Constantine the Great
Constantine the Great
Constantine the Great (c. 272–337), Constantine I, was Roman emperor from 306 to 337 and the first emperor to embrace Christianity. Proclaimed emperor by the army at York after the death of his father, Constantius I, he gradually established his authority in the West. The turning point came in 312 at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge near Rome; according to the Christian writers Eusebius and Lactantius, he received a divine sign beforehand and placed a Christian emblem on his soldiers' shields. In 313 the Edict of Milan granted freedom of worship across the empire. He convened the Council of Nicaea in 325, which issued the Nicene Creed, and founded Constantinople as a new capital, dedicated in 330. He was baptized shortly before his death. The Eastern Orthodox Church venerates him as a saint, "Equal to the Apostles."
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Rome from Republic to Byzantium
Julius Caesar's rise to supreme power brought the Roman Republic to its end, and his adopted heir Augustus became Rome's first emperor, ushering in the Pax Romana. Marcus Aurelius, the philosopher-emperor, recorded his Stoic reflections in the Meditations. Constantine the Great granted tolerance to Christianity and founded Constantinople, and in the sixth century the general Belisarius recovered North Africa and Italy for the Eastern Roman Empire under Justinian.
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