Constantine the Great

Life events

1. Born — 272

   Born on 27 February 272 in Naissus (modern Niš, Serbia), then part of the province of Moesia Superior. His father was the Roman officer Flavius Constantius; his mother Helena was a Greek woman of low social standing, possibly from Drepanum in Bithynia.

2. Educated — 293

   Received a formal education at the court of Emperor Diocletian in Nicomedia, studying Latin literature, Greek, and philosophy. He may have attended lectures by Lactantius, a Christian scholar of Latin residing in the city.

3. Other — 306

   Proclaimed augustus by his troops at Eboracum (York, England) on 25 July 306, following the death of his father Constantius. The Alamannic king Chrocus, serving under Constantius, led the acclamation; Galerius subsequently granted him only the lesser title of caesar.

4. Other — 312

   Defeated Maxentius at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge on 28 October 312, entering Rome the following day. Before the battle, according to Lactantius, Constantine was directed in a dream to mark the Chi-Rho (☧) on his soldiers' shields; Eusebius records a separate midday vision of a cross of light above the sun.

5. Council — 313

   Met with Licinius in Milan in February 313 and jointly issued what became known as the Edict of Milan, granting full religious toleration throughout the empire and restoring property confiscated from Christians during Diocletian's persecution.

6. Council — 325

   Convoked the First Council of Nicaea in 325, which produced the Nicene Creed and condemned Arianism. Constantine presided and enforced the council's prohibition against celebrating Easter on the day before Jewish Passover, requiring Greek translators for his own Latin speeches.

7. Other — 330

   Dedicated Constantinople on 11 May 330, renaming the rebuilt Greek city of Byzantium as the new imperial capital. Special commemorative coins were issued; the city was later described as Nova Roma Constantinopolitana and served as the empire's capital for over a millennium.

8. Baptized — 337

   Baptized by Eusebius of Nicomedia, an Arian bishop, shortly before his death in the spring of 337. He had sought baptism in Helenopolis and then moved to the suburbs of Nicomedia, expressing a wish to be baptised in the Jordan River but accepting the sacrament where he lay.

9. Died — 337

   Died on 22 May 337 at a suburban villa called Achyron near Nicomedia, on the last day of the fifty-day festival of Pentecost. His body was transferred to Constantinople and buried in the Church of the Holy Apostles in a porphyry sarcophagus.

Relationships

Documented claims

• Constantine introduced the gold solidus coin, struck at 72 to the pound of gold, which became the standard currency of Byzantine and European economies for more than a thousand years. (certain)
• Eastern Orthodox and Greek Catholic churches venerate Constantine as isapostolos (ἰσαπόστολος), 'equal of the Apostles', commemorating him alongside his mother Helena on 21 May. Lutheran churches also observe this feast. (certain)
• The Donation of Constantine, an 8th-century document claiming he ceded Italy and the western provinces to Pope Sylvester I, was proved a forgery in 1440 by the philologist and Catholic priest Lorenzo Valla. (certain)
• The Lateran Basilica in Rome was built on the former base of the Imperial Horse Guard — whose tombstones were ground up for the construction — and was inaugurated on 9 November 312, barely two weeks after Constantine captured the city. (likely)
• Constantine is not formally recognized as a saint in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church; earlier editions of the Martyrologium Romanum referred to him only as piissimi Imperatoris ('most pious Emperor'), a designation removed by the 1956 edition. (certain)

Sources

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_the_Great
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solidus_(coin)
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donation_of_Constantine
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lateran_Basilica
• https://orthodoxwiki.org/Constantine_the_Great
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martyrologium_Romanum