Constantine

Constantine was one of the main emperors in the Roman Empire, and his rule led to many changes. I am first going to talk about his political achievements, I’ll then explain his actions on the military side and I’ll finish by showing the most important field he worked in: the religious one. In effect, you’ll see how he changed the world with the rise of Christianity, and how it affected the political and military role he played.

Even before the birth of Constantine, (from the end of the second century after Christ's death), the Roman Empire was divided and ruled by 4 different emperors. The empire was politically unstable and in the grip of chaos. Constantine is known for having brought political peace to the Roman Empire. He indeed reunified the eastern and western halves of the Roman Empire by military conquests as we will see later, but also by smart political moves. For example, he married his sister to Licinius, emperor of the East. Licinius betrayed Constantine by creating a plot to kill him, but he failed and a war started. Licinius lost, but was freed thanks to his wife. However, Licinius, Constantine’s sister and their child were killed by the orders of the emperor of the whole Roman Empire while they were retired in Greece. Constantine also changed the laws of the Roman Empire, introducing Christian principles in the roman laws: some of these influenced our Constitutions and political systems, and our society. He is finally responsible and famous for the rise of Byzantium-Constantinople as a world capital, which gave even more power to the Empire. His legacy is the most far-reaching and long-lasting in the Roman Empire.

His political achievements were related to his military actions. Constantine had exceptional military talents: he won numerous battles against different barbarian nations and even defeated two imperial armies. For example, in three hundred and twelve AD, he freed Rome from its tyrant, Maxentius. His victory is considered a miracle considering Constantine fought for the first time under the Christian symbols in the battle where Maxentius was killed by his strategy. As we will see in the last point, he gave credit to God for his victories, which gave him religious faith: as a matter of fact, he introduced Christian symbols and rhetoric into the Roman Military, which were terrifying the enemies and protecting the Empire. Constantine’s victories allowed him to reunify his empire and rule it alone, without the risk of being attacked by some other parts of the Empire. The frontiers were also sure, keeping the Empire from invasions. The era of chaos Constantine was born in was stopped thanks to him. Constantine is consequently considered a military genius.

The main and last reason explaining why Constantine is famous is the religious changes he led. Although he kept certain pagan traditions and adopted a pragmatic pagan view that some gods were more powerful than others and that he had to put the more powerful on his side, he gave a lot of credit to the Christian religion and god for his victories and for the miracles that happened when carrying the Christian symbols. He allowed the religion to expand: at the beginning, Christianism was a sect of Judaism principally active in the province of Judea. The Christian people were seen as poor, dirty, and weak, and were condemned for being considered troublemakers and agitators. By converting

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