Constantine I The Great 313AD Ancient Roman Coin Zeus Jupiter Cult i39192

Item: i39192

Authentic Ancient

Coin of:

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

Silvered

Bronze AE3 18mm (4.12 grams) Cyzicus mint: 313-315 A.D.
Reference: RIC VII 8,Z
IMP CONSTANTINVS AVG, laureate draped bust left with globe, sceptre & mappa
 IOVI CONSERVATORI AVGG, Jupiter standing left with chlamys, sceptre &
Victory on globe,
wreath to left, Z to right, SMK in ex.

* Numismatic Note: The emperor is invoking Jupiter to preserve his rule.

 

You are bidding on the exact item pictured,

Authenticity.

In

Roman mythology

,

Jupiter
or

Jove was the

king of the gods

, and the god of

sky and

thunder
. He

is

the equivalent of Zeus

in the

Greek pantheon

. He was called Iuppiter (or Diespiter)

Optimus Maximus (“Father God the Best and Greatest”). As the patron deity of

ancient

Rome
, he ruled over laws and social order. He was the chief god of the

Capitoline Triad

, with sister/wife

Juno

. Jupiter is also the father of the god

Mars

with Juno. Therefore, Jupiter is the grandfather of

Romulus and Remus

, the legendary founders of Rome. Jupiter was venerated in

ancient Roman religion

, and is still venerated in

Roman Neopaganism

. He is a son of

Saturn

, along with brothers

Neptune

and

Pluto

.

He is also the brother/husband of

Ceres

(daughter of Saturn and mother of

Proserpina
),

brother of Veritas

(daughter of Saturn), and father of

Mercury

.

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.

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.

In
ancient Roman religion
and
myth
, Jupiter (Latin:
Iuppiter) or Jove is the
king of the gods
and the
god of sky
and
thunder
. Jupiter was the chief deity of Roman
state religion throughout the
Republican
and
Imperial
eras, until the Empire
came under Christian rule
. In
Roman mythology
, he negotiates with
Numa Pompilius
, the second
king of Rome
, to establish principles of Roman
religion such as sacrifice.

Jupiter is usually thought to have originated as a sky god. His identifying
implement is the
thunderbolt
, and his primary sacred animal is
the eagle, which held precedence over other birds in the taking of
auspices
and became one of the most common
symbols of the
Roman army
(see
Aquila
). The two emblems were often combined to
represent the god in the form of an eagle holding in its claws a thunderbolt,
frequently seen on Greek and Roman coins. As the sky-god, he was a divine
witness to oaths, the sacred trust on which justice and good government depend.
Many of his functions were focused on the
Capitoline
(“Capitol Hill”), where the
citadel
was located. He was the chief deity of
the
early Capitoline Triad
with
Mars
and
Quirinus
. In the
later Capitoline Triad
, he was the central
guardian of the state with
Juno
and
Minerva
. His sacred tree was the oak.

The Romans regarded Jupiter as the
equivalent
of Greek

Zeus, and in
Latin literature
and
Roman art
, the myths and iconography of Zeus
are adapted under the name Iuppiter. In the Greek-influenced tradition,
Jupiter was the brother of
Neptune
and
Pluto
. Each presided over one of the three
realms of the universe: sky, the waters, and the underworld. The
Italic
Diespiter was also a sky god who
manifested himself in the daylight, usually but not always identified with
Jupiter. The
Etruscan
counterpart was
Tinia
and
Hindu
counterpart is
Indra
.

Relation to other gods

Archaic Triad

The Archaic Triad is a theological structure (or system) consisting of the
gods Jupiter, Mars and Quirinus. It was first described by Wissowa, and the
concept was developed further by Dumézil. The three-function hypothesis of
Indo-European society
advanced by Dumézil holds
that in prehistory, society was divided into three classes (priests, warriors
and craftsmen) which had as their religious counterparts the divine figures of
the sovereign god, the warrior god and the civil god. The sovereign function
(embodied by Jupiter) entailed omnipotence; thence, a domain extended over every
aspect of nature and life. The colour relating to the sovereign function is
white.

The three functions are interrelated with one another, overlapping to some
extent; the sovereign function, although essentially religious in nature, is
involved in many ways in areas pertaining to the other two. Therefore, Jupiter
is the “magic player” in the founding of the Roman state and the fields of war,
agricultural plenty, human fertility and welth.

Capitoline Triad

Capitoline Triad

The Capitoline Triad was introduced to Rome by the Tarquins. Dumézil thinks
it might have been an Etruscan (or local) creation based on Vitruvius’ treatise
on architecture, in which the three deities are associated as the most
important. It is possible that the Etruscans paid particular attention to
Menrva
(Minerva) as a goddess of destiny, in
addition to the royal couple Uni (Juno) and Tinia (Jupiter).^[169]
In Rome, Minerva later assumed a military aspect under the influence of
Athena Pallas
(Polias). Dumézil argues that
with the advent of the Republic, Jupiter became the only king of Rome, no longer
merely the first of the great gods.

Jupiter and Minerva

Apart from being protectress of the arts and craft as Minerva Capta, who was
brought from Falerii, Minerva’s association to Jupiter and relevance to Roman
state religion is mainly linked to the
Palladium
, a wooden statue of Athena that could
move the eyes and wave the spear. It was stored in the penus interior,
inner penus of the aedes Vestae, temple of Vesta and considered the most
important among the
pignora imperii
, pawns of dominion, empire.^[170]
In Roman traditional lore it was brought from Troy by Aeneas. Scholars though
think it was last taken to Rome in the third or second century BC.

Juno and Fortuna

The divine couple received from Greece its matrimonial implications, thence
bestowing on Juno the role of tutelary goddess of marriage (Iuno Pronuba).

The couple itself though cannot be reduced to a Greek apport. The association
of Juno and Jupiter is of the most ancient Latin theology.
Praeneste
offers a glimpse into original Latin
mythology: the local goddess
Fortuna
is represented as milking two infants,
one male and one female, namely Jove (Jupiter) and Juno. It seems fairly safe to
assume that from the earliest times they were identified by their own proper
names and since they got them they were never changed through the course of
history: they were called Jupiter and Juno. These gods were the most ancient
deities of every Latin town. Praeneste preserved divine filiation and infancy as
the sovereign god and his paredra Juno have a mother who is the primordial
goddess Fortuna Primigenia.^[174]
Many terracotta statuettes have been discovered which represent a woman with a
child: one of them represents exactly the scene described by Cicero of a woman
with two children of different sex who touch her breast. Two of the votive
inscriptions to Fortuna associate her and Jupiter: ” Fortunae Iovi puero…” and
“Fortunae Iovis puero…”

In 1882 though R. Mowat published an inscription in which Fortuna is called
daughter of Jupiter, raising new questions and opening new perspectives
in the theology of Latin gods. Dumezil has elaborated an interpretative theory
according to which this aporia would be an intrinsic, fundamental feature
of Indoeuropean deities of the primordial and sovereign level, as it finds a
parallel in Vedic religion. The contradiction would put Fortuna both at the
origin of time and into its ensuing diachronic process: it is the comparison
offered by Vedic deity
Aditi
, the Not-Bound or Enemy of
Bondage, that shows that there is no question of choosing one of the two
apparent options: as the mother of the
Aditya
she has the same type of relationship
with one of his sons,
Dakṣa
, the minor sovereign. who represents the
Creative Energy, being at the same time his mother and daughter, as is
true for the whole group of sovereign gods to which she belongs. Moreover Aditi
is thus one of the heirs (along with
Savitr
) of the opening god of the Indoiranians,
as she is represented with her head on her two sides, with the two faces looking
opposite directions. The mother of the sovereign gods has thence two solidal but
distinct modalities of duplicity, i.e. of having two foreheads and a double
position in the genealogy. Angelo Brelich has interpreted this theology as the
basic opposition between the primordial absence of order (chaos) and the
organisation of the cosmos.

Janus

The relation of Jupiter to Janus is problematic. Varro defines Jupiter as the
god who has potestas (power) over the forces by which anything happens in
the world. Janus, however, has the privilege of being invoked first in rites,
since in his power are the beginnings of things (prima), the appearance
of Jupiter included.

Saturn

The
Latins
considered Saturn the predecessor of
Jupiter. Saturn reigned in
Latium
during a mythical
Golden Age
reenacted every year at the festival
of Saturnalia
. Saturn also retained primacy in
matters of agriculture and money. Unlike the Greek tradition of
Cronus
and Zeus, the usurpation of Saturn as
king of the gods by Jupiter was not viewed by the Latins as violent or hostile;
Saturn continued to be revered in his temple at the foot of the Capitol Hill,
which maintained the alternative name Saturnius into the time of Varro.^[182]
A. Pasqualini has argued that Saturn was related to Iuppiter Latiaris,
the old Jupiter of the Latins, as the original figure of this Jupiter was
superseded on the Alban Mount, whereas it preserved its gruesome character in
the ceremony held at the sanctuary of the Latiar Hill in Rome which involved a
human sacrifice and the aspersion of the statue of the god with the blood of the
victim.

Fides

The abstract
personification
Fides (“Faith, Trust”) was one
of the oldest gods associated with Jupiter. As guarantor of public faith, Fides
had her temple on the Capitol (near that of Capitoline Jupiter).

Genius

Augustine quotes Varro who explains the genius as “the god who is in
charge and has the power to generate everything” and “the rational spirit of all
(therefore, everyone has their own)”. Augustine concludes that Jupiter should be
considered the genius of the universe.

G. Wissowa advanced the hypothesis that Semo
Sancus
is the genius of Jupiter.^[189]
W. W. Fowler has cautioned that this interpretation looks to be an anachronism
and it would only be acceptable to say that Sancus is a Genius Iovius, as
it appears from the Iguvine Tables.

Censorinus cites
Granius Flaccus
as saying that “the Genius was
the same entity as the Lar” in his lost work De Indigitamentis. Dumézil
opines that the attribution of a Genius to the gods should be earlier than its
first attestation of 58 BC, in an inscription which mentions the Iovis Genius.

A connection between Genius and Jupiter would be apparent in
Plautus
‘ comedy
Amphitryon
, in which Jupiter takes up the
looks of Alcmena
‘s husband in order to seduce her: J.
Hubeaux sees there a reflection of the story that
Scipio Africanus
‘ mother conceived him with a
snake that was in fact Jupiter transformed. Scipio himself claimed that only he
would rise to the mansion of the gods through the widest gate.

It is noteworthy that among the Etruscan Penates there is a Genius
Iovialis who comes after Fortuna and Ceres and before Pales . Genius
Iovialis is one of the earthly Penates and not one of the Penates of
Jupiter though, as these were located in region I of Martianus Capella’ s
division of Heaven, while Genius appear in regions V and VI along with Ceres,
Favor (possibly a Roman approximation to an Etruscan male manifestation of
Fortuna) and Pales.

Victoria

Coin with
laureate
head of Jupiter (obverse)
and (reverse) Victory, standing (“ROMA” below in
relief
)

Victoria was connected to Iuppiter Victor in his role as bestower of
military victory. Jupiter, as a sovereign god, was considered as having the
power to conquer anyone and anything in a supernatural way; his contribution to
military victory was different from that of
Mars
(god of military valour). Victoria appears
first on the reverse of coins representing Venus (driving the quadriga of
Jupiter, with her head crowned and with a palm in her hand) during the first
Punic War. Sometimes, she is represented walking and carrying a trophy.

A temple was dedicated to the goddess afterwards on the Palatine, testifying
to her high station in the Roman mind. When
Hieron of Syracuse
presented a golden statuette
of the goddess to Rome, the Senate had it placed in the temple of Capitoline
Jupiter among the greatest (and most sacred) deities. Although Victoria played a
significant role in the religious ideology of the late Republic and the Empire,
she is undocumented in earlier times. A function similar to hers may have been
played by the little-known
Vica Pota
.

 

 

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