Emperor Constantine the Great - Rome's first Christian emperor.

in this video we're going to cover the history of emperor constantine the great also known as the first Christian emperor of Rome discovery literature we will be using can be found in the description below I'm following history and the topics for today's video will be who Emperor Constantine was the historical context which he lived in how he managed to become the sole ruler of the Roman Empire he is conversion to Christianity and how its significantly affected the future of the Empire as well as the history of Europe itself stay tuned before jumping straight to Constantine it's necessary to get a sense of what the Roman Empire in the days of Constantine was like the Roman Empire of the third century was an empire in constant crisis in the north new and stronger Germanic war bands were invading over the Rhine River and in the East a jung an aggressive sassanid empire was looking to expand into the Mediterranean still at the Empire's greatest threat came not from without but from within this was the age of the soldier Emperor's were Emperor after Emperor rose through the ranks of the military grabbed power by force and ruled for a few years until dying in battle or being assassinated the cycle destabilized the empire to the point that it nearly fell apart several times until one upstart emperor called die Clayton managed to grab power in 284 and keep it for a whole two decades thereby breaking the cycle of the soldier Emperor's in order to restore stability to the empire by Klayton created a new political system called the Roman tetrarchy in this system the Empire was ruled by four Emperor's to senior Emperor's call the Augustus and to junior emperors called the Caesars each of the two Caesars was handpicked and answered to the respective Augustus and when one of the augustus died the Caesar under him would become the new Augustus and pick a new Caesar to serve under him this new political system decentralized the political power of the Empire by removing it from Rome to the cities of Trier Milan Thessalonica and Nicomedia which started to function as the emperor's headquarters the system also meant that political power no longer was centred in the hands of one person which removed the risk of the Empire descending into crisis if one of the Emperor's was assassinated the Roman tetrarchy initially worked well and restore stability to the Empire but that stability as we will soon see did not last for long which brings us to the main character of this video Constantine Karlsson Themis born in the late third century AD and was a typical product of the military governing Klaus his father constant use was an Army officer and successfully advanced through the ranks to acquire the title of Caesar being the son of one of the four Emperor's the John Constantine was raised to be a military commander and accompanied the different Emperor's on military campaigns all throughout the empire when his father died the soldiers under him declared Constantine to be the gustas of the western part of the Empire which was something constantine accepted however due to the rules of the tetrarchic system Constantine did not have the right to the title that right belonged to the current Augustus of the West called Severus however Severus power was slipping in Rome the Senate and the Praetorian Guard resentful for the loss of status and privilege proclaimed Maxentius Sanada then retired Augustus maxium as Emperor be neither popular among the general population or his own troops Severus lost his conflict with Constantine and Maxentius recognizing each other as legitimate rulers of their own respective domains however due to several events that will take too long time to go into detail here their mutual respect gradually deteriorated Maxentius father and former Augustus maxium returned to politics from his retirement shortly after Maxentius was declared Emperor and several times try to regain the power that he had possessed while being Augustus this came to a head when maxium took an armed force and captured the Imperial Treasury at orals which was controlled by Constantine and once again declared himself Augustus or the western part of the Empire the attempt failed and Constantine swiftly moved against maxium defeated him in open battle and forced him to commit suicide in response Maxentius publicly profess to avenge his father and not long after he ordered statues of Constantine all over his domain to be destroyed Constantine got the message and responded quickly in the summer of 312 he crossed the Alps with an army of 40 thousand men and in a swift campaign he marches army down to Rome where he faced off against Maxentius Maxentius had decided to leave the security of the walls of Rome and challenge Constantine to open battle at Milvian bridge the two forces met with mix NT is suffering a catastrophic defeat with many soldiers and himself drowning in the Tiber River with Maxentius out of the way Constantine was not the undisputed ruler of the western part of the Roman Empire shortly after having gained control of the West's constant he met with the current Augustus in the East called licenese they agreed to divide the spheres of influence in Empire between themselves and in an attempt to consolidate REM you to respect for each other Lyceus married Constantine's sister Constantia however Constantine and Licinius Alliance did not last under the facade respect and cooperation both Emperor's were highly suspicious of each other since the post conduct of both men demonstrated that her ultimate goal was to gain sole power and war soon broke out again between 316 and 324 Constantine and Licinius fought several wars with each other which ended in Lyceus losing all of his power to Constantine and later being assassinated in 325 with Lyceus out of the way Constantine had eliminated his lost political rival and thus won the Roman version of game of thrones which as we will soon see had long lasting consequences for not all the future of the empire but for the history of europe itself central to the reign of Constantine is its relationship to Christianity by the dawn of the 4th century Christianity was still a minority religion within the Empire and was under heavy persecution in a governmental campaign that was initiated by Dai Klayton Constantine unlike Tye Clayton was early on very sympathetic to the Christians and would later become one himself the Christian offer lactantius riots that turned the night before the Battle of Milvian bridge Constantine was Kumada in a dream to place the Christian Shero sign on the shields of his soldiers and when he triumphed over Maxentius Constantine is said to have attributed the victory to the will and power of the Christian God however converting to Christianity did not come without its issues the majority of the people in the Empire were still pagan including most of the nobility which the Roman emperors traditionally had relied on to secure their throne Constantine was well aware of this which is why his governmental policies towards paganism generally were very ambiguous also within the Christian community there were several conflicts going on between different subgroups and since religion and the state traditionally had been intertwined in the Greek and Roman world this meant that theological disputes within the church now became issues that was of interest to the Roman government as a result Constantine's government hosted several church councils to settle theological disputes as well as sporadically persecuting minor Christian groups in order to maintain unity within the church the Christian Church got more political power than it ever had had before but at the same time lost its independence with bishops sorting to assume additional and administrative functions and Emperor Constantine becoming arbitrary in church affairs but outside affecting the church relationship to the Empire what effects that Constantine's conversion to Christianity and ascension to power have on the roman government and the loss of the empire well on an administration level relatively little he kept likely tense at oracle system for governing the empire or turned it into a dynastic 'el system keeping the titles of Caesars and Augustus but only placing his sons and refused as Co Emperor's and thereby keeping the political power within the family when it came to civil politics he showed a lot of genuine concern for the welfare of his subjects on several occasions when famine struck he ordered for the distribution of money food and clothing to people in need and in 325 he outlawed gladiator shows as well as infant side when it came to slavery Constantine made it illegal for slave families to be separated when an estate was broken up and he legalized him an omission of slaves to take place in churches however it's important to note that slavery as an institution was something that Constantine never challenged liked Roman censors of Republican times Constantine was also very anxious to protect what was considered to be the moral fabric of society in his case this mostly related to the consecration of marriage and sexual conduct and here Constantine went well let's say a bit overboard he issued a number of rescrub smen to protect the sanctity of marriage and even went so far as have ordered that parents who had been accessory to the seduction of a daughter should be punished by having molten lead pour down their throats pretty crazy stuff however beyond the effects on the Empire's administration and politics the greatest effect that Constantine had on the Empire was on its underlying ideology over the course of the fourth century the Roman Empire gradually lost his pagan associations and instead became viewed as a worldly copy of the Kingdom of Heaven with Emperor as God's viceroy on earth and lastly we of course have to talk about one of Emperor Constantine's greatest achievements which is a city of Constantinople despite having lost its political power Rome still function as a sort of symbolic capital but the city had a very pagan identity being followed temples and also the seat of the Roman Senate who still clung to the old ways Constantine would therefore not be content with having Rome as his capital and instead looked east on the shores of the Bosporus there had for centuries existed a small Greek city called Byzantium Constantine made the city his new capital and in that of degree kings of old he renamed it after himself the city would come to be known as Constantinople and would function as a capital city of a new Christian Empire the population started to grow quickly early on and became the site of many of the monumental buildings that were constructed in late antiquity the greatest one by far being the Church of holy wisdom which in the sixth century by Emperor Justinian would be expanded in what today is the Hagia Sophia the grandeur of Constantinople would live on for many centuries but the same however cannot be said for Constantine Constantine's reign continued until the mid 330s while preparing for a military campaign against Persia he fell ill Italia Palace and when the medical treatment failed he tried to return to Constantinople that was forced to take to his bed near in the commedia there Constantine replaced Imperial purple with the white robe so Aniyah feet and he later died in 347 and was buried in the Church of the Apostles in Constantinople so in trying to assess Constantine's legacy what lasting effects did he have on the empire and on the course of history in general because of his conversion the growth of Christianity within the Empire exploded until it had become the majority religion as well as the only officially legal religion within the empire by the end of the fourth century any secession to make Constantinople the capital of the Empire helped laying the foundations of the future byzantine empire however the most significant effect constantine had on history in my opinion is how its conversion to christianity an ascension to power gave birth for a millennia all discussion regarding the proper relationship between church and state as well as a new Christian state ideology that would come to dominate European politics in different shapes for centuries the ID of an anointed monarch ruling a lot Christian community by the grace of God would continue to be the dominant state ideology in the Byzantine Empire as well as in many European states until the break up the French Revolution and such a lasting impact is something that few other Roman emperors can boast of if you want to learn more about the history of Emperor Constantine I strongly recommend that you seek out the well-written biography of Constantine called the Emperor Constantine but a scholar Hans pulse under and don't forget that if you liked this video and want to see more videos like it hit like share and subscribe buttons