 
emerged victorious in the
Battle of Adrianople
. Licinius fled across the 
Bosphorus and appointed
Martius Martinianus
, the commander of his 
bodyguard, as Caesar, but Constantine next won the
Battle of the Hellespont
, and finally the
Battle of Chrysopolis
on 18 September 
324.Licinius and Martinianus surrendered to Constantine at Nicomedia on the 
promise their lives would be spared: they were sent to live as private citizens 
in Thessalonica and Cappadocia respectively, but in 325 Constantine accused 
Licinius of plotting against him and had them both arrested and hanged; 
Licinius’s son (the son of Constantine’s half-sister) was also killed. Thus 
Constantine became the sole emperor of the Roman Empire.

Foundation of 
Constantinople

Licinius’ defeat came to represent the defeat of a rival center 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
. Among the various 
locations proposed for this alternative capital, Constantine appears to have 
toyed earlier with
Serdica
(present-day
Sofia
), as he was reported saying that “Serdica 
is my Rome“. Sirmium
and
Thessalonica
were also considered. Eventually, 
however, Constantine decided to work on the Greek city of
Byzantium
, which offered the advantage of 
having already been extensively rebuilt on Roman patterns of urbanism, during 
the preceding century, by
Septimius Severus
and
Caracalla
, who had already acknowledged its 
strategic importance. The city was then renamed Constantinopolis 
(“Constantine’s City” or
Constantinople
in English), and issued special 
commemorative coins in 330 to honor the event. The new city was protected by the 
relics of the
True Cross
, the
Rod of Moses
and other holy
relics
, though a cameo now at the
Hermitage Museum
also represented Constantine 
crowned by the tyche
of the new city. The figures of old gods 
were either replaced or assimilated into a framework of
Christian symbolism
. Constantine built the new
Church of the Holy Apostles
on the site of a 
temple to Aphrodite
. Generations later there was the 
story that a
divine vision
led Constantine to this spot, and 
an angel
no one else could see, led him on a 
circuit of the new walls. The capital would often be compared to the ‘old’ Rome 
as Nova Roma Constantinopolitana, the “New Rome of Constantinople”.

 

Constantine the Great, mosaic in

Hagia Sophia, c. 1000

Religious policy

Constantine is perhaps best known for being the first “Christian” Roman 
emperor. Scholars debate whether Constantine adopted his mother
St. Helena
‘s 
Christianity in his youth, or whether he adopted it gradually over the course of 
his life.
Constantine was over 40 when he finally declared himself a Christian, writing to 
Christians to make clear that he believed he owed his successes to the 
protection of the Christian High God alone.Throughout his rule, Constantine 
supported the Church financially, built basilicas, granted privileges to clergy 
(e.g. exemption from certain taxes), promoted Christians to high office, and 
returned property confiscated during the Diocletianic persecution.His most 
famous building projects include the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre
, and
Old Saint Peter’s Basilica
.

However, Constantine certainly did not patronize Christianity alone. After 
gaining victory in the Battle of the Milvian Bridge (312), a triumphal arch—the
Arch of Constantine
—was built (315) to 
celebrate his triumph. The arch is most notably decorated with images of the 
goddess
Victoria
and, at the time of its dedication, 
sacrifices to gods like
Apollo
,
Diana
, and
Hercules
were made. Most notably absent from 
the Arch are any depictions whatsoever regarding Christian symbolism.

Later in 321, Constantine instructed that Christians and non-Christians 
should be united in observing the venerable day of the sun, referencing 
the sun-worship
that
Aurelian
had established as an official cult. 
Furthermore, and long after his oft alleged “conversion” to Christianity, 
Constantine’s coinage continued to carry the symbols of the sun. Even after the 
pagan gods had disappeared from the coinage, Christian symbols appeared only as 
Constantine’s personal attributes: the
chi rho
between his hands or on his
labarum
, but never on the coin itself. Even 
when Constantine dedicated the new capital of Constantinople, which became the 
seat of Byzantine Christianity for a millennium, he did so wearing the
Apollonian
sun-rayed
Diadem
; no Christian symbols were present at 
this dedication.

Constantine made new laws regarding the

Jews. They were forbidden to own Christian slaves or to
circumcise
their slaves.

Administrative reforms

Beginning in the mid-3rd century the emperors began to favor members of the
equestrian order
over senators, who had had a 
monopoly on the most important offices of state. Senators were stripped of the 
command of legions and most provincial governorships (as it was felt that they 
lacked the specialized military upbringing needed in an age of acute defense 
needs), such posts being given to equestrians by Diocletian and his 
colleagues—following a practice enforced piecemeal by their predecessors. The 
emperors however, still needed the talents and the help of the very rich, who 
were relied on to maintain social order and cohesion by means of a web of 
powerful influence and contacts at all levels. Exclusion of the old senatorial 
aristocracy threatened this arrangement.

In 326, Constantine reversed this pro-equestrian trend, raising many 
administrative positions to senatorial rank and thus opening these offices to 
the old aristocracy, and at the same time elevating the rank of already existing 
equestrians office-holders to senator, eventually wiping out the equestrian 
order—at least as a bureaucratic rank—in the process. One could become a 
senator, either by being elected
praetor
or (in most cases) by fulfilling a 
function of senatorial rank: from then on, holding of actual power and social 
status were melded together into a joint imperial hierarchy. At the same time, 
Constantine gained with this the support of the old nobility, 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).

The Senate as a body remained devoid of any significant power; nevertheless, 
the senators, who had been marginalized as potential holders of imperial 
functions during the 3rd century, could now dispute such positions alongside 
more upstart bureaucrats. Some modern historians see in those administrative 
reforms an attempt by Constantine at reintegrating the senatorial order into the 
imperial administrative elite to counter the possibility of alienating pagan 
senators from a Christianized imperial rule.

Constantine’s reforms had to do only with the civilian administration: the 
military chiefs, who since the
Crisis of the Third Century
had risen from the 
ranks, remained outside the senate, in which they were included only by 
Constantine’s children.

Monetary reforms

After the
runaway inflation of the third century
, 
associated with the production of
fiat money
to pay for public expenses, 
Diocletian had tried unsuccessfully to reestablish trustworthy minting of silver 
and
billon
coins. The failure of the various 
Diocletianic attempts at the restoration of a functioning silver coin resided in 
the fact that the silver currency was overvalued in terms of its actual metal 
content, and therefore could only circulate at much discounted rates. Minting of 
the Diocletianic “pure” silver
argenteus
ceased, therefore, soon after 
305, while the billon currency continued to be used until the 360s. From the 
early 300s on, Constantine forsook any attempts at restoring the silver 
currency, preferring instead to concentrate on minting large quantities of good 
standard gold pieces—the
solidus
, 72 of which made a pound of gold. New 
(and highly debased) silver pieces would continue to be issued during 
Constantine’s later reign and after his death, in a continuous process of 
retariffing, until this billon minting eventually ceased, de jure, in 
367, with the silver piece being de facto continued by various 
denominations of bronze coins, the most important being the
centenionalis
. Later emperors like
Julian the Apostate
tried to present themselves 
as advocates of the humiles by insisting on trustworthy mintings of the 
bronze currency.

Constantine’s monetary policy were closely associated with his religious 
ones, in that increased minting was associated with measures of 
confiscation—taken since 331 and closed in 336—of all gold, silver and bronze 
statues from pagan temples, who were declared as imperial property and, as such, 
as monetary assets. Two imperial commissioners for each province had the task of 
getting hold of the statues and having them melded for immediate minting—with 
the exception of a number of bronze statues who were used as public monuments 
for the beautification of the new capital in Constantinople^.

Later campaigns

Constantine considered Constantinople as his capital and permanent residence. 
He lived there for a good portion of his later life. He rebuilt Trajan’s bridge 
across the Danube, in hopes of reconquering
Dacia
, a province that had been abandoned under 
Aurelian. In the late winter of 332, Constantine campaigned with the
Sarmatians
against the
Goths
. The weather and lack of food cost the 
Goths dearly: reportedly, nearly one hundred thousand died before they submitted 
to Rome. In 334, after Sarmatian commoners had overthrown their leaders, 
Constantine led a campaign against the tribe. He won a victory in the war and 
extended his control over the region, as remains of camps and fortifications in 
the region indicate.Constantine resettled some Sarmatian exiles as farmers in 
Illyrian and Roman districts, and conscripted the rest into the army. 
Constantine took the title Dacicus maximus in 336.

Sickness and death

Constantine had known death would soon come. Within the Church of the Holy 
Apostles, Constantine had secretly prepared a final resting-place for himself.It 
came sooner than he had expected. Soon after the Feast of Easter 337, 
Constantine fell seriously ill. He left Constantinople for the hot baths near 
his mother’s city of Helenopolis (Altinova), on the southern shores of the Gulf 
of İzmit. There, in a church his mother built in honor of Lucian the Apostle, he 
prayed, and there he realized that he was dying. Seeking purification, he became 
a catechumen
, and attempted a return to 
Constantinople, making it only as far as a suburb of Nicomedia. 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. He requested the baptism right away. The bishops, Eusebius 
records, “performed the sacred ceremonies according to custom”. He chose the 
Arianizing bishop
Eusebius of Nicomedia
, bishop of the
city
where he lay dying, as his baptizer. In 
postponing his baptism, he followed one custom at the time which postponed 
baptism until after infancy. Constantine died soon after at a suburban villa 
called Achyron, on the last day of the fifty-day festival of Pentecost directly 
following Pascha (or Easter), on 22 May 337.^[246]

Following his death, his body was transferred to Constantinople and buried in 
the
Church of the Holy Apostles
there. He was 
succeeded by his three sons born of Fausta,
Constantine II
,
Constantius II
and
Constans
. A number of relatives were killed by 
followers of Constantius, notably Constantine’s nephews
Dalmatius
(who held the rank of Caesar) and
Hannibalianus
, presumably to eliminate possible 
contenders to an already complicated succession. He also had two daughters,
Constantina
and
Helena
, wife of
Emperor Julian
.

Legacy

The Byzantine Empire considered Constantine its founder and the
Holy Roman Empire
reckoned him among the 
venerable figures of its tradition. In the later Byzantine state, it had become 
a great honor for an emperor to be hailed as a “new Constantine”. Ten emperors, 
including the last emperor of Byzantium, carried the name. Most Eastern 
Christian churches consider Constantine a saint (Άγιος Κωνσταντίνος, Saint 
Constantine). In the Byzantine Church he was called isapostolos (Ισαπόστολος 
Κωνσταντίνος) —an
equal of the Apostles
.
Niš airport
is named Constantine the Great in 
honor of his birth in Naissus.

The Principate

 Julio-Claudian 
dynasty

 Year 
of the Four Emperors (Civil War)

 Flavian 
dynasty

 Nervan-Antonian 
dynasty

Main article:
Five Good Emperors

 Year 
of the Five Emperors &
Severan dynasty

 Rulers during the
Crisis of the Third Century

 Gallic 
Empire
260
to 274

 Britannic 
Empire
286
to 297

 Dominate

 Tetrarchy 
and
Constantinian dynasty

 Valentinian 
dynasty

 Theodosian 
dynasty

 Western 
Roman Empire

Further information:
Barbarian kings of Italy

 Eastern 
Roman Empire

• For 
  the rulers of the Eastern Roman Empire (also known as the
  Byzantine Empire
  ) after
  Theodosius II
  , see:
  List of Byzantine Emperors
  

Theodosian dynasty (395–457)

Name		Reign	Comments
	Theodosius I “the Great” (Θεοδόσιος Α’ ο Μέγας, Flavius Theodosius)Theodosius  I Coins.htm	19 January 379 – 17 January 395	Born on 11 January 347. Aristocrat and military leader,  brother-in-law of Gratian, who appointed him as emperor of the East.  From 392 until his death sole Roman emperor
	Arcadius (Αρκάδιος, Flavius Arcadius)Arcadius  Coins.htm	17 January 395 – 1 May 408	Born in 377/378, the eldest son of Theodosius I.  Succeeded upon the death of his father
	Theodosius II (Θεοδόσιος Β’, Flavius Theodosius) Theodosius II Coins.htm	1 May 408 – 28 July 450	Born on 10 April 401, the only son of Arcadius.  Succeeded upon the death of his father. As a minor, the praetorian  prefect Anthemius was regent in 408–414. He  died in a riding accident
	Marcian (Μαρκιανός, Flavius Valerius Marcianus) Marcian Coins.htm	450 – January 457	Born in 396. A soldier and  politician, he became emperor after being wed by the Augusta Pulcheria , Theodosius II’s sister,  following the latter’s death. Died of gangrene

Leonid 
dynasty (457–518)

Name		Reign	Comments
	Leo I “the Thracian” (Λέων Α’ ο Θράξ, Flavius Valerius Leo) Leo I Coins.htm	7 February 457 – 18 January 474	Born in Dacia in 401. A common soldier, he was  chosen by Aspar , commander-in-chief of the army.  Died of dysentery
	Leo II (Λέων Β’, Flavius Leo) Leo II  Coins.htm	18 January – 17 November 474	Born in 467, the grandson of Leo I. Succeeded upon the  death of Leo I. Died of an unknown disease, possibly poisoned
	Zeno (Ζήνων, Flavius Zeno) Zeno Coins.htm	17 November 474 – 9 April 491	Born c.425 at Zenonopolis , Isauria , originally named  Tarasicodissa. Son-in-law of Leo I, he was bypassed in the succession  because of his barbarian origin. Named co-emperor by his son on 9  February 474, he succeeded upon the death of Leo II. Deposed by  Basiliscus, brother-in-law of Leo, he fled to his native country and  regained the throne in August 476.
	Basiliscus (Βασιλίσκος, Flavius Basiliscus) Basiliscus Coins.htm	9 January 475 – August 476	General and brother-in-law of Leo I, he seized power  from Zeno but was again deposed by him. Died in 476/477
	Anastasius I (Αναστάσιος Α’, Flavius Anastasius) BYZANTINE – Anastasius  Coins.htm	11 April 491 – 9 July 518	Born c. 430 at Dyrrhachium , Epirus nova . A palace official (silentiarius)  and son-in-law of Leo I, he was chosen as emperor by empress-dowager Ariadne

Justinian Dynasty

Portrait	Name	Born	Reigned	Succession	Died
	Justin I FLAVIVS IVSTINVS AVGVSTVS	c. 450 AD, Naissus	July 9, 518 AD – August 1, 527 AD	Commander of the palace guard under Anastasius I) ; elected as emperor with  support of army	August 1, 527 AD Natural causes
	Justinian I FLAVIVS PETRVS SABBATIVS IVSTINIANVS AVGVSTVS	c. 482 AD, Tauresium , Dardania	August 1, 527 AD – 13/14 November 565 AD	Nephew and nominated heir of Justin I	13/14 November 565 AD Natural causes
	Justin II FLAVIVS IVSTINIVS IVNIOR AVGVSTVS	c. 520 AD, ?	13/14 November 565 AD – 578 AD	Nephew of Justinian I	578 AD Became insane; Tiberius II Constantine ruled as regent  from December 574 and became emperor on Justin’s death in 578

Roman Late Monogram Coins.htm

Roman AE4 Coins.htm