Constantine — Military Hero and Christian Emperor

At a banquet of the gods on Mount Olympus, the emperors of Rome were called to account to find which of them was the greatest. When Constantine’s turn came and he recounted his long string of triumphs, Silenus, the drunken companion of Dionysus, stood and rebuked him:

As can be inferred from this excerpt, Julian didn’t think too highly of the accomplishments of his great-uncle. In fact, his purpose in writing The Caesars was to compare Constantine unfavorably with emperors who had gone before him.

Many so-called post-Christian scholars would readily agree with Julian’s assessment. But such scholars are wrong. Constantine’s war-like deeds had a much wider impact than a mere political consolidation of the empire under his sole rule. Without the military victories of Constantine, and the missionary zeal of that emperor in the aftermath of these victories, the ultimate adoption of Christianity by the mass of citizens in the Roman world would certainly have been long postponed.

But these days, Constantine has been thoroughly “Dan-Brown-ized.” His character has been sullied, distorted, and outright falsified by modern slanderers to the point that almost nothing remains of the real man in the popular imagination.

For those who might be interested, bronze coins of Constantine the Great are easily available for only a few dollars. You can get a nice one with easily readable legends for less than $10. Only trick is to get the real, original Constantine II, instead of his kids—Constantine JR, Constans, Constantius II. But any of them are over 1600 years old and with some of his kids, you might see signs of Christianity on the coins—the Chi Rho.

Constantine may be called Great but he became emperor by massacring one Roman army after another. He then destroyed the Tetrarchy system which Diocletian put in place to address the empire’s lethal weakness, the imperial succession. His reign set in motion the events that led to the collapse of the empire in the west, or at the very least undid the hard work of his predecessors in stabilizing the situation.

That's certainly one way to look at it. Another way is this:

Constantine may be called Great but he became emperor by massacring one Roman army after another.

No, they were doing that before Constantine. When Maxentius usurped his father Maximian's dominions, Galerius sent his co-emperor Severus to Italy to deal with the usurper. He failed. Then Galerius himself tried, and also failed. Both lost part or all of their armies. It was left to Constantine to finally and decisively defeat Maxentius. If you read Lactantius, he blames these wars on the fact that the imperial armies grew enormously under the Tetrarchy and men with huge armies following them are always going to find ways to use them to their advantage.

He then destroyed the Tetrarchy system which Diocletian put in place to address the empire’s lethal weakness, the imperial succession.

The Tetrarchy system was a failure from the beginning. It didn't even last one generation and it was hardly Constantine's fault that a flawed system failed so dramatically.

His reign set in motion the events that led to the collapse of the empire in the west, or at the very least undid the hard work of his predecessors in stabilizing the situation.

If you read Lactantius, it becomes clear that the reforms of Diocletian were a mixed bag at best. Yes, he was able to stabilize the frontiers of the empire and reform the internal workings of the provinces. But his economic reforms (cost controls) were generally a failure, his system of imperial succession was a complete failure, and his reform of religion -- that is, the Great Persecution -- was disastrous.

I did mean Constantine I—I don’t know that extra I got in there! I used to order 3rd and 4th century Roman coins for my jr high students to clean and discover what had been hidden under the dirt for the last 16 centuries. Some of them really enjoyed it. The ones going through Catechism thought holding a real Constantine coin was pretty cool, since they were learning about him in church.

“...led to the collapse of the empire in the west”

Perhaps, but as cultural descendants of the Western Empire, it is hard for us to realize, as Constantine did, that the jewel of the empire lie in the East—not the West. The Eastern half of the empire lasted 1000 years longer than the West. If only that door in Constantinople had stayed locked.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.