Waubonsee Community College

Constantine, Roman Emperor, Christian Victor, Paul Stephenson

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 314-350) and index

individual biography

mapsplatesillustrations

index present

non fiction

Constantine

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489014421

Paul Stephenson

Roman Emperor, Christian Victor

This work surveys the life and legacy of the first Christian Roman emperor, describing the vision that inspired his religious conversion and subsequent conquest of the imperial capital, his founding of Constantinople, and his role in promoting a unified Christian Europe. In 312, Constantine, one of four Roman emperors ruling a divided empire, marched on Rome to establish his sole control of its western half. According to Constantine's first biographer, the bishop Eusebius, on the eve of the decisive battle, at Rome's Milvian Bridge, he had a vision. 'A cross-shaped trophy of light' appeared to him in the sky with an exhortation, generally translated as 'By this sign conquer'. Inscribing the sign on the shields of his soldiers, Constantine drove the followers of his rival Maxentius into the Tiber and claimed the imperial capital for himself. He converted to Christianity and ended persecution of his co-religionists with the defeat in 324 of his last rival, Licinius. Under Constantine, Christianity emerged from the shadows, its adherents no longer persecuted. Constantine united the western and eastern halves of the Roman Empire, and presided over the first ecumenical council of the Christian Church, at Nicaea in 325. He founded a new capital city nearby on the Bosphorus, where Europe meets Asia. This site, the ancient trading colony of Byzantium, became the city of Constantine, Constantinople, a new Christian capital set apart from Rome's pagan past. "Paul Stephenson offers an account of a man whose cultural and spiritual renewal of the Roman Empire gave birth to the historically crucial idea of a unified Christian Europe underpinned by a commitment to religious tolerance

Pt. I. Faith and power in the third century -- Religion in the Later Roman Empire : Roman state religion and imperial cults ; The cult of the standards ; Private religious devotion and cults ; The mysteries of Mithras -- The rise of Christianity : Women and the spread of Christianity ; Christianity as an urban phenomenon ; Christian exceptionalism and martyrdom ; Early Christian attitudes to warfare ; Christians in the Roman army ; Military martyrs and warrior saints -- The unconquered emperor and his Divine Patron : The crisis of empire ; The emperor and the army ; The Roman theology of victory ; The unconquered emperor and the Sun ; Aurelian ; Christ the true Sun -- The Tetrarchy : The first Tetrarchy ; Jovians and Herculians ; The Caesars at war ; The army of the Tetrarchs ; The Great Persecution ; Lactantius : On the deaths of the persecutors -- pt. II. Constantine Invictus. Constantine Invictus : The second Tetrarchy ; Constantine's accession ; Trier ; A vision ; The road to Rome ; The Battle of the Milvian Bridge ; Constantine Invictus and the theology of victory -- Constantine and Rome : Maxentius in Rome ; Adventus Constantini ; The Arch of Constantine ; Meanwhile: Licinius and Maximinus Daia ; Constantine confronts Licinius -- Constantine's conversion : A Christian education ; The setting sun? ; Legislating toleration ; The battle for toleration ; Eusebius and the labarum ; A common vision? -- Constantinople : Nikopolis: victory city ; Location and foundation ; The monumental core ; A Christian city? ; A second senate ; A new Alexander, a new Moses -- pt. III. Victor Constantine -- Victor Constantine : Victor eris ; The new Flavians and the Great Cameo ; The deaths of Crispus and Fausta ; Goths and Sarmatians ; Christian soldiers? ; The greatest victor -- Constantine Maximus Augustus : Government ; Life at court ; Pentarchy ; Persia ; The Holy Places -- Constantine and the bishops : Constantine the universal bishop ; The Donatist schism and the Council of Arles ; The Arians and the Council of Nicaea ; The Christian emperor after Nicaea ; The Church after Constantine -- Death and succession : Constantine's death ; Apotheosis ; Constantine as Christ ; The succession ; Constantius Victor ; Christian victory