Who Is Constantine The Great

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| Constantine, Capitoline Museums, Rome 'Constantine the Great' 'Saint Constantine' Flavius Valerius Constantinus (AD ca. 285 - AD 337) | Constantine was born in Naissus, Upper Moesia, on 27 February in roughly AD 285. Another account places the year at about AD 272 or 273. He was the son of Helena, an inn keeper's daughter, and Constantius Chlorus. It is unclear if the two were married and so Constantine may well have been an illegitimate child. When in Constantius Chlorus in AD 293 was elevated to the rank of Caesar, Constantine became a member of the court of Diocletian. Constantine proved an officer of much promise when serving under Diocletian's Caesar Galerius against the Persians. He was still with Galerius when Diocletian…show more content…
In the east Licinius and Maximinus Daia fought for supremacy and in the west Constantine began a war with Maxentius. In AD 312 Constantine invaded Italy. Maxentius is believed to have had up to four times as many troops, though they were inexperinced and undisciplined. Brushing aside the opposition in battles at Augusta Taurinorum (Turin) and Verona, Constantine marched on Rome. Constantine later claimed to have had a vision on the way to Rome, during the night before battle. In this dream he supposedly saw the 'Chi-Ro', the symbol of Christ, shining above the sun. Seeing this as a divine sign, it is said that Constantine had his soldiers paint the symbol on their shields. Following this Constantine went on to defeat the numerically stronger army of Maxentius at the Battle at the Milvian Bridge (Oct AD 312). Constantine's opponent Maxentius, together with thousands of his soldiers, drowned as the bridge of boats his force was retreating over collapsed. Constantine saw this victory as directly related to the vision he had had the night…show more content…
Nowhere did this show more than when in AD 326, on suspicion of adultery or treason, he had his own eldest son Crispus executed. One account of the events tells of Constantine's wife Fausta falling in love with Crispus, who was her stepson, and made an accusation of him committing adultery only once she had been rejected by him, or because she simply wanted Crispus out of the way, in order to let her sons acceed to the throne unhindered. Then again, Constantine had only a month ago passed a strict law against adultery and might have felt obliged to act. And so Crispus was executed at Pola in Istria. Though after this execution Constantine's mother Helena convinced the emperor of Crispus' innocence and that Fausta's accusation had been false. Escaping the vengeance of her husband, Fausta killed herself at Treviri. A brilliant general, Constantine was a man of boundless energy and determination, yet vain, receptive to flattery and suffering from a choleric temper. Had Constantine defeated all contenders to the Roman throne, the need to defend the borders against the northern barbarians still

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