Editing Constantine the Great (section)

== Assessment and legacy ==
{{Integralism |expanded=people}}
[[File:Colossus of Constantine I 03.jpg|left|thumb|Reconstructed version of the Colossus of Constantine at the Capitoline Museum in 2024]]
Constantine reunited the empire under one emperor, and he won major victories over the Franks and Alamanni in 306–308, the Franks again in 313–314, the Goths in 332, and the Sarmatians in 334. By 336, he had reoccupied most of the long-lost province of Dacia which Aurelian had been forced to abandon in 271. At the time of his death, he was planning a great expedition to end raids on the eastern provinces from the Persian Empire.<ref>Pohlsander, ''Emperor Constantine'', 72.</ref>

In the cultural sphere, Constantine revived the clean-shaven face fashion of earlier emperors, originally introduced among the Romans by [[Scipio Africanus]] (236–183 BC) and changed into the wearing of the [[beard#Rome|beard]] by [[Hadrian]] (r. 117–138). With the exception of [[Julian (emperor)|Julian the Apostate]] (r. 360–363), this new Roman imperial fashion lasted until the reign of [[Phocas]] (r. 602–610) in the 7th century.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.byzantium.gr/statfirst.html|last=Byzantine Chronicle |title=Imperial first times/last times |access-date=4 December 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=Barba |title=Barba – NumisWiki, The Collaborative Numismatics Project |publisher=Forum Ancient Coins |access-date=7 November 2012}}</ref>

The [[Holy Roman Empire]] reckoned Constantine among the venerable figures of its tradition. In the later Byzantine state, it became a great honour for an emperor to be hailed as a "new Constantine"; ten emperors carried the name, including the last emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire.<ref>Pohlsander, ''Emperor Constantine'', 91.</ref> [[Charlemagne]] used monumental Constantinian forms in his court to suggest that he was Constantine's successor and equal. Charlemagne, [[Henry VIII]], [[Philip II of Spain]], [[Godfrey of Bouillon]], [[House of Capet]], [[House of Habsburg]], [[House of Stuart]], [[Macedonian dynasty]] and [[Phokas (Byzantine family)|Phokas family]] claimed descent from Constantine.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9DXZY2giQOAC&pg=PA34 |page=34 |title=The Italian Romance Epic in the Age of Humanism: The Matter of Italy and the World of Rome |author=Jane E. Everson |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2001 |isbn=978-0-19-816015-1}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XGXVO8aOg1QC&pg=PA17 |page=17 |title=Empire and Nation in Early English Renaissance Literature |publisher=Boydell & Brewer Ltd |date=2008 |author=Stewart James Mottram |isbn=978-1843841821}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lV9Xdn3c6IoC&pg=PA135 |page=135 |title=Clio and the Crown: The Politics of History in Medieval and Early Modern Spain |author=Richard L. Kagan |date=2009 |publisher=JHU Press |isbn=978-1421401652}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CSZQ-VPFKoMC&pg=PA187 |page=187 |author=Paul Magdalino |title=Byzantinum in the Year 1000 |publisher=Brill |date=2003 |isbn=9004120971}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JTWAEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA91 |title=John Zonaras' Epitome of Histories: A Compendium of Jewish-Roman History and Its Reception |date=2022 |author=Theofili Kampianaki |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=91 |isbn=978-0-19-268858-3}}</ref><ref name="Marshall2000">{{cite book |author=Tristan Marshall |title=Theatre and Empire: Great Britain on the London Stages under James VI and I |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vje2I7_1njwC&pg=PA36 |access-date=14 December 2012 |date=18 November 2000 |publisher=Manchester University Press |isbn=978-0-7190-5748-9 |pages=36–7}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CAFREAAAQBAJ&pg=PA22 |title=An Empire of Memory: The Legend of Charlemagne, the Franks, and Jerusalem before the First Crusade |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=22 |date=2011 |isbn=978-0-19-161640-2}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mRkpAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA670 |title=The English Historical Review, Volume 2 |author1=Mandell Creighton |author2=Justin Winsor |author3=Samuel Rawson Gardiner |author4=Reginald Lane Poole |author5=Sir John Goronwy Edwards |page=670 |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=1887}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MJB2DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA204 |page=204 |title=The Cambridge Companion to the Literature of the Crusades |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=2019 |author=Anthony Bale |isbn=9781108474511}}</ref>{{Citation overkill|date=January 2025}} [[Geoffrey of Monmouth]] embroidered a tale that the legendary king of Britain, [[King Arthur]], was also a descendant of Constantine.<ref>Mulligan, pp. 262–264.</ref> Constantine acquired a mythic role as a hero and warrior against heathens. His reception as a saint seems to have spread within the Byzantine empire during wars against the Sasanian Persians and the Muslims in the late 6th and 7th century.<ref>Fourlas 2020.</ref> The motif of the Romanesque equestrian, the mounted figure in the posture of a triumphant Roman emperor, became a visual metaphor in statuary in praise of local benefactors. The name "Constantine" enjoyed renewed popularity in western France in the 11th and 12th centuries.<ref>Seidel, 237–239.</ref> During the [[Fascist Italy|Fascist period in Italy]] in the {{nowrap|20th century}}, parallels between Constantine and [[Mussolini]] became especially popular after the signing of the [[Lateran Pacts]] by the Italian State and the [[Holy See|Catholic Church]] in 1929. Mussolini's perceived role in bringing about the historic agreement was sometimes even explicitly compared to Constantine's Edict of Milan. For example, the archbishop of Milan, Cardinal [[Ildefonso Schuster]], claimed that, after sixteen centuries, a second [[March on Rome]] had occurred and a second 'religious pact' had been established, linking Mussolini to the ''spiriti magni'' of both Constantine and [[Augustus]].<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://doi.org/10.1163/22116257-00802002 |last1=Bettegazzi |first1=Nicolò |last2=Lamers |first2=Han |last3=Reitz-Joosse |first3=Bettina |date=December 2019 |title=Viewing Rome in the Latin Literature of the ''Ventennio Fascista'': Francesco Giammaria's ''Capitolium Novum'' |journal=Fascism |volume=8 |issue=2 |publisher=Brill |page=172 |doi=10.1163/22116257-00802002 |hdl=10852/76385 |hdl-access=free |issn=2211-6249}}</ref>

The [[Niš Constantine the Great Airport]] is named in honour of him. A large cross was planned to be built on a hill overlooking Niš, but the project was cancelled.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.novosti.rs/vesti/srbija.73.html:372896-Nis-Vinik-osta-pusto-brdo |title=Niš: Vinik osta pusto brdo |website=NOVOSTI}}</ref> In 2012, a memorial was erected in Niš in his honour. The ''Commemoration of the Edict of Milan'' was held in Niš in 2013.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.b92.net/eng/news/society.php?yyyy=2013&mm=01&dd=17&nav_id=84193 |title=Edict of Milan celebration to begin in Niš |date=17 January 2013}}</ref> The Orthodox Church considers Constantine a saint (Άγιος Κωνσταντίνος, Saint Constantine), having a feast day on 21 May,<ref>Pohlsander, ''Emperor Constantine'', 92–93.</ref> and calls him ''isapostolos'' (ισαπόστολος Κωνσταντίνος)—an [[equal-to-apostles|equal of the Apostles]].<ref>Lieu, "Constantine in Legendary Literature" (CC), 305.</ref>

Constantine is sometimes associated with the [[Religion in politics|religiopolitical]] [[ideology]] known as [[Caesaropapism]], which epitomises the unity of church and state. However, his association with this ideology has been debated.<ref>Averil Cameron, "Introduction", in ''Constantine: History, Historiography, and Legend'', ed. Samuel N. C. Lieu and [[Dominic Montserrat]] (New York: Routledge, 1998), 3; Pohlsander, ''Emperor Constantine'', 91</ref>

=== Historiography ===
[[File:Sir Peter Paul Rubens - Constantius appoints Constantine as his successor - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|''[[Constantius Chlorus|Constantius]] appoints Constantine as his successor'' by [[Peter Paul Rubens]], 1622]]
During Constantine's lifetime, [[Praxagoras of Athens]] and [[Libanius]], pagan authors, showered Constantine with praise, presenting him as a paragon of virtue. His nephew and son-in-law Julian the Apostate, however, wrote the satire ''Symposium, or the Saturnalia'' in 361, after the last of his sons died; it denigrated Constantine, calling him inferior to the great pagan emperors, and given over to luxury and greed.<ref>Barnes, ''Constantine and Eusebius'', 272–223.</ref> Following Julian, [[Eunapius]] began – and [[Zosimus (historian)|Zosimus]] continued – a historiographic tradition that blamed Constantine for weakening the empire through his indulgence to the Christians.<ref name="auto">Barnes, ''Constantine and Eusebius'', 273.</ref>

During the [[Middle Ages]], European and Near-East Byzantine writers presented Constantine as an ideal ruler, the standard against which any king or emperor could be measured.<ref name="auto" /> The [[Renaissance]] rediscovery of anti-Constantinian sources prompted a re-evaluation of his career. German humanist [[Johannes Leunclavius]] discovered Zosimus' writings and published a Latin translation in 1576. In its preface, he argues that Zosimus' picture of Constantine offered a more balanced view than that of Eusebius and the Church historians.<ref>[[Johannes Leunclavius]], ''{{lang|la|Apologia pro Zosimo adversus Evagrii, Nicephori Callisti et aliorum acerbas criminationes}}'' (''Defence of Zosimus against the Unjustified Charges of Evagrius, Nicephorus Callistus, and Others'') (Basel, 1576), cited in Barnes, ''Constantine and Eusebius'', 273, and Odahl, 282.</ref> Cardinal [[Caesar Baronius]] criticised Zosimus, favouring Eusebius' account of the Constantinian era. Baronius' ''Life of Constantine'' (1588) presents Constantine as the model of a Christian prince.<ref>Caesar Baronius, ''{{lang|la|[[Annales Ecclesiastici]]}}'' 3 (Antwerp, 1623), cited in Barnes, ''Constantine and Eusebius'', 274, and Odahl, 282.</ref> [[Edward Gibbon]] aimed to unite the two extremes of Constantinian scholarship in his work ''[[The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire]]'' (1776–1789) by contrasting the portraits presented by Eusebius and Zosimus.<ref>Edward Gibbon, ''The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'' Chapter 18, cited in Barnes, ''Constantine and Eusebius'', 274, and Odahl, 282. See also Lenski, "Introduction" (CC), 6–7.</ref> He presents a noble war hero who transforms into an Oriental despot in his old age, "degenerating into a cruel and dissolute monarch".<ref>Gibbon, ''Decline and Fall'', 1.256; David P. Jordan, "Gibbon's 'Age of Constantine' and the Fall of Rome", ''History and Theory'' 8:1 (1969): 71–96.</ref>

Modern interpretations of Constantine's rule begin with [[Jacob Burckhardt]]'s ''The Age of Constantine the Great'' (1853, rev. 1880). Burckhardt's Constantine is a scheming secularist, a politician who manipulates all parties in a quest to secure his own power.<ref>Jacob Burckhardt, ''{{lang|de|Die Zeit Constantins des Grossen}}'' (Basel, 1853; revised edition, Leipzig, 1880), cited in Barnes, ''Constantine and Eusebius'', 274; Lenski, "Introduction" (CC), 7.</ref> [[Henri Grégoire (historian)|Henri Grégoire]] followed Burckhardt's evaluation of Constantine in the 1930s, suggesting that Constantine developed an interest in Christianity only after witnessing its political usefulness. Grégoire was skeptical of the authenticity of Eusebius's ''{{lang|la|Vita}}'', and postulated a pseudo-Eusebius to assume responsibility for the vision and conversion narratives of that work.<ref>Lenski, "Introduction" (CC), 7.</ref> [[Otto Seeck]]'s ''{{lang|de|Geschichte des Untergangs der antiken Welt}}'' (1920–1923) and [[André Piganiol]]'s ''{{lang|fr|L'empereur Constantin}}'' (1932) go against this historiographic tradition. Seeck presents Constantine as a sincere war hero whose ambiguities were the product of his own naïve inconsistency.<ref>Lenski, "Introduction" (CC), 7–8.</ref> Piganiol's Constantine is a philosophical monotheist, a child of his era's religious syncretism.<ref>Barnes, ''Constantine and Eusebius'', 274.</ref> Related histories by [[Arnold Hugh Martin Jones]] (''Constantine and the Conversion of Europe'', 1949) and [[Ramsay MacMullen]] (''Constantine'', 1969) give portraits of a less visionary and more impulsive Constantine.<ref>Lenski, "Introduction" (CC), 8.</ref>

These later accounts were more willing to present Constantine as a genuine convert to Christianity. [[Norman H. Baynes]] began a historiographic tradition with ''Constantine the Great and the Christian Church'' (1929) which presents Constantine as a committed Christian, reinforced by [[Andreas Alföldi]]'s ''The Conversion of Constantine and Pagan Rome'' (1948), and [[Timothy Barnes (classicist)|Timothy Barnes]]'s ''Constantine and Eusebius'' (1981) is the culmination of this trend. Barnes' Constantine experienced a radical conversion which drove him on a personal crusade to convert his empire.<ref>Lenski, "Introduction" (CC), 8–9; Odahl, 283.</ref> Charles Matson Odahl's ''Constantine and the Christian Empire'' (2004) takes much the same tack.<ref>Odahl, 283; Mark Humphries, "Constantine", review of ''Constantine and the Christian Empire'', by Charles Odahl, ''Classical Quarterly'' 56:2 (2006), 449.</ref> In spite of Barnes' work, arguments continue over the strength and depth of Constantine's religious conversion.<ref>Averil Cameron, "Introduction", in ''Constantine: History, Historiography, and Legend'', ed. Samuel N. C. Lieu and [[Dominic Montserrat]] (New York: Routledge, 1998), 3.</ref> Certain themes in this school reached new extremes in T. G. Elliott's ''The Christianity of Constantine the Great'' (1996), which presented Constantine as a committed Christian from early childhood.<ref>Lenski, "Introduction" (CC), 10.</ref> [[Paul Veyne]]'s 2007 work ''{{lang|fr|Quand notre monde est devenu chrétien}}'' holds a similar view which does not speculate on the origin of Constantine's Christian motivation, but presents him as a religious revolutionary who fervently believed that he was meant "to play a providential role in the millenary economy of the salvation of humanity".<ref>[https://archive.today/20120708061334/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb6404/is_2_69/ai_n29437350/?tag=content;col1 Quand notre monde est devenu chretien], Fabian E. Udoh, review, ''Theological Studies'', June 2008.</ref> [[Peter Heather]] argues that it is most plausible that Constantine had been a Christian considerably before 312&nbsp;&ndash; possibly even for his entire life&nbsp;&ndash; with the public timeline of events instead reflecting his "coming out" as Christian in stages as doing so became politically viable. As a parallel illustrating the cogency of this interpretation, Heather gestures to the later conversion of Constantine's nephew [[Julian (emperor)|Julian]] from Christianity to Hellenism, after which he practiced in secret for a decade.<ref>Peter Heather, ''Christendom'' (London: Allen Lane, 2022), pp. 11–20.</ref>

=== Donation of Constantine ===
{{Main|Donation of Constantine}}
[[Latin Church|Latin Christians]] considered it inappropriate that Constantine was baptised only on his death bed by an unorthodox bishop, and a [[Acts of Sylvester|legend emerged]] by the early 4th century that [[Pope Sylvester I]] had cured the pagan emperor from leprosy. According to this legend, Constantine was baptised and began the construction of a church in the [[Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran|Lateran Basilica]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Canella |first1=Tessa |title=Gli Actus Silvestri fra Oriente e Occidente: Storia e diffusione di una leggenda Costantiniana |location=Academia |pages=243–244 |url=https://www.academia.edu/31467158 |access-date=10 May 2021}}</ref><ref>Lieu, "Constantine in Legendary Literature" (CC), 298–301.</ref> The ''Donation of Constantine'' appeared in the 8th century, most likely during the pontificate of [[Pope Stephen II]], in which the freshly converted Constantine gives "the city of Rome and all the provinces, districts, and cities of Italy and the Western regions" to Sylvester and his successors.<ref>''Constitutum Constantini'' 17, qtd. in Lieu, "Constantine in Legendary Literature" (CC), 301–303.</ref> In the [[High Middle Ages]],<ref>Gregory, ''A History of Byzantium'', 49.</ref><ref>Van Dam, ''Remembering Constantine at the Milvian Bridge'', 30.</ref> this document was used and accepted as the basis for the pope's [[Temporal power of the Holy See|temporal power]], though it was denounced as a forgery by Emperor [[Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor|Otto III]]<ref>Henry Charles Lea, "The 'Donation of Constantine'". ''The English Historical Review'' 10: 37 (1895), 86–87.</ref> and lamented as the root of papal worldliness by [[Dante Alighieri]].<ref>''Inferno'' 19.115; ''Paradisio'' 20.55; cf. ''De Monarchia'' 3.10.</ref> Philologist and Catholic priest [[Lorenzo Valla]] proved in 1440 that the document was indeed a forgery.<ref>Fubini, 79–86; Lenski, "Introduction" (CC), 6.</ref>

=== Geoffrey of Monmouth's ''Historia'' ===
During the medieval period, [[Celtic Britons|Britons]] regarded Constantine as a king of their own people, particularly associating him with [[Segontium|Caernarfon]] in [[Kingdom of Gwynedd|Gwynedd]]. While some of this is owed to his fame and his proclamation as emperor in [[Roman Britain|Britain]], there was also confusion of his family with [[Magnus Maximus]]'s supposed wife [[Saint Elen|Elen]] and her son, another Constantine {{nowrap|({{langx|cy|Custennin}})}}. In the 12th century [[Henry of Huntingdon]] included a passage in his ''Historia Anglorum'' that the Emperor Constantine's mother was a Briton, making her the daughter of [[Coel Hen|King Cole]] of [[Colchester]].<ref>Henry of Huntingdon, ''Historia Anglorum'', Book I, ch. 37.</ref> [[Geoffrey of Monmouth]] expanded this story in his highly fictionalised {{Lang|la|Historia Regum Britanniae}}, an account of the supposed [[list of legendary kings of Britain|Kings of Britain]] from their [[Troy|Trojan]] origins to the [[Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain|Anglo-Saxon invasion]].<ref name="Greenway">{{cite book |last1=Greenway |first1=Diana (Ed.) |author2=Henry of Huntingdon |title=Historia Anglorum: The History of the English People |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-19-822224-8 |page=civ}}</ref> According to Geoffrey, Cole was King of the Britons when Constantius, here a senator, came to Britain. Afraid of the Romans, Cole submits to Roman law so long as he retains his kingship. However, he dies only a month later, and Constantius takes the throne himself, marrying Cole's daughter Helena. They have their son Constantine, who succeeds his father as King of Britain before becoming Roman emperor.

Historically, this series of events is extremely improbable. Constantius had already left Helena by the time he left for Britain.{{sfnm|1a1=Barnes|1y=1981|1p=3|2a1=Elliott|2y=1996|2p=20|3a1=Lenski et al.|3pp=59–60|4a1=Odahl|4y=2001|4pp=47, 299|5a1=Pohlsander|5y=2004a|5p=14}} Additionally, no earlier source mentions that Helena was born in Britain, let alone that she was a princess. Henry's source for the story is unknown, though it may have been a lost hagiography of Helena.<ref name="Greenway" />