Constantine the Great (272-22 May 337) was Roman emperor from 324 to 337, succeeding Licinius and preceding Constantine II.
Biography[]
Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus was born in 272 AD, the son of Constantius Chlorus. He was sent east to be a military tribune under Diocletian and Galerius by his father, who became an Augustus of the Roman Empire in 293 AD, and he saw action against the Sassanids of Persia. In 305, he returned west to fight in Britannia, and he was acclaimed Roman emperor by his men after his father died in 306. He then competed in civil wars over the empire with Maxentius and Licinius, and he met Maxentius at the Battle of Milvian Bridge in 312 near Rome. Before the battle, Constantine had a vision where he saw a cross in the sky, and he believed that God had spoken to him. He won the ensuing battle, and he converted from paganism to Christianity after his epiphany. He cemented his rule by defeating Licinius at Chrysopolis in 324, and he moved the capital of the Roman Empire to the city of Byzantium in Thrace, which he renamed to Constantinople. Constantine made Christianity the state religion, and he called the First Council of Nicaea in 325, where the Nicene Creed was professed by Christians. Constantine proceeded to build the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at the site of Jesus' tomb in Jerusalem, and he gave the Popes temporal power by establishing the Papal States around Rome. He died in 337, and his son Constantine II succeeded him.
