Constantine I the Great POSTHUMOUS Christian Deification Quadriga Horse i34560

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

POSTHUMOUS After Death Christian Deification Issue
Bronze AE4 16mm (1.33 grams)  Constantinople mint 337-340 A.D.
Reference: RIC VIII 37 Divus Constantinople
DV CONSTANTINVS PT AVGG, veiled head right
Constantine in quadriga right, the hand of God, upper center, grasping the 
chariot,
CON in ex.

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

You are bidding on the exact item pictured, 
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A
quadriga (Latin
quadri-, four, and iugum, yoke) is a car or
chariot drawn by four
horses abreast (the
Roman Empire’s equivalent of
Ancient Greek
tethrippon). It was raced in the
Ancient Olympic Games and other contests. It is 
represented in profile as the chariot of
gods and heroes on
Greek vases and in
bas-relief. The quadriga was adopted in
ancient Roman
chariot racing. Quadrigas were emblems of 
triumph;
Victory and
Fame often are depicted as the triumphant woman 
driving it. In
classical mythology, the quadriga is the 
chariot of the gods;
Apollo was depicted driving his quadriga across 
the heavens, delivering daylight and dispersing the night. The word quadriga 
may refer to the chariot alone, the four horses without it, or the combination.

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