CONSTANTINE I the GREAT 347AD Ancient Roman Coin Christian Deification i35641

Item: i35641

Authentic Ancient

Coin of:

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

Posthumous Christian Deification Issue

Bronze AE4 15mm (1.96 grams) Nicomedia mint 347-348 A.D.
Reference: RIC 48 (VIII, Nicomedia), LRBC 1148
DVCONSTANTINVSPTAVGG – Veiled head right.
 No legend Exe: SMNΔ – Constantine I
standing right; VN MR across fields.

Posthumous means arising, occurring, or continuing
after one’s death.

You are bidding on the exact item pictured,

Authenticity.

A veil is an article of clothing or cloth hanging that is intended to
cover some part of the
head
or

face, or an object of some significance. It is especially associated
with women and sacred objects.

One view is that as a religious item, it is intended to show honor to an
object or space. The actual sociocultural, psychological, and sociosexual
functions of veils have not been studied extensively but most likely include the
maintenance of social distance and the communication of social status and
cultural identity. In Islamic society, various forms of the veil have been
adopted from the Arab culture in which Islam arose. The
Quran
has no requirement that women cover their
faces with a veil, or cover their bodies with the full-body
burqua
or
chador
.

History

The first recorded instance of veiling for women is recorded in an
Assyrian
legal text from the 13th century BC,
which restricted its use to noble women and forbade prostitutes and common women
from adopting it.^{[citation
needed]} The
Mycenaean Greek
term a-pu-ko-wo-ko
meaning “craftsman of horse veil” written in
Linear B
syllabic script is also attested since
ca. 1300 BC. In
ancient Greek
the word for veil was “καλύπτρα”
(kaluptra,
Ionic Greek
“καλύπτρη” – kaluptrē, from
the verb “καλύπτω” – kaluptō, “I cover”) and is first attested in the
works of Homer
.

Classical Greek and Hellenistic statues sometimes depict Greek women with
both their head and face covered by a veil. Caroline Galt and Lloyd
Llewellyn-Jones have both argued from such representations and literary
references that it was commonplace for women (at least those of higher status)
in ancient Greece to cover their hair and face in public.

For many centuries, until around 1175,
Anglo-Saxon
and then
Anglo-Norman
women, with the exception of young
unmarried girls, wore veils that entirely covered their hair, and often their
necks up to their chins (see
wimple
). Only in the
Tudor period
(1485), when
hoods
became increasingly popular, did veils of
this type become less common.

For centuries, women have worn sheer veils, but only under certain
circumstances. Sometimes a veil of this type was draped over and pinned to the
bonnet
or hat of a woman in
mourning
, especially at the
funeral
and during the subsequent period of
“high mourning”. They would also have been used, as an alternative to a

mask, as a simple method of hiding the identity of a woman who was
traveling to meet a lover, or doing anything she didn’t want other people to
find out about. More pragmatically, veils were also sometimes worn to protect
the complexion from sun and wind damage (when un-tanned skin was fashionable),
or to keep dust out of a woman’s face, much as the
keffiyeh
is used today.

Religion

In Judaism
,
Christianity
and
Islam
the concept of covering the head is or
was associated with propriety and modesty. Most traditional depictions of the
Virgin Mary
, the mother of
Christ
, show her veiled. During the
Middle Ages
most European and Byzantine married
women covered their hair rather than their face, with a variety of styles of
wimple
, kerchiefs and headscarfs. Veiling,
covering the hair rather than the face, was a common practice with church-going
women until the 1960s, typically using

lace, and a number of very traditional churches retain the custom.
Lace face-veils are still often worn by female relatives at funerals.

In North India, Hindu women may often veil for traditional purposes, it is
often the custom in rural areas to veil in front of male elders. This veil is
called the Ghoonghat
or Laaj. This is to show humility and
respect to those elder to the woman, in particular elder males. The ghoonghat is
customary especially in the westerly states of
Gujarat
and
Rajasthan
.

Although religion stands as a commonly held reason for choosing to veil, it
has also reflects on political regimes and personal conviction, allowing it to
serve as a medium through which personal character can be revealed.

Praying Jewish woman wearing
Tichel

Judaism

After the
destruction of the Temple
in
Jerusalem
, the
synagogues
that were established took the
design of the
Tabernacle
as their plan. The
Ark of the Law
, which contains the
scrolls
of the
Torah
, is covered with an embroidered curtain
or veil called a
parokhet
. (See also
below
regarding the veiling – and unveiling –
of the bride.)

The
Veil of our Lady
is a liturgical feast
celebrating the protection afforded by the
intercessions
of the Virgin Mary.

Traditionally, in Christianity, women were enjoined to cover their heads in
church, just as it was (and still is) customary for men to remove their hat as a
sign of respect. This practice is based on
1 Corinthians 11:4–16
, where
St. Paul
writes:

Any man who prays or prophesies with his head covered brings shame upon
his head. But any woman who prays or prophesies with her head unveiled
brings shame upon her head, for it is one and the same thing as if she had
had her head shaved. For if a woman does not have her head veiled, she may
as well have her hair cut off. But if it is shameful for a woman to have her
hair cut off or her head shaved, then she should wear a veil. A man, on the
other hand, should not cover his head, because he is the image and glory of
God, but woman is the glory of man. For man did not come from woman, but
woman from man; nor was man created for woman, but woman for man; for this
reason a woman should have a sign of authority on her head, because of the
angels. Woman is not independent of man or man of woman in the Lord. For
just as woman came from man, so man is born of woman; but all things are
from God. Judge for yourselves: is it proper for a woman to pray to God with
her head unveiled? Does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears his
hair long it is a disgrace to him, whereas if a woman has long hair it is
her glory, because long hair has been given (her) for a covering? But if
anyone is inclined to be argumentative, we do not have such a custom, nor do
the churches of God (New
American Bible translation)

In many traditional
Eastern Orthodox Churches
, and in some very
conservative
Protestant
churches as well, the custom
continues of women covering their heads in church (or even when praying
privately at home).

In the
Roman Catholic Church
, it was customary in most
places before the 1960s for women to wear a headcovering in the form of a scarf,
cap, veil or hat when entering a church. The practice now continues where it is
seen as a matter of etiquette, courtesy, tradition or fashionable elegance
rather than strictly of canon law.
Traditionalist Catholics
also maintain the
practice.

The wearing of a headcovering was for the first time mandated as a universal
rule for the
Latin Rite
by the
Code of Canon Law of 1917
, which code was
abrogated by the advent of the present (1983) Code of Canon Law. Traditionalist
Catholics majorly still follow it, generally as a matter of ancient custom and
biblically approved aptness, some also supposing St. Paul’s directive in full
force today as an ordinance of its own right, without a canon law rule enforcing
it. The photograph here of Mass in the
Netherlands
in about 1946, two decades before
the changes that followed the
Second Vatican Council
, shows that, even at
that time, when a hat was still considered part of formal dress for both women
and men, wearing a headcovering at Mass was not a universal practice for
Catholic women.

A veil over the hair rather than the face forms part of the headdress of some
religiouss
of

nuns or
religious
sisters; this is why a woman who
becomes a nun is said “to take the veil”. In medieval times married women
normally covered their hair outside the house, and nun’s veils are based on
secular medieval styles, reflecting nuns position as “brides of Christ”. In many
institutes, a white veil is used as the “veil of probation” during
novitiate
, and a dark veil for the “veil of
profession” once religious vows are taken – the color scheme varies with the
color scheme of the habit of the order. A veil of
consecration
, longer and fuller, is used by
some orders for final profession of
solemn vows
.

Nuns
also wear veils

Nuns are the female counterparts of

monks, and many
monastic orders
of women have retained the
veil. Regarding other institutes of religious sisters who are not
cloistered
but who work as teachers, nurses or
in other “active” apostolates outside of a nunnery or monastery, some wear the
veil, while some others have abolished the use of the veil, a few never had a
veil to start with, but used a bonnet-style headdress even a century ago, as in
the case of
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
.

The fullest versions of the nun’s veil cover the top of the head and flow
down around and over the shoulders. In Western Christianity, it does not wrap
around the neck or face. In those orders that retain one, the starched white
covering about the face neck and shoulders is known as a
wimple
and is a separate garment.

The Catholic Church has revived the ancient practice of allowing women to
profess a solemn vow as
consecrated virgins
. These women are set aside
as sacred persons who belong only to Christ and the service of the church. They
are under the direct care of the local
bishop
, without belonging to a particular order
and receive the veil as a
sign
of
consecration
.

There has also been renewed interest in the last half century in the ancient
practice of women and men dedicating themselves as
anchorites
or
hermits
, and there is a formal process whereby
such persons can seek recognition of their vows by the local bishop – a veil for
these women would also be traditional.

Some Anglican
women’s religious orders also wear a
veil, differing according to the traditions of each order.

In
Eastern Orthodoxy
and in the
Eastern Rites
of the Catholic Church, a veil
called an
epanokamelavkion
is used by both nuns and
monks, in both cases covering completely the
kamilavkion
, a cylindrical hat they both
wear. In
Slavic
practice, when the veil is worn over the
hat, the entire headdress
is referred to as a
klobuk
. Nuns wear an additional veil under
the klobuk, called an
apostolnik
, which is drawn together to
cover the neck and shoulders as well as their heads, leaving the face itself
open.

Islam

A variety of headdresses worn by
Muslim women
and girls in accordance with
hijab
(the principle of dressing modestly)
are sometimes referred to as veils. The principal aim of the Muslim veil is to
hide that which men find sexually attractive. Many of these garments cover the
hair, ears and throat, but do not cover the face. The
khimar
is a type of
headscarf
. The
niqāb
and
burqa
are two kinds of veils that cover
most of the face except for a slit or hole for the eyes.

The Afghan
burqa covers the entire body, obscuring
the face completely, except for a grille or netting over the eyes to allow the
wearer to see. The
boshiya
is a veil that may be worn over a
headscarf; it covers the entire face and is made of a sheer fabric so the wearer
is able to see through it. It has been suggested that
the practice of wearing a veil
 – uncommon among
the Arab
tribes prior to the rise of
Islam
 – originated in the
Byzantine Empire
, and then spread.

The wearing of head and especially face coverings by Muslim women has raised
political issues in the West; see for example
Hijab controversy in Quebec
,
Islamic dress controversy in Europe
,
Islamic scarf controversy in France
, and
United Kingdom debate over veils
. There is also
high debate of the veil in
Turkey
, a
Muslim majority country
but secular, which
banned the headscarves in universities and government buildings, due to the
türban (a Turkish styled headscarf) being viewed as
a political symbol of Islam
, see
Headscarf controversy in Turkey
.

Frances Perkins
wearing a veil
after the death of U.S. President
Franklin D. Roosevelt

Hats

Veils pinned to hats have survived the changing fashions of the centuries and
are still common today on formal occasions that require women to wear a hat.
However, these veils are generally made of netting or another material not
actually designed to hide the face from view, even if the veil can be pulled
down.

Wedding veils

An occasion on which a Western woman is likely to wear a veil is on her
white wedding
day.
Brides
once used to wear their hair flowing
down their back at their wedding to symbolise their virginity. Veils covering
the hair and face became a symbolic reference to the virginity of the bride
thereafter. Often in modern weddings, the ceremony of removing a face veil after
the wedding to present the groom with a virgin bride is skipped, since many
couples have already entered into conjugal relations prior to their wedding
day – the bride either wears no face veil, or it is lifted before the ceremony
begins, but this is not always the case. Further, if a bride is a virgin, she
often wears the face veil through the ceremony, and then either her father lifts
the veil, presenting the bride to her groom, or the groom lifts the veil to
symbolically consummate the marriage, which will later become literal. Brides
who are virgins may make use of the veil to symbolize and emphasize their status
of purity during their wedding however, and if they do, the lifting of the veil
may be ceremonially recognized as the crowning event of the wedding, when the
beauty of the bride is finally revealed to the groom and the guests. It is not
altogether clear that the wedding veil is a non-religious use of this item,
since weddings have almost always had religious underpinnings, especially in the
West. Veils, however, had been used in the West for weddings long before this.
Roman brides, for instance, wore an intensely flame-colored and fulsome veil,
called the flammeum, apparently intended to protect the bride from
evil spirits
on her wedding day. Later, the
so-called velatio virginum became part of the rite of the
consecration of virgins
, the liturgical rite in
which the church sets aside the virgin as a sacred person who belongs only to
Christ.

In the 19th century, wedding veils came to symbolize the woman’s
virginity
and
modesty
. The tradition of a veiled bride’s face
continues even today wherein, a virgin bride, especially in Christian or Jewish
culture, enters the marriage ritual with a veiled face and head, and remains
fully veiled, both head and face, until the ceremony concludes. After the full
conclusion of the wedding ceremony, either the bride’s father lifts the veil
giving the bride to the groom who then kisses her, or the new groom lifts her
face veil in order to kiss her, which symbolizes the groom’s right to enter into
conjugal relations with his bride.

The lifting of the veil was often a part of ancient wedding ritual,
symbolizing the
groom
taking possession of the wife, either as
lover or as property, or the revelation of the bride by her parents to the groom
for his approval.

A bride wearing a typical wedding veil

In Judaism, the tradition of wearing a veil dates back to biblical times.
According to the Torah in
Genesis 24:65
, Isaac is brought Rebekah to
marry by his father Abraham’s servant. It is important to note that Rebekah did
not veil herself when traveling with her lady attendants and Abraham’s servant
and his men to meet Isaac, but she only did so when Isaac was approaching. Just
before the wedding ceremony the
badeken
or bedeken is held. The groom places
the veil over the bride’s face, and either he or the officiating Rabbi gives her
a blessing. The veil stays on her face until just before the end of the wedding
ceremony – when they are legally married according to Jewish law – then the
groom helps lift the veil from off her face.

The most often cited interpretation for the
badeken
is that, according to
Genesis 29
, when Jacob went to marry Rachel,
his father in law Laban tricked him into marrying Leah, Rachel’s older and
homlier sister. Many say that the veiling ceremony takes place to make sure that
the groom is marrying the right bride. Some say that as the groom places the
veil over his bride, he makes an implicit promise to clothe and protect her.
Finally, by covering her face, the groom recognizes that he his marrying the
bride for her inner beauty; while looks will fade with time, his love will be
everlasting. In some ultra-orthodox traditions the bride wears an opaque veil as
she is escorted down the aisle to meet her groom. This shows her complete
willingness to enter into the marriage and her absolute trust that she is
marrying the right man. In Judaism, a wedding is not considered valid unless the
bride willingly consents to it.

In ancient Judaism
the lifting of the veil took place just
prior to the consummation of the marriage in sexual union. The uncovering or
unveiling that takes place in the
wedding ceremony
is a symbol of what will take
place in the marriage bed. Just as the two become one through their words spoken
in wedding vows, so these words are a sign of the physical oneness that they
will consummate later on. The lifting of the veil is a symbol and an
anticipation of this.

In the
Western world
,
St. Paul’s
words concerning how marriage
symbolizes the union of Christ and His Church may underlie part of the tradition
of veiling in the marriage ceremony.

Dance

Veils are part of the stereotypical images of courtesans and harem women.
Here, the mysterious veil hints at sensuality, an example being the dance of the
seven veils. This is the context into which belly dancing veils fall, with a
large repertoire of ways to wear and hold the veil, framing the body and
accentuating movements. Dancing veils can be as small as a scarf or two, silk
veils mounted on fans, a half circle, three-quarter circle, full circle, a
rectangle up to four feet long, and as large as huge Isis wings with sticks for
extensions. There is also a giant canopy type veil used by a group of dancers.
Veils are made of rayon, silk, polyester, mylar and other fabrics (never wool,
though). Rarely used in Egyptian cabaret style, veil dancing has always played
an important part in the international world of belly dance, extending the range
of the dance and offering lovely transitory imagery.

Courtesans

Conversely, veils are often part of the stereotypical image of the
courtesan
and
harem
woman. Here, rather than the virginity of
the bride’s veil, modesty of the Muslim scarf or the piety of the nun’s
headdress, the mysterious veil hints at sensuality and the unknown. An example
of the veil’s erotic potential is the
dance of the seven veils
.

In this context, the term may refer to a piece of sheer cloth approximately 3
x 1.5 metres, sometimes trimmed with sequins or coins, which is used in various
styles of belly dancing
. A large repertoire of ways to
wear and hold the veil exists, many of which are intended to frame the body from
the perspective of the audience.

Veils for men

Among the
Tuareg
,
Songhai
,
Moors
,
Hausa
. and
Fulani
of
West Africa
, women do not traditionally wear
the veil, while men do. The men’s facial covering originates from the belief
that such action wards off evil spirits, but most probably relates to protection
against the harsh desert sands as well; in any event, it is a firmly established
tradition. Men begin wearing a veil at age 25 which conceals their entire face
excluding their eyes. This veil is never removed, even in front of family
members.

In India
,
Pakistan
,
Bangladesh
, and
Nepal
, men wear a
sehra
on their wedding day. This is a male
veil covering the whole face and neck. The sehra is made from either flowers,
beads, tinsel, dry leaves, or coconuts. The most common sehra is made from fresh
marigolds. The groom wears this throughout the day concealing his face even
during the wedding ceremony. In India today you can see the groom arriving on a
horse with the sehra wrapped around his head.

Etymology

“Veil” came from Latin
vēlum, which also means “sail“.
There are two theories about the origin of the word vēlum:-

• Via the “covering” meaning, from (Indo-European
  root
  ) *wel– = “to cover, to
  enclose”.
• Via the “sail” meaning, from Indo-European *weghslom, from root *wegh-
  = “way” or “carry in a vehicle”, because it makes the ship move.

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.