Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus[2] (
27 February ca.
272[1] –
22 May 337), commonly known as
Constantine I, (among
Roman Catholics) and
Constantine the Great, or
Saint Constantine (among
Eastern Orthodox and
Byzantine Catholic Christians), was an
Illyrian Roman Emperor. He was proclaimed
Augustus by his troops in
306, ruled an ever-growing portion of the
Roman Empire until his death. Best known for being the first
Christian Roman Emperor, the
Edict of Milan - issued by his co-emperor
Licinius - helped to put an end to institutionalized persecution of Christians in the Empire.
The Byzantine liturgical calendar, observed by the Eastern Orthodox Church and Eastern Catholic Churches of Byzantine rite, lists both Constantine and his mother Helena as saints. Although he is not included in the Latin Church's list of saints, which does recognize several other Constantines as saints, he is revered under the title "The Great" for his contributions to Christianity.
In 324, Constantine announced his decision to transform Byzantium into Nova Roma and on May 11, 330, he officially proclaimed the city the new capital of the Roman Empire. The city was renamed Constantinople, The City of Constantine, after Constantine's death in 337. It would remain the capital of the Byzantine Empire for over a thousand years, a reign interrupted only briefly by its 1204 sacking and occupation in the Fourth Crusade, until it finally fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1453.
For Constantine and his contemporaries, there are no surviving full-length biographies or histories in the traditional sense. However, this absence is compensated for by the sheer number of alternate sources available.[3] The fullest source on Constantine's life is the Eusebius' Vita Constantini. Despite its name, the Vita is not a biography, but a combination of eulogy and hagiography.[4] Written some time in the four years between 335 and its author's death,[5] the work focuses on the religious and moral character of Constantine's life.[6] The fullest secular biography on Constantine is the anonymous Origo Constantini.[7] A work of uncertain date,[8] the Origo focuses on the military and political events of Constantine's reign, giving little mention to cultural or religious matters.[9]
