The emperor Constantine (c. 272–337) legalized Christianity in the Roman Empire, ending centuries of persecution and clearing the way for the once-illegal faith to become the dominant religion of Europe. He is also known for moving the empire’s capital from Rome, its home for 1,000 years, to a new city in the east—Constantinople.
Constantine was born in Serbia, then a Roman province known as Naissus. Under the emperor Diocletian (245–316), responsibility for governing the empire was divided among four tetrarchs, one of whom was Constantine’s father, Constantius Chlorus (250–306). When Constantius died while fighting in Scotland, Constantine inherited his place in the tetrarchy.
Tensions among members of the tetrarchy led to a series of wars and revolts between 305, when Diocletian retired, and 325, when Constantine defeated the last of his rivals and consolidated control over the entire Roman Empire. He relocated the imperial capital to the city of Byzantium, which he renamed Constantinople, in 330.
The Edict of Milan, which Constantine issued in 313, allowed Christians to practice their religion and own property. The emperor himself had converted to Christianity the previous year, when he had reported seeing a cross in the sky just before the Battle of Milvian Bridge, a key victory and turning point in the civil war. The edict marked a sudden shift in Roman policy; the last major persecution of Christians had ended only a few years earlier.
Despite his newfound religious faith, however, Constantine was capable of ruthless leadership. In one famous incident in 326, he executed his son with poison and his wife by locking her in a hot steam bath. (The exact reason he had them killed is disputed.) The emperor himself died in 337—leaving as his legacy the transformation of Rome into a Christian state.
ADDITIONAL FACTS
- Milvian Bridge, the site of Constantine’s decisive military victory and his vision of the cross, still stands north of Rome. Built in the first century BC, the stone arch bridge is one of the oldest such structures still in existence.
- The name Constantinople was dropped from common usage after the collapse of the Byzantine Empire in 1453, and the city was officially renamed Istanbul in 1930. The capital of Turkey was also moved to Ankara in 1923, ending Istanbul’s 1,500-year history as a world capital.
- After Christianity was legalized, it continued to spread and became the Roman Empire’s dominant religion. It became the official faith in 380, and—less than a century after its followers had been persecuted—the only permitted religion in 392.
