Copyright © 2004 by R. Blade All Rights Reserved
rblade@sbcglobal.net
Constantine the Great was the first Christian Emperor of the Roman Empire. Except for the pettiness of the papacy he should have been considered the 13th Apostle and been canonized a saint.
Contents
This book contains a fictional conversation between an atheistic modern American host and the reconstituted Constantine the Great (280-337), the first Christian emperor of the pagan Roman Empire.
The fictional conversation was created from and elaborates upon selected events of Constantine’s life described in scholarly works namely:
Constantine the Great, Michael Grant
Constantine the Great, John H. Smith
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon
Life of Constantine, Eusebius of Caesarea
New Catholic Encyclopedia
The Mask of Jove, Stringfellow Barr
The New American Bible
I hereby acknowledge my reliance on and appreciation of the above named works.
R. Blade
The information is this section provides the background for the fictional conversation between an atheistic modern American host and the reconstituted Constantine the Great (280-337), the first Christian emperor of the pagan Roman Empire. The pagan Constantine believed in Roman gods. In the battle to liberate Italia from the tyrant Maxentius, Constantine had a revelatory dream in which the Christian God assured him of victory. After liberating Italia Constantine accepted the new Christian God, made him his patron God, and involved him in his personal and public life.
Dates
All dates in this book are A.D. unless otherwise specified.
Jesus, Christ, Jesus Christ, Christ Jesus
Jesus was a maverick rabbi who threatened the authority of the Jewish high priests. He was the ultimate insubordinate who inferred he was the Son of God. The high priests found him guilty of blasphemy and consigned him to Pontius Pilate. Because Jesus was rumored to be King of the Jews he was a threat to the rule of Pontius Pilate, who found him guilty of treason and crucified him. Apostles and their followers cobbled Christianism from his life, death, and perceived resurrection. His resurrection presented the early church with the problem of how to convert the human Jesus to the resurrected Son of God. To accomplish this the early church created Trinity, its three-in-one God for converting the seminal Jesus to Christ. The names Christ, Jesus Christ, and Christ Jesus were devised by the apostles and followers of Jesus "after" his death to signify Messiah or anointed one. It’s interesting to note that in the Gospels Jesus is mentioned more than Christ but beginning with Acts of the Apostles to Book of Revelation Christ is mentioned more than Jesus.
Early Christians
The followers of Jesus Christ are called Christians. The word Christian was inserted at the end of some epistles by apostles James, John, Jude, and Peter. They intended Christianism to be open to all, whereas Judaism was and still is restricted to those having a Jewish mother. Christianism began in the eastern part (Middle East) of the Roman Empire and migrated to North Africa and the western part (Europe).
At that time the followers of Christ were scattered throughout the Roman Empire. Christians considered Jesus to have been the Messiah and necessarily divine because he was considered the Son of God. Obviously Jesus was human because he had a mother, the Virgin Mary. The early church could not agree on a defined theological doctrine or even an acceptable creed because of a big problem – the belief in one God consisting of two divine parts, the Father and Son. The early church had a big problem, trying to explain how the divine Son of God was incarnated in the human Virgin Mary; she was later exalted to reverence.
Christian Sects
Contentious differences about the nature of the Son of God troubled the early church. Because the early church could not agree on an acceptably uniform theology, Christians separated into many different sects notably Arians, Catholics, Donatists, and Melitists. During Constantine’s reign he struggled mightily to unify the different and disputatious Christian sects for theological unity and peace in the Roman Empire.
NB: This book is not an exposition of Christianism or any other religion.
Catholic
In the first century AD the Christian theologian and bishop, Ignatius of Antiochia, first used the word Catholic to mean general or universal. He is quoted as having said, "The Catholic Church presides in the land of the Romans"
(New Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 7, p 354). His application of the word Catholic inferred that Christianism was a universal religion open to all, whereas Judaism required a Jewish mother.Glossary
Catholic – the orthodox Christianism of the Church of Roma administered by its hierarchical head the Bishop of Roma, a Pope. Preceding and including Constantine’s reign there were 37 popes, from Saint Peter (d 64) to Saint Julius1 (337-352).
Christian – the followers of Christ. All Catholics were Christians but all Christians were not Catholics.
Catholic or Christian – word chosen depends on the author’s interpretation of the event being described.
Church – means any sanctum for Christian worship.
Heresy – the repudiation of the dogma or doctrine of the Church of Roma.
Sect – schismatics or heretics who established their own Christian churches different and separate from the Church of Roma.
Schism – the repudiation of the policies of the Church of Roma.
Gaius Diocletian (245-313)
Gaius Diocletian was born of peasant stock in his namesake town Dioclea renamed Salona (Split, Croatia) a town in the Roman province of Illyricum (Adriatic Sea Balkans). He was an uneducated rustic in the service of Emperor Numerian, who was emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire and coemperor with his brother Carinus. Diocletian rose to become prefect of the emperor’s bodyguard. Lucius Aper, Numerian’s father-in-law, was also a prefect in his service. In 284 while they were campaigning in Dacia (area of Romania) Aper impatient to succeed Numerian killed him. With Aper at his side, Diocletian addressed the army vowing revenge on Numerian’s murderer when he suddenly turned and plunged his sword through Aper. Army leaders were so impressed with his quick decision for determined revenge they proclaimed Diocletian emperor.
Accession of Diocletian (284-305)
Numerian’s brother Carinus was coemperor and ruled the Western Roman Empire. When he heard of his brother’s murder he suspected the new emperor Diocletian and marched east to avenge his brother’s murder with the intention of annexing Dacia. Carinus attacked Diocletian near present day Belgrade and was winning when he was unexpectedly killed by one of his own men. The victorious Diocletian was proclaimed emperor by his army. Invoking his patron god Jupiter, Diocletian sacrificed and gave thanks for his sole emperorship of the vast and socially complex Roman Empire.
While Diocletian believed in Roman institutions and civil order he thought the city of Roma was arrogant, boastful, and noised with chariot traffic and lawyers. He looked elsewhere for a capital from which he would rule. He preferred the more subservient cultures in the east such as those of Aegyptus (Egypt), Asiana (Turkey), and Oriens (Middle East). He looked upon the East as a land of great opportunity for exploiting its great resources and wealth. He chose Nicomedia (Izmit in Kocaeli, Turkey) for its ideal location because it was strategically located between Britannia (Britain) and Persia (Iran), the empire’s outer limits. He made Nicomedia his imperial capital city and built a great palace suitable for the new emperor and seat of power for the Roman Empire.
In Nicomedia Diocletian declared himself a divine ruler to be addressed Dominus (the Lord) and walked about his palace as if he wore a nimbused crown. Anyone requesting a meeting with him had to get by several interlocutors and his chief of staff. In Diocletian’s presence the fortunate visitor fell to his knees and kissed the hem of his imperial Tyrian purple robe. In Roma patricians in the Roman Senate would never have tolerated such servile behavior. His acceptance and preference for eastern culture marked the beginning of the abandonment of Roma. Succeeding emperors followed in his footsteps.
Diocletian’s Reforms
Disparate peoples, some civilized but most not advanced beyond mere sustenance, populated the vast Roman Empire. Most of these peoples wanted to participate in the advantages of Roma’s advanced culture such as citizenship and ability to vote, the protection of its laws and courts, bread and circuses, respect for marriage and family. Although Diocletian had departed Roma for Nicomedia, he still believed in Roman culture. He once revealed that an emperor’s task was to bring the different peoples of the empire into the Roman way of life. In order to do that Diocletian developed and instituted many reforms including the following:
In his time Diocletian was the indispensable emperor, the "man of the hour" for the Roman Empire. Some of his governmental reforms are still applicable today.
Geographic Names
The use of Roman Empire names during Constantine’s reign gives historic signifance to geographic locations. For identification today those names need to be converted to modern names (eg ancient Byzantium is now Istanbul, Turkey). Conversely the use of modern names in place of Roman Empire names may not relate to the appropriate location because countries and cities changed names over the years (Isparta, Turkey was Antiochia, Syria). For example the Council of Nicaea loses its historic significance if replaced by the Council of Iznik. Moreover some names then and now have two names; ancient Alexandria is now known as El Iskandarîyah or Alexandria . In this book the choice of a name, Roman Empire or modern, was arbitrarily determined by the conversation itself (damned if you do or don’t). To atone for indiscretions in the use of geographic names, Roman Empire names and their equivalent modern names are listed in the table below.
(325)Roman Name Modern Name
Achaea Greece
Adrianople Edirne, Turkey (European)
Aegyptus Egypt
Alexandria Iskandarîyah or Alexandria, Egypt
Antiochia (Syria) Isparta, Turkey
Aquileia Trieste, Italy (Croatia, Slovenia)
Arelate Arles, France
Armenia parts of Armenia, Turkey, Iran
Asiana Turkey
Belgica Belgium
Bithynia Kocaeli area, Turkey
Bononia Boulogne, France
Bosporus Straits Black Sea to Sea of Marmara
Britannia Britain
Brundusium Brindisi, Italy
Byzantium Istanbul, Turkey
Carnuntum near Hainburg, Austria
Carthage Tunis, Tunisia
Chrysopolis Üsküdar, opposite Istanbul, Turkey
Cibalae NE of Sirmium (qv)
Cilicia Turkey on Black Sea, Georgia, Armenia
Cirta Constantine, Algeria
Constantinople Istanbul, Turkey
Cordoba Cordova, Spain
Dacia area of Romania
Dardanelles Canakkale, Turkey
Dardanelles Straits Sea of Marmara to Aegean Sea
Drepanum see Bithynia
Eboracum York, England (UK)
Gallia France
Genua Genoa, Italy
Germania Germany
Hispania Portugal, Spain, Mauretania
Helenopolis was Drepanum (qv)
Italia Italy
Kallipolis Gelibolu (Gallipoli) peninsula, Turkey
Illyricum Adriatic Sea Balkans
Londinium London, England (UK)
Lycopolis Asyut, Aegyptus
Macedonia Albania, Macedonia, Greece
Mardia in Bulgaria
Massilia Marseilles, France
Mauretania Moroccco, Algeria
Mediolanum Milan, Italy
Mesopotamia Iraq
Naissus Nis, Yugoslavia
Neapolis Naples, Italy
Nicaea Iznik in Bursa, Turkey
Nicomedia Izmit in Kocaeli, Turkey
Numidia Algeria
Oriens Middle East
Palestina Israel
Persia Iran
Philippopolis Plovdiv, Bulgaria
Pola Pula, Croatia
Roma Rome, Italy
Salona Split, Croatia
Sarmatia Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine
Sea of Marmara between Europe and Turkey
Sardica Sofia, Bulgaria
Sicilia Sicily, Italy
Sirmium Kosovska-Mitrovica, Yugoslavia
Susa near Turin, Italy
Syria Lebanon and Syria
Tarsus SE coast Turkey coast near Syria
Taurinorum Turin, Italy
Thessalonica Salonika, Greece
Thracia Bulgaria, Greece, European Turkey
Trèves Trier, Germany
Verulamium St. Albans, England (UK)
Communications
Throughout the empire couriers traveled from post to post circulate communications such as edicts, letters, and news. From Nicomedia to Alexandria, about 600 miles, required 3 weeks. From Nicomedia to Roma, about 800miles, required 6 weeks. Travel was on foot, animal, or by vessel.
Roman Empire Territory
During Constantine’s emperorship (306-337) the vast Roman Empire encompassed the following territories:
West to East - Britannia (Britain) to Mare Caspium (Caspian Sea) and Mare Arabicus (Arabian Sea)
North to South – Sarmatia (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine) to and including North Africa.
(280-306)HOST Your father Flavius Constantius (250-306) was born in Dardanelles (Canakkale, Turkey) and moved to Illyricum at a young age. Rugged and sturdily built, he was called Constantius Chlorus because of his light skin and hair. It’s obvious you inherited his stature and manly looks with an athletic build, large round face and eyes, aggressive square chin, thick lips, and of course a thick bull neck.
CONSTANTINE My father’s father was a Dardanian nobleman and my father’s mother was a niece of the great Emperor Claudius Gothicus. My father told me all about our dynastic ascendance from the emperor, who was rewarded with the title Gothicus because he defeated the Goths in the battle of Naissus (Nis, Yugoslavia) my birthplace.
HOST Are you claiming dynastic ascendance?
CONSTANTINE Of course, my father wouldn’t lie to me. He believed in personal integrity, respect for law, and in Roman institutions.
HOST Your father became governor of Illyricum. He met and fell in love with your mother, Flavia Helena. She was born in Drepanum, Bithnyia (Kocaeli area, Turkey). Your father did not marry her because of her unacceptable status. She was not a Roman citizen; she worked in her father’s tavern as a maidservant. Their love was fruitful and you were born in Naissus but your birthdate varies from the early 270’s to the late 280’s.
CONSTANTINE I was born in 280. My father named me Flavius Velerius Constantinus. Growing up my mother often reminded me that my birth was a gift from the gods and that I would become a man of great renown.
HOST Because of the vast and multicultural territories of the Roman Empire, the persistent incursions by barbarians and revolts by native tribes, Diocletian decided the empire was too large and complex for one man to govern. In 286 he appointed Maximian, one of his successful general and military comrades, to be Caesar of Gallia (France) and the Rhine frontier. Of course, in the scheme of rule, a Caesar is subordinate to an emperor. Maximian was also an Illyrian of peasant stock. He established his capital at Mediolanum (Milan, Italy) near Germania (Germany) to keep an eye on the Alemanni (Germans) and Franks.
CONSTANTINE Diocletian ruled with the wisdom of Jupiter, his patron god. Recall that Jupiter had Hercules work for him. In their relationship Diocletian was Jupiter and Maximian was Hercules. They worked closely and successfully. Invoking the tutelage of Hercules, Maximian was successful in suppressing the rebellious Alemanni and Franks, and even repelled the invading Burgundians in regions of the Rhine. For a while there was peace along the Rhine frontier and in Gallia.
HOST During a period of comparative peace Maximian began a building program to upgrade Mediolanum to the status of an imperial capital city. While Maximian was busy upgrading that city, pirates in the North Sea were intercepting and looting Roman transport ships of their valuable cargoes. In 287 Maximian provided Carausius the Roman governor of northern Gallia with a naval fleet to eliminate pirates.
CONSTANTINE Based in Bononia (Boulogne, France) Carausius successfully cleared pirates ships from the North Sea and English Channel. The problem was that in taking over the pirate ships, he kept most of the loot for himself. Roma complained there was a constant shortage of tribute, which made Maximian suspect Carausius of helping himself. He tried to persuade Carausius to send Roma its due tribute but negotiations failed. Suspecting Roma’s reprisal Carausius hired mercenaries.
HOST In 289 Maximian sent a naval fleet to Bononia to depose Carausius.
CONSTANTINE But Carausius defeated Maximian’s naval fleet, seized Northern Gallia and Britannia, and proclaimed himself emperor. Maximian reluctantly acknowledged Carausius emperor of Britannia. Carausius continued to be victorious in repelling persistent raids by Franks and Saxons on Britannia’s coast.
HOST But Britanni natives eventually rebelled even though Carausius was protecting Britannia’s coast from persistent raids.
CONSTANTINE While Maximian was in Britannia helping Carausius to suppress that rebellion, Alemanni and Franks invaded Gallia. It happened that my father commanded Maximian’s Praetorian Guard in Gallia and was ordered to repel the invaders, which he did.
HOST Meantime Diocletian was busy fighting invasions by Arabs and Sarmatians in the East. About 291 he expanded the empire by conquering parts of Mesopotamia (Iraq), Armenia (parts of Armenia, Turkey, Iran), and Sarmatia (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine). With those territories added to the empire Diocletian realized the empire was too large and multicultural for two to govern, so in 293 he divided the empire in two.
CONSTANTINE The Eastern Empire or East and the Western Empire or West. Retaining senior status Diocletian appointed himself Augustus of East and named Maximian Augustus of West.
HOST I would like to interject a comment here. As you know the title Augustus was given to Julius Ceasar’s adopted son and heir Octavian. The senate awarded Octavian the title Augustus because he was innovative and enlarged the empire. He converted Roma from a city of red bricks to the white marble capital of the Roman Empire, the wonder and envy of the civilized world. Following his example for Roman posterity and renown, succeeding emperors engaged in extensive construction projects throughout the empire.
CONSTANTINE Diocletian instituted a Tetrarchy of two Augusti and two Caesars to rule over the East and West.
HOST I understand the Tetrarchy was a concordat among four rulers.
CONSTANTINE Diocletian spoke of the rule of four, four princes of the world, Quattuor Principes Mundi. They would comprise the First Tetrarchy. He remarked that it was the first of many to follow. Diocletian named his comrade Galerius his Caesar and Maximian named my father his Caesar. The two Augusti would assume paternal oversight over their Caesars.
HOST Didn’t the expansion of rulers from two to four mean bigger government?
CONSTANTINE Yes but it reduced the temptation of one ruler to usurp the rule of another. Diocletian remained the senior Augustus and retained for himself the power to legislate. He designed the Tetrarchy without the approval of the Roman Senate so that in the future his edicts would bypass the senate making it irrelevant.
HOST Like our state laws in America which bypass our Congress.
CONSTANTINE America?
HOST My country.
CONSTANTINE Never heard of it. I don’t recall seeing it on any of our maps. No one has ever mentioned America to me. Can our vessels reach it?
HOST It didn’t exist during your time.
CONSTANTINE Where is it?
HOST Far across the Oceanus Atlanticus.
CONSTANTINE In that case it couldn’t threaten Roma. If it existed I’d conquer it, make it a province, employ its people, and collect taxes from it.
HOST Getting back to the Tetrarchy, what about territorial boundaries?
CONSTANTINE To the best of my recollection, territorial allotments were:
Diocletian the senior Augustus ruled from Nicomedia over Asiana to Mesopotamia, Aegyptus, and Libya.
Galerius his Caesar of East ruled from Sirmium (Kosovska-Mitrovica, Yugoslavia) over Illyricum, Achaea (Greece), and provinces along the Danube.
Maximian Augustus of West ruled from Mediolanum over Italia, Sicilia, and North Africa.
My father his Caesar of West ruled from Trèves (Trier, Germany) over Britannia, Gallia, and Hispania.
HOST Was it was coincidental that all the Augusti and Caesars were born in the provinces between the Adriatic and Aegean Seas?
CONSTANTINE Diocletian decided that. Both Caesars, Galerius and my father, were successful generals with proven records of winning battles.
HOST Galerius had the reputation of a drunkard and sexual athlete, contrasted with your father an ethical man who believed in the integrity of the family.
CONSTANTINE The Augusti and Caesars had their own armies and were responsible for the administration and protection of their territories. Because of the vastness of the empire and for greater local control the seats of power were moving away from Roma. Roman citizens and the senate were outraged that the Augusti and Caesars rejected Roma as their central capital.
HOST With four new capitals and such great cultural diversity there must have been language problems.
CONSTANTINE Many languages were spoken in our polyglot empire, in the East mostly Greek and in the West mostly Latin. But those individuals in the East or West who wanted to advance their careers had to learn Latin.
HOST We have the same problem in America. Spanish speaking immigrants who want to advance their careers need to learn English.
CONSTANTINE Spanish? English?
HOST From Hispania and Britannia.
CONSTANTINE Both provinces in the West. We taught them Latin.
HOST Which they used to develop their own languages.
CONSTANTINE Diocletian’s plan was that the Augusti were to rule for 20 years and then retire. Before retiring they would name successor Augusti based on their meritorious service to the empire. Diocletian found himself in the same predicament as Julius Caesar, niether of them had a son, a presumptive heir. That’s why Diocletian instituted a policy by which each new Augusti would name his Caesar based on his meritorious service to the empire.
HOST As an added condition for serving Diocletian imposed on Caesars marriages with children of Augusti.
CONSTANTINE To assure political bonding between the Augusti and Caesars, Galerius was persuaded to divorce his wife and marry Diocletian’s daughter Galeria Valeria. My father had to renounce my mother to marry Maximians’s stepdaughter Flavia Theodora. For further bonding my father and Maximian agreed that his infant daughter Fausta and I would marry when she became of age. At that time she was 2 and I was 13.
HOST What happened to meritorious service?
CONSTANTINE From the beginning the Tetrarchy had succession problems because normal succession is from father to son. Diocletian’s policy of meritorious service was flawed because marriages produce sons, and sons are the presumptive heirs.
HOST Speaking of sons how did Diocletian get custody of you?
CONSTANTINE He suggested I be his surrogate son declaring I would receive a better education in the East.
HOST The reports were that you were taken to Diocletian’s court in Nicomedia as hostage for your allegiance to him and assurance for your father’s good behavior.
CONSTANTINE Diocletian stated I would receive a better education in the East, an education suitable for a future leader of the empire. Also that I should become familiar with the culture of the eastern provinces because Roma’s future was there.
HOST Did your father protest giving up custody?
CONSTANTINE My father took me aside and told me he wanted me by his side but couldn’t refuse the Augustus whom had just appointed him Caesar. He cautioned me to have patience so that we may be reunited in the future and to remember my dynastic inheritance.
HOST How did you feel being ordered away from your parents.
CONSTANTINE At 13 years of age I felt abandoned, apprehensive of the future but I remembered my father’s advice.
HOST What about your mother?
CONSTANTINE Diocletian made sure she didn’t interfere with my father and his new wife Theodora. He ordered her to Roma, a city he didn’t like, and granted her a small pension.
HOST Did Diocletian forbid her to see you?
CONSTANTINE I don’t know and never asked. The next time I saw her was when I became a Caesar. I sent for her.
HOST What was it like in Diocletian’s court?
CONSTANTINE I was educated in preparation for a governing position in a Roman province. The scholar Lucius Lactantius, a Christian writer from North Africa, was summoned to teach me Latin rhetoric and the art of public speaking. Eventually we became friends.
HOST A scribe in Diocletian’s court wrote the following about you (reads):
The son of an Augustus he had the manly bearing of a leader. He was trained in the military arts and horsemanship. Excelling in these and capable of making quick decisions, Diocletian appointed him tribune of his personal bodyguard. Because of his commanding presence, dressed in the scarlet cloak of a tribune, his stature and physical appearance made him stand out above others. Contrasted with his fellows courtiers Constantine presented a minatory appearance. Envious courtiers surrounded the young man and waited for an opportunity to injure him.
CONSTANTINE In the environment of Diocletian’s court Lactantius taught me the art of political survival. I learned self-reliance and to be wary of those who greeted me with a smile and an embracing salutation.
HOST Meanwhile in Britannia one of Carausius’ trusted generals Allectus killed him, seized power, and proclaimed himself emperor.
CONSTANTINE One usurper killed by another for the glory and power of wearing the imperial purple. In Gallia my father captured Bononia making it his base of operations in preparation for crossing the channel to depose the usurper Allectus.
HOST While your father was preparing to reconquer Britannia, Diocletian and Galerius marched against King Narses of Persia who was encroaching upon the Roman province of Asiana.
CONSTANTINE They defeated the king and enlarged the East by annexing all of Mesopotamia and Armenia.
HOST They made most of the rebellious Persians slaves but the better of them were resettled in Roman provinces.
CONSTANTINE Of course, how do you think we expanded and populated the empire?
HOST At 17 you were a cavalry officer in Diocletian’s army. You fought under him while suppressing an Arab invasion of Syria (Lebanon and Syria). He noticed your courage in battle, after which he had you fight alongside him to suppress a revolt in Aegyptus. It appears to me that emperors spent all their time fighting invasions of and rebellions in Roman provinces.
CONSTANTINE We needed the resources and tribute from provinces. We suppressed the rebellion in Aegyptus and executed the usurper Domitianus who had seized power in Alexandria (El Iskandarîyah/Alexandria, Egypt).
HOST Did Diocletian always execute rebel leaders?
CONSTANTINE Of course, why give them another chance to rebel?
HOST There was more fighting in the East. King Narses of Persia invaded Syria. Diocletian ordered Galerius to march against the king but this time Narses defeated Galerius.
CONSTANTINE Diocletian humiliated Galerius by making him walk behind his carriage. When rebellious Sarmatians invaded Dacia Diocletian, in a surprise move, had me transferred to Galerius’ staff. As a member of his staff I fought beside him. We defeated the Sarmatians and pushed them back to their northern habitat.
HOST It was reported that Galerius’ suspicious nature noticed your bravery in battle. Thereafter he kept a jealous and watchful eye on you.
CONSTANTINE In a vengeful mood the next year Galerius stopped Persia’s westward expansion by crushing King Narses’ army. I fought alongside Galerius in that victory. He looted the king’s tents of gold, silver, and precious stones claiming for Roma the king’s vast riches. He captured the king’s young wives for his and his staff officers’ pleasure. I refused his invitation to participate in the orgies.
HOST Galerius won the war but Diocletian negotiated the peace.
CONSTANTINE Narses ceded to Roma all his provinces bordering the Tigris River expanding eastward our growing empire. To reward Galerius, Diocletian gave him the Roman provinces between the Aegean and Adriatic Seas, the homeland of all tetrarchs. Galerius chose to rule from Thessalonica (Salonika, Greece).
HOST To commemorate his victory over Narses Galerius built himself an Arch of Triumph, an imperial palace, a hippodrome, and several other memorial buildings.
CONSTANTINE He did so without Diocletian’s approval, which made him and the rest of us very uneasy. While Galerius worshipped at his arch, Maximian suppressed Moorish revolts in Hispania and Mauretania (Morocco, Algeria). He was rewarded with a triumphal procession in Roma, which angered Galerius because he was never rewarded like that when he defeated Narses.
HOST About the year 300 Diocletian began issuing edicts in book form. Scrolls were stitched together and bound between thin wooden covers.
CONSTANTINE For more efficient distribution of resources and collection of taxes he issued in book form the census of animals, land, and population. He also issued in book form edicts for fixing prices but they failed to stabilize Roma’s economy.
HOST Did you read many manuscripts bound in books?
CONSTANTINE I wasn’t much of a reader.
HOST About that time, in his native land of Salona (Split, Coatia), Diocletian began the construction of a magnificent palace and an adjoining mausoleum where he could rest in peace under the tutelage of Roman gods.
CONSTANTINE During its construction Diocletian requested that I accompany him to Salona. While traveling from Nicomedia to Salona we rested at Thessalonica. Galerius entertained us at his newly built palace. His staff monitored my every move and kept an eye on me.
HOST Why?
CONSTANTINE Galerius wrongfully suspected I was there to replace him.
HOST Shortly after Diocletian and you returned to Nicomedia you married Minervina, even though you were promised to Maximian’s daughter Fausta.
CONSTANTINE A promise made solely for political bonding. I simply fell in love with Minervina and we got married.
HOST Scholars know nothing about her.
CONSTANTINE She was a lovely Syrian girl about my age, the daughter of one of Diocletian’s bodyguards. Our wedding took place in his palace. Minervina is a fine Roman name, signifying handmaiden to Minerva goddess of war and wisdom. The two qualities I most admired. I’d never been to Roma but in Roma Minerva was more popular than Jupiter’s wife Juno. Our son Crispus was born the next year.
HOST In 303 the big event in Nicomedia was Diocletian’s celebration of the 20th anniversary of his rule.
CONSTANTINE Much to the dismay of Romans who thought he should have first celebrated in Roma. Eventually Diocletian and his entire court traveled to Roma and there with Maximian celebrated their 20th anniversary of successful rule over the East and West.
HOST Unlike Nicomedia, in Roma there were day-to-night banquets, entertainments, and games.
CONSTANTINE Diocletian complained that Romans were immoral and became disgusted with their libertine behavior. He eschewed their arrogance and profligacy, killings in the Colosseum, thieves, traffic, and milling crowds in the noisy Forum. Before the licentious Saturnalia festivities began, he departed Roma for the more peaceful Ravenna, Italia. I would have done the same. From there he went to Illyricum to distance himself from Roma. Diocletian complained that at great public expense there were about 160 Roman holidays devoted to banquets, entertainments, games, and voluptuous indulgences.
HOST Roma must have been the mother lode of doles and dissolution.
CONSTANTINE But he still believed in Roma’s destined renown and world domination because he promoted its culture and the use of Latin. He imposed on these his ardent belief in Roman gods, especially Jupiter his patron god. Galerius supported him in those beliefs.
HOST Most of the eastern provinces believed in the Persian religion of Manicheism in which the god of light struggles against the god of darkness. It’s the religion of dualism the Kingdom of Light vs the Kingdom of Darkness, soul and goodness vs. body and evil.
CONSTANTINE Even though Galerius defeated the Persians their Manichean religion was intruding upon and, in some areas, becoming more popular than Roman paganism. The Roman legions included a growing number of conquered Manichee soldiers who decided to fight for Roma rather than become slaves. Most of them did not believe in Roman culture and gods; they didn’t make good soldiers. Manichees who believed in Roman culture and gods made good soldiers. Fearful that Roma’s authority would be weakened, Diocletian and Galerius began purging Manichees from their armies and civilian population.
HOST There was a bigger threat from a new sect in the East, the Christians. Some of them even combined Manicheism with Christianism. In Manicheism the soul is light and evil is darkness. In Christianism God is light and Satan is darkness.
CONSTANTINE Diocletian and Galerius also purged their armies of Christians because they feared they would influence pagan Roman soldiers and destroy their discipline. It was Diocletian who ordered that Christian civilians be persecuted. A superstitious man, he believed that Christians by making the sign of the cross were projecting a secret power nullifying the power of pagan gods over human events. He feared that God would replace Jupiter and thereby threaten the ruling powers of the Augusti and Caesars. He charged Christians with treachery and issued edicts for their persecution throughout the empire. In the East and North Africa the Augusti and Caesars persecuted Christians by destroying churches, confiscating properties, torturing and sometimes killing their leaders.
HOST And so in 303 began Diocletian’s Great Persecution, which lasted 10 years.
CONSTANTINE Most Christians complied with his edicts. They renounced their faith, surrendered the Bible and Christian relics, or worse reverted to sacrificing to Roman gods. Those who did so were called "traditores" (traitors). Christians leaders who refused to renounce God were usually imprisoned, tortured, or martyred.
HOST Among Christians persecuted were Pamphilus teacher of Eusebius of Ceasarea, Eusebius himself, and bishops Ossius and Melitius. Eusebeus became Bishop of Palestina (Israel) and was one of the most important writers of the early church. Among his celebrated writings are the History of the Church and Martyrs of Palestina. Martyrdom proves the overwhelming power of the idea of God over secular pursuits. Martyrdom proves faith more resolute than life. When life ends faith lives on and is passed to posterity.
CONSTANTINE Martyrs about to die prayed for their enemies and also for Jews that the word of God be revealed to them. All of us were surprised at the Christians’ meekness and willingness to die so they could meet their Redeemer in heaven.
HOST During that persecution Diocletian maintained his biggest army ever. If Christians were willing to die, why did he need a big army?
CONSTANTINE Because their growing number might require a large army to suppress multiple Christian rebellions throughout the empire. He claimed that Christians making the sign of the cross invalidated the omens of pagan priests and sorcerers reading animal entrails. If Christians didn’t stop making the sign of the cross, he would have to retaliate with force. Galerius was brutal in destroying, torturing, and killing Christians who would not sacrifice to Roman gods.
HOST The wave of persecutions in the East migrated to North Africa and Roma itself then spread throughout the West.
CONSTANTINE To comply with Diocletian’s order my father destroyed churches but never tortured or killed Christians. My father was the exception. In fact Diocletian rebuked my father because he wasn’t killing Christians.
HOST Your father was rational and the most temperate of the tetrarchs.
CONSTANTINE Diocletian also complained about my father’s meager treasury and demanded he collect more taxes. My father did so but then returned some of the money to taxpayers.
HOST He also returned enemies he defeated to power.
CONSTANTINE Franks and Alemanni took advantage of the empire-wide persecution by repeated uprising along the Gallia frontier. Much of my father’s time was spent suppressing their rebellions. Having defeated them repeatedly my father, in an unusual gesture for peaceful coexistence, restored their kings to power.
HOST While friendly Christians were being persecuted your father pardoned his enemies? Why did he restore kings who had attacked him? The Augusti and Caesars believed in exterminating them to avoid further threats.
CONSTANTINE My father was a great general and contrasted with the others also kind and gentle. His friendly restoration brought several years of peace to Gallia during which he supervised an extensive building program in Trèves making it worthy of a Roman imperial capital. He rebuilt public buildings, aqueducts, baths, farmhouses, and villas. Gallia enjoyed peace because the people were pleased with his improvements.
HOST Your father and Theodora had six children, three sons and three daughters, your six stepsiblings. He named one of his daughters Anastasia, which in Greek means a raising up, interpreted by Christians as resurrection.
CONSTANTINE My father sympathized with Christians. He appointed several of them to his palace staff and bodyguard.
HOST Diocletian could have used some of your father’s compassion because his palace was torched twice. The first time he blamed the Christians on his staff. He rid the palace and its environs of all Christians. The second fire was in his bedchamber and nearly killed him.
CONSTANTINE He suspected the Christian eunuchs of his bedchamber staff. The condemned eunuchs begged me to intervene claiming the fire was caused by lightning. Diocletan had a great fear of lightning because he thought the Roman gods were punishing him. I suggested that the fire was from God in heaven not Christians on earth and that the God’s anger at his persecutions might have caused lightning to strike his bedchamber. He angrily responded that Jupiter was supreme in the heavens. My intervention was ignored and he executed the eunuchs. But Diocletian had another problem. His wife Prisca and daughter Valeria, wife of Galerius, had converted to Christianity and stridently protested his persecution and killing of innocent eunuchs.
HOST I read somewhere that Diocletian thought Christians made good citizens because they were well organized.
CONSTANTINE True but because of their growing number he considered them a threat to Roma’s paganism.
HOST In 304 Diocletian became ill. What do you know about that?
CONSTANTINE Due to persistent wars and rebellions during his 20 years of rule, and aggravated by the stress of the Great Persecution, Diocletian was mentally exhausted, physically debilitated, and bedridden.
HOST Some scholars say that the cunning Galerius abetted by his Christian wife Valeria, Diocletian’s daughter, persuaded him to do something no Roman emperor had ever done and that is retire.
CONSTANTINE Recall that Diocletian himself proposed an Augustus should rule for 20 years and then retire. He had been emperor for 21 years (284-305). Because of his illness he talked only of retiring and tending the garden at his magnificent palace in Salona.
HOST The next year 305 he did abdicate which was a stunning, extraordinary, and unprecedented event. Emperors were either killed in battle, murdered while serving, or died of disease. No emperor had ever voluntarily abdicated. What about Maximian the other Augustus?
CONSTANTINE To retain the balance between East and West Diocletian suggested that Maximian also retire. Enamored of the imperial purple Maximian at first refused but upon Diocletian’s urging he too retired. They had been coemperors for 20 years. Before departing for retirement in Salona Diocletian established a Second Tetrarchy by appointing two new Augusti:
Galerius became Augustus of East to rule over Asiana (Turkey), Oriens (Middle East), Dacia (area of Romania), and Thracia (Bulgaria, Greece, and European Turkey).
My father was appointed Augustus of West to rule over Gallia, Hispania, Mauretania, and the Rhine frontier.
HOST Having performed his management duty Diocletian departed for peaceful retirement at his magnificent palace in Salona. During his reign he proved to be a great administrator, organizer, and reformer. Maximian retired to Lucania in southern Italia.
CONSTANTINE The two emeriti Augusti were both entitled to live in luxury in grand palaces with huge staffs and generous pensions. Each new Augustus was expected to name as Caesar someone whose meritorious service benefited the empire. The reality was that a new Augustus was expected to name his son.
HOST But neither Diocletian nor Galerius had a son. They must have envied your father and Maximian.
CONSTANTINE My father had the right to name me a Caesar, his other three sons being too young to rule. Maximian had the right to name his son Maxentius a Caesar. When Diocletian approved of my father naming me his Caesar, Galerius objected claiming I had never led an army to victory or administered an imperial city. That wasn’t true. I had defeated the Franks.
HOST I understand he feared you would quickly rise to power, perhaps endangering his own rule.
CONSTANTINE When Galerius bypassed Maxentius and me, those in attendance were stunned. Galerius usurped my father’s right to appoint me Caesar of West and Maximian’s right to appoint his son Maxentius Caesar of East. Not having a son Galerius obviously felt free to appoint his nephew Maximin Daia the Caesar of East and his military comrade Flavius Severus the Caesar of West. Maxentius rightly expected preferment because he was married to Galerius’ daughter Maximilla.
HOST Without Diocletian’s management skills the Tetrarchy had been corrupted because Galerius ignored the protocol for an Augustus to name his own Caesar.
CONSTANTINE Daia the Caesar of East ruled over Libya, Aegyptus, and Syria to the Euphrates. Severus the Caesar of West ruled over Illyricum, Italia, and North Africa. Severus had a reputation of being a drunkard and a penetrator of virgins. He worshiped Venus and was frequently seen in her temples for the ritual deflowering of virgins.
HOST In making the two appointments Galerius replaced Diocletian as senior Augustus but was careful that his new Caesars did not encroach upon your father’s territory.
CONSTANTINE To avoid civil war my father accepted being the subordinate Augustus. Having humiliated Maxentius he vowed retribution against Galerius. I waited patiently for another opportunity to become a Caesar. Meantime Galerius transferred me to his court in Thessalonica. I was 25 years old under his cunning and watchful eyes.
HOST Which brings to mind your daring escape.
CONSTANTINE An escape requiring Galerius’ approval. At Bononia my father was preparing to reconquer Britannia from the usurper Allectus. He sent a letter to Galerius informing him that he was ill and needed my help. Galerius didn’t respond; he kept stalling for time hoping my father would die.
HOST It’s my understanding that a request from one Augustus to another was normally approved.
CONSTANTINE True, Augusti were to cooperate for the good of the empire. But I couldn’t travel without a written order from Galerius. The rumor was that if I joined my father and he died, Galerius feared I would replace him and be proclaimed Augustus.
HOST So you escaped.
CONSTANTINE I exercised the patience my father taught me. If Galerius refused to grant me permission to travel, I planned to esacpe by riding as litle as possible through Severus’ territory of Illyricum and Italia.
HOST You did escape.
CONSTANTINE Not really. One evening when Galerius was intoxicated, I reminded him that we had together fought Roma’s enemies. I implored him, in the name of Diocletian, to give me permission to travel to my dying father. He relented and had one of his staff prepare the travel order. After confirming it with his seal and a wry smile he handed it to me.
HOST Under what conditions?
CONSTANTINE I don’t know, didn’t even read it. One of his bodyguards learned that Galerius’ order directed me through his friend Severus’ territory. He warned me that Severus would intercept and arrest me as a deserter.
HOST Some bodyguard, a traitor in your favor.
CONSTANTINE He was once under my command. That evening I bolted from Thessalonica and probably wasn’t missed until the next morning.
HOST I couldn’t find any record of your escape route.
CONSTANTINE I didn’t tell anyone for fear of being followed.
HOST The next morning Galerius sent his soldiers after you.
CONSTANTINE I rode all night and had a 12-hour head start. I rode from courier post to post, riding each horse to exhaustion. I rode from Thessalonica straight across to the Adriatic Sea.
HOST We had courier riders like you in America. They were called Pony Express riders. Your couriers delivered letters and edicts, the Pony Express delivered mail.
CONSTANTINE At each post I mounted a fresh horse and purposefully released all the horses leaving only my exhausted horse.
HOST With only one exhausted horse to ride Galerius’ soldiers had to abort their pursuit.
CONSTANTINE When I reached the Adriatic Sea I commandeered a vessel and crossed to Brundusium (Brindisi, Italy). I rode straight across to Neapolis (Naples, Italy) and then up the coast to Roma, continued to Genua (Genoa, Italy), where I commandeered another vessel to Massilia (Marseilles, France). There in Gallia I was free from Severus’ rule and rode until I reached the naval base at Bononia. At odyssey’s end, after 12 years of separation, I was at last reunited with my aging and sick father.
HOST That’s astounding! You covered a distance of about 1,000 miles. Is it true that Galerius admired your courage and strategy in avoiding arrest, a single tribune against the combined forces of Severus?
CONSTANTINE The story I heard was that if my father and I were foolish enough to conspire against Galerius, we would be defeated by the combined armies of Galerius and his Caesars, Daia and Severus.
HOST Not so subtle a warning for you to curb your ambition.
CONSTANTINE In preparation for the battle to regain Britannia, my father told his close associates and me that if killed I was to succeed him.
HOST Even though he had three sons, what happened to dynastic inheritance?
CONSTANTINE His oldest son Delmatius was only 13 and lacked the military experience to take command of Britannia and Gallia. My father gave me command of several legions consisting of Romans, Alemanni, and Franks. Our army boarded transport vessels and we crossed the channel at night. We led our legions to victory killing the usurper Allectus. After that many Britanni joined our legions. We liberated Londinium (London), and nearby Verulamium (St. Albans, England), then marched north taking Eboracum (York, England).
HOST But that year 306 there was tragedy at York.
CONSTANTINE While planning our campaign against the Picts and Scots, my father collapsed and died.
(306-312)HOST Your father’s army now supported you. Mindful of your courage and leadership they proclaimed you emperor. The very action Galerius feared. Is it true that crowned with laurel you had your portrait painted and sent to Galerius?
CONSTANTINE My letter and portrait informed him of my father’s death and my field promotion. The appointment Galerius withheld from me was voluntarily given to me with the backing of an army. Outraged at my temerity he voided my impromptu field appointment.
HOST You voluntarily abandoned your field promotion?
CONSTANTINE Officially yes, privately no. I gave a little to get more later. To remind me that he was supreme emperor, he appointed his friend Severus the Augustus of West to rule over what was my father’s territory. Severus ruled from Mediolanum where he could keep an eye on me.
HOST Unlike the religious toleration of your deceased father, Galerius resumed persecuting Christians.
CONSTANTINE He issued repressive edicts raising taxes, burning books, and closing schools of rhetoric. He scorned intellectuals and fired Lactantius my former tutor. Perhaps fearing my response to his edicts would be domestic war, he appointed me Caesar of West in charge of Britannia, Gallia, and the Rhine frontier. At 26 I didn’t protest being an active Caesar in situ. I ruled from Trèves as did my father and waited for another opportunity to become an Augustus per se. In the meantime I sent for my mother who was in Roma. I gave her a large apartment in the palace with her own servants.
HOST Your appointment to Caesar completed the requirements for the Second Tetrarchy. In the East Galerius was senior Augustus and Daia his Caesar. In the West Severus was Augustus and you his Caesar.
CONSTANTINE An infirm concordat at best.
HOST Your father’s death encouraged the rebellious Franks to break his treaty with them. They tested you, the untried new Caesar, by pillaging and burning villages in Germania and Belgica (Belgium).
CONSTANTINE With my battle hardened legionaires I immediately counter attacked capturing their kings. Unlike my father, who maintained peace by restoring conquered kings to leadership, I captured their kings and marched them to Trèves. I had them paraded into the amphitheater where starving wild beasts tore them to pieces and ate them. My dedicated legionaires approved of my decisive punishment.
HOST
That savage act, your mental toughness, and physical prowess made you their cult hero. All that in contrast to your father who granted amnesty to defeated kings in exchange for peace.CONSTANTINE A temporary peace broken by those pardoned kings at their first opportunity to attack. I didn’t like fighting the same kings over and over.
HOST While you suppressed the rebellion by Franks there was trouble brewing in Italia. Having been rejected by Galerius for the position of Caesar, Maxentius managed to become commander of Roma’s Preatorian Guard. He proclaimed himself Prince of Romans and was determined to oust the Augustus Severus from Italia.
CONSTANTINE Informed of Maxentius’ determination to become emperor of Italia, Severus had to find money to enlarge his army. He issued an edict ordering Roman citizens to pay taxes. They were outraged and rebelled. One of the biggest benefits for Roman citizens was that they were exempt from paying taxes. When Maxentius and his Praetorian Guard refused to carry out Severus’ unprecedented tax order, Romans proclaimed Maxentius emperor. Whereupon Maxentius began persecuting Christians which made him even more popular. Severus had unwittingly promoted Maxentius to hero worship among Romans. In the struggle for supreme power, absent Diocletian’s great management skills, the tottering Second Tetrarchy fell to squabbling and intrigue Roman style.
HOST When informed that Maxentius was proclaimed emperor, Severus reinforced his army by making an alliance with Galerius. In the battle for control of Italia Severus’ army marched south against Maxentius the usurper.
CONSTANTINE To counter Severus’ alliance with Galeruis, Maxentius coaxed his father Maximian out of retirement. It happened that many soldiers in Severus’ army served under Maximian when he was Augustus. When they heard they were marching against their stalwart former leader, they deserted Severus to join Maximian. Father and son, Maximian and Maxentius, joined forces. In the ensuing battle Severus was wounded and his army defeated. The wounded Severus fled to Ravenna, Italia. Maxentius pursued him and was about to kill him when he begged for an honorable death. Maxentius agreed and Severus committed suicide. The victorious father and son annexed Severus’ army doubling the size of their coalition forces. Thereafter the victorious father and son proclaimed themselves joint Augusti.
HOST Severus served only two years as Augustus (306-307).
CONSTANTINE Galerius couldn’t tolerate the loss of Italia and his appointed Augustus to usurpers who might attack him. To replace Severus, Galerius appointed his comrade Valerius Licinius the Caesar of West to rule over Illyricum and the Danube frontier.
HOST That meant the West had two Caesars, you and Licinius, and two usurper Augusti Maximian and Maxentius but no official Augustus. The East had the official Augustus Galeruis and Daia his Caesar.
CONSTANTINE The Second Tetrarchy had disintegrated. With severus dead there was obviously an opening for an official Augustus in the West.
HOST Were you contemplating such a move.
CONSTANTINE No, that had to come from Galerius so I again exercised patience.
HOST I have an interesting note here about Licinius the new Caesar of West (reads):
During the Great Persecution Galerius’ wife Valeria lay dying. To protect her from rogue persecutors, Galerius sent her and her mother, Diocletian’s wife Prisca, to the presumptively tolerant Licinius. But when he too began persecuting Christians, they fled to Daia. When Valeria refused Daia’s sexual advances he abandoned them to persecutors. Do you know anything about that story?
CONSTANTINE Why would Diocletian’s wife and daughter ever be in any danger from his own persecutors? No, I don’t believe any of that.
HOST About the struggle for Italia, Galerius mustered a large army from the East and with Licinius’ help was determined to defeat the self-proclaimed father and son Augusti. At the same time Galerius planned to eliminate the Roman Senate so he could legislate without its approval as did Diocletian. Maxentius fearful of their combined forces persuaded his father to appeal to you for help.
CONSTANTINE Maximian proposed I ally myself with them by rewarding me with the prize of his nubile and beautiful daughter Flavia Fausta. Maxentius and Fausta, brother and sister, were true Romans brought up and educated in Roma. When Fausta was presented to me I was impressed by the beauty of my formerly betrothed infant. She was fair with light hair and hazel eyes streaked with green, a nymph pursued by many suitors.
HOST But you were already married to Minervina who bore you a son Crispus.
CONSTANTINE I couldn’t resist the political possibilities in Italia. I divorced Minervina making myself available for Fausta and the annexation of Italia to Gallia.
HOST You did to Minervina what your father had done to your mother.
CONSTANTINE A political necessity as in his situation. In Trèves Fausta and I were married.
HOST That was in 307. Let’s see, she was 15 and you 27.
CONSTANTINE The marriage ceremony took place amid great military pomp followed by an elaborate celebration lasting a week.
HOST When your father married Theodora Diocletian’s conferred upon him the title Caesar. Upon your marriage to Fausta Maximian conferred upon you the title Augustus.
CONSTANTINE How could I refuse my father-in-law? Over the years we had three sons and two daughters – Constantine 2, Constantius 2, Constans, Constantina and Helena.
HOST What about the battle for Italia?
COSTANTINE The next year Galerius attacked from the Adriatic coast making his way inland. The combined forces of Maximian and Maxentius pushed Galerius back to the Adriatic coast.
HOST Maximain having promoted you to Augustus, you were expected to help father and son in their battle against Galerius. But you didn’t get involved at all. You sat smugly watching them trying to eliminate each other. You waited like a cat at a mousehole ready to pounce upon an adventurous mouse.
CONSTANTINE But then in a surprise move Galerius retreated across the Adriatic Sea back to Illyricum. I was informed he feared that while he was engaged in Italia, I would move my army across the Alps into his territory and conquer Illyricum. That pincering maneuver would have trapped his army between the father and son forces and me.
HOST When Galerius retreated to Illyricum there were four Augusti and two Caesars. Galerius was the only officially appointed Augustus; Maximian, Maxentius, and you were self-proclaimed Augusti. Each of you claimed a franchise in the empire.
CONSTANTINE I was appointed by Maximian, an emeritus Augustus.
HOST According to Diocletian’s plan an unofficial appointment. Daia and Licinius remained the two Caesars.
CONSTANTINE Officially Galerius was the only Augustus. Daia, Licinius, and I were Caesars. Maxentius was usurper Augustus and Maximian was emeritus Augustus.
HOST That titulary entanglement worsened when father and son struggled for supremacy.
CONSTANTINE When Maxentius put on the imperial purple robe of an Augustus his father tore it off his shoulders. Claiming the right paterfamilias, a father’s superiority over a son, he was the only true Augustus. They argued and the Praetorian Guard sided with Maxentius their leader. Fearful of his life, Maximian fled from Roma to my palace in Trèves. Diocletian’s plan of successive effective Tetrarchies was in shambles.
HOST The history is that Galerius begged Diocletian to exit retirement for restoring the Tetrarchy to its former composition. Happy in retirement Diocletian at first refused to abandon his garden to adjudicate who among them should wear the imperial purple. After much persuasion, he agreed to call a conference at Carnuntum (near Hainburg, Austria)
CONSTANTINE To untangle the convoluted ruling authorities, official and usurped, Diocletian requested the attendance of Galerius, Lcinius, and Maximian. The result was that Galerius was to remain senior Augustus of East, Maximian was told to again retire, and Licinius was appointed Augustus of West to replace Severus. Maxentius the usurper in Roma was declared personna non grata.
HOST Were you jealous that Licinius was promoted to Augustus?
CONSTANTINE Power does what power wants. I learned the art of patience taut by my father and Lactantius.
HOST In fact you and Daia weren’t even mentioned. You and Maxentius had to relinquish the title of Augustus.
CONSTANTINE The conferees lessened our humiliation by granting us the pro forma titles Fili Augusti (Sons of Augusti).
HOST What about Maxentius?
CONSTANTINE He began an extensive building program to emphasize his importance thereby bringing attention to himself. The rebuke of personna non grata meant nothing to him. He had no shame. To be rid of him, he would have to be defeated.
HOST To reinforce your own importance you directed attention to yourself by proclaiming your dynastic ascendance from Claudius Gothicus.
CONSTANTINE To distance myself from the disgraced Maximian and Maxentius, thereby removing any stigma of my illegitimacy, and to bolster my own prestige I emphasized my ascendance from Emperor Claudius Gothicus. I believed the emperorship was in my future. Hoping to win my favor and raise my status Galerius appointed me Consul but I rejected the titular honor.
HOST You emphasized your enhanced status by announcing that Sol Invictus and Mars, highly honored by Romans, were your favorite patron gods.
COSTANTINE Sol Invictus and Mars had supervised the victories of previous Roman emperors. Because of the reorganization at Carnuntum, I anticipated another domestic war. Having never lost a war, I wanted to assure my string of victories.
HOST Daia the Caesar of East also was ignored in the titular shuffle.
CONSTANTINE Spitefully the ill tempered Daia had his army proclaim him Augustus of East. Galerius ignored Daia’s self promotion. Meantime Maxentius reclaimed his title of Augustus.
HOST And then you reclaimed your title of Augustus.
CONSTANTINE I was ruler of the West, so I reclaimed the title granted to me by Maximian an emeritus Augustus.
HOST That meant there were 5 Augusti – the officially appointed Galerius and Licinius, and the self appointed Daia, Maxentius, and you. Diocletian’s conference was ingobly nullified and the Tetrarchy dismantled.
CONSTANTINE It served Diocletian’s purpose but we had to move on. Speaking of Diocletian he died at his palace in Salona. Absent his management and political skills his tetrarchic dream disintegrated to violence and death.
HOST Maxentius needed money to support his extensive building projects so he taxed the people of North Africa to near poverty. They rebelled proclaiming Domitus Alexander their emperor. Attempting to reconquer North Africa, Maxentius’ poorly equipped army was defeated by the rebellious Domitus Alexander who immediately cut off Roma’s grain supply leaving Romans hungry for bread.
CONSTANTINE Maxentius scheduled more circuses to distract Romans from hunger but they wanted bread. In Roma he was considered a pagan cult hero so he pleaded with the pagan senate for money to hire an army. With the senate’s help he mustered an army and sailed for Alexandria where he defeated and killed the usurper Domitus Alexander to restore Roma’s grain supply.
HOST Maxentius approved another building project to commemorate his victory. In order to find building sites he seized by right of eminent domain several choice properties in Roma.
CONSTANTINE Moreover he tried to tax Romans because he needed money for his commemorative building project. Romans protested in the streets.
HOST What had Daia been doing all this time?
CONSTANTINE Ever since he proclaimed himself Augustus Daia restored traditional Roman paganism in the East. He appointed pagan priests to be magistrates in his provinces. He persecuted Christians who refused to perform the public duty of honoring and sacrificing to Roman gods. He ordered Christians to stop worshipping God. Priests who continued to hear confessions had their ears cut off. Priests who fled to other parishes to avoid persecution were found. They first had their feet cut off so they could no longer flee and then had their ears cut off so they could no longer hear confessions.
HOST While Daia was persecuting Christians in the East, Pope Marcellus was incredulously punishing his own Catholic flock in Roma.
CONSTANTINE Pope Marcellus (308-309) was punishing traditores and faithful Catholics for failing to comply with the imposition of his severe ascetism and fasts. Because of the pope’s severe penances Catholics demonstrated in the streets and demanded his removal. While Maxentius considered whether to exile the pope he died under mysterious circumstances.
HOST The next year 310 the succeeding Pope Eusebius voided Marcellus’ severe penances but failed to maintain peace between the laity and clergy, so Maxentius deported him to Sicilia. There were papal problems in Roma.
CONSTANTINE The third pope Miltiades (311-314) finally restored peace among the laity and clergy. He petitioned Maxentius for the restitution of Church properties confiscated during the Great Persecution. For peace in the streets, three popes in three years, Maxentius rewarded Miltiades by restoring Church properties to the papacy.
HOST Meantime you were having your own problems. Franks and Alemanni were again attacking Gallia’s northern borders.
CONSTANTINE I grew weary of their invasions. After defeating them I filled the arena with captured Franks and Alemanni spectators. I had their kings and leaders thrust into the arena where they were made to fight gladiators who slaughtered them.
HOST But then you offered the captured Franks and Alemanni amnesty as had your father.
CONSTANTINE The lesson learned they volunteered to join my army to avoid slavery. They replaced my dead soldiers and enlarged my army. Several of my legions consisted mostly of Franks and Alemanni. Some of them became career military men and the best of them I made generals.
HOST You made your enemies generals?
CONSTANTINE My former enemies, now part of my army. A selected few were appointed generals because of their meritorious service. They were well disciplined, always ready in full battle dress and knew how to fight; they made good generals.
HOST Didn’t that cause dissention with Romans and others in your army?
CONSTANTINE I resolved that problem by separating my army into border legions and interior legions. The border legions consisted mostly of those Alemanni and Franks; they guarded the empire’s northern frontiers. Interior legions consisted mostly of Romans who guarded cities. The problem was that interior legions mingled with civilians, grew used to the luxuries of civilian life, and became soft. I sent several interior legions to the frontier to get toughened.
HOST You gave soldiers bonuses which angered civilians who argued their tax money should have been returned to them.
CONSTANTINE I gave bonuses to soldiers who managed to survive 5 years. Any soldier who survived 5 years of comminus (hand to hand combat) deserved a bonus.
HOST Civilians further protested you were distributing money to Alemanni and Franks, soldiers who were formerly Roma’s enemies.
CONSTANTINE True but those soldiers were now protecting the empire’s northern frontier.
HOST While you were engaged fighting the Bructeri and conquering new territories along the Rhine, the twice retired and now rejuvenated Maximian emerged again. Still yearning to wear the imperial purple he again proclaimed himself Augustus of West, a direct challenge to you.
CONSTANTINE There were then six Augusti, three in the East and three in the West. In the East the officially appointed Galerius and Licinius plus the self-proclaimed Daia. In the West the self-proclaimed father and son and me.
HOST As if that weren’t enough the senile delusional Maximian was plotting against you to again become supreme emperor of the West.
CONSTANTINE At Trèves Maximian concocted a plot to murder me while I slept. He planned to enter my bedchamber and stab me to death. He told my wife not to cry out when he appeared at our bed in the middle of the night. Luckily my wife, angry at her father for tearing off the imperial purple from her brother’s shoulders, told me about his plot so I hatched one of my own. I had a eunuch sleep with her. During the night her father stabbed the eunuch. When he realized what he’d done he ran from the palace and fled Trèves.
HOST Not satisfied with having escaped with his life, he mustered a small army of discontents and told them you had been killed in battle against the Franks. He then led his ragtag army to Arelate (Arles, France) seized its garrison, and distributed its treasure among his conspirators. To gain the full support of garrisoned soldiers, he permitted them to extort goods and money from the people of Arelate. Thereupon soldiers proclaimed him Emperor of West.
CONSTANTINE I led my legions against him and easily defeated him at Arelate. He retreated to Massilia. On my way there I stopped at the Temple of Apollo to pay homage and ask for victory. In Massilia I captured the old man. I was about to squash the gadfly when he begged me to permit him an honorable death. I granted his wish and he hung himself.
HOST In America one doesn’t have the right of controlling the manner and time of one’s death. Oldsters are herded like down animals in warehouses called nursing homes. Imposter caretakers abuse them. Politicians refuse to grant oldsters a dignified death by prohibiting suicide or euthanasia.
CONSTANTINE Are they the same cowardly politicians you spoke of before?
HOST Yes. They allow inanimate oldsters to be forced fed and kept alive for profit by owners of nursing homes. In quid pro quo some of the profits are returned to politicians as campaign contributions assuring their incumbencies.
CONSTANTINE Except for heat of battle one should be permitted to control the time and manner of one’s death.
HOST We have yet to embrace that particular humanity. Getting back to your time, Maxentius and his associates claimed you killed his father.
CONSTANTINE What angered Maxentius was that I ordered memorials and statues of his father destroyed.
HOST From Arelate you continued your westward march through Hispania.
CONSTANTINE After two years as acting Augustus, I became the true Augustus of West when I reconquered Hispania. The entire West was then under my control.
HOST Returning to Trèves you approved an extensive building program surpassing the construction projects of your father. You built the biggest baths with hot and cold pools, steam rooms, and exercise gym. Those baths were the biggest in the empire. You built a 50-room villa on the Moselle River and beautified public buildings in Arelate and Rheims. You enlarged and updated the Rhine fleet and at Cologne built a new bridge across the river. You must have been in an altruistic mood because you cut taxes and forgave debts. Thereafter you hired panegyrists to extol your many accomplishments, virtues, victories, the new public buildings and their amenities for the people. The panegyrics and accompanying propaganda did not go unnoticed by Maxentius and Galerius.
CONSTANTINE Galerius’ dissolute habits and sexual excesses caught up with him. Afflicted by venereal and other diseases he became incapacitated. He thought it was God’s vengeance upon him for persecuting Christians. Remorseful at his vicious persecutions he issued his Edict of Toleration. Later that year he died a painful death with Licinius at his side. To avoid domestic war Licinius and Daia agreed to divide Galerius’ territories between them.
HOST That was in 311. After Galerius’ death Eusebius of Caesarea vilified Galerius for his persecution of Christians. Lactantius in his book, On the Deaths of the Persecutors, wrote of God’s anger and vengeance on persecutors such as Galerius.
CONSTANTINE Ignoring Galerius’ edict Daia continued to persecute Christians. Then in a surprise move he broke his agreement with Licinius by marching his army into and occupying Asiana. I did not act on that takeover for the time being. To protect himself from Licinus’ revenge Daia allied himself with Maxentius. I had no choice but to ally myself with Licinius. To seal the alliance I promised the older man future marriage with my young stepsister Constantia. Although distraught at marrying an older man, she agreed to do so to please me. She even accepted his young son Licinianus born of slave.
HOST A black son?
CONSTANTINE Black? No no, a slave from one of our conquered territories.
HOST In reviewing that year’s changes Daia ruled in the East, you ruled the West to the Rhine frontier, Maxentius ruled in Italia and North Africa, and Licinius ruled the territories in between Daia and Maxentius.
CONSTANTINE I was Augustus of West but the usurper Maxentius ruled over Italia and North Africa, which were parts of the West. I had to confront Maxentius to assume full authority over the entire West.
HOST The reports from Roma were that Maxentius feared your victories in Gallia, Hispania, and along the Rhine would carry over to Italia and depose him. He also blamed you for his father’s death and for destroying his father’s statues and monuments.
CONSTANTINE He was looking for a reason to attack me. In the Roman Forum he had his sycophant reporters post notices that as a native son of Roma he was more Roman than I because I was born in Naissus. He openly declared me an enemy of Roma. He belittled my mother because she was born in the East in Depranum. To aggrandize himself in the eyes of Romans and to play the part of the hero, he renounced me for tolerating Christians while he persecuted them for the benefit of pagan dominance.
HOST Some Romans praised him for persecuting Christians but most Romans hated him because he imposed taxes on them.
CONSTANTINE Recall that when Severus imposed taxes on Romans Maxentius refused to collect them.
HOST Senators hated him because he demanded bribes from them.
CONSTANTINE He demanded more than bribes. He and his Preatorian Guard oppressed the citizens of Roma with his brutal rule and taxes. To reward favorite members of his bodyguard, he demanded favors from senators’ wives. If at first they refused to submit he offerd them jewelry from his treasury and then claimed their eventual conquest was more pleasurable. Senator’s wives were returned maculated by the most depraved abuses during sexual orgies with his favorite bodyguards.
HOST There must have been upstanding faithful wives who refused to submit. I’m thinking of wives such as the loyal Calpurnia wife of Caesar and Antonia wife of Drusus.
CONSTANTINE There were such wives. Refusing all entreaties adamant wives declared they’d rather die than submit. Unfortunately their wishes were granted. Maxentius had pagan priests read their entrails for signs of future victory. Most distressing however he demanded that senators’ pubescent daughters be sacrificed in the Temple of Venus for ritual prostitution with his bodyguards. Imagine innocent daughters sacrificed for the pleasure of brutish sycophants. If senators refused to give up their daughters he confiscated their villas and sometimes their entire estates. I made it known in Roma that I was determined to end the tyrant’s evil indulgences.
HOST Thereupon he not only ordered your statues destroyed but those of your father and all memorial inscriptions removed from public buildings.
CONSTANTINE I couldn’t ignore his public challenges to my rule. They might give Franks, Alemanni, and others reason to again attack me. Romans considered him a usurper and not their true emperor. They referred to him as the tyrant of Italia.
HOST Maxentius anticipated your response by activating his Praetorian Guard and enlarging his army with troops from North Africa and Sicilia.
CONSTANTINE I had no choice but to make war against my incorrigible brother-in-law, the self-appointed Augutus who publicly denounced me, my mother, and my father. Moreover I had the support of Romans who begged me to rescue them from his brutal rule, taxes, and persecution of Christians. Acknowledging his claim of being a purebred Roman, I wrote to him that Romans should not be killing Romans but banding together to defeat Roma’s enemies. When he failed to respond I knew war was inevitable. I ordered my naval fleet at Bononia to sail for Sicilia to blockade Maxentius’ escape from southern Italia and to intercept grain shipments from North Africa. Romans would be clamoring for me to rescue them for bread and circuses. Leaving behind sufficient legions to guard Gallia and the Rhine lands I mustered an army and crossed the Alps.
HOST In northern Italia, you had a series of minor victories.
CONSTANTINE I attacked Susa (near Turin, Italy) setting its walls on fire. They offered little resistance. We extinguished the fire saving Susa from complete destruction. Encountering little opposition we easily conquered town after town but I forbid my soldiers from plundering them.
HOST Wasn’t that unusual for a conquering army?
CONSTANTINE My mission was to liberate Italia from Maxentius’ rule, not to pillage it. Word of our humane treatment spread. Most towns offered little resistance and some even welcomed us. On the Piedmont Plain I conquered Taurinorum (Turin, Italy).
HOST To halt your victorious march south Maxentius moved his cavalry to Verona.
CONSTANTINE We met strong opposition in Verona. His armor-clad cavalry formed a giant wedge. We first attacked its sides without much success because the armor-clad horsemen formed a solid wall of resistance. Regrouping I attacked its center splitting the wedge in half. Confused they fled hoping to fight from behind city walls but the people had been told that we were liberators and had locked the gates against them. Their heavy bulky armor slowed their escape. Civilians had barricaded roads preventing their quick retreat or escape, which also helped us. They tried to outmaneuver us but instead piled up against the city’s wall where we slaughtered them. It was a decisive victory. Enemy cavalrymen who begged for their lives were incorporated into my army others became slaves. I forbid my troops from looting Verona. Its people cognizant of our restraint welcomed us as victors and liberators. News of our victory and humane conquest spread south to Roma.
HOST Why do you think Maxentius didn’t march his army north to engage you?
CONSTANTINE Word was that he had fortified Roma to such an extent he was convinced I could never take it. From Verona I led my army south through Italia down to the village of Saxa Rubra (Red Rocks) on the Tiber’s north bank about 9 miles north of Roma. We camped near the Via Flaminia and several miles northeast of the Pontis Milvio (Milvian Bridge), which connected the Via Flaminia’s north and south roads leading directly to Roma. Actually the bridge crossed east to west across the Tiber.
HOST As I understand it Maxentius’ army was already there. His army built fortifications on and around the bridge to prevent you from crossing the Tiber for an open road to Roma.
CONSTANTINE I prayed to my patron gods Mars and Sol Invictus begging them for their tutelary protection. That night I first dreamt Apollo placed a laurel wreath on my head. But later I had a revelatory dream. There appeared a bearded man with the brilliant rays of Sol Invictus emanating from his head; its nimbus blinded me. In his right hand he held aloft a burning cross. At the base of its hilt were the Greek letters chi-rho (XP) with rho imposed upon chi. He spoke to me "in hoc signo vinces" (in this sign conquer). In the dream I was in full battle dress mounted on my caparisoned horse. I held high my sword with the chi-rho monogram below its hilt. I led my legions with shouts of "in hoc signo vinces". The bearded man must have been Christ the Savior because chi-rho signify the first two letters of the Greek word for Christ.
HOST Some scholars claim the Christ monogram was iota-rho (IP) signifying Iesous Christos (Jesus Christ), a common sign throughout the East.
CONSTANTINE The sign was chi-rho.
HOST All my notes declare it was iota-rho, also called the chrismon or Cristogram.
CONSTANTINE Your scholars are wrong. The bearded one spoke in Latin directly to me prophesying "in hoc signo vinces". I saw a bright cross. At the base of its hilt, intersecting with the hilt’s transverse bar, was inscribed the chi-rho monogram.
HOST (shuffles through clipboard notes) The quotation I have is "hoc signo victor eris" (by this sign you shall be victor).
CONSTANTINE Talker you are not paying attention. I repeat your notes are wrong.
HOST Why did the bearded man show the Greek chi-rho but then speak to you in Latin?
CONSTANTINE I don’t know. Why are you questioning me? You invite me to dialog and then tire me with infantile questions like some impotent reporters who posted in the Forum reports that my family and I were not true Romans, not Roman enough. Is the Maximus Augustus of the Roman Empire to be harassed by a civilian scribe?
HOST No harm intended, just trying to get at the truth.
CONSTANTINE Truth? What is truth but an utterance intended to assuage and sometimes fool the unknowing mind. Populus vult decipi.
HOST You intentionally deceived people?
CONSTANTINE Some people expect to be deceived. If they hear what’s expected they’re satisfied.
HOST Deceived as in superstition or in dreams? In either case deception is a spiritual reality whether in religion or dreams. Well, please continue the battle for Italia.
CONSTANTINE After hiring North African mercenaries Maxentius moved his entire North African army to Roma. He also persuaded Daia to send him additional legions. Realizing he was trapped between my navy to the south and my army to the north, he built forts and dug trenches in the environs of Roma. Suddenly Maxentius, who had never departed from the heavy fortifications and safety of Roma, decided to march north to confront me.
HOST Historians give the following reasons for his decision. As a practicing pagan he consulted the Sibylline Books which foretold that on 28th October the enemies of Roma would perish. That day also happened to be the 6th anniversary of his rule in Italia. This startling coincidence convinced him that his paganism would conquer Christianism to become triumphant throughout the empire. That night taking advantage of good omens Maxentius ordered a surprise attack and massacred your sleeping vanguard. You lost the first skirmish. By the time you responded the attackers were gone.
CONSTANTINE Yes, God punished me for not believing in the dream. It was only then that I understood the dream ‘s omen. The brilliant nimbus was Sol Invictus, the bearded man was Christ, and the burning cross was the sword of Mars. The three coming together in an epiphany of triumphant trinity.
HOST In your dream symbols of paganism and Christianism were combined.
CONSTANTINE Sol Invictus shed his light upon me, Mars gave me his sword, and Christ prophesied my victory. After all Diocletian’s 10-year persecution plus those of Galerius, Daia, and Licinius had not defeated the Christians because they were under the protection of Christ the Victor. Early the next day before sunrise I first sent out my scouts. Convinced of the dream’s omen I then took an expressed action for Christ by instructing my centurions to make crosses intersected with the monogram. I had them mount the monogram as finials on my labara above Roma’s golden eagles. I had the monogram painted on my helmet and on their shields. I prayed to the Christ in my dream for victory over the tyrant. When my scouts returned they reported that Maxentius was motivating his troops by invoking the pagan gods, offering sacrifices, and quoting the Sibyllene prophecy that on that day "the enemies of Roma would perish".
HOST Maxentius had also barricaded the Pontis Milvio stone bridge to prevent your crossing.
CONSTANTINE My scouts also reported that Maxentius’ army of about 200,000 was double the size of mine. Keep in mind I’ve been outnumbered in most of my battles.
HOST The ultimate battle for Italia took place at the Pontis Milvio bridge.
CONSTANTINE His army consisted of Romans, Sicilians, and Carthaginians accustomed to the baths and luxuries of cities. In my army were battle-hardened Romans, Alemanni, Britanni, Gauls, and Franks veterans of fierce campaigns along the Rhine and Danube. My scouts also reported that alongside the stone bridge Maxentius had built a bridge of wooden boats topped by wood planks making it easy for his soldiers to cross the river. The bridge consisted of two sections of wooden boats fastened to each other, the two sections held together with iron clasps. The bridge was designed for easy assembly and separation at its center should his soldiers have to retreat.
HOST Leaving your soldiers isolated on the other side unable to cross because Maxentius had barricaded the Pontis Milvio stone bridge.
CONSTANTINE Precisely but unknowingly Maxentius had helped me plan my attack.
HOST How so?
CONSTANTINE A wooden bridge can be destroyed by fire. I’d attack him from both sides and force the whole of his army to funnel across his floating wooden bridge. Having barricaded the Pontis Milvio stone bridge, his retreating soldiers would have to cross the wooden bridge on fire.
HOST At daybreak the next morning Maxentius led another surprise attack against you.
CONSTANTINE With the salutary monogram on my helmet and shield, the son of Constantius under the protection of Christ Savior, I counterattacked. I lead my legions exhorting them with shouts of "in hoc signo vinces". We fired the wooden bridge. My battle- hardened legions forced Maxentius’ soldiers back over the blazing wooden bridge. Some of his retreating soldiers fled to the stone bridge. There thwarted by their own barricades. Helpless trapped. on the two bridges Maxentius’ retreating soldiers were slaughtered. The blazing wooden bridge came apart, soldiers fell into the river and drowned. Did you ever see men struggling to breathe, thrashing in water and screaming for help, trying to swim as their heavy armor sank them to the bottom? It’s better to die feeling the sting of cold steel. Trying to flee Maxentius also fell into the river and drowned because of his heavy armor. God’s anger at Maxentius caused him to build that weak wooden bridge. We routed the enemy on that victorious day 28Oct312.
HOST Your officers reported that having defeated Maxentius you fell to your knees on the battlefield and with eyes cast towards heaven thanked God.
CONSTANTINE Having won a stunning victory under the aegis of the cross and its sign, I fell to my knees thanking God and praying "I revere your name and fear your awesome power. Henceforth you will be my God of victory and Roma’s patron God". I ordered my centurions to dislay my labara, the trophies of victory, to Maxentius’ conquered soldiers. They covered their faces with their arms as if to protect themselves from my labaras’ supernatural power.
HOST In Roma your victory was called miraculous, comparable to that of Moses leading Jews to Sinai while the pursuing Pharaoh drowned in the Red Sea. Throughout Roma panegyrists recited details of your miraculous victory. You made your victorious entry into Roma through its Porta Triumphalis as did Caesar after entering Roma with his army.
CONSTANTINE One of my centurions impaled the severed head of Maxentius on the finial of his lance. As we paraded triumphantly through Roma people mocked the severed head and threw stones and spit at it. The tyrant’s rule had ended.
HOST In your triumphant march it was recorded that as you passed by in your chariot Romans cheered you as "liberator of Roma". Christians shouted "Constantine prophet, servant of God". Others shouted acclamations such as "Caesar, Augustus, Constantine".
CONSTANTINE Even though I had been emperor for six years, I had never been to Roma. It was appropriate for me to enter Roma the first time as victor. I had never dreamed of such total acceptance by Romans, such exuberant participation and wild acclamation.
HOST Those enthusiastic Romans were your subjects.
CONSTANTINE During my triumphal entry I noticed the ubiquitous fish symbol scratched on walls and public buildings. I learned the fish graffiti to be symbolic of Christianism, of new life devoted to God, new life as in a mother’s womb.
HOST Life devoted to God is believable, but fish as life in mother’s womb?
CONSTANTINE Do we not live and breathe as fish in our mother’s womb before being expelled to breath as humans?
HOST Ruling from Roma you quickly disbanded Maxentius’ expensive and now distrusted Praetorian Guard. I never fully understood its function except to guard the emperor.
CONSTANTINE Its main function was to guard Roma when the emperor’s army was away fighting one of Roma’s many enemies. It was a powerful guild that demanded personal favors from the emperor, double and sometimes triples wages.
HOST Nothing’s changed; they were just like our unions here in America.
CONSTANTINE I replaced the guard with my own veterans from the northern frontier. Those big strong blonds made good soldiers and reminded me of my father.
HOST Roma’s senate and ruling aristocracy was pagan. When informed of your new God they argued that the surging Christian sect forecast danger for them and for Roma itself.
CONSTANTINE The senate voted me the Pontifex Maximus of Roma (chief pagan priest), even though I advocated Christianism.
HOST Throughout Roma you promoted Christianism by parading crosses with the chi-rho victorious sign. Because of your conspicuous advocacy of Christianism many senators considered you part of the undesirable and unruly Christian mob.
CONSTANTINE To maintain the senate’s support I had to agree that only pagans would rule in Roma. The senate wanted assurance of my sincerity. To pacify them I increased the size of the senate by adding more of the privileged class of pagan patricians. I addressed the senate and people of Roma - Senatus Populusque Romanus (SPQR). I suggested there should be public monuments reminding Romans that I liberated them from the tyrant who taxed them, debauched their wives and daughters, and persecuted Romans and Christians. The senate agreed.
HOST Your address must have been convincing. The senate voted you the title Maximus Augustus elevating you above the other two Augusti, Daia and Licinius. The senate awarded you a solid gold crown, gold shield, and 60’ colossal statue with an inscription of your victory. In proclaiming you Maximus Augustus the senate declared you the greatest general since Caesar. Additionally you ordered a statue of yourself holding a spear topped by a cross with the saving chi-rho sign. You had your statue inscribed as follows:
BY VIRTUE OF THIS SALUTARY SIGN, WHICH IS THE TRUE SYMBOL OF VALOR, I HAVE PRESERVED AND LIBERATED YOUR CITY FROM THE YOKE OF TYRANNY. I HAVE ALSO SET AT LIBERTY THE ROMAN SENATE AND PEOPLE, AND RESTORED THEM TO THEIR ANCIENT GREATNESS AND SPLENDOUR.
(The Mask of Jove, Stringfellow Barr, p 496)In the inscription you alluded to "your" city. Shouldn’t you have inscribed "our" city?
CONSTANTINE I had never before been to Roma. I never considered it my city. I informed the senate that other emperors lost wars to the detriment of Roma. God made me victorious to the benefit of Roma.
HOST You ruled in Gallia for six years. At age 32 your new patron God had succored you to the emperorship of the entire West. Brtiannia, Gallia, the Rhine lands, Italia, Sicilia, Hispania, and Mauretania were all yours. You were the undisputed victor and supreme ruler of the West.
CONSTANTINE I ascribed my great victory to the power of God who watched over me from his heavenly kingdom.
HOST Ignoring your Christian advocacy the senate voted you also the triumphal Arch of Constantine. Was the pagan senate softening its dislike of Christians? Thereafter you looted Maxentius’ treasury and all of his properties, including his villas outside Roma.
CONSTANTINE Glory and treasure were expected rewards for victory. I issued Roman coinage and medallions proclaiming my victory.
HOST Those coins were minted not with the image of God but with images of pagan gods, Sol Invictus and Mars.
CONSTANTINE Of course, the majority of Romans were pagan, as was the senate that approved funding the new commemorative coins.
HOST Acclamations and tributes to your victory were made in the West and East. Your legionaires exulted that you never lost a war. They called you Constantine the Great. Not to be outdone the senate elaborated your titles to:
Constantine Maximus Augustus Conqueror
Trumphator of All
Ruler of the Roman Empire Worldwide
Your portrait, that of your wife the Augusta Fausta, and of your mother Helena, were forged in Roman coinage and medallions. Statues were sculpted in honor of you, your wife, and mother. The senate voted you, your wife, and mother choice properties on Roma’s prestigious Caelian and Palantine Hills.
CONSTANTINE I built a palace and adjacent buildings on the Palantine. They overlooked the Forum, Colosseum, Capitaline of Jupiter, and other temples of Roman gods. To complete my victory, I placed a great statue of myself in Maxentius’ recently built Basilica Nova.
HOST Your wife was awarded choice properties of the Laterani family on the prestigious Caelian Hill.
CONSTANTINE On the Palantine Hill my mother received properties near mine, also the Porta Maggiore baths, and villas. She was fond of jewelry and always carried a jewelry box. I had forged in coinage her image wearing earrings and a double stranded necklace.
HOST 313 was an eventful year for the empire and for Christianism. You arranged for Licinius to meet you in Mediolanum to resolve certain needed social reforms and to bind your alliance with his marriage to Constantia. The two of you cooperated in issuing the so-called Edict of Milan.
CONSTANTINE It wasn’t an edict backed by law. It was a letter subscribed by both of us. Christianism was the fastest growing religious sect and I convinced him that Christians should be tolerated if only to recruit them into our armies. The letter was addressed to provincial governors directing them to promulgate religious toleration and thereby end the persecution of Christians. Our letter granted Christians legal status and returned to them their confiscated assets and lands. Thereafter Licinius and Constantia married amid the usual celebration and military pomp.
HOST During that marriage celebration Franks and Alemanni took advantage of your absence from Trèves and sacked it.
CONSTANTINE They took advantage of my reduced frontier force. Having defeated Maxentius, most of my army was near Roma. With renewed vigor I mustered an army, crossed the Alps, and defeated the invaders. I offered captured Franks and Alemanni amnesty if they joined my legions. They did, thereby replacing my dead. I spent several years rebuilding Trèves’ infrastructure and public buildings, as my father had done years before when sacked by the parents of those barbarians I defeated.
HOST About the marriage, Constantia expressed great sympathy for Christians, Licinius did not.
CONSTANTINE But he tolerated Christians. In fact Lactantius and Eusebius of Caesarea thought he converted but he hadn’t. Licinius still believed in the Roman gods. The married couple returned to Byzantium (Istanbul, Turkey) Licinius’ seat of power. Ignoring our letter the ignoble Daia continued to torture and kill Christians in Asiana. I wrote to Daia warning him that I would not tolerate his continued persecution of Christians. He defied my warning. In Nicomedia he martyred Lucian of Antiochia because he refused to recant his belief in God.
HOST Lucian was a famous Biblical scholar, teacher of Arius and Bishop Eusebius of Nicomedia among others.
CONSTANTINE Lucian was revered by my mother and Constantia.
HOST Jewish zealots with vivid imaginations wrote the original Old Testament in Aramaic and Hebrew. At the request of King Ptolemy II, it was rewritten by Jewish scholars. Writing in Greek those Biblical scholars mixed up like scrambled eggs the original version. Lucian revised it by comparing the Hebrew Old Testament with the Greek versions of the Old Testament and New Testament. He clarified inconsistencies and prepared the Greek Lucianic Byzantine version for the early church. There are those who claim you helped Lucian decide what should be in the Bible.
CONSTANTINE Not true; he never consulted me.
HOST It was rumored that Lucian used the original Old testament to develop an esoteric book of black magic, sorcery, and secret codes for prophesying the future. Were you ever told about that unpublished book?
CONSTANTINE I never knew such a book existed. If it did Daia’s persecutors would surely have found it.
HOST It was also rumored that before persecutors martyred him, Lucian destroyed the book because he didn’t want anyone to accuse him of reverting to paganism.
CONSTANTINE I don’t believe that rumor.
HOST As the Maximus Augustus of West, you were asked to intervene in the Catholic schisms in North Africa.
CONSTANTINE Schisms created by a power struggle within the church.
HOST I have a summary of those schisms (reads):
In North Africa there were already three great basilicas in Carthage (Tunis, Tunisia) before Constantine began construction of St. John in Roma. During the great Persecution there arose a great enmity between Catholics who continued to celebrate their faith and Catholics who collaborated with persecutors by abandoning their faith. Collaborators were called traditores (traitors). The schism was caused when the traditor priest Caecilian was ordained Bishop of Carthage. The Church of Roma, which pastored Catholics approved of Bishop Caecilian because it welcomed traditores to participate in church services and receive sacraments.
Catholics who rejected traditores also rejected Bishop Caecilian. They consecrated one of their own priests Donatus to be Bishop of Carthage. His followers, Donatists, declared that traditores should not be readmitted to the Church or receive communion. Constantine’s friend Bishop Ossius approved of Caecilian’s election and suggested that Bishop Donatus be made persona non grata. That’s when Donatists separated themselves from the Church of Roma. Obviuosly the Church of Roma strongly disagreed with Donatists. The growing schism in Carthage was between Orthodox Catholics who forgave traditores and Donatist Catholics who denounced traditores.
CONSTANTINE You’d think that men of God could be civil to each other and resolve their differences, such was not the case. Donatists fragmented the unity of the Church. It was easier for me to make peace with Roma’s enemies than for the pope and his bishops to resolve the schism.
HOST Donatists were resolute in their cause; they had the persecution and martyrdom of Jesus on their side. They denounced traditor Bishops Marcellus, Miltiades, and Silvester for their collaboration with persecutors. Those bishops responded by declaring their collaboration kept alive the clergy whose faith would help the church recover when the persecutions ended. Those traditores became popes! Imagine, it’s like our modern popes collaborating with mad men like Hitler, Stalin, Mao Zedong, and Pol Pot!
CONSTANTINE I don’t know those of whom you speak but why are you outraged? Those in power do whatever is required to retain power irrespective of the organization whether military, personal, political, or religious.
HOST Popes are supposed to be vicars of God.
CONSTANTINE All that being true it came down to this: Orthodox Catholics reached out to traditores and forgave them, Donatist Catholics did not.
HOST Melitius, Bishop of Lycopolis (Asyut, Aegyptus), also opposed traditores. During the Great Persecution Galerius imprisoned him because he refused to disavow God. He revered martyrs and believed in a rigorously Catholic and ascetic life. His followers, Melitists, joined the Donatists. The problem was that the schism was spreading from North Africa to the Orient and Asiana.
CONSTANTINE To resolve the conflict over the ordination of Bishop Caecilian I met with Pope Miltiades (311-314). I summoned him to convene a council of bishops to resolve the position of the church concerning Bishop Caecilian. I persuaded Fausta to offer Pope Miltiades her Lateran Palace becasue it had a great hall in which the bishops could convene. Donatists immediately protested claiming the pope was an invalid arbiter because he was a traditor. Their strident protests declared the council’s judges were bishops chosen by the Church of Roma and even included traditores such as Bishop Silvester. The arguments of bishops proceeded from enmity to hatred. After several meetings the council concluded that Caecilian was the lawful Bishop of Carthage. The pope strongly condemned Donatists because they not only rejected traditores but were rebaptizing those traditores who wanted to join the Donatist’s Church of the Martyrs.
HOST The council failed to resolve the schism or alter church doctrine to accommodate Donatists.
CONSTANTINE The pope’s solution was to excommunicate Donatists. I rejected his proposed solution because there were too many of them. Instead I suggested that he compromise with Donatists to restore peace and unity in the Church. That suggestion caused the pope to assume a defensive position and question me about my attitude towards the Church of Roma.
HOST Pope Miltiades questioned you about your support for Catholicism?
CONSTANTINE Religion was inextricably meshed with state government. In the East Daia subsidized paganism and persecuted Christians. The pope wanted my assurance that Catholics would not be persecuted. I assured him of my support for all Christians, Catholic or Donatist. To prove my sincerity I released Catholics imprisoned by Maxentius and returned to them their confiscated properties. Miltiades and I developed a friendly relationship and had many discussions about Catholicism. He suggested I convert and receive instructions preparatory to baptism.
HOST You became a catechumen?
CONSTANTINE Me as catechumen? No, no, emperors are not instructed like children, they’re advised. His advice was mostly about making offerings to the church. He said "Those who show their devotion to God by making personal sacrifices, they shall find the gates of heaven open to them".
HOST Money?
CONSTANTINE Yes and choice lands for building basilicas. The pope requested that I authorize the construction of the basilica of Saint John Lateran. I persuaded Fausta to donate her imperial Lateran property next to the palace, which she did. The senate was outraged because that site was once sacred ground housing a shrine where pagans worshipped. Eventually I approved a plan for building the basilica.
HOST A magnificent basilica more than 100’ high with capacity for several thousand Catholic congregants.
CONSTANTINE I had it adorned with solid gold and sliver, rare marbles, statuary, candelabra set with precious stones, and intricate mosaics. Its chalices and patens were solid gold. Nearby wre built the luxurious papal palace and baptistery, which were adorned in the same manner.
HOST Later you approved the construction of half dozen basilicas in and around Roma.
CONSTANTINE The succeeding pope, Pope Sylvester 1 (314-335), persuaded me to build the basilica of Saint Peter not on a rock but over the site of his crucifixion, which had become a pagan cemetery. I angered the senate when I permitted that cemetery to be destroyed. Saint Peter was built larger and more ornate then Saint John. I gave the pope other choice parcels of land and enough money to hire architects, engineers, purchase building materials, and hire an army of laborers. I approached the construction of basilicas with oversight control just as I would a military campaign.
HOST You built many basilicas, each extravagantly adorned, such as Saints Marcellus and Peter and Saint Paul outside the walls of Roma. Your beneficence in Roma alone made the papacy wealthy beyond its greatest expectation. But your largesse to the church dismayed provincial governors from whom you demanded more tax revenue in order to pay for the basilicas.
CONSTANTINE But if a province was in financial trouble I normally returned some of its tax money.
HOST You issued edicts directed at and benefiting the church. In fact you elevated bishops to the political status of magistrate.
CONSTANTINE I believed the clergy should not be distracted from their ecclesiastic duties by secular obligations. I exempted them from paying taxes or having to comply with local regulations. I ordered ecclesiastics, including nuns and deacons, to receive food and other benefits and allowed the church to receive gifts.
HOST Today almost 2,000 years later those privileges are still maintained. But while you were convinced of the goodness of the church, Licinius was persecuting Christians.
CONSTANTINE To counter his persecutions I released Christians from imprisonment, freed convicts and slaves, and permitted the persecuted and exiled by Maxentius to return to Roma.
HOST But somewhere in your psyche you still believed in some pagan practices such as crucifixion.
CONSTANTINE Recall that Crassus had 6,000 of Sparaticus’ soldiers crucified along the Appian Way from Capua to Roma. They were slaves not Romans.
HOST About 125 miles of road, both sides implanted with wood crosses exhaling the sickening stench of rotting putrefying bodies. Today we emulate those crucifixions with genocides such as in Sarajevo, Rwanda, and elsewhere.
CONSTANTINE Keep in mind that a Roman citizen could not be crucified.
HOST Even so your moral contradictions were evident in transiting from paganism to Catholicism. You issued many edicts. One of them allowed the exposure to death of unwanted births, much to the dismay of your Christian tutor Lactantius. You permitted the destruction of pagan temples for building on those sites elaborate churches. You tolerated gladiator killings in the arena while punishing slave owners who branded their slaves on the forehead.
CONSTANTINE Branding despoils the vision of man as created by God, so I published rules against branding and for the humane treatment of slaves. I proclaimed it a crime to seize animals or slaves from debtors as payment for their debts.
HOST You declared it a crime for a Roman woman to have sex with a male or female slave but the same was not applicable to Roman men.
CONSTANTINE Men do not birth orphans.
HOST You forbade pagan devotionals or practices as superstition while approving pure faith in the belief of God. Isn’t pure faith the same as superstition?
CONSTANTINE I had a personal relationship with God. It was my duty as emperor to act as bishop of the laity. With the Great Persecution over, I advised Catholics that martyrdom should be replaced with suffering in imitation of Jesus. Suffering was good for Catholics. Pagans were converting to Catholicsm because it offered forgiveness of sins, resurrection, and life after death.
HOST Contrasted with no life in heaven for pagans?
CONSTANTINE Pagans did not believe in resurrection.
HOST You accepted the miraculous power of pagan gods. Did that acceptance extend to the miracles of Jesus?
CONSTANTINE The Son of God is omnipotent. But at that time I needed my own miracle to feed the hungry people of Roma so I imported grain from Aegyptus. To maintain our welfare state of bread and circuses I had criminals help in Roma’s distribution of free grain. That was a mistake; they stole the grain and sold it for personal profit.
HOST Like criminals in America stealing food stamps. In fact America invites immigrants to invade our borders and apply for food stamps.
CONSTANTINE Were you trying to feed the world’s population?
HOST America distributes food throughout the world to feed the hungry. The problem is the hungry seldom get our largess because criminal leaders in those countries steal it and sell it for personal profit.
CONSTANTINE To assure Romans a consistent supply of food and grain, I organized guilds for grain importers, butchers, and other food handlers. The problem was that guild members had to pay dues to their leaders. Workers got embroiled in bribery, demanding money from merchants and businessmen, in order to pay their guild’s criminal leaders.
HOST Like our unions in America. Today our unions are doing exactly what your guilds did 2,000 years ago.
CONSTANTINE Romans too poor to pay membership fees turned to street crime.
HOST Like street punks and gang members in our big cities.
CONSTANTINE Bureaucrats sold civil service jobs to relatives and friends and bribed judges who decreed little or no justice.
HOST Nothing’s changed, it’s the same in America. Our judges are also bribed but few of them are punished and imprisoned because lawyers take care of their own.
CONSTANTINE I passed laws against corruption but it continued camouflaged as arbitration decreed by joint committees.
HOST That practice continues in America. Unions take over a city, such as New York, and then pretend to arbitrate differences while they extort increases in wages from city officials.
CONSTANTINE Your America is aping Roma.
HOST It was common practice for emperors to approve huge building projects as memorials to their reigns. To get the best architects and workmen you paid bonuses. Aren’t bonuses the same as bribes?
CONSTANTINE Bribes transit from workers to employers, bonuses from employers to workers. Bribes are paid to the unproductive who do little or no work. I paid bonuses to the most productive, those best qualified to do work. I even exempted the best of them from taxation. Their expertise was handed down father to son, dynastic inheritance.
HOST Dynastic inheritance is alive in America. It’s still practiced by unions. High-paying union jobs are handed down from father to son. Fathers pay off the union bosses who then employ their sons.
CONSTANTINE Speaking of sons, I had to conscript them in order to maintain my half million-man army for protecting Roma against its enemies. I kept the military out of government, except for the appointment of a few friends to the positions of deuces.
HOST Not long ago there was a leader in Italia called IL Duce. He was a megalomaniac who got that poor country into several wars. Having lost the big war and trying to escape his defeated poverty-stricken people hung him by the ankles.
CONSTANTINE Losers are expendable whether in my time or yours.
HOST Rather than make slaves of some conquered people you made them farmhands and called them coloni. They were legally bound to the landlord and could leave only to join the military. If a landlord sold his farm, his coloni were included in the sale. When rich landowners bought small farms, putting them out of business, the sale included coloni. Over time those small farms with their coloni aggregated to huge estates. Today in America corporate agribusinesses continue that practice by buying up small individual farms putting small farmers out of business.
CONSTANTINE Coloni were necessary to provide a steady food supply for my military and people in cities. Keep in mind I had to maintain a large army to preserve peace in the empire.
HOST I understand immigrants were attracted to cities where they received welfare.
CONSTANTINE I offered immigrants land to farm with the advantage of Roman culture but insisted they convert to Christianism.
HOST Because of your generous social programs you had to employ more civil servants. You increased the size of government adding bureaus bloated with civil servants.
CONSTANTINE They were necessary to implement my social programs – baths, public buildings, grants of money to widows with orphans, public charity provided clothing for the unclad or scantily clad, generous doles of grain, oil, and wine to the people, land for immigrants to farm. There were many such programs.
HOST Because of your government’s extravagant spending, you had to collect more taxes. You reinstated Diocletian’s old poll tax, calling it a capitation tax on males. But you taxed rich males at a lower rate than poor males shifting the tax burden to the poor.
CONSTANTINE The rich provided the necessary resources for my army.
HOST Moreover your tax policy demanded taxes be paid in gold. Poor people didn’t have gold but had to find a way of paying taxes in gold.
CONSTANTINE I needed gold for the soldus our basic currency. It was used to pay salaries, taxes, and 5-year bonuses to soldiers. I revalued the contents of gold in the soldus thereby stabilizing exchange rates with provinces.
HOST I’m guessing that today your soldus would be worth about $5.
CONSTANTINE To lessen inflationary pressures I revalued the soldus forging it with consistent gold content in multiples of carats.
HOST Carats are still used worldwide today to value gold and gemstones. The problem with your tax policy was that rich had gold but the poor had to sell their meager possessions to get gold. Some poor forced their wives and daughters into prostitution. Some of the desperate ones sold their children into slavery. Demonstrators in the streets raised their arms to heaven invoking the gods to come rescue them from your gold tax. Those who couldn’t pay with gold were punished.
CONSTANTINE Later I eased their predicament by accepting silver.
HOST But the poor didn’t have silver. If they couldn’t pay in silver your tax collectors tortured them.
CONSTANTINE Only those who constantly refused to pay. You must understand that to avoid paying taxes some persons claimed the names of dead persons listed in tax-exempt records. Those tax cheats refusing to support my government programs had to be punished.
HOST When taxpayers complained of high taxes bureaucrats told them to stop complaining, to obey and pay, repeating the warning "Give to Caesar money due to Caesar". In America we have our own Caesar aphorism. It commands wage earners to pay taxes throughout the year to the Internal Revenue Service. Tax payments must be made on time or the delinquent payer is punished by tax collectors, just as they were in your time. Historians record that many tax collectors were corrupt, collecting taxes at a higher rate and keeping the excess for themselves. They skimmed money off the top as do our corrupt politicians and corporate executives.
CONSTANTINE I issued an edict against tax corruption, against forcing wives and daughters into prostitution, or selling children into slavery. To enforce my edict I appointed judges to hear complaints of those assessed higher than prescribed taxes.
HOST Your tax policy reminds me of my country’s abusive tax policies. Americans must pay estimated taxes even before that year’s taxes are due. Upon death persons with estates must forfeit most of their assets to the government. Those having anxiety neurosis die prematurely due to their impending death forfeiture. Of course the poor don’t need estates because the government gives them the money forfeited from estates of the dead. In my country the rich pay most of the taxes, the middle class pays more than its fair share, but the poor don’t pay taxes. By the way did you pay taxes?
CONSTANTINE What, an emperor taxed like a common citizen? Emperors were exempt from taxation. The law required it. Emperors and their families were exempted as were emperor’s sons and their families. Why do you keep comparing your country to mine?
HOST Because America is following in the footsteps of Roma.
CONSTANTINE Does your America rule an empire?
HOST No but we’re a superpower.
CONSTANTINE What kind of superpower?
HOST Economic and military.
CONSTANTINE America has the two most important powers and doesn’t rule an empire? How long have you been a superpower?
HOST About 50 years.
CONSTANTINE Not long enough to know how to use your superpower.
HOST The world’s last empire was ruled by Britain.
CONSTANTINE You mean our Britannia, ruler of an empire?
HOST Not any longer, what was most of their empire is now independent.
CONSTANTINE Is your country the only superpower?
HOST Yes.
CONSTANTINE The only superpower and you don’t rule an empire?
HOST True.
CONSTANTINE What’s the value of being a superpower if you don’t rule an empire?
HOST We use our superpower to make compromises with other countries.
CONSTANTINE Compromises? Compromises are either for vacillators or for doling largesse. Do your compromises ever benefit you?
HOST Sometimes.
CONSTANTINE Compromises should always benefit you. Your enemies want what you have, superpower. If they had it, they’d use it against you to satisfy their own interests.
HOST We compromise because we’re trying to convert poor countries to democracies.
CONSTANTINE We tried that in our poor provinces. Those provinces were poor because they lacked leadership. Compromises are for vacillating democracies ruled by sophists and rhetoricians who like to talk, talk, talk.
HOST You’re mocking one of our recent presidents.
CONSTANTINE President as in presider?
HOST Well, yes.
CONSTANTINE If your presider was only a talker, he should be mocked. If you’re truly a superpower why didn’t your presider use that power to benefit your country?
HOST Our presidents believe that helping poor countries will redound to our benefit. Problem is that some of those countries we help are really our enemies.
CONSTANTINE All superpowers have enemies; they are to be eliminated.
HOST Our most dangerous enemy killed hundreds of our marines, soldiers, and sailors. When our president had the opportunity to punish the enemy for its dastardly deed, he balked and the opportunity slipped away. When questioned about his incompetence our left-leaning president declared that talking was preferable to warring.
CONSTANTINE Left leaning?
HOST One who shifts his responsibility to a discussion group hoping its consensual response will protect him from censure by his critics.
CONSTANTINE What? Your presider believed that talking was preferable and more diplomatic than acting in self-defense? The most important responsibility of your presider was to protect the people and land. I say that killing your enemy is preferable to being killed by him. You need a presider who understands the world around him. You need an emperor.
HOST Under great pressure to explain his incompetence, our married president lied. Later under continued pressure he finally admitted he was distracted from performing his duty because he was fully engorged while a young female intern performed fellatio. She mentioned that even his penis leaned left. When confronted with his lecherous adultery, he declared that fellatio was not sex.
CONSTANTINE A truly ignorant presider. Of course it’s sex. Your fellatio is taken from our fellare, to suck.
HOST His seduction of the young tart was popularized as lovers having different faiths coming together, he being Christian and she Jewish. Their scandalous behavior had serious consequences for our youth. There were reports that schoolgirls young as 11 or 12 were performing fellatio on boys because their president said it wasn’t sex.
CONSTANTINE In our Venus Temples fellatio was a common practice of ritual prostitution. I issued edicts against that kind of depravity and if it proved to be adulterous, I punished it.
HOST To deflect public condemnation of his outrageous debauchment, the president ordered a missile strike on a perceived enemy’s pharmaceutical factory destroying it.
CONSTANTINE Did it destroy your enemy?
HOST No, only the labels on aspirin bottles. Well, enough of him; he’s out of office but still yearns to wear the imperial purple as did your Maximian. Fortunately our laws prevent him from so doing. While you were issuing edicts Donatists in North Africa were again demonstrating against the Church of Roma, ignoring its bishops and your magistrates.
CONSTANTINE In their effort to resolve the schism they went over the pope’s head by appealing directly to me.
HOST I have one of those appeals (reads):
"We pray you, most excellent emperor Constantine, since you are of righteous stock, seeing that your father did not with the other emperors carry out the persecutions and Gaul is immune from this crime: whereas there are disputes between us and the other bishops in Africa, we pray that your piety may order judges to be given to us from Gaul". (Constantine the Great, Michael Grant, p 165)
CONSTANTINE To resolve the persistent disputes over the schism, I wrote to Pope Miltiades to convene a council at Fausta’s Lateran Palace.
HOST That was the second time the Lateran Palace was offered as the convention site to resolve the schism.
CONSTANTINE Miltiades invited bishops from Gallia and Italia to sit and judge according to Church law. Once more the council convened in the palace’s great hall. Donatists demanded their own bishops also sit in judgement. The council rejected their demands; the result, another failure to resolve the schism. The continuing failures of bishops were fracturing the empire’s religious unity. Jews ridiculed the bishops declaring their beliefs were merely those borrowed from outlawed Judaism cast aside by learned rabbis.
HOST What about the conflict between Christians and Jews?
CONSTANTINE Moses was not as great as Jesus who performed miracles for which there’s no human explanation. We recognize the Assumption of Moses into Judaic heaven but that heaven is open only to a chosen few such as Moses, Enoch, and Elijah. Judaism is exclusive because it requires a Jewish mother whereas Christianism is inclusive because it’s open to all.
HOST Why do you think Jews spread Christianism and not Judaism?
CONSTANTINE Because the expected Messiah was manifest in Jesus. Christian’s spread the word that belief in God meant redemption of sins and resurrection of life after death. Some Christians believed Jesus would come a second time to judge the living and dead, and to end the world of sin as we know it.
HOST Jesus the Son of God had already shed his divinity to become man. Do you think he would do it a second time?
CONSTANTINE I don’t know. What I’ve been told is that zealous Jews are waiting for the First Coming of their Messiah.
HOST What about the great disputation in Roma convened to answer the question of which religion was superior, Christianism or Judaism?
CONSTANTINE Disputes within Christianism were exacerbated by heated arguments between Christians and Jews. In Roma I convened a council of rabbis and bishops to hear the arguments on each side.
HOST I have one of several versions of that legendary dispute (reads):
Rabbis insisted on speaking first because Judaism preceded Christianism. They declared Moses spoke directly to God who gave him two stone tablets inscribed with the 10 Commandments. They claimed Jesus never spoke with God as had Moses, and that God never gave Jesus any tangible evidence of any meeting with him. Rabbis claimed Jesus was an anarchist and dissenter. By inferring he was the Son of God rabbis found him guilty of blasphemy. They turned him over to the Roman procurator Pontius Pilate who justly crucified him as an imposter.
Bishops claimed that Moses was a sorcerer who claimed that wind blowing through a bush was the voice of God and that its white mold effervescing in air was the smoke from its burning. They claimed Moses was an observer without power. They declared that on the Mount of Olives Jesus had the power to change himself to the Son of God before his disciples, and at the same time invoke the presence of Moses and Elijah who bore witness to the transfiguration. Conversely Moses did not have the power to summon Jesus to his side.
Rabbis then dragged in a bleating white scapegoat found wandering in the wilderness. They struggled with it, tied its legs, slit its throat, bled it, and in holocaust offered it to Yahweh. Thereupon a voice was heard "With all thy heart and soul and might, thou hast shown love for the Lord thy God".
Whereupon bishops chanting in solemn requiem poured chrism over its ashes and with arms outstretched upwards claimed resurrection as its departed spirit ascended to heaven. Thereupon a voice was heard
"Through the grace and love of God the Father, the Son Jesus Christ, and Holy Spirit the gates of heaven are open to all". Thereafter Bishops declared Chistianism superior to Judaism because the gates of heaven are open to all including Jews.
CONSTANTINE Rabbis and bishops argued for days attacking each other with volleys of recriminations and curses. In the end God will decide.
HOST In Judeo-Christian America there are zealous rabbis who resent any Christian celebration not having roots in Judaism. Recently a zealous rabbi made a pejorative comment about Saint Valentine’s Day because Valentine was a Christian martyr.
CONSTANTINE During that legendary dispute, and in a totally unprovoked action, the irreverent Daia and his army of about 70,000 crossed the Bosporus Straits (Black Sea to Sea of Marmara) and captured Byzantium forcing Licinius to escape to Thracia. Licinius and Constantia begged me for help. I dispatched several of my legions to Licinius. They marched against Daia defeating him in Thrace near Byzantium. Daia fled but Licinius pursued him to Tarsus (SE coast of Turkey near Syria), where Daia committed suicide.
HOST To prevent another attack against him, Licinius directed a blood bath against Daia’s relatives, accomplices, and friends.
CONSTANTINE Licinius tried to impress me that he was complying with our edict of religious toleration by killing Daia’s pagan associates who had persecuted Christians. He continued his murderous rampage by killing Daia’s friends and relatives. He ordered the murder of Daia’s daughter and son, Severus’ son, and Galerius’ entire family – his widow Valeria, their sons, and even his mother-in-law Prisca, Diocletians’ widow. Having executed all of Daia’s likely successors Licinius became the uncontested ruler of the East. He annexed Asiana to his dominion and thereby ruled from Illyricum to the Euphrates valley. Later, as if to expiate his guilt over the killings, Licinius issued his own edict for religious toleration.
HOST Once again the empire had coemperors and no Caesars, you in the Latin West and Lucinius in the Greek East. The next year in 314 the problems with Donatists persisted and the schism was exacerbating by Bishop Melitist and his adherents. I have an account of why the Melitists disagreed with the Church of Roma (reads):
Because he refused to disavow God during the Great Persecution, Bishop Melitius was first imprisoned by Galerius and then enslaved in the mines of Aegyptus. While enslaved he converted pagans to Catholics and the best of them he ordained priests. When Galerius issued his Edict of Toleration Melitius was was released from enslavement. He returned to Lycopolis where he founded his own Church of the Martyrs. He ordained priests who offered Mass to his followers. They strenuously objected to the Church of Roma allowing traditores to return to the Church. Melitists believed traditores should not attend Mass or receive sacraments unless rebaptized to avow and defend the martyrs.
Melitius organized demonstrations against the Catholic Bishop of Alexandria, who believed traditores should be forgiven, allowed to attend Mass, and receive the sacraments.
CONSTANTINE The struggle was as much financial as religious because there were more and richer Orthodox Catholics than Donatists or Melitists. The Church of Roma’s bishops wanted to continue receiving offerings of money and land from aristocratic Orthodox Catholics. Donatists and Melitists supported each other because they shared the same doctrines; they lauded martyrs while traditores renounced them to save themselves.
HOST Unfortunately the Donatist schism elaborated to religious war.
CONSTANTINE In Roma Pope Miltiades claimed Donatists were more concerned with church procedure than with unity. He denounced them for undermining the power of the papacy and divorced them from the Church of Roma.
HOST It seems to me the real problem was that the autocratic pope couldn’t control Donatists and refused to negotiate with them.
CONSTANTINE To end the schism Bishop Caecilian convinced me that I should confiscate Donatist churches in Carthage.
HOST Because Donatists dared challenge the pope and you.
CONSTANTINE I ordered my North African legions to confiscate the three Donatist churches in Carthage and turn them over to Bishop Caecilian.
HOST You gave them to Caecilian? He was the instigator, like throwing hot oil on a fire. You not only oppressed Donatists you persecuted them. Donatist parishioners defending their churches were slaughtered. You were doing to Donatists what pagan persecutors did to Christians.
CONSTANTINE I never ordered my legionaires to kill Donatists because I didn’t want to martyr them. You must realize killing is inevitable is such actions. But the schism was also political. Donatists wanted to preserve the aristocracy of North Africa more than they wanted to accept my rule and church orthodoxy.
HOST After you confiscated their churches, you prohibited Donatists from distributing pamphlets supporting their cause.
CONSTANTINE They were insubordinate, converting pagans to Donatism while the pope and I were trying to suppress the schism and convert pagans to Christianism.
HOST Speaking of Christians, when Donatists seized a Catholic church in Cirta, you ordered another Catholic church built next to it.
CONSTANTINE Because Donatists prohibited Catholics from attending their services. I had the new Church built to pacify disgruntled Catholics and to avoid further confrontation.
HOST You did in Cirta what Italians were forced to do in America. Irish immigrants discriminated against Italian immigrants by preventing them from attending Mass in Irish churches. Italians, ascendants of Roman master builders, built their own churches near to or facing the Irish churches.
CONSTANTINE I built the church at Cirta to limit Donatist expansion.
HOST Your two churches faced each other. Didn’t that create a problem in itself?
CONSTANTINE Surprisingly no. Were the Irish and Italians of different Christian sects?
HOST No, both Roman Catholics. Italians built their Churches so they could attend Mass.
CONSTANTINE I don’t understand the reason for the discrimination.
HOST The very provincial Irish emigrated from a small island having a closed culture.
CONSTANTINE During my reign there was religious intolerance but in any parochia (parish) all Catholics went to the same Church. Why didn’t the Irish and Italians in the same parochia attend the same Church?
HOST Unfortunately the Irish didn’t learn the demeaning lessons of discrimination because they did to Italians what was done to them. When the Irish arrived in America other ethnics discriminated against them. Perhaps it was because Italians had a long history of cultural diversity, dating back to your Roman Empire, the Irish didn’t. Perhaps the Irish resented the facts that the Vatican was run by Italians and that Pope Pius 11 was Italain (Achille Ratti). It appears that ethnic discrimination is more powerful than God.
CONSTANTINE Not true. Anything that man does cannot be more powerful than omnipotent God.
HOST Apparently God did not save Irish and Italians Catholics from attacking each other. On one side of the street was the Irish Saint Bridget. Across that street was the Italian Saint Catherine. Their stately facades glared at each other. In the middle of the street was a cop who spoke with a heavy Irish brogue. He kept the saints from attacking each other.
HOST Enough of Irish intolerance in America, back to your reign. When you built the Catholic Church at Cirta Donatists protested exacerbating the schism. They rioted and attacked Catholics who in response attacked them.
CONSTANTINE I hated schisms. I believed in orthodoxy and that any threat to it was the work of Satan. I again urged the pope to intervene and wrote letters to many bishops trying to persuade them to settle their disputes for the good of the church and peace in the empire. But the combined power of pope and bishops failed to resolve the schism. Having grown weary of Donatist protestations and intransigence I realized the clergy was ineffective. I had to control the church to unite Christians throughout the empire. I had to do it myself to end the abuses on both sides.
HOST Is that why you convened the Council at Arelate?
CONSTANTINE True and to distinguish the date of Easter from the Jews’ Passover. Under God’s divine guidance my mission was to save and unify the empire and to punish evil doers against the church. In order to regulate the church of the West, that is Europe and North Africa, I exercised my prerogative as God’s representative. In my attempt at a final resolution, I first voided Pope Miltiade’s approval of Bishop Caecilian during the first Lateran Council. In 314 I summoned the new pope, Pope Silvester, and his bishops to meet for a Council at Arelate (Arles, France).
HOST I understand you addressed bishops as "dear brothers".
CONSTANTINE We all were brothers in God’s army of salvation.
HOST Most of the bishops summoned were from Italia and Gallia, only a few from North Africa.
CONSTANTINE Of course most bishops in the West pastored in Italia and Gallia. At Arelate Catholic bishops condemned the practices of Donatists and Melitists. They in turn rebuked the church for its leniency towards traditores, for its papal arrogance, and imperious administration. Donatists bishops were fanatical; they believed theirs was the only true faith. Pope Silvester tried in vain to moderate their heated arguments. My report concluded with a description of lions growling and attacking each other, fighting over the carcass of Catholicism.
HOST It’s obvious that the Christian Latin West was less tolerant than the Christian Greek East.
CONSTANTINE Not less tolerant, more orthodox. The council failed to resolve the date of Easter or the schism. When I proposed that Melitius’ Church of the Martyrs be integrated with the Church of Roma, Catholic bishops bitterly complained and exited the council. My convening of episcopal councils never produced the wanted results and Donatists remained the dominant Christian sect in North Africa.
HOST In 315 you visited Roma for the first time since you liberated the city from Maxentius’ tyranny.
CONSTANTINE I went there only to appoint the pagan Vettius Rufinus governor of Roma.
HOST You were transiting Roma from paganism to Christianism but you named the pagan Rufinus governor of Roma even though he was a high priest of the Sol Invictus sun cult.
CONSTANTINE On that occasion I had to satisfy the pagan senate.
HOST The next year Goths again invaded Roman provinces along the Danube. Victorious along the Danube they continued south to Dacia.
CONSTANTINE I quickly repulsed their invasion to prevent them from marching down to Thracia and perhaps to Macedonia (Albania, Macedonia, Greece). They were persistent in their efforts to capture our provinces of Dacia, Thracia, and Macedonia.
HOST If Goths had succeeded they would have controlled Roman provinces from the Black Sea to the Aegean Sea, a large chunk of the empire.
CONSTANTINE With Goths controlling those middle provinces they’d split in two our empire, leaving the East and West open to attack from either side. I was determined to preserve the empire’s integrity. I mustered an army and counterattacked. We fought several battles and I eventually conquered them. Many of their captured volunteered to join our legions. To reward the new recruits I resettled their families, gave them land to farm, and offered them the protection of Roma.
HOST There was another revolting development, a conspiracy against you by one Bassianus.
CONSTANTINE Italia had been without a ruler since I defeated Maxentius. Licinius and I discussed the need for a Caesar there. He recommended Bassianus his cousin who was incidentally married to my stepsister Anastasia. I suggested that he be Caesar of both Italia and Illyricum. Licinius agreed.
HOST Some historians claim your intent was to have Bassianus create a buffer zone between you in the West and Licinius in the East, a dubious action sure to create distrust between you and Licinius.
CONSTANTINE Licinius had tolerated Christians under our mutual agreement of religious toleration but he began persecuting them again. I had planned a trip to North Africa to settle the Donatist schism but Licinius began acting up again by persecuting Christians. His actions diverted my attention. I didn’t trust him. Adding Illyricum to Italia was my solution for a buffer zone to protect Christians there from Licinius’ oppressive rule in the East. A buffer zone assures separation and the integrity of each side.
HOST Others claim your action was a pretext for a domestic war you were sure to win, thereby becoming sole emperor of the empire. Apparently Licinius thought so too because he allied himself with Bassianus and his brother. Together they plotted against you.
CONSTANTINE Licinius thought I would annex the buffer zone and intrude into his territory so he bribed Bassainus and his brother to plot against me. My informers uncovered the plot. Licinius planned to do to me what he had done to Daia, that is eliminate me and all my presumptive heirs thereby becoming sole emperor of the empire. If successful Bassianus would then replace me as Augustus of West. I had Bassianus arrested and tried for treason. He was found guilty and executed.
HOST Sounds like the Bassianus Sanction to me. First you appointed him and then executed him. There were a number of plots to depose you first Galerius, then Maximian, Maxentius, Bassianus, and now Licinius.
CONSTANTINE I demanded Licinius hand over the inciteful brother but he refused because the brother would have revealed the conspiracy plot. It was common practice for Augusti to accede to each others’ requests. Licinius’ refusal to hand over the inciteful brother challenged my authority as Augustus of West. He had already ignored our agreement of religious toleration and I was sure he’d ignore our recent agreement for the buffer zone. Being prudent, and to keep an eye on Licinius, I moved my capital from Trèves to Sirmium. I made it my base of operations, closer to Licinius.
HOST Not a very subtle move.
CONSTANTINE To counter my move Licinius doubled the size of his army. He destroyed my statues and other memorials to my victories, a direct challenge to me.
HOST In spite of your string of victories in Britannia, Gallia, the Rhine and Danube frontiers, Hispania, over Galerius and Maxentius, it appeared Licinius dared you to attack him.
CONSTANTINE He defied my attempt to protect Christians. War was inevitable. Preparing for war I added the title Victor to the chi-rho monogram on my labara. I had a tent built as a portable chapel in which I prayed to God for victory. Having completed my battle plan, I attacked. In the ensuing domestic war we fought several battles. I defeated him at Cibalae (NE of Sirmium). He retreated to Mardia (in Bulgaria) where I again defeated him.
HOST He managed to escape to northern Achaea and there sued for peace.
CONSTANTINE Constantia intervened begging for his life. I demanded Illyricum, Dacia, Macedonia, and Achaea. He agreed but insisted on retaining Thracia, Asiana, and Aegyptus. I agreed and exiled them to the palace at Thessalonica.
HOST Having won another victory you confirmed your title of Maximus Augustus. After your victory you issued several morally and socially important edicts.
CONSTANTINE I decreed it was no longer lawful to expose newborns to death, especially males.
HOST Why only males?
CONSTANTINE Future recruits for my army. However I decreed a certain number of healthy females should be nurtured to become incubators for male recruits.
HOST In America it’s lawful to expose newborns to death. During birthing doctors are allowed to puncture the soft skull of an exiting newborn to suck out its brain.
CONSTANTINE You’re doing what we did but with fellare again. Is your America obsessed with sucking?
HOST Before birth mothers are allowed to poison their fetuses by ingesting huge amounts of drugs. After birth some mothers expose newborns to death by throwing them away in garbage bins or dumpsters. Some deeply religious Christian mothers, fearing God’s anger, hear God commanding them to murder their infants and/or children.
CONSTANTINE God’s commands must be obeyed. I too fear his anger. In another of my edicts I entitled to government support the widows and children of soldiers killed in battle as well as orphans.
HOST That entitlement is still true in America.
CONSTANTINE But men who raped women could be executed if the rapes produced orphans. Orphans meant government support and more taxes. If men weren’t punished, Roma would be overrun with orphans.
HOST What about adultery?
CONSTANTINE I strongly believed in marriage vows. Adulterous men and women, if proved, were executed. If slaves were used as intermeddlers or assisted in arranging adultery, they too were executed.
HOST You executed adulterers for crimes of passion?
CONSTANTINE Those crimes of passion produced orphans abandoned to the state. Besides sometimes betrayed spouses executed their rivals, whose relatives then sought revenge beginning a bitter feud. It’s better for the state to punish adulterers.
HOST That year 316 you traveled to Roma to celebrate the 10th anniversary of your rule and to dedicate your magnificent Arch of Constantine.
CONSTANTINE Crispus traveled from Trèves to join me for the celebration.
HOST The magnificent arch is decorated with relief carvings of your great victory over Maxentius. During the dedication ceremony a panegyrist recounted the significance of each carving and then recited the arch’s memorial inscription:
TO THE EMPEROR CAESAR FLAVUIS CONSTANTINE, THE GREATEST, THE PIOUS, THE FORTUNATE, AUGUSTUS, BECAUSE BY THE PROMPTING OF THE DIVINITY AND THE GREATNESS OF HIS SOUL, HE WITH HIS FORCES AVENGED THE COMMONWEALTH WITH JUST ARMS BOTH ON THE TYRANT AND ON ALL HIS FACTION, THE SENATE AND PEOPLE OF ROME DEDICATE THIS TRIUMPHANT ARCH. (The Mask of Jove, Stringfellow Barr, p 497)
CONSTANTINE I was convinced that Christ guided me to that victory. During the dedication of the arch, I proclaimed to Romans that Christ was their true benefactor. Aristocratic Roman senators were outraged because they considered Christians underprivileged poor wretches whose misguided faith in Christ promised fictional resurrection for life after death. In due time we shall see who’s right.
HOST Your proclamation of Christ widened the split between you and the pagan senate. During the festivities the split was further exacerbated because you again refused to participate in the senate’s pagan ceremonies and endless Dionysian celebrations. Did your rebuff of the senate affect Crispus?
CONSTANTINE No, he fully participated in the celebrations. To commemorate my 10th year of rule I elevated Crispus to Caesar.
HOST But he was only 13.
CONSTANTINE Sons of emperors were given titles, well educated, held to high standards, and expected to carry out concomitant responsibilities. I made arrangements for him to be tutored for a high position befitting the son of the emperor. Foremost among his tutors was Lactantius my former tutor.
HOST Lactantius wrote Divine Institutions dedicated to you because of your belief in God. He also wrote On the Anger of God, about God’s anger and his punishment of evil doers. Speaking of evil doers Persian King Shapur was persecuting Christians in Persia and in adjacent Christian Armenia.
CONSTANTINE A believer in God it was my duty as emperor to dissuade the king from so doing. Having assured Armenians I would protect Christians, I was obliged to rescue them. I notified the king by letter that Roma was ready to defend Christian Armenia. I had the letter translated to Greek to avoid any misinterpretation. When the king didn’t respond I knew there’d be trouble ahead, even though Persia had been under Roman rule since Galerius’ victory over Narses.
HOST I understand you occasionally composed sermons in Latin and had them translated to Greek in order to practice speaking Greek.
CONSTANTINE Churchmen conversed mostly in Greek. Not very fluent in Greek, I maintained a working knowledge of it by delivering sermons to bishops and other ecclesiastics who would listen.
HOST Enhancing your belief in God, you became enamored of his Lux Perpetua (Perpetual Light).
CONSTANTINE I believed Lux Perpetua to be a numen of God’s light. Lux Perpetua was symbolic of God’s light. You have to realize that Romans could see Sol Invictus and worship it as the maintainer of life. The sun is real, it can be observed daily. Lux Perpetua is the light of the world seen only by those who believe in God.
HOST Is that why pagans continued to worship the sun?
CONSTANTINE Pagans declared that Sol Invictus and statues of Jupiter were everywhere but that God’s Lux Perpetua could not be seen or even envisioned. They also claimed God to be a myth adduced from the common crucifixion of Jesus and the disappearance of his body.
HOST On your coinage were the pagan Sol Invictus and God’s Lux Perpetua. Were they parts of early Christianism?
CONSTANTINE Most Romans were pagan so some pagan symbols were carried over to early Christianism. To satisfy pagans and Christians I minted coins with Sol Invictus on the obverse and Lux Perpetua on the reverse.
HOST Over the years your patron gods transited from Jupiter to Mars to Sol Invictus and to God with his Lux Perpetua.
CONSTANTINE I invoked each in turn to achieve my goals for the benefit of the empire. Mountain streams are intermixed in brackish outlets before entering the sea. People cannot transit from one religion to another without some intermixing of the old and new. For example such was the conjunction of the birth of Jesus and the winter solstice.
HOST Was that significant?
CONSTANTINE At the time the combination was politically necessary. The Sol Invictus holiday was celebrated at the winter solstice, when the sun shone most obliquely to earth, about 22December. At the same time Christians celebrated the birth of Jesus on 25 December. I ordered the two holidays be merged and commemorated the merger with new coins. Thereafter we celebrated the one holiday with feasting and entertainment.
HOST Did you ever consider a succeeding god, perhaps the god from IT?
CONSTANTINE What? I believed in the God of gods, the God of victory. What is this god of IT you speak of?
HOST It all depends on what the meaning of IT is?
CONSTANTINE Lactantius warned me about Greek sophistry such as that.
HOST Merely interjecting a little levity in our conversation. The next year 317 you met with Licinius to confirm your peaceful joint emperorship by the appointments of your infant sons as Caesars. You named your son Constantine two Caesar of West. Lucinius named his son Lucinianus Caesar of East.
CONSTANTINE That year Fausta gave birth to our second son Constantius 2. In spite of her pagan beliefs, I persuaded her to raise our children Christian. At first she protested but then complied.
HOST Beginning in 318 you departed Sirmium for a tour of provinces stopping at Naissus your birthplace, Sardica (Sofia, Bulgaria), and Thessalonica. Later you decided to move your capital from Sirmium to Sardica.
CONSTANTINE Where I could better observe Licinius. He still yearned to be supreme Augustus of the empire. To limit his expansion into Asiana, I negotiated an alliance with Christian Armenia.
HOST You made it known that you preferred Sardica to Roma. Were you thinking of moving the empire’s capital from Roma to Sardica?
CONSTANTINE I never liked Roma.
HOST Your enmity was mutual, Romans apparently didn’t like you. They complained you deserted them for the Adriatic provinces where you were born. They also complained you had integrated into your legions too many conquered Allemani, Franks, and Goths instead of Romans.
CONSTANTINE Those soldiers were well disciplined and fearless fighters. I selected for my bodyguard several of their most courageous fighters. I rewarded with statues a few of their faithful leaders, which they considered a great honor by swearing allegiance to Roma.
HOST Romans complained you were granting citizenship to too many people who didn’t look or act like Romans or believe in Roman gods.
CONSTANTINE Roma’s pagan administrators believed northern barbarian slaves would better serve Roma but I put them to better use. I made most of them coloni because they were strong and good workers.
HOST 2000 years ago you did what we did in America. We worked slaves mostly on southern farms.
CONSTANTINE Eventually many coloni and slaves were freed, integrated with Romans, and granted citizenship.
HOST As were our slaves but some of their ascendants insist they remain segregated from whites to preserve their blackness.
CONSTANTINE Black slaves?
HOST From Africa, not from your provinces. In our congress black representatives elected to represent all the people represent only blacks. Their political committee the Congressional Black Caucus serves only blacks because it emphasizes discrimination against whites.
CONSTANTINE Why do your citizens tolerate such discrimination?
HOST In America it’s now politically correct for cowardly white politicians to fawn for the black minority vote.
CONSTANTINE A nation’s character is determined by its people. Your people are cowards therefore your politicians are cowards. Your political system eventually will fall because your people’s lack of courage.
HOST Blacks complain about not being integrated with whites but then eschew the opportunity to do so. They not only segregate themselves in our congress but also on college campuses and in corporations. At several of our universities black professors have revised history for their own aggrandizement. While there are blacks running mostly white corporations there are no whites running black corporations. Blacks have separate organizations for their artists such as a separate anthology for black writers.
CONSTANTINE Your America is an example of failed leadership, like schismatics trying to take over the Church of Roma. I had none of that. I wouldn’t allow a minority to infest our schools or determine state policy by its propaganda. I warned my son Crispus not to allow the minority Alemanni to take over in Gallia.
HOST The Caesar Crispus had married and ruled from Trèves where you and your father ruled. He encountered the sons of Alemanni your father and you had defeated. That region was under constant threat by rebellious Alemanni along the Rhine River.
CONSTANTINE As Caesar of the region he was obliged to confront them. He led his legions to victory over the Alemanni, a great accomplishment for the 17 year old Caesar.
HOST Crispus was considered courageous in battle, a perfect image of his father, and a favorite of the court in Trèves.
HOST Northern barbarians invaders and white slaves weren’t your only problems. There was another and more important break with the Church of Roma; this time it was heresy. In Aegyptus the rebellious priest Arius had joined the Melitists. Arius did not believe Jesus was divine. He taught that God the Father was divine but that Jesus was not because he did not exist before his birth. Therefore Jesus the proclaimed Son of God was subordinate to the Father and not of the same substance. The Church of Roma pronounced that Arius and his followers, Arians, were heretics and labeled his doctrine the Arian Heresy.
CONSTANTINE Arians disputed church doctrine a more seroius disagreement than Donatists who disputed church policy concerning traditores.
HOST I have a summary of the Arian Heresy (reads):
Arius was a popular preacher. About 319 in Alexandria, Aegyptus he claimed that the Son of God was different from the Father. He believed that the Father and Son were two distinct and separate beings, their natures similar but not the same. The Church of Roma declared Arius a heretic because he denied the its orthodox Trinitarian doctrine. Arius popularized his heretic doctrine by writing and singing songs. He wrote the book Thalia in which his happy thoughts were read mostly by women. His outgoing personality attracted many followers. They included bishops, priests, the laity, and troupes of virgin women who compared him to Jesus. Arius had many supporters among them Lucian his teacher, Eusebius Bishop of Nicomedia, and Eusebius of Bishop of Caesarea. The Arian Heresy spread like wildfire throughout North Africa but the strong opposition of Alexander, the Catholic Bishop of Alexandria, inhibited it’s spread. The bishop claimed that the Father and Son were of the same substance, coequal, and coeternal. He claimed the Son was the Word of God made flesh in Jesus. The bishop criticized the disgraceful conduct of young Arian women soliciting for converts to Arius’ belief. Bishop Alexander’s deacon and secretary Athanasius fervently supported him. Those who supported the bishop were Catholic Christians; those who supported Arius were Arian Christians. Their violent disputes climaxed in 321 when Alexander convened and moderated a council of bishops who excommunicated the heretic Arius.
CONSTANTINE Arius fled to Asiana for help. First to Palestina and then to Bithynia. There he begged bishops Eusebius of Nicomedia and of Caesarea for help. They appealed to other bishops in the East who held a council in Bithnyia. The council nullified Arius’ excommunication but he was prohibited from returning to Alexandria. Thereafter Catholic and Arian bishops continued to argue over the Son’s substance, whether it was the same or different from the Father’s.
HOST You befriended Bishop Ossius of Cordoba (Cordova, Spain) who advised you in this and other matters of Christianism. He was one of the bishops tortured during the Great Persecution.
CONSTANTINE Ossius and I became friends. He provided me with news of the conflict. The radical views of schismatics and heretics were exacerbated by the empire’s cultural and racial diversity. In an effort to resolve the disputes I invited bishops and scholars to participate in discussions about the nature of God. What I envisioned to be an intellectual discussion proved to be a fierce gladiatorial combat. They savagely attacked each other like wild animals fighting over a kill. Their disputes persisted and worsened. The next year I wrote a letter to Bishop Alexander criticizing him and Arius for not resolving their dispute. I had it delivered by Bishop Ossius who tried in vain to reconcile Catholic and heretical doctrines.
HOST You wrote to Arius several times declaring your full support for the Catholic doctrine that the Father and Son are of one substance.
CONSTANTINE I considered the obstinacy of Donatists and Arians a personal attack against me and a doctrinal attack against the Church.
HOST Perhaps they had other reasons. You gave Catholic clergy tax exemption but you taxed the Donatists, Melitists, and Arians. When they damaged or destroyed Catholic churches you had those churches rebuilt. But when Catholics destroyed schismatic churches, you refrained from rebuilding them.
CONSTANTINE I believed in orthodox Catholicism. Why would I help those who opposed me?
HOST Surely there must have been times when you disagreed with Catholic bishops over religious matters?
CONSTANTINE Of course. When Catholic bishops finally agreed to tolerate Donatists, I disagreed.
HOST In fact you confiscated their churches and persecuted them.
CONSTANTINE But in 321 I relented and granted them amnesty making them free to worship as they pleased. I gave them money and resources to rebuild their churches. Donatists were to be pitied for their rejection of fellow Christians. I abandoned my attempts to resolve the schism and told them that in the end God would judge them.
HOST Donatists claimed a glorious victory over you and the Church of Roma. That was one war you lost.
CONSTANTINE Yes but I was determined not to lose another religious war. Because of continuing heated disputes among bishops, I decided to appoint future bishops myself.
HOST Wasn’t that was the pope’s prerogative?
CONSTANTINE The pope was leader of the Church of Roma. I was emperor of the empire and obliged to maintain peace.
HOST You declared yourself prefect of the papacy?
CONSTANTINE When necessary, in order to control the integrity of the church, I granted to myself ecclesiastic powers beyond those of the pope. The peace of the empire required that I do so.
HOST On another matter, you made a special day of dies solis, light day or sun day, which we now call Sunday. You made Sunday a holiday.
CONSTANTINE I proclaimed dies solis a day of rest. I forbid Chrisitans to work on that day so they could attend church and religious celebrations. I prohibited city dwellers from working but allowed farmers to work to maintain the food supply.
HOST Like our daylight saving time which allows farmers to work longer hours.
CONSTANTINE On that day I urged Catholics to rest so they had time to pray to God. Judges and lawyers were prohibited from holding court and slave owners were encouraged to free their slaves.
HOST Your Sunday edict didn’t mention Jesus or Christ
CONSTANTINE But I wrote a special prayer for my Christian soldiers to recite on Sunday.
HOST What about barbarian soldiers who joined your army, were they forced to recite your Sunday prayer?
CONSTANTINE No, but I urged them to learn it.
HOST In 321 the senate promoted your Caesar sons Crispus and Constantine 2 to the high status of consul. Licinianus was ignored, a direct challenge to Licinius’ influence and power.
CONSTANTINE Crispus defeated the Alemanni and deserved the promotion. I suggested Constantine 2 be included and the senate agreed.
HOST That year you met your son Crispus in Sirmium to celebrate the 15th anniversary of your rule and the 5th anniversary of his rule. You didn’t invite Licinius, his wife Constantia, or their son Licinianus. That familial, social, and political snub exacerbated the your fragile friendship with Licinius.
CONSTANTINE I didn’t want Licinius in Sirmium because I was secretly recruiting Dacians for my army. I encouraged them by minting coins cast with the image of Sol Invictus whom they revered. I reminded them that I was ascended from Claudius Gothicus, whom they considered a great hero. Dacians worshipped heroes and I needed recruits because sooner or later Licinius would try to regain the territories he ceded to me.
HOST Meantime Sarmatians crossed the Danube, invaded Dacia, and continued south to Illyricum.
CONSTANTINE I attacked and expelled them from Illyricum, then pushed them back north beyond the Danube to their homeland.
HOST Thereafter in a great engineering feat you built a long bridge, about 1.5 miles, across the Danube and its tributary marshes. Didn’t that bridge facilitate future invasions by Sarmatians?
CONSTANTINE I built it to provide my army quick crossings for preemptive strikes against imminent attacks by hordes of northern barbarians, such as Goths and Sarmatians. I needed to confront them before they invaded Roman provinces.
HOST When you returned to Sirmium you sought assurance of your belief in the Trinity from your former tutor Lactantius?
CONSTANTINE The Arian heresy created doubts in my mind about the nature of the Son Jesus. Those doubts were like a skin rash whose persistent itch summons one’s attention. My former tutor Lactantius had written a book on the seminal problem of Trinity. I summoned him to help me understand its mystery.
HOST He was was then an old man of about 70. A Christian scholar and writer he believed in Trinity and wrote a book on it titled Divine Institutes. In fact his last edition was dedicated to you. He had the highest regard for you and praised you with phrases such as (reads): God raised Constantine to be our blessed ruler, Constantine washed away the most heinous crimes for which God will grant him happiness in heaven, Constantine is the savior of all.
CONSTANTINE I questioned him about the concept of Trinity. He prefaced his views by stating that for explaining Trinity Latin was more appropriate than Greek
HOST Wasn’t that natural? He was a Latin scholar.
CONSTANTINE But he also was fluent in Greek. He analogized the relationship of God the Father and Son to the Roman family, to paterfamilias. He explained the mysteries of the triune God by explaining that the world is the house of God. Father and Son dwell in that house. The Father is master of his household, the world. The Father has power over the Son, who is part of the household. The Father and Son are two but act as one. In similar manner the Augusti and Caesars are two but act as one.
HOST What about the third person, the Holy Spirit?
CONSTANTINE When I asked him about the Holy Spirit he was evasive. When I persisted he answered that it too was part of the same household. The descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Virgin Mary implanted in her womb the homunculus of Jesus, the fully formed Son of God. In the household of the world Father, Son, and Holy Spirit act in harmony. But humans cannot comprehend the mind of omnipotent God, more powerful than Jupiter, more powerful than any pagan god.
HOST Belief in omnipotence requires the observer to be superstitious.
CONSTANTINE Faith is more powerful than superstition.
HOST You proclaimed to Romans that God was their true benefactor. You were the first emperor to link the Christian God to the empire but you had not yet converted to Catholicism.
CONSTANTINE I believed in God, my patron god of victory. I assured Pope Silvester of my sincere intention to convert. Thereafter he outlined the adult procedure for becoming a Catholic.
HOST You became a catechumen?
CONSTANTINE Me, Augustus of West a catechumen, like a child questioned by bishops? No, no. It was I who summoned the pope and bishops and questioned them about Catholicism.
HOST If I recall correctly it was Ignatius of Antiochia, about the year 100, who first used the word Catholic to mean general or universal inferring that it was available to all peoples.
CONSTANTINE Not like restrictive Judaism, available only to offspring of Jewish mothers.
HOST What about Judaism?
CONSTANTINE Moses was not as great as Jesus who performed miracles for which there’s no human explanation. We recognize the assumption of Moses into Judaic heaven but that heaven is open only to a chosen few such as Enoch and Elijah. Judaism is exclusive because it requires a Jewish mother, Catholicism is inclusive because it’s available to anyone.
HOST Why do you think Jews spread Christianism and not Judaism?
CONSTANTINE Because the expected Messiah was manifest in Jesus. Christian’s spread the word that belief in God meant redemption of sins and resurrection for life after death. Some Christians believed Jesus would come a second time to judge the living and dead, and to end the evil in the world as we know it. In the meantime zealous Jews waited for the First Coming of their Messiah.
HOST Is It true that you, your mother, and Constantia were baptized at the same time?
CONSTANTINE No, but in appreciation of my devotion to God, my mother and Constantia became Arian Christians.
HOST Why Arians?
CONSTANTINE They admired Lucian, teacher of Arius.
HOST It appears your mother and Constantia got along very well. I read reports your mother hated your stepsiblings because their mother Theodora had stolen your father away from her. In fact some reports have your mother ordering the execution of your stepsiblings.
CONSTANTINE Not true. You have to be careful of rumors and unsolicited reports.
HOST What about you, were you baptized?
CONSTANTINE Mine was not a true baptism. My participation was merely ceremonial. I instructed the presiding bishop not to use the required Holy Water because I wanted to be baptized in the Jordan River, as was Jesus.
HOST The bishop used sorcery to fake baptism?
CONSTANTINE Not sorcery, intervention approved by me as prefect of the papacy and Church of Roma. To be baptized would have demoted me from Pontifex Maximus to common Catholic, a politically risky conversion.
HOST Speaking of pagans, Roma’s pagan aristocrats and government began employing Christians. Eventually Christians in private businesses and civil servants in government outnumbered pagans.
CONSTANTINE To pacify pagans I continued to have Sol Invictus minted on coinage.
HOST In the East the growing number of Christians angered Licinius who believed in Roma’s pagan gods.
CONSTANTINE Once I asked him how pagan priests and sorcerers could divine the future by examining entrails. He declared that the signs were put there by Jupiter, Minerva, or other god. When I threatened to punish any pagan using black magic or other such superstition to perform a government task he became very angry.
HOST Did you ever consider persecuting pagans?
CONSTANTINE Pagans were still the majority. I needed their support to avoid riots, rebellion, or religious war.
HOST Licinius did not follow your tolerant example.
CONSTANTINE His toleration was inconsistent. He tolerated his Arian wife Constantia who protected her friends. He even sent as representative to my court the Arian Bishop Eusebius of Nicomedia. Later he purged his court of Christians and forced them to perform pagan sacrifices.
HOST Jealous that Christians supported you he issued edicts forbidding Christian worship and renewed repressive measures by persecuting them and destroying their churches. The lucky ones were exiled. For protection I understand they fled to neighboring barbarian tribes.
CONSTANTINE I felt compelled to rebuke Licinius and I did in several letters.
HOST I have a translation of one of those letters in which you mention barbarians (reads):
…Those events are now the boast of barbarians who at that time welcomed refugees from among us, and kept them in humane custody, for they provided them not only with safety but with the opportunity to practice their religion in security. And now the Roman race bears this indelible stain, left on its name by the Christians who wre driven at that time from the Roman world and took refuge with barbarians.
(Life of Constantine, Eusebius of Caesarea, pp 112-113)CONSTANTINE Licinius was furious I had literally attacked him. He became the emperor of evil and darkness eclipsing Lux Perpetua God’s light of the world.
HOST Was it true he had Christians slaughtered, cut to pieces, and then cast their parts in the sea for fish to feast upon?
CONSTANTINE I had been told that. In the East he turned out to be a tyrant as had Maxentius in the West.
HOST In 323 while you and Licinius quarreled over religious freedom, Goths did not wait for warm weather to invade Licinius’ territory. That winter they crossed the frozen Danube over the long bridge you built. Your engineering marvel made it easier for them to penetrate Dacia all the way south to Thracia but Licinius refused to confront them. Why? You’d think that such an ambitious ruthless man would protect his territory. He even had the advantage of being married to Constantia, who could ask for your help.
CONSTANTINE My prudent advisers warned me Licinius was trying to coax me into his territory to begin another domestic war. My belligerent advisers warned me that I had no choice but to defend the empire. A ruler’s first priority is to protect the land and its people. I had to protect Romans from barbarians. I prepared for war threatening anyone who collaborated with Goths to be burnt to death.
HOST That year 324 you appointed your second son Constantius 2 a Caesar.
CONSTANTINE To assure dynastic inheritance in the event I was killed in battle. That done I attacked the Gothic invaders. In fierce battles during that year I was victorious in pushing them back over the same long bridge.
HOST That great victory earned you the title of Constantine Gothicus, continuing the inheritance from your ancestor Claudius Gothicus. But Licinius considered your victory a preemptive strike against him. He insisted that you prompted the Goths to invade your province of Dacia and did not confront them until they advanced south to invade his province of Thracia.
CONSTANTINE Rather than thank me for saving his province, he protested that my victory was an invasion of his territory. That protest exposed his plan for becoming sole emperor of the entire empire. He was simply looking for a future excuse to make war against me. In preparation for that coming war, I marched Gothic prisoners down to Thessalonica to help build a new palace and enlarge its harbor for my navy.
HOST After almost 10 years of unsteady peace your premonition came true. Licinius amassed a huge army at Adrianople (Edirne, Turkey). He hired mercenaries including those Goths who avoided being captured by you.
CONSTANTINE Leaving enough soldiers in Gallia to protect it from northern invaders, I ordered most of my legions to march to Sardica my capital. Retaining a small fleet in the North Sea to protect Britannia and Gallia from pirates, I gave Crispus command of my navy and appointed him admiral.
HOST Let’s see, in 324 Crispus was 21 and admiral of your navy, quite a responsibility for the young Caesar.
CONSTANTINE Recall that he successfully led his legions to victory along the Rhine frontier. As Filius Augustorum he was expected to fulfill his obligations. I ordered him to sail for Thessalonica where I had expanded the harbor. With my army near Sardica and navy at Thessalonica I’d have Licinius in the middle. That military deployment was to my advantage and a predicament from which Licinius had to escape.
HOST Meantime Licinius convened his staff and priests in a grove sacred to the gods and invoked them for victory. I have a translation of his invocation (reads):
Friends and fellow soldiers! These [the statues in the grove] are the gods of our fatherland, and we venerate them with a form of worship handed down to us from our remotest ancestors. But he who leads the army now confronting us has shown himself false to the religion of his fathers, and, taking as his own the views of the atheists, has adopted some strange and hitherto unheard-of-god, with whose despicable standard he now disgraces his army, and trusting in whose aid he has taken arms, not so much against us, as against the gods whom he has betrayed. However, the business on which we are about to embark will show which of us is wrong…
(Constantine the Great, John H. Smith, p 167)CONSTANTINE My scouts reported a similar version. Licinius and his associates, in preparation for war, convened in a grove sacred to Roman gods where priests read the entrails of slaughtered Christians. When coincidentally a flock of birds in V formation flew over the grove, priests predicted the V symbol meant certain victory. In celebrating the victorious omen Licinius remarked I was making war on Roma’s ancestral gods declaring "We shall see which god is victorious".
HOST Licinius declared you abandoned Roma’s pagan gods for the new Christian God. If victorious he would continue to execute Christians and confiscate their properties. Was this another battle of gods, Jupiter versus God, paganism versus Christianism?
CONSTANTINE I summoned bishops to pray for victory against Licinius and his pagans. In my portable chapel, my tabernacle tent, we prayed to God the Savior. I implored my Christian soldiers to pray to God. I implored pagan Romans to pray to Sol Invictus and suggested that barbarians pray to their own gods.
HOST In our schools in America we have somewhat the same problem without your religious toleration. We’re fighting over whether children are allowed to say the word God.
CONSTANTINE Since my advocacy of Christianism I fought under the tutelage of God and the cross. In my portable chapel bishops and I prayed to God to grant me victory. This war was to be a Christian crusade against the pagan tyrant Licinius. In my prayers I promised God that in return for victory I would establish Christianism as the empire’s religion.
HOST During battles did you remain in your chapel praying for victory?
CONSTANTINE Victory is attained by planning and leadership. I led my legions; they followed. My chosen centurions carried my labara topped by crosses with the chi-rho saving sign. My soldiers wore shoulder patches with the insignia. There’s no glory in war but victory.
HOST The superstitious Licinius feared the saving sign on your labara and ordered his soldiers to destroy them. Is it true that centurions carrying your labara were never killed in battle?
CONSTANTINE My Spartan centurions were undaunted by enemy spears. They fought under the protection of Christ Savior. Enemy spears pierced labara not them.
HOST Anchored at Byzantium Licinius had a navy of about 2500 ships, triremes and transports.
CONSTANTINE Over the years slaves built a huge harbor there, the Golden Horn, with living quarters for thousands of sailors and rowers to man hundreds of trireme warships and transports.
HOST I understand trireme warships were galleys with three banks of oars propelled by slaves.
CONSTANTINE In combat slave rowers became fighters. Transports served as support ships carrying military equipment and soldiers. From Byzantium Licinius situated his navy in the Bosporus Straits ready to intercept my navy.
HOST Estimates are that the combined forces of Licinius’ his army and navy was almost double your forces.
CONSTANTINE Once more my enemy’s forces were much larger than mine.
HOST And so began a second domestic war for supreme emperorship of the Roman Empire.
CONSTANTINE This was to be a war between fathers and sons, me and Crispus against Licinius and Licinianus. Although outnumbered my legions were battle hardened veterans including Romans, Alemanni, Britanni, Franks, and Goths who fought along the Danube and Rhine. As for my navy, it too was battle hardened fighting pirates in the frigid North Sea.
HOST Licinius had an army of about 200,000 near Adrianople. Taking the initiative and in a bold move, he ordered his army north towards Sardica where you had mustered your army.
CONSTANTINE I ordered my army south to confront him. When sighted, I activated my battle plan and attacked. He retreated first to Philippopolis (Plovdiv, Bulgaria), then continued retreating south. I pursued him to Adrianople, where I defeated him in one of the bloodiest battles ever (3Jul324). His army suffered huge losses. The battlefield was strewn with dead bodies, at least 40,000. One had to step over and between them to proceed in their tacky gore. I pursued Licinius all the way down to Byzantium, where I again defeated him. Meanwhile in the Bosporus Straits Crispus defeated Licinius’ navy in the greatest and most decisive naval battle of the war.
HOST Historians estimate that at least 100,000 thousand soldiers and sailors died in those battles.
CONSTANTINE There was another naval battle at Kallipolis (Gallipoli peninsula – Gelibolu, Turkey). Again Crispus was victorious. After winning that battle I had Crispus blockade the crossing to the Dardanelles (Canakkale, Turkey) to prevent Lucinius from escaping to Asiana. The next day a fierce storm wrecked the remainder of Licinius’ navy. Once again God had intervened on my behalf punishing the evil doer.
HOST Even so caught between your army and Crispus’ navy, Licinius managed to find a break in the blockade. He and his surviving legions escaped across the Bosporus Straits to the Dardanelles. There he reinforced his army by hiring thousands of Gothic mercenaries.
CONSTANTINE I pursued him to Chrysopolis (Üsküdar, opposite Istanbul, Turkey). It was the first time I revisited Asiana since my escape from Galerius almost 20 years ago. My scouts reported about half of his 30,000 reinforced army consisted of Gothic mercenaries, most of them had escaped from the Danube frontier where I defeated them. Praying to God in my portable chapel I waited for God’s sign to attack. When God commanded me to attack I immediately did so. When Gothic mercenaries recognized my labara and legions they deserted Licinius by the thousands. Goths were willing to fight for plundering Chrysopolis but they weren’t willing to die at the hands of my Roman legions who had defeated them. I won an easy victory at Chrysopolis. I dispatched those Gothic mercenaries, my prisoners, to Thessalonica to finish building my palace and to continue expand its harbor.
HOST You won at Chrysopolis but Licinius managed to escape to Nicomedia.
CONSTANTINE I pursued him and he surrendered at Nicomedia. Once more I had rid the empire of a tyrant against God.
HOST You reclaimed the imperial city of Nicomedia where, in Diocletian’s court, you were educated and trained for military service. You must have been destined as conqueror to revisit what was once Diocletian’s imperial capital city.
CONSTANTINE It was the first time I had returned to Nicomedia since my boyhood there.
HOST After 18 years and several domestic wars the struggle for political power ended where it began in Nicomedia. It was the first time in 38 years, since the reign of Diocletian, there was a supreme emperor of East and West, a supreme emperor of the vast Roman Empire.
CONSTANTINE There was one God in heaven and one emperor of the Roman Empire. To show my respect and appreciation of God I wrote a prayer for my Christian soldiers to recite.
You alone we know as God,
You are the King we acknowledge,
You are the Help we summon.
By you we have won our victories,
Through you we have overcome our enemies.
To you we render thanks for the good things past,
You also we hope for as giver of those to come.
To you we all come to supplicate for our Emperor
Constantine and for his God beloved Sons:
That he may be kept safe and victorious for us in long, long life, we plead.
(Life of Constantine, Eusebius of Caesarea, p 160)
HOST Your legions proclaimed you Constantine Victor Maximus Augustus.
CONSTANTINE Father and son again victorious, as were my father and I in Britannia. With my three sons already Caesars, I had fulfilled my dynastic responsibility.
HOST It was reported Constantia begged you to spare the lives of her husband and son.
CONSTANTINE The fighting over, I invited them to dinner and entertained them. Thereafter I allowed them to live with me in the imperial palace. However having the defeated living in the same palace as the conqueror was not a prudent arrangement. Eventually I transferred Lcinius, Constantia, and Licinianus to the palace in Thessalonica.
HOST Couriers broadcast your victory throughout the empire. From Nicomedia to Alexandria took about three weeks and to Roma about six weeks.
CONSTANTINE But I received disheartening news from Alexandria of the continuing dispute between Bishop Alexander and Arius.
HOST The afterglow of your victory was dampened by their continuing dispute.
CONSTANTINE In Nicomedia Christians were demonstrating in public for me to resolve religious disputes. I convened the Council of Nicomedia. It failed because Alexander refused to reinstate Arius whom he had excommunicated.
HOST You responded by writing conciliatory letters to provincial governors and people of the East. Your letters were distributed in Latin and Greek.
CONSTANTINE Latin was the official language but most of the people in the East spoke Greek. I urged them to accept God and Christ the Savior.
HOST I have one of those long letters. I’ll read part of it to refresh your memory (reads):
…I held the previous Emperors as exceedingly harsh because of their savage ways, and only my father engaged in gentle deeds, with wonderful reverence calling upon the Savior God in all his actions. … Now I call upon you, the supreme God. Be merciful and gracious to your Orientals, and to all your provincials who have been crushed by protracted calamity, and proffer healing through me your servant. This petition is not unreasonable, Master of the Universe, Holy God. For by your guidance I have undertaken deeds of salvation and achieved them; making your seal my protection everywhere, I have led a conquering army. …
Because of this I have consecrated to you my own soul, purely blended with love and fear; for I genuinely love your name, and dread your power, which you have revealed by many tokens, confirming the strength of my faith. I strive therefore, putting my own shoulders to the task, to restore again your most holy house, which those polluted and vicious men have mutilated with wicked destruction. ...
(Life of Constantine, Eusebius of Caesarea, pp 112-113) That sounds like you were on an apostolic mission to refute the paganism of previous emperors, such as Licinius, and convert pagans to Christianism.CONSTANTINE I annulled many of Licinius’ edicts and issued my own. I reminded people in the East that my victory demonstrated God’s awesome power. Having released them from the calamities of their pagan gods, I warned them that if they did not acknowledge the Christian God they would encounter misfortune. I promised them I would heal their hearts by being merciful so they could live peaceful lives free from religious persecution.
HOST But you forbid paganism.
CONSTANTINE I prohibited secret pagan divination and occult practices but allowed worship at public altars to cure the sick. Committed to Christianism I dispatched officials to spread throughout the East word of my victory in the name of God. I had officials distribute copies of my prayers. I returned confiscated property to Christians, released them from prison and slavery, distributed money to the poor, and even found husbands for nubile orphaned girls if they promised to become Christians. I forbid gladiatorial combat and especially Licinius’ practice of gouging out the eyes of Christians.
HOST Christians in the East acclaimed you their deliverer from the persecutor Licinius. They likened you to Moses delivering Jews from Pharaoh.
CONSTANTINE To protect Christians I promised rewards to informers of persecutors.
HOST Religious spies?
CONSTANTINE Reports against persecutors. Unlike Licinius who rewarded anyone who claimed to be a persecutor, I appointed judges to hear charges against indicted persecutors and if true punished them. I ordered bishops to rebuild the churches Licinius damaged or destroyed. I authorized money, resources, and labor to do so.
HOST You could have invoked the miracle worker Jesus who claimed he could rebuild God’s temple in three days.
CONSTANTINE What?
HOST Speaking of Licinius you got word from Thessalonica that the old man was acting up again.
CONSTANTINE Sparing his life was a mistake. I found out he was again making plans to attack me, so I persuaded the senate to accuse him of treason. The senate agreed because it was outraged that Licinius hired Gothic mercenaries, declared enemies of Roma, to fight against me. He was tried in a court of law, found guilty, and executed.
HOST But several senators accused you of having a personal vindictive agenda against Licinius simply because he did not believe in your God.
CONSTANTINE Not true; he was plotting revenge against me to precipitate another domestic war.
HOST As a supporter of Christianism weren’t you obliged to turn the other cheek, at least for the benefit of Constantia and Licinianus?
CONSTANTINE I felt some remorse I had Constantia marry that contentious old man. But as compassionate emperor turning my other cheek would have left me with only one cheek. Sooner than later Licinius would have smote the one remaining cheek leaving me a faceless emperor.
HOST I noted that Licinius having been executed, Eusebius of Caesarea excised all compliments to him from his History of the Church.
CONSTANTINE He was furious that Licinius had persecuted Christians. Convinced that my victories over Maxentius and Licinius were under the auspices of God, I began converting Roma from paganism to Christianism.
HOST Your wife in a beneficent mood donated her stately Lateran Palace together with its buildings and other imperial properties to Pope Silvester I.
CONSTANTINE The pope acted quickly to enlarge his newly acquired and prestigious property. The pope submitted to me a plan for improving the great basilica of St. John. Working with architects we improved the design of the basilica to a great high rectangle with atrium, nave with aisles, towers, and high altar sheltered by an apse. My improvements included magnificent porphyry columns from Aegyptus.
HOST The pope bestowed on you the title Bishop of External Affairs.
CONSTANTINE The title merely confirmed that construction of Churches was under my purview; that is to be financed by me.
HOST Having the responsibilities of the entire Roman Empire, why did you get involved in such huge construction projects?
CONSTANTINE Are you not aware that Roman posterity judged emperors by the grand buildings they bequeathed to it? In Roma, on a site sacred to Apollo, I approved the construction of the great basilicas of St. Peter and St. Paul. The basilicas were designed so that stained glass and clerestories scattered sunlight in a manner enhancing their interiors.
HOST And extravagantly decorated with gold, silver, precious stones, etc.
CONSTANTINE St. Paul’s was endowed with tax income from his birthplace Tarsus. I supported these religious endeavors by encouraging the use of Latin rather than Greek fine arts.
HOST You not only built churches but publicly supported them by participating in many councils with popes, bishops, and scholars such as Lactantius. You were transiting Roma from paganism to Catholicism.
CONSTANTINE To that end I built many churches and attended many councils throughout the empire.
HOST Today our president would be hard pressed to build that many churches.
CONSTANTINE You yourself gave the reason. Your presider is not an emperor.
HOST But we have many different religions because of separation of church and state.
CONSTANTINE You have what we had, separation from orthodoxy resulting in religious disputes and squabbles.
HOST In America we have religious disputes and squabbles but we are free to believe in any religion or none at all.
CONSTANTINE You have what we had in Alexandria, Antiochia, Carthage, and Roma. We had demonstrations in streets, rioting, one religious sect persecuting the other, anarchy in the vestments of religion.
HOST The problem was that you tried to unify the disparate religions of the East and West by spreading Catholicism.
CONSTANTINE The empire could not afford to expend its resources and money suppressing persistent religious disputes that erupted like volcanic violence.
HOST You proselytized Catholicism with huge building projects requiring exorbitant budgets. Where did all that money come from?
CONSTANTINE The provinces.
HOST You looted their treasuries?
CONSTANTINE Taxed them. After all, we afforded them Roma’s protection, culture, and construction trades. We taught subsistence farmers how to farm for profit. We taught slaves the construction trades, how to build roads and magnificent public buildings.
HOST You also forced conquered peoples to become coloni.
CONSTANTINE Many became individual farmers. We bought their harvests and paid them. If you reward workers they’ll work even harder. Most of all, we protected them from invading armies so they could farm the land, and raise families.
HOST You protected them so they could work for you and then taxed them for the right to work.
CONSTANTINE For improving their standard of living. We had the knowledge and the means.
HOST Like payoffs to unions or the Mafia.
CONSTANTINE What?
HOST In an empire maintained by high taxes, you exempted from taxation all Catholic properties. That exemption is still applicable today 2,000 years later.
CONSTANTINE Great sums of money were needed to build churches, residences, and shrines for spreading Catholicism. In that effort I exempted ecclesiastics from paying taxes.
HOST Speaking of ecclesiastics they didn’t have an authorized creed because they were still arguing about Trinity and the divinity of the Son. Ecclesiastics promulgated different theological answers to the same questions. The concept of Trinity became the greatest controversy, three parts of one God. Then there was Arius who disagreed with Catholic doctrine. I understand you voluntarily became involved in the controversy.
CONSTANTINE I wasn’t fully satisfied with previous explanations. I summoned the pope and bishops to explain their concept of Trinity. Their explanations made Trinity even more mysterious.
HOST I understand that Trinity is the bedrock of Catholicism. There’s God the Father, the Son of God, and the Holy Spirit.
CONSTANTINE My understanding is that there’s one God of three divine persons.
HOST Your God is three persons? Your tripartite God sounds like a myth emulating the gods of paganism. It appears the early church fathers reduced paganism’s many mythical gods to Catholicism’s three mysterious Gods of Trinity.
CONSTANTINE Not myths and not three Gods. One God, the God of victory, consisting of three divine persons.
HOST Very well, consider this. In your tripartite Godhead, God the Father emerged creating the Son whose divinity was transduced by the Holy Spirit for the Immaculate Conception in the Virgin Mary to birth the human Jesus. Those events are myths are they not?
CONSTANTINE No, God is omnipotent. His Son Jesus died for the sins of man.
HOST Meaning that God created imperfect man, a reject, a sinful man. If God is omnipotent, why did he create an imperfect man?
CONSTANTINE No one can comprehend the mind of God. The Son descended to earth to rescue man from sin and deliver him to heaven.
HOST That means the Son has two natures, divine and human. He has many names such as Son of God, Jesus, Savior, Redeemer, Jesus Christ, Christ Jesus. The myth gets very convoluted. You mentioned heaven. What do you know about heaven?
CONSTANTINE Only what I’ve been told, I’m not a theologian.
HOST What were you told?
CONSTANTINE Heaven is for the resurrected, for life eternal. Heaven is God’s celestial palace where Trinity resides. On Earth is a human hierarchy but in heaven is a divine hierarchy. The heavenly hierarchy consists of God the Father in the center, the Son is seated at his right, and the Holy Spirit at his left. They are surrounded by the Order of Burning Seraphim the highest order of angels. They look and are sexed like humans and carry burning coals for purifying chosen ones, such as Isaiah. They have three pairs of eagle wings. The top pair covers their faces to prevent them from looking upon the countenance of God the Father; they would otherwise be consumed by his divinity. They flutter their middle pair of wings to hover about the Son, preventing him from again departing from heaven.
HOST So the seraphim prevent the Son from again departing from heaven to descend to Earth for the Second Coming. That means there’ll never be a Second Coming for Christians. On the other hand Jews still expect a First Coming because their Messiah never descended to Earth.
CONSTANTINE The bottom pair of the seraphim’s eagle wings hides their pudenda, covering up the symbolic exposure of the Holy Spirit the Giver of Life.
HOST Each religion has its own monsters like the seraphim.
CONSTANTINE Monsters, are you mocking me?
HOST No. In Aegyptus seraphim are represented as griffins, monsters with the heads and wings of eagles and the bodies of lions. You’ve been in Aegyptus, you’ve seen its griffins, its monsters.
CONSTANTINE You cannot compare heaven with anything on Earth.
HOST I agree.
CONSTANTINE As one interested in Catholicism, I’m describing that which I recollect from my discussions with popes and bishops. I’m not a theologian.
HOST Please continue.
CONSTANTINE Subordinate to seraphim are the cherubim. Angels having human faces, animal bodies, and one pair of wings. They are the protectors of heaven. They represent the glory of God. They perpetually clap their wings to create the eternal thunderous applause for God’s glory.
HOST Today we think of a cherub as a sweet rosy-cheek infant or young child. I have the impression that Catholicism is populated with the Gods and angels converted from paganism’s gods and monsters.
CONSTANTINE Below the cherubim are archangels and ordinary angels. God occasionally sends them to earth to deliver his messages.
HOST The angelic subordination seraphim, cherubim, and archangels is similar to the earthly one of Augustus, Caesar, and prefect. But your inclusive Catholicism has its contradictions. In The Epistle of James, he instructs Christians that they shouldn’t favor the rich and powerful. You were rich and the most powerful man in the empire, in the world for that matter. Also "Blest are the lowly; they shall inherit the land" (Mathew 5,4). The reality is that the mighty and powerful inherited wealth and the land but the lowly were made slaves.
CONSTANTINE Every belief, whether one of religion or law, has its contradictions.
HOST What about man’s resurrection?
CONSTANTINE Deliverance from death.
HOST What do you understand about man’s redemption?
CONSTANTINE Deliverance from sin. Jesus died for our sins redeeming for entry to heaven all past, present, and future Christian sinners.
HOST To what end?
CONSTANTINE For restoration in heaven with God.
HOST But restoration with which of the three - Father, Son, or Holy Spirit?
CONSTANTINE I repeat, there’s only one God consisting of three divine persons.
HOST So resurrection qualifies a sinner for heaven. Redemption actually gets the redeemed into heaven for union with one God consisting of three persons. It’s like trying to get into college. It’s all very confusing. Do you know where heaven is?
CONSTANTINE I don’t know; no one knows, not even the pope. He says Catholics must have faith that there is a heaven after death.
HOST Upon death the Son descends to Earth to resurrect the departed soul and redeem its sins for entry to heaven. Together they ascend to heaven where the Holy Spirit, the Giver of Life, bestows eternal life upon the newly arrived immaculate soul. Is that what happens?
CONSTANTINE I repeat I’m not a theologian.
HOST One’s faith in heaven must reside in one’s head. What do you understand about the Ascension of the resurrected Jesus?
CONSTANTINE The resurrected Jesus ascended to heaven which is open to all Catholics.
HOST Today Jesus would ascend through the atmosphere to zero gravity where flesh would be vaporized to spirit and continuing would pass through multiple parallel universes to the deep abyss and void called heaven. There to be greeted by cherubim and escorted by seraphim to the presence of God the Father, the Son Jesus Christ seated at his right, and the Holy Spirit seated at his left.
CONSTANTINE What are you saying?
HOST What about the Holy Spirit?
CONSTANTINE I told you in God is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
HOST Three in one again, like our 3-in-1 chrism for mechanical devices.
CONSTANTINE What? You’re confusing me.
HOST Pagans inherited the mythology of multiple gods but Christians, declaring their belief in only one God reverted to pagan mythology by deliberately inserting multiple gods into Trinity.
CONSTANTINE No, only one God of three divine persons the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
HOST Arius believed the Son was different from the Father. Bishop Alexander accused Arius of heresy and had him excommunicated.
CONSTANTINE I wrote to them several times trying to resolve their bitter recriminations.
HOST You were more writer than talker. You wrote hundreds of letters. Most of your letters to bishops addressed them as "Dear Brother".
CONSTANTINE Recall the pope appointed me Bishop of External Affairs.
HOST In one letter to Arius you addressed him as "having gravity".
CONSTANTINE Implying his was a weighty problem needing to be resolved to establish orthodoxy and peace in the church.
HOST Today we use the word gravitas.
CONSTANTINE I was planning a trip to North Africa but cancelled it because I did not want to witness the dissention which I’d heard so much about. In my final letter to Bishop Alexander and Arius I blamed both of them for allowing their dispute to infect the entire church.
HOST I have that lengthy letter. I’ll read the parts I circled (reads):
Victor Constantinus Maximus Augustus to Alexander and Arius:
I call God himself to witness, as I should, the helper in my undertakings and Savior of the Universe, that a twofold purpose impelled me to undertake the duty which I have performed. My first concern was that the attitude towards the Divinity of all the provinces should be united in one consistent view, and my second that I might restore and heal the body of the republic which lay severely wounded. … When you, Alexander, demanded of the presbyters what view each of them took about a certain passage from what is written in the Law – or rather some futile point of dispute – you, Arius, thoughtlessly replied with that opinion which either ought not to have been even conceived in the first place, or once conceived ought to have been consigned to silence … It was neither right to ask about such things in the first place, nor to answer when asked …These things are vulgar and more befitting to childish follies than suitable to the intelligence of priests and informed men. Let us consciously avoid all devilish temptations … I do not say these things as though I were forcing you to come to agreement on every aspect of this very silly question, whatever it actually is … On the subject of divine Providence therefore let there be one faith among you, one understanding, one agreement about the Supreme; the precise details about these minimal disputes among yourselves, even if you cannot bring yourselves to a single point of view, ought to remain in the mind, guarded in the hidden recesses of thought.
(Life of Constantine, Eusebius of Caesarea, pp 117-119.)CONSTANTINE I declared I would no longer debase my emperorship to resolve such a trivial matter. Moreover I warned them that if they did not resolve their dispute I would do so in my own manner. For peace in the empire I insisted they restore Blessed Tranquility in North Africa.
HOST But the matter you called trivial and silly was the very foundation of Christianism, the Trinity.
CONSTANTINE What mattered was to reconcile differences to unify the Church and maintain peace in the empire.
HOST As I understand it the Catholic clergy believed that the Son was not made but begotten by the Father. Arians believed that the Son was created by the Father and questioned whether the Father and Son were of the same substance.
CONSTANTINE The controversy spread throughout the East and West. The schism and its violent confrontations were threatening the acceptance of Catholicism and peace throughout the empire. You may recall that in my efforts to resolve the schism I was advised by popes and bishops, held councils, and wrote letters. I tried to resolve different beliefs into an acceptable doctrine. I believed in the orthodox Catholic doctrine and offered resolutions making it acceptable to schismatics and heretics.
HOST With you in Nicomedia were the orthodox bishops Ossius and Alexander, the two Arian bishops Eusebius, your stepsister Constantia and your mother Helena both friends of the Arian bishops.
CONSTANTINE We tried to resolve the dispute over the nature of the son of God. All our efforts failed.
(Life of Constantine, Eusebius of Caesarea, p 126)CONSTANTINE In order to resolve the persistent dispute over the nature of the Son of God, I convened bishops for a council at Nicaea (Iznik in Bursa, Turkey), a convenient location near my palace at Nicomedia.
HOST You convened the Council of Nicaea in 325 about June through August.
CONSTANTINE We needed to resolve disputes among Catholics and Christian sects, determine a date for Easter, and establish canons and procedures for church administration.
HOST Nicaea was the first ecumenical council of the Church of Roma calling together the bishops of the East and West. The word Nicaea infers victory. Is that why you chose that city?
CONSTANTINE I was determined to resolve their disputes, to bring the bishops together for religious victory. I prayed that God would give me another victory, this time for his church.
HOST At the Council of Antiochia, Eusebius Bishop of Caesarea was condemned for his Arian views. You overruled its judgement by reinstating him so he could be a participant in Nicaea.
CONSTANTINE We had to make a decision. I wanted an open discussion of all views. About 300 bishops attended, most from the East only a few from the West. Traveling was arduous so I offered my services to get bishops to Nicaea.
HOST Bishops complained that to enter the great convention hall in your palace they had to pass in review between two rows of your bodyguards holding aloft their swords.
CONSTANTINE Merely protocol.
HOST Bishops complained you had intimidated them from the beginning
CONSTANTINE Not true, they came at my invitation. I provided their transportation, quarters, meals, and even attendants to serve them.
HOST I have an account of your entrance into the great hall (reads):
Bishops gathered in the great hall of the imperial palace. Along each sidewall were two tiers of seats assigned to bishops. The most influential bishops were assigned seats close to the dais. Bishops were standing and talking with great anticipation of coming events. When the emperor’s vanguard entered the din subsided. When the emperor entered bishops became silent and parted like the Red Sea to make way for him. The emperor was dressed in his imperial purple robe embroidered with crosses and the chi-rho monogram. His imperial robe was trimmed with gold braid encrusted with precious stones. The stature and magnificent presence of the emperor humbled bishops as they scurried to find their assigned seats. On the dais seated in a solid gold chair the emperor looked down upon the bishops. His magnificent presence enhanced his appearance to godlike stature.
HOST Among the prominent disputants were Alexander the Catholic Bishop of Alexandria and his deacon Athanasius. They were supported by Pope Silvester I. He wasn’t there claiming he was too old to attend but he sent several of his papal representatives including Bishop Ossius.
CONSTANTINE Also in attendance in the front row were the Arian bishops Eusebius of Caesarea and Eusebius of Nicomedia, whom I first met in Syria when I accompanied Diocletian. The two bishops were vehemently opposed by Athanasius.
HOST In his invocation bishop Eusebius of Caesarea, speaking in Greek, extolled you as Servant of God. His invocation was followed by your salutatory address in which you expressed gratitude for their presence. It was was irenic, urging unity and peace. As conciliator you spoke in a calm avuncular manner and addressed bishops calling them "dear brothers". I have a passage from that address (reads):
It was the object of my prayers, my friends, to share in your company, and now that I have received this, I know I must express my gratitude to the King of all, because in addition to everything else he has allowed me to see this, which is better than any other good thing; I mean, to receive you all gathered together and to observe one unanimous opinion shared by all. … For to me internal division in the Church of God is graver than any war or fierce battle, and these things appear to cause more pain than secular affairs. When therefore I won victories over enemies through the favour and support of the Supreme, I considered that nothing remained but to give thanks to God, … When contrary to all expectation I learnt of your division, I did not defer attention to the report, but, praying that his too might be healed through my ministration, I immediately sent for you all. … So do not delay, my friends, ministers of God, and good servants of the common Lord and Saviour of us all, to begin now to bring the causes of the division between you into the open, and to loosen all the shackles of dispute by the laws of peace. Thus you will both achieve what is pleasing to the God of all, and you will give extreme gratification to me, your fellow servant.
To add prestige to your words you addressed them in Latin, which was a problem. All but a few bishops were from the East and were fluent in Greek not Latin.
CONSTANTINE All addresses, proclamations, and speeches were in Latin, the empire’s official language.
HOST Bishops expected you to address them in Greek.
CONSTANTINE When in the East my personal interpreter translated for me and he did so at the council.
HOST After your salutatory address Eusebius of Caesarea speaking in Greek delivered a panegyric extolling your victories, virtues, and beneficence to the church.
CONSTANTINE Thereafter speaking in Greek bishops argued without agreement on the nature and substance of the Son. Most bishops believed the Father and Son to be of the same substance, the orthodox Catholicism of the Church of Roma. Arians believed the Son was different from the Father.
HOST Why was Eusebius of Caesarea and not Arius himself chosen to argue for himself?
CONSTANTINE Arius was persona non grata, too controversial, and had been excommunicated.
HOST But he was present at the council.
CONSTANTINE Of course, he began the controversy. Day after day I tried without success to conciliate their heated arguments.
HOST It was reported their arguments were reminiscent of ranting at the Tower of Babel. I have a translation of part of the debate between Athanasius leader of the Church of Roma and Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea the Arian (reads):
EUSEBIUS I propose this brotherly council consider the precepts of the baptismal creed I wrote for my parishioners, the creed accepted throughout Palestina. Firstly, I believe the Father created the Son. Created means made, different from the Creator. They are by necessity of different substances; therefore the Son is different from and subordinate to the Father. Secondly …
ATHANASIUS There can be no second! I condemn your heretic creed! I demand your heretic creed be revised to reflect the full deity of the Son because he was begotten by the Father, not created and not made, and is of the same substance as the Father.
EUSEBIUS The Son is an exalted being made or created by the Father of a like substance but not of the same substance. If you are correct that the Father begot the Son, you prove my point of ascendance which infers difference.
ATHANASIUS No, the Son proceedeth from the Father.
EUSEBIUS The Son progressed from the Father.
ATHANASIUS Proceedeth not progressed.
EUSEBIUS Sabellius claims that distinctions in the Godhead are a succession of modes, thereby preserving the monarchy and monotheism of God. In the Godhead Trinity is manifested in progression from Father to Son to Holy Spirit.
ATHANASIUS Not progressive steps, none of your trickery. The son proceedeth from the Father.
EUSEBIUS In order to proceed there must be an existence from which to proceed to an independent entity.
ATHANASIUS You’re mouthing Lucian of Antiochia, the teacher of heresy.
EUSEBIUS Do you agree that there’s only one God?
ATHANASIUS One God of three divine persons.
EUSEBIUS God the Father existed before the Son; they did not exist simultaneously and therefore cannot be of the same substance.
ATHANASIUS The Son is the Father’s Word made flesh. Do you now repudiate John?
In the beginning was the Word;
The Word was in God’s presence,
And the Word was God.
(The New American Bible, John 1:1, p 103)
EUSEBIUS "In the beginning" infers a series of creations such as the heaven, earth, wasteland, water, Son of God, and the Holy Spirit.
ATHANASIUS No, without beginning the Son of God and Holy Spirit exist in Trinity simultaneously with God the Father.
EUSEBIUS But Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary whose isolation from heaven makes the Father and Holy Spirit irrelevant. John wrote "The Word was in God’s presence". John should have written "The Word was in God". The Word is the Son not God.
ATHANASIUS No, "And the Word was God". They are one and the same.
EUSEBIUS Did the Son spring from Trinity as did Minerva from the head of Jupiter?
ATHANASIUS Blasphemy!
EUSEBIUS The Son is the Father’s revelation, the creation of his will.
ATHANASIUS No, the Son is the Father’s Word made flesh.
EUSEBIUS You’re either confirming Sabellius or splitting God into the multiple persons evolved to Trinity.
ATHANASIUS No, not evolved. The omnipotence of the Godhead cannot be altered; it is coexistent and coeternal and manifested in the mystery of Trinity.
EUSEBIUS By definition the Father existed prior to the Son.
ATHANASIUS No, the Son exists with the Father in the Godhead.
EUSEBIUS Are you inferring that the Father has a split personality?
ATHANASIUS Father and Son are divine persons in Trinity.
EUSEBIUS And the Holy Spirit?
ATHANASIUS Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are coequal and coeternal persons of the Godhead, of Trinity.
EUSEBIUS But the Holy Spirit was created by man solely as the instrument for the incarnation of Jesus in the Virgin Mary, thereby humiliating to humanity the Son of God. Therefore both the Son and Holy Spirit must be spearate entities and of a different substance.
ATHANASIUS No! the same substance of Trinity coexistent, coequal, and coeternal.
EUSEBIUS What about the Son’s death on earth; that’s not eternal.
ATHANASIUS Priest he died for our sins, especially those sins you now commit before this council.
EUSEBIUS Christ the Savior and Redeemer are names applied only after Jesus was crucified and had reputedly risen.
ATHANASIUS Reputedly risen? Heresy!
EUSEBIUS The Son did not come into existence until after the death of Jesus. You’re claiming the Son a priori but scripture declares he was born of woman, which makes the Son a posteriori. Jesus converted by scripture to Son of God eliminates the Holy Spirit leaving only God the Father. We renounce your Trinity and declare there is without beginning only unity in one eternal God who was, is, and ever shall be.
ATHANASIUS You refuse obedience to the Church, repudiate its doctrine, and deny the divinity of Christ. You and all Arians have divorced yourselves from the Church of Roma.
EUSEBIUS We exalt Jesus to reverence.
ATHANASIUS That coda will not save you from excommunication and exile.
CONSTANTINE Yes, yes. Day after day their arguments continued in like manner. They shouted, even threatened each other with charges of heresy. Catholics excommunicated Arians and vice versa. Catholic bishops reminded Arians that they could not excommunicate anyone because only the pope has that power.
HOST Occasionally you would interrupt their heated arguments and condescendingly address them in Greek.
CONSTANTINE Not condescendingly but carefully. My knowwledge and fluency in Greek was superficial.
HOST Bishop Alexander charged Melitius with consecrating Melitist bishops instead of Catholic bishops. Melitius charged Alexander with oppressing Melitists.
CONSTANTINE They charged each other with misinterpreting Trinity. One Arian bishop quipped that if Trinity were sent into the arena, a gladiator would be confounded because he wouldn’t know which of the three to strike first.
HOST Here are more heated exchanges (ARIAN - any of several Arian bishops, CATHOLIC - any of many Catholic bishops) reads:
ARIAN Your proposed creed states "We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of all things visisble and invisible: and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God". Your creed converts Trinity to the duality of God the Father and Lord Jesus Christ.
CATHOLIC You purposefully omitted "and in the Holy Spirit".
ARIAN Which means the Holy Spirit is neither God nor Lord.
CATHOLIC No, the creed’s preface "We believe" applies to the Holy Spirit and infers the divinity of Lord.
CATHOLIC We do not need an Arian to tell us what we know to be Trinity. Even catechumens know the makeup of Trinity.
CATHOLIC Are we now to be treated as catechumens? What is it you don’t understand? Lord and God are synonymous.
ARIAN If in your creed Lord is God and God is Lord, why did you use two different words to mean the same thing?
CATHOLIC Obviously to differentiate in Trinity the Father from the Son.
ARIAN You’re making the same mistake the Jews made. They claimed Yahweh is Lord and Elohim is God but they’re one and the same. We want to separate ourselves from Jews.
CATHOLIC Would you have us say that God is God.
ARIAN You created the need for Lord when you claimed the Son to be the same as the Father. You would otherwise be compromised to claim that God is God.
CATHOLIC Lord and God separate the Son from the Father.
ARIAN So you admit they are separate and different, not the same.
CATHOLIC No! not different in substance, only in name.
ARIAN The name connotes the substance.
ARIAN My dear brethren you’re arguing about symptoms, the effects of your disagreements. The fact is that God created man for good and evil. When evil triumphed God the Father disintegrated to Trinity in order to create the Son for the redemption of evil man, thereby pardoning his creative error.
CATHOLIC Blasphemy!
ARIAN The Son is divine and human. Therefore your arguments are nullified; the Son is both the same and different. In either case you need to redefine the Son.
CATHOLIC What? What are you saying? The creed we propose states that we believe "in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten from the Father".
ARIAN But the words "Jesus Christ" appear before the words "Son of God".
CATHOLIC Yes, yes. Get on with it.
ARIAN The word sequence is not only anachronistic but defies logic – a posteriori before a priori.
CATHOLIC Priest your sophism fails because your logic is flawed. You omitted the word "Lord" before the words "Jesus Christ", "Lord" means Son of God.
ARIAN But the name Christ was appended to Jesus by apostles after his scriptured resurrection and ascension to heaven.
CATHOLIC Scriptured? Heresy!
ARIAN Your creed should read "the Son of God crucified as Jesus, resurrected as Christ, and in heaven renamed Jesus Christ".
CATHOLIC Differences without distinctions.
ARIAN Why did you insert the phrase "Jesus Christ" before "Son of God" when "Son of God" was begotten to become "Jesus Christ"?
CATHOLIC Are we back to that again?
ARIAN Very well, if we accept the word sequence of your argument then "Jesus Christ" and "Son of God" are fraternal twins begotten by the Father.
CATHOLIC Blasphemy! You’re judging God not in his divine omnipotence but in human terms.
ARIAN Jesus was human, the Prince of Peace. Christ is an afterthought of the apostles for the reputedly risen Jesus returned to divinity in heaven.
CATHOLIC Reputedly! Heresy!
ARIAN Jesus was human. Christ is divine. The phrase Jesus Christ is both antilogous and oxymoronic.
CATHOLIC Blasphemy!
ARIAN Jesus cannot be invoked as Lord or even as 1/3 of Trinity, whereas Christ the deity can.
ARIAN What about the Holy Spirit?
CATHOLIC The Father’s will imposed upon the Virgin Mary.
ARIAN Deified like the Son?
CATHOLIC Whatever is begotten by the Father is a divine person of God.
CATHOLIC This is getting tiresome.
ARIAN You’re attempts at confirming a fallacy is like falling into a pit from which there’s no escape. You’ve created a theological quagmire.
CATHOLIC Do you have an acceptable alternative, a new proposal?
ARIAN I believe in One God the Father Almighty and in his fraternal twin Sons, Christ in heaven and Jesus on earth.
CATHOLIC Heresy! You’re rejecting apostolic doctrine, denying your faith.
CATHOLIC You’ve made Trinity into Quadrity. You’ve abandoned the struggle of the Church Militant.
ARIAN No, we are the Church Militant; we are the struggle.
ARIAN I propose dropping the concept of Trinity thereby restoring to the Father the singular divinity and power of one God.
CATHOLIC Excommunicate them!
CATHOLIC What about the doctrines of crucifixion and resurrection?
ARIAN Are you suggesting that the divine Son of God descended to Earth and there humiliated to birth from the Virgin Mary, was named Jesus, crucified, presumed resurrected, and then like a pagan god was transmogrified not to animal or plant but to the deity Christ? It’s mythology.
CATHOLIC Heresy!
CATHOLIC Priest have you not read the holy scriptures? Do you not have faith in God? Trinity is a divine mystery. We are mere humans and cannot know the mind of God.
ARIAN On that premise why did the early Church get itself into the inextricable labyrinth of Trinity? Since then it has had to cover up its flawed logic and the embarrassment of Trinity with "Mysterium Fidei" (Mystery of Faith). Why didn’t the early church simply accept Jesus as prophet and exalt him to reverence?
CATHOLIC Excommunicate them!
HOST Bishops failed to resolve the nature of the Son of God and the problem of Trinity. Do you think there’s a difference among Jesus the Son of God, Jesus the son of Mary turned prophet, Jesus the Messiah, Jesus the martyr, and Jesus resurrected to Christ?
CONSTANTINE No, they’re all the same.
HOST You, Constantine, son of Constantius Chlorus were born into the bloodline of dynastic inheritance. Jesus, Son of God the Father, begotten for divine inheritance was born of the human Virgin Mary. Isn’t there a contradiction, an antilogy, in that process?
CONSTANTINE Are you mocking God as well as me.
HOST Humanity cannot be the same as divinity.
CONSTANTINE God is omnipotent.
HOST Jesus in his omnipotence performed miracles. Why didn’t God in his omnipotence create man with goodness and be rid of sin?
CONSTANTINE Jesus was the Son of God. We are not. We are mere humans who cannot understand the mind of God.
HOST What about Trinity?
CONSTANTINE Again, we humans cannot understand its mystery. We must have faith that Trinity exists, Mysterium Fidei.
HOST To any modern thinker it’s preposterous to think God can be split like an atom. Perhaps bishops were thinking of Lucretius’ atom converted to Trinity.
CONSTANTINE A great poet and philosopher.
HOST If God is fissionable, he’s slouching toward science. Maybe that’s good, at least science is comprehensible.
CONSTANTINE What are you saying?
HOST Trinity gives God a split personality. It was bad enough they divided God between Father and Son but then they gratuitously threw in the Holy Spirit.
CONSTANTINE Are you resurrecting Nicaea’s old arguments? You dare mock me?
HOST No and no. Please continue.
CONSTANTINE Their arguments were irreconcilable. Those bishops were truculent. They would have made good soldiers because if I weren’t conciliating they’d have killed each other. I ordered them to proceed to other items in the agenda. I reminded bishops that we were there gathered to resolve our differences. I posed the question "What about the Donatists and Melitists, dissenters from the Church of Roma"? And what about a date for Easter?
HOST (Pages through his notes.) I have an account of those arguments. Yes, here we are.
(SCHISMAtIC – any Donatist or Melitist) reads:
SCHISMATIC We believe in all those who avowed their faith in God. They endured Diocletian’s persecutions even unto their own peril and death. We believe in martyrs not traditores; they are the ones who disavowed God and burned our sacred scriptures to save themselves.
CATHOLIC Martyrs deserve our reverence but you must conform to orthodoxy to assure peace in the church. Those you call traditores saved themselves to save the church. Only in living can we continue as Catholics in the love of God. Only the living can rebuild destroyed churches and resurrect our faith in God for the glory of Christ Savior.
SCHISMATIC We believe in the "church of martyrs". Some of you in this hall are the very traditores who collaborated with persecutors, with Satan. You now profess faith in God and build churches upon your collaborative burial sites of God and Christ Savior.
CATHOLIC All that is in the past. We are here all Catholics gathered to resolve our differences.
SCHISMATIC Traditores have become bishops and even popes! That difference cannot be resolved; it’s anathema! We deny the Church of Roma. We are the holy church, the true Church of Christ.
CATHOLIC Do you before this holy body reject the pope’s authority and Catholic orthodoxy of the Church of Roma?
SCHISMATIC We believe in the scriptural martyrdom of Jesus. We walk in his footsteps while traditores took the wayward path.
CATHOLIC Would you have us deny Catholics their right to congregate for church services and the sacraments? Would you have us round them up like sheep? Where and who are they? They’ve been integrated in our parishes. Have you no forgiveness in your heart?
SCHISMATIC We demand that traditores confess their sins of collaboration. John said "If we say that we have not sinned, we are fooling ourselves, and the truth is not in our hearts. But if we confess our sins to god, he can always be trusted to forgive us and take away our sins" (1John 1.8-9).
CATHOLIC And Mathew said "If you forgive others for the wrongs that they do, your Father in heaven will forgive you. But if you don’t forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins" (Mathew 6.14-15).
SCHISMATIC When we join the Father in the Church Triumphant he will bless us.
CATHOLIC But not forgive you.
SCHISMATIC Here on earth, we will forgive traditores only after they have been rebaptized.
CATHOLIC What? Rebaptized? Never!
SCHISMATIC We further demand that traditor priests not only be rebaptized but also be reordinated.
CATHOLIC You’re mad! Let’s be rid of them!
CATHOLIC Excommunicate them!
SCHISMATIC It’s traditores who should be excommunicated until rebaptized.
CATHOLIC A schismatic cannot excommunicate anyone. You know well only the pope you deny has that power.
CATHOLIC My dear brethren why is it that these schisms originated in Aegyptus? What is it in the land of Pharaohs that wants to enslave others to its own belief?
SCHISMATIC We revere martyrs. We want the Church of Roma to sacrifice, to be penitent not haughty and not corrupt, to be as holy as we are.
CATHOLIC We need not be martyrs or ascetics to be holy. Christ loves all those who believe in him.
SCHISMATIC We too believe in Christ with all our hearts and souls.
CONSTANTINE Bishops argued like children in the throes of tantrums. They argued over the meaning of simple words, such as whether the same means similar.
HOST Like what the meaning of is is.
CONSTANTINE Precisely.
HOST I understand you finally imposed your imperial rule upon them.
CONSTANTINE I didn’t understand the Greek subtleties of their arguments, I grew impatient with their procrastination. I lashed out at their intransigence "If you were soldiers you’d kill each other". When caught between enemy flanks a general must quickly extricate himself. I had tolerated their infantile disputes long enough. A commander of men, impatient at their inability to agree, I ordered them to resolve their differences by sunset. I proposed they accept the Father and Son as being consubstantial.
HOST Bishops complained you shouted at them as if you were barking orders to common soldiers.
CONSTANTINE Bishops should thank those soldiers for their protection, lest barbarians force their own gods upon them. I rebuked them for their intransigence, vicious attacks, and unruly behavior. I told bishops they were ordained by the Church but I was ordained by God and my orders were given to me by God.
HOST Bishops were right when they complained you intimidated them.
CONSTANTINE I conveyed to them that brotherly love was as important as Trinity. If you disparage a man’s deformity he resents it but if you question or belittle his intelligence he uses it to attack and destroy you.
HOST So it is with religion, not a matter of facts but of imagination and cunning of intellect.
CONSTANTINE My demanding intervention persuaded the quarreling bishops to agree that Catholicism was to be defined in a new creed.
HOST The Nicene Creed. I have a copy of that creed (reads):
We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of all things visible and invisible: and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten from the Father, only-begotten, that is, from the substance of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, True God from True God, begotten not made, of one substance with the Father, through whom all things came into existence, things in heaven and things on earth, who because of us men and because of our salvation came down and became incarnate, becoming man, suffered and rose again on the third day, ascended to the heavens, and will come to judge the living and the dead; and in the Holy Spirit.
But as for those who say, There was when he was not, and Before being born he was not, and That he came into existence out of nothing, or who assert that the Son of God is of a different hypostasis or substance, or is created, or is subject to alteration or change – these the church anathematises.
(Constantine the Great, Michael Grant, page 174)HOST The creed declares belief in God the Father Almighty, in one Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Spirit. Jesus was the Son of God begotten from the Father. Why did bishops define the Son as Lord Jesus Christ? Did they relate Lord to Messiah, to Yahweh?
CONSTANTINE No, no. Bishops retained the word Lord to link Roma’s imperial power as master of the world to the Son’s divine power as master of humans.
HOST God created Jesus the Son of God but man created Christ the risen Jesus.
CONSTANTINE I’ve heard that argument before.
HOST If Christ is arguable, perhaps Christ does not exist. In The Epistle of Paul to the Romans, Paul exercised great synonymic liberty in alluding to Jesus by claiming Jesus, Christ, Jesus Christ, Christ Jesus, Lord Jesus, Lord Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ our Lord are one and the same. Jesus was human therefore Paul should have claimed Christ is Lord.
CONSTANTINE I’m not a theologian. I don’t know what was in Paul’s mind when he used those phrases.
HOST The Nicene Creed does not make a complete break with paganism. In the phrase "Light from Light" it refers to the pagan Sol Invictus.
CONSTANTINE. I explained that before, God is light. Enough of this! I commanded bishops to accept the creed as I proposed it, concluding that my decisions were inspired by God and that all other decisions were in vain.
HOST You said God; did you mean Christ?
CONSTANTINE I meant God, the God of victory, the God who appears and speaks to me in my dreams.
HOST On earth Jesus was shepherd. In heaven Christ is shepherd. Are there any distinctions between Jesus the shepherd and Christ the shepherd?
CONSTANTINE What distinctions? On Earth I am shepherd of the Roman Empire.
HOST When Jesus was resurrected to Christ he no longer existed and Christ became shepherd on earth and in heaven.
CONSTANTINE Jesus and Christ are the same.
HOST When Jesus was resurrected he became Christ. When Christ ascended to heaven he was deified to God. Three different entities.
CONSTANTINE No, the same entity.
HOST What about the word Christ? After Jesus’ death the apostles gave him the last name Christ signifying Messiah, the chosen or anointed one.
CONSTANTINE Because in Greek the word is Christos.
HOST Yes and in Latin Christus, his believers Christi, and his followers Christians. But there’s no mention of Christ in the Old Testament. In our New Testament the phrases Jesus Christ and Christ Jesus are names devised by the authors of the Gospels.
CONSTANTINE I’m not a Biblical scholar.
HOST Catholics believe in one God the Father Almighty, one Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit the three parts of Trinity. But consider this – if the Son departed heaven to become Jesus, heaven was reduced to Duality not Trinity.
CONSTANTINE You’re again mouthing Nicaea. Catholics believe whatever is in the creed. It was my duty to reconcile all their differences to orthodox Catholicism. That was the reason for Nicaea.
HOST I’m trying to understand your comprehension of early Catholicism. Did you ever see the living Jesus or Christ?
CONSTANTINE No, and I never saw the living Jupiter or Appolo. Recall that at Saxa Rubra I saw Christ in a dream; he spoke to me.
HOST But everyone who sees the sun sees the pagan Sol Invictus, Light of Light. Pagans can point to the sun, a reality of their religion.
CONSTANTINE God created the heavens, which includes the sun or Sol Invictus. When one sees the sun, he sees God.
HOST Whatever happened to Arius and his supporting bishops?
CONSTANTINE They were asked to sign the Nicene Creed as accepted by the council. Arian bishops who refused to sign were anathematized and excommunicated. Among them Arius and Eusebius of Nicomedia. I exiled them, Arius to Illyricum and Eusebius to Trèves.
HOST What about Melitius?
CONSTANTINE Bishops decided Melitius could remain in the church subordinate to Bishop Alexander and without see. His Melitist followers were allowed to worship in their own churches.
HOST But orthodox Catholics took over most of the Arianst churches.
CONSTANTINE Not all of them. I confiscated large Arian churches and gave them to the pope.
HOST After the creed was agreed to, the council had to resolve the problem of ecclesiastical rules, canons in the East differed from those in the West.
CONSTANTINE Bishops argued about the time of Easter, Catholicism’s most solemn holiday. I rejected the Jews’ Passover as the date for Easter. There must be no commonality between Catholics and Jews because they condemned Jesus to death.
HOST Their death sentence forced Pilate to crucify him. Jews were the jury; Pilate was the executioner. In 326 during the Easter Festival you delivered on Good Friday your Oration to the Saints. In your oration you claimed the lightning that struck Diocletian’s bedchamber came from heaven to punish him for persecuting Christians.
CONSTANTINE The fire motivated him to depart Nicomedia for a different venue, his palatial retirement home in Salona.
HOST You regretted all the Christian blood spilt by emperors who persecuted them. You mentioned that Maxentius usurped power in Roma but you were eyeing Roma yourself.
CONSTANTINE To liberate not conquer it.
HOST You advised bishops that before they embarked upon an adversary action, they should be aware of the expected result.
CONSTANTINE To that end a leader needs to control his adventurous undertaking for his own benefit.
HOST You emphasized the teachings of Jesus and his resurrection but but not his suffering and crucifixion.
CONSTANTINE People knew all about crucifixion. They knew nothing about Jesus’ teachings and resurrection. Jesus’ teachings were new to pagans, Jews, and others.
HOST Was it true that Jesus was crucified on the cross whose timbers were taken from the Mamre Oak on the Mount of Olives? The account I have is (reads):
Several Jewish high priests claimed Jesus’ first blasphemy took place on the Mount of Olives when, before his disciples, he transfigured himself to the Son of God. Jesus blasphemed again when before Caiaphas he inferred he was the Son of God. To pacify those high priests, Pilate thought it justifiable to crucify Jesus on timbers cut from the Mamre Oak.
CONSTANTINE Timbers were usually cut from trees surrounding the crucifixion site.
HOST Expiring Jesus called out to his Father but was not rescued. What do you know about that?
CONSTANTINE Jesus’ mission was to die for the sins of man. At that moment the earth quaked and the Rock of Golgotha was split asunder. There was thunder and lightning. From the clouds were heard the wailings of Abraham, Elijah, and Moses. Jesus had to die in order to be resurrected and ascend to heaven to join his Father.
HOST Returning to the date for Easter, you declared Easter would not be observed as previously determined by the Jews’ Passover.
CONSTANTINE I declared that during Lent Catholics were to remorse themselves by fasting. I declared that Easter was to be a state holiday celebrated on the Sunday following the first full moon after the vernal equinox. On Easter Eve votive candles were to be lighted and Easter Sunday memorialized with ecclesiastical vestments of Roma’s imperial purple. I was pleased that bishops agreed on my declarations for Lent and Easter.
HOST You thereby inserted Catholicism into state government.
CONSTANTINE As did previous emperors for paganism.
HOST Another canon mandated that to consecrate a new bishop three bishops had to consent in writing and be present as witnesses.
CONSTANTINE Recall that the Donatist schism was precipitated by a traditor bishop acting alone; he ordained the priest Caecilian the Bishop of Carthage. Nicaea required the presence of three bishops as witnesses for the ordination of a new bishop.
HOST Excommunicates of one diocese were not allowed to receive Holy Communion in any diocese.
CONSTANTINE Because it means the excommunicate was divorced from the Church of Roma.
HOST Another canon forbid greedy clergy to lend money at usurious interest rates of 12% - 15%.
CONSTANTINE I’d been generous to the clergy but the greedy ones became usurious bankers bilking the laity of their hard-earned money. The laity complained to my tax collectors that they had no money to pay taxes because they had to pay greedy clergy lenders who threatened them with punishment by God if they failed to pay the usurious rates.
HOST On the subjects of laity and churches, you ordered church services to be celebrated standing up, not sitting down in a relaxed position.
CONSTANTINE Merely a venial penance to show respect for God.
HOST There was a canon affecting Jews.
CONSTANTINE Jews were prohibited from making Christians slaves because no one redeemed by Christ Savior should be subordinate to a Jew.
HOST The council passed many canons for Church administration such as the conservation of bishoprics.
CONSTANTINE I gave higher status and special juridical powers to bishops of Alexandria, Antiochia, Jerusalem, and Roma. I thought effective church administration more important than arguing about whether the Son was the same or different from the Father.
HOST You adjourned the council by delivering a valedictory address. Calling bishops "dear brothers" you thanked them for their cooperation in making Nicaea a success.
CONSTANTINE I also declared the councils’ decisions final because God had inspired them.
HOST When you dismissed bishops you again addressed them "dear brothers" but they claimed you lectured them as if they were children.
CONSTANTINE I merely provided guidelines to end their foolish bickering.
HOST Ecclesiastic guidelines?
CONSTANTINE No, no. Common sense guidelines such as – If you are provided a good living be happy and don’t be greedy. Bishops intellectually gifted should not despise those less so. Be tolerant and forgiving; do not mock those who disagree. Cultivate reconciliation it leads to peace. In the end God will judge you. I asked them to pray for me, for the unity of the Church, and for enduring peace in the empire.
HOST After adjourning the Council of Nicaea you celebrated its success.
CONSTANTINE Having gained a victory for God, I invited bishops to a great banquet celebrating the success of Nicaea. Bishops exclaimed they had never been given such free personal attention, or seen such luxury, such feasting to surfeit. Bishops reclined on couches feasting and drinking sometimes to excess. Some of them quipped "Is this what heaven is like"?
HOST Bishops lauded you as the savior of Catholicism. I understand the celebration lasted for weeks.
CONSTANTINE When the celebration ended, I wrote letters explaining the council’s decisions to churches in the East and West. I had Latin and Greek versions promulgated throughout the empire.
HOST In one of those letters you inserted your dislike of Jews, for example (reads):
Let us then have nothing in common with the detestable Jewish crowd; for we have received from our Saviour a different way. A course at once legitimate and honourable lies open to our most holy religion. Beloved brethren, let us with one consent adopt this course, and withdraw ourselves from all participation in their baseness. For their boast is absurd indeed, that it is not in our power without instruction from them to observe these things. For how should they be capable of forming a sound judgment, who, since their parricidal guilt in slaying their Lord, have been subject to the direction, not of reason, but of ungoverned passion, and are swayed by every impulse of the mad spirit that is in them.
(The Mask of Jove, Stringfellow Barr, pp 502-503)HOST Were you referring to their insistence that the date of Easter be the same as the date of Passover?
CONSTANTINE Jews insisted everything about Christianism emanated from Judaism. I had my own ideas separate from their zealous requirements. I was the emperor and conciliator at Nicaea, not Jews.
HOST Some of your letters threatened schismatic Catholics with punishment or excommunication if they did not accept the Nicene Creed.
CONSTANTINE I issued edicts against all schismatics and heretics declaring that all Christians be called Catholic whether orthodox, Arian, Donatist, Melitist, or whatever. I was determined to unify the empire under Catholicism.
HOST Today there are hundreds of Christian sects. Whenever a Christian leader wants to satisfy his personal religious needs, he establishes a new sect just as did Donatus and Arius.
CONSTANTINE Sects fragmented the empire. It was my duty to unify the empire. God saved Roma from its enemies and I saved the Church from pagan tyrants, schismatics, and heretics.
HOST After the celebration most bishops returned to their sees but some bishops took advantage of your largesse by lingering in Nicaea. From there you went on your second tour of cities including Naissus, Sardica, and Sirmium then returned to Nicaea. Why the tour?
CONSTANTINE As supreme emperor I was looking for a site for my ideal capital, one bridging the East and West, one in which I could unify the churches of the East and West. At first I was drawn to Naissus the land where I was born.
HOST Did you find your ideal site?
CONSTANTINE No, not at that time.
(Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume 1, Edward Gibbon, p 568)HOST When you returned to Nicaea you celebrated the 20th anniversary of your reign.
CONSTANTINE The first of two celebrations. I invited my military staff, associates, bishops still lingering in Nicaea, and of course my family. This time the drawn swords of my bodyguards didn’t threatened bishops. I honored each bishop with a gift according to his importance to the church.
HOST Celebrating your anniversary in Nicaea was a serious breach of protocol and a direct snub of Roma, capital of the empire. Later you traveled to Roma (Jul326) for the second and official celebration of your 20th anniversary.
CONSTANTINE When I liberated Roma from the tyrant Maxentius I publicly advocated Christianism but they continued to practice paganism. Throughout Roma I noticed more pagans than Christians in my celebratory processions. Despite all my efforts and money to Christianize Roma, it was still mostly pagan. A frustrated Christian, after 14 years of trying, I refused to participate in its pagan celebrations on my behalf.
HOST Additionally your visit to Roma turned out to be a calamity because you encountered a political crisis and a family tragedy.
CONSTANTINE The pagan Roman Senate gave me a cool reception for several reasons. I celebrated my 20th anniversary first in Nicaea not Roma; I was raising as Catholics my three sons the future heirs to the Roman Empire; I defeated Licinius their admired pagan emperor.
HOST Romans shunned you, especially patrician senators, because you refused to participate in their endless pagan festivities.
CONSTANTINE When I refused to honor Jupiter, Romans rioted in the streets. As emperor I was expected to participate in official state festivities. I believed in God not Jupiter. I refused to be both Christian and pagan.
HOST But you had coins minted with the pagan Sol Invictus on the obverse and Christian crosses on the reverse.
CONSTANTINE In Roma there were more pagans than Christians. I had to satisfy both pagans and Christians.
HOST Perhaps most outrageous of all, you appointed the Catholic Acilius Severus a magistrate of Roma, thereby thumbing your nose at the vaunted patrician senate who recommended a pagan magistrate.
CONSTANTINE Severus was an effective magistrate, someone who could keep his eyes on the senate.
HOST Senators vociferously protested, stood up shaking their fists at you then departed declaring they would abrogate your appointment.
CONSTANTINE Braggadocio, the senate needed the tax money I collected from provinces.
HOST Licinius ignored your appointment of the Catholic.
CONSTANTINE He busied himself persecuting Christians in the East.
HOST Now on to a more serious and depressing matter. In Roma rumors were circulating about the relationship between your wife and son Crispus, her stepson. One rumor had it that while you were conciliating the Council of Nicaea, your wife fell in love with Crispus. When he rejected her advances, she yelled rape. Later she accused him also of conspiring against you. The palace guard apprehended Crispus and detained him waiting for instructions from you.
CONSTANTINE My investigators informed me that Crispus never tried to rape my wife. Crispus’ friends defended him against the rape charge. As for the conspiracy charge my wife was concerned that Crispus’ victories, military and naval, would prompt me to appoint him Augustus rather than one of our sons.
HOST His ardent supporters claimed you had not rewarded him for his victories along the Rhine and his stunning naval victories at Byzantium and Kallipolis. Crispus himself thought you would retire after 20 years of rule, as suggested by Diocletian.
CONSTANTINE From Pola (Pula, Croatia) I received reports of a cabal against me by his aggressive supporters. A plan supposedly hatched by his associates, usurpers greedy for power.
HOST Crispus’ supporters expected you to promote him to Augustus, subordinate to you of course. In fact, you failed to honor him with any official act. In that respect there was some justification for their complaints and the conspiracy rumor.
CONSTANTINE When persistent rumors became informed reports, I had to take action to preserve my authority and dispel any notion of weakness. Weak vacillating emperors give hot- blooded conspirators an opportunity to act. If Crispus had arrested them, proving his fidelity to me, I would have promoted him to Augustus.
HOST The consequence of the rumored conspiracy was that you ordered Crispus and his supporters arrested and tried for treason.
CONSTANTINE I didn’t tolerate attempts at deposing me whether by Maxentius, Licinius, or Crispus.
HOST Crispus and his presumed conspirators were tried in a lawful court by a judge and found guilty. You ordered them executed in Pola.
CONSTANTINE It was the consequence of treason and the judgement of the court; the law required it.
HOST You could have intervened on behalf of your son.
CONSTANTINE The court’s judgement had to be applied equally to those found guilty. Moreover when there are those planning to kill me, it behooves me to kill them first.
HOST Now about your wife. One rumor suggested she was having an affair not with Crispus but with one of your palace officials.
CONSTANTINE I didn’t put any credence in that rumor. My palace informants would have notified me of any such blatantly indiscrete relationship.
HOST You spied on your wife?
CONSTANTINE You’re being naïve.
HOST Some claimed her lover was a stable boy.
CONSTANTINE A stable boy is not a palace official.
HOST Most of your married life was spent apart from Fausta, leading armies, fighting invaders, or traveling for political reasons. You were either engaged in war or on inspection tours of the provinces. You temporarily resided in many places without her such as Aquilei, Mediolanum, Naissus, Sirmium, Thesalonica. Perhaps she felt abandoned and was lonely because of your prolong absences. Perhaps she became sexually involved with an available young man.
CONSTANTINE It’s true I spent many summers defending the Danube and Rhine frontiers. It’s hard conducting a war during frigid northern winters. My wife was skilled in the art of interpersonal relationships. The duties of an Augusta rise above mundane sexual desires.
HOST Another rumor was that she fell in love with a new handmaiden from Britannia.
CONSTANTINE She was raised by handmaidens. I’m sure any relationship with a particular handmaiden was for companionship.
HOST But then your mother exposed your wife’s lie.
CONSTANTINE When my mother learned of Crispus’ death, she exposed the false accusations against him. She accused my wife of betraying Crispus by redirecting attention from her adultery to charges of rape and conspiracy.
HOST It was common knowledge that your mother was not fond of your wife. When the First Tetrarchy was formed your wife’s father, Maximian, forced your mother and father to separate Roman style. Your father was required to renounce your mother and marry Theodora, Maximian’s stepdaughter. I’m sure your mother never forgot that.
CONSTANTINE My mother once told me that my wife inherited her father’s propensity for betrayal and intrigue. My mother would not lie. When I realized what I had done, that I had acted precipitously against Crispus, I wandered like Jesus into the penitential wilderness of fast and prayer for 40 days and nights. Convinced I had expiated my guilt, I ordered a gold statue of Crispus whom I unjustly condemned. I had it inscribed with the words: "To My Son Whom I Unjustly Condemned".
HOST The common rumor was that your wife wanted Crispus out of the way so that her sons would remain the uncontested presumptive heirs. She thought that Crispus being your first born would be the presumptive heir, supplanting her sons. There were many Roman Empresses who got rid of potential heirs so their sons could wear the imperial purple. Livia the wife of the great Octavian Augustus was foremost among them. She ordered the execution of half dozen of Augustus’ potential heirs. She then poisoned her husband the great Octavian, the first and longest serving emperor of the Roman Empire, so that her son Tiberius would succeed him.
CONSTANTINE Enraged at my wife’s disregard for the sanctity of marriage and the fact that she, the Augusta, committed adultery with a stable boy was intolerable. Deeply remorseful I had executed Crispus because of my wife’s lie, and to atone for that grievous sin, I planned a similar fate for her at the imperial palace in Trèves.
HOST One version is that you ordered one of her staff to raise the temperature while she was taking a steam bath. Another version is that, being informed of your vengeful intention, she told her favorite handmaiden that as Augusta she could not suffer the shame of having had sex with a stable boy and committed suicide. Which of these versions is true?
CONSTANTINE I was informed she was found in her steam room, dead from suffocation.
HOST Steamed alive to lobster red; she was 34. In either case, as Christian missionary, how could you have ordered the murders of members of your own family? You went a step beyond the compliant Abraham. Bishop Ossius was so outraged at the executions that he first condemned and then abandoned you.
CONSTANTINE As emperor I had to end the rumors, reports, cabals, and conspiracies. Weak rulers, especially cuckolds, are quickly deposed.
HOST And you never married again?
CONSTANTINE I never thought of marrying again.
HOST No lovers or concubines?
CONSTANTINE The Maximus Augustus had more important things to do.
HOST While you were ruthless in applying moral standards against perceived adultery in your family, you didn’t punish permitted adulterous males.
CONSTANTINE An accepted custom. Keep in mind the empire was not yet Christian; it was mostly pagan.
HOST But you punished adulterous women having sex.
CONSTANTINE Only those women having sex with male slaves.
HOST Was that the Christian thing to do?
CONSTANTINE It was the political thing to do.
HOST Meaning?
CONSTANTINE The senate complained there were too many orphans in Roma who didn’t look like or act like Romans.
HOST What about women consorting with other women?
CONSTANTINE Women consorting with other women, free or slave, did not produce orphans.
HOST So you tolerated those relationships?
CONSTANTINE Another accepted pagan custom. But I issued edicts forbidding tutors from having sex with their young pupils, another common practice. I annulled Octavian Agustus’ ancient pro family edict against celibacy because I encouraged virgins of both sexes either to marry and have children or to lead pure lives devoted to God. I encouraged chastity and made special mention to those in perpetual virginity who devoted their lives to God.
HOST When you granted celibates exemption from taxation you lost tax revenue.
CONSTANTINE True, but I felt duty bound to do God’s work, to reconcile the empire’s religious diversity to one orthodox Catholic society, e pluribus unum.
HOST Your beneficence turned out to be a mistake. Many rich Catholics became priests to avoid paying taxes.
CONSTANTINE Pagans pretending to be Catholic bribed bishops to ordain them priests. Wealthy landowners did the same to exempt their vast estates from taxation. Educated men rather than serving in government pro bono publico became priests and retired to monasteries to avoid taxes on their estates.
HOST Your tax exemptions and beneficence to ecclesiastics emptied the treasury and depleted the government of competent managers. Magistrates had to hire more managers. Many of them did not perform as expected because they were incompetent.
CONSTANTINE With the loss of tax revenue, and a bleeding treasury due to high salaries, I restricted the city of Roma to 100 miles in all directions and raised taxes on all those outside that area.
HOST More money for the church or state?
CONSTANTINE Money for Roma’s treasury which supported the church and state.
HOST You made some administrative changes.
CONSTANTINE I separated the empire’s government into three parts, a political trinity – civilian, military, and religious.
HOST Why?
CONSTANTINE To avoid future domestic wars by reducing state power, spreading it over three parts, thereby reducing the opportunity for a leader of any one part to proclaim himself emperor.
HOST Again, the senate disagreed protesting that religion should not be separated from government.
CONSTANTINE Most senators were not my friends. The senate had complained about my refusal to participate in pagan festivities; it disapproved of my appointments; it disagreed with my policies.
HOST Disagreement is the essence of democracy.
CONSTANTINE It’s the essence of anarchy! I was weary of the senate’s self-imposed authority, weary of pagan Roma that believed only in action and power.
HOST You spent your life on action and power.
CONSTANTINE As if the senate’s caustic disagreements were not enough, senators persisted in circulating rumors about my son and wife. They considered Crispus a hero and harangued me over his execution and also that of Licinius their pagan hero. They mocked me for executing a woman, my wife the Augusta. My anger was exacerbated to profound guilt that I had ordered their executions.
HOST It was reported you exploded in anger over Roma’s impertinence to you, the Maximus Augustus proclaimed by the very senate that then deprecated you. You shouted that you would leave Roma and never return.
CONSTANTINE I was thinking of the more refined East. My preference was for Jerusalem, Christ’s city. Unfortunately most of the people there were Jews. Christians needed to separate themselves from Jews.
HOST Why?
CONSTANTINE Their language is Aramaic, not Latin or even Greek. They circumcise newborn boys, a savage practice. They stand before a stone wall praying and bobbing.
HOST Christians pray before stone icons and Jesus statues.
CONSTANTINE Sculpted in the image of Jesus.
HOST What’s the difference.
CONSTANTINE Personality, Jesus was a divine person and a prophet not a stone wall. I issued edicts against Jews.
HOST Why?
CONSTANTINE Jews are very unsocial people who discriminate by requiring a Jew to have a Jewish mother. Jews fought over their one god, the same god. Throughout their history Jews fought over which tribes were God’s chosen. I didn’t want that intestine conflict spreading into Roman provinces.
HOST Romans fought each other over their pagan gods and the Christian God.
CONSTANTINE Because of the great diversity of religion in the empire. If our state religion were orthodox, we wouldn’t be like Jews fighting each other over God and his chosen.
HOST Your visit to Roma for your 20th anniversary turned out to be calamitous, a political disaster, a family tragedy.
CONSTANTINE I never felt at ease in Roma, too dissolute, too many immigrants, and too much cultural diversity. Roma became renown by expanding its culture not by abandoning it for lesser cultures.
HOST That’s what I think is happening in America. We’re abandoning our inheritance for the lesser cultures of invading immigrants who only want our money.
CONSTANTINE The more cultural diversity the more problems, which is why I always advocated for orthodoxy in government and religion.
HOST It was common knowledge you spent most of your emperorship outside Roma.
CONSTANTINE Roma was never my favorite capital. Also the deaths of Crispus and my wife distracted me from the performance of my official duties.
HOST You said you were thinking of the refined East. Why?
CONSTANTINE I was enraged at the senate’s treatment of my proposals. Its acrimonious attacks against me convinced me it was time to depart Roma. My thinking was that rather than trying to convert pagan Roma to Catholicism it might be easier to build a new Catholic capital, one in which I would avoid future confrontations with the haughty and rancorous Roman Senate.
(326)(Life of Constantine, Eusebius of Caesarea, pp 157-158)HOST Because of the enmity between the senate and you, and in fact the people of Roma, you thought of moving the capital of the empire to a friendlier venue.
CONSTANTINE I was ready for the more cultured and refined East. I’d rather face an enemy than the hostility of Roma. I considered moving the seat of power across the Adriatic Sea perhaps to the land where I was born.
HOST You ruled from several temporary capitals such as Trèves, Sirmium, and Sardica. As emperor you could have moved the capital anywhere.
CONSTANTINE I had to select a strategic location available to East and West. I considered Salonica, Sardica, Sirmium, and even Troy.
HOST The birthplace of Aeneas, mythical founder of Roma.
CONSTANTINE Meantime I had a vision in which God commanded me to build a Christian capital in Byzantium.
HOST You said Christian did you mean Catholic?
CONSTANTINE In Byzantium were more Christian sects than Catholics. I needed the support of the majority. Byzantium was the battleground of my great victory over Licinius, the strategic midpoint between Roma and Jerusalem, between Latin and Greek. Besides the East had a long record of cultured civilizations and was richer than the West. With God’s commandment in mind, I departed Roma vowing never to return and traveled east to Byzantium.
HOST Did you leave Roma as beloved emperor or personna non grata?
CONSTANTINE Neither, I departed Roma as Maximus Augustus.
HOST But as the first emperor determined to replace Roma as the capital of the empire. Romans called you traitor because you committed the unpardonable sin of abandoning Roma by transferring your northern frontier legions to Thracia to protect Byzantium. You left Roma leaderless and vulnerable. You abandoned Roma Aeterna (Eternal Rome).
CONSTANTINE Not true. I consigned enough legions to protect Italia from northern invasions and maintianed interior legions to protect Roma.
HOST Most of your legions accompanied you to protect Byzantium your new seat of power, the new head of the Christian fish. You forsook Roma for Byzantium where you could be supreme ruler over your own handpicked senate and the church.
CONSTANTINE The old senate remained in Roma. I was glad to be rid of its rancorous pagan patricians.
HOST Romans believed they were destined to rule the world because their gods granted them the genius to rule. You rebelled against that culture, the very thing that made it renown, a superpower, and capital of the civilized world.
CONSTANTINE I preferred the East where Christianism and trade routes were dominant. Lactantius prophesied that the East would rule the West because the main commercial route would be from Aquileia (Trieste, Italy) to Sirmium to Sardica. His prophecy was fulfilled.
HOST Your building plan for Byzantium was based on that of Roma.
CONSTANTINE For choice plots of land on which to build I demolished most of Byzantium by destroying its pagan shrines and temples. I commemorated my great victory in Byzantium by building on its ruins.
HOST You named your new Christian capital after yourself Constantinopolis, the City of Constantine or simply Constantinople (Istanbul, Turkey). Ruling from there you wore the same Tyrian imperial purple as in Roma. Moreover you had several conversions of custom and style. In Roma you were greeted with a simple straightforward salutation. In Constantinople you were greeted by a low obeisant bow, the custom of greeting eastern kings.
CONSTANTINE Some Romans mocked foreigners for not doing what Romans did. In Constantinople I welcomed foreigners who indulged in their own customs.
HOST Influenced by eastern culture and symbolic of its royalty, you had a stylistic conversion. You dressed in the manner of eastern kings wearing jeweled headbands, luxurious silk robes embroidered with gold braid, Persian style slippers set with precious stones, double stranded peal necklaces, jewelry, wigs, and other effeminate accessories including perfume.
CONSTANTINE Naturally, I was in the East. Romans wanted foreigners to dress like them. I merely applied eastern dress to my eastern capital.
HOST In order to build Constantinople to imperial status, you embarked upon extensive construction projects.
CONSTANTINE I ordered Constantinople’s hills be increased to 7, a replica of Roma.
HOST In America our Capitol in Washington is a replica of Roma’s Temple of Jupiter on its Capitoline Hill.
CONSTANTINE I dispatched city planners to Italia to hire more qualified architects and workmen whether pagan or Christian.
HOST You dismissed your antipathy to Roma when if came to hiring its construction engineers, architects, and laborers.
CONSTANTINE I had to offer them money, titles, and land grants to entice them to Byzantium.
HOST You built a great palace, the Forum Constantini, public baths, hippodrome, law courts, Senate House, and other public buildings. Having satisfied the need for public buildings you again embarked upon building churches. You built the magnificent cruciform Church of the Holy Trinity, later dedicated as the Church of the Holy Apostles.
CONSTANTINE I had the church built on the highest hill and to a great height. I had its roof covered with gold foil so that for miles around people could see the sun gleaming from its golden roof, Sol Invictus partnered with God, the sun’s rays as God’s golden nimbus, the light of God visible to all.
HOST Next to the Church of the Holy Apostles you built your mausoleum including a shrine to the apostles with 12 monuments one for each apostle.
CONSTANTINE Upon a dais in the middle of the monuments I had a repository built for my tomb.
HOST Speaking of a tomb I understand you recruited from Roma a special sculptor to cast for you a solid gold coffin.
CONSTANTINE I had him decorate it with my labarum, scenes from my victories, and on its lid my genealogy.
HOST Did you consider yourself the 13th apostle to be surrounded by the 12 apostles like Jesus at the Last Supper?
CONSTANTINE Christians praying for apostles would also be praying for me.
HOST To what end?
CONSTANTINE To assure my resurrection, redemption, and ascension to heaven.
HOST Assuming apostles were already in heaven, why would anyone need to pray for them?
CONSTANTINE To show respect for them. Even though they were only talkers, they spread Christianity throughout the East.
HOST When you convened and conciliated at religious councils you became a talker.
CONSTANTINE But when bishops could not agree I assumed control and acted.
HOST Saul of Tarsus, called Paul, was a talker. He propagated his message of Christianity to Jews and pagans throughout the East and in Italia.
CONSTANTINE But I established Christianism throughout the empire by having Jews, pagans, and barbarians convert to Christianity.
HOST You were the "can do" apostle, the general of a salvation army that conquered the vast Roman Empire. God’s general on earth, the first Christian emperor.
CONSTANTINE Well said. I wish I’d have thought of that. It might have eliminated some of the squabbling among the clergy.
HOST Other than proselytizing, Paul and you had several things in common. You both had visions, he on the road to Damascus and you on the road to Roma at Saxa Rubra.
CONSTANTINE We were converted by Christ not by apostles. Jesus Christ spoke to both of us. But the apostles and Paul had not the authority and treasure to institutionalize Christianism.
HOST But there were differences. Paul was a tax collector; you were a tax spender. In fact you spent so lavishly on building Constantinople you had to raise taxes for more revenue. You could have used Paul’s determination in collecting taxes.
CONSTANTINE I raised taxes on corrupt construction guilds. They were extorting money from builders who in turn needed more money from me to complete public projects and churches.
HOST The construction trades haven’t changed in 2,000 years. In America today our unions do the same, extorting money from builders. Eventually the people have to pay. Reporters claimed you looted treasuries of the provinces to pay for churches.
CONSTANTINE Not looted, merely used resources where they would best serve the empire’s Christian Capital.
HOST You built many churches in and around Constantinople:
Church of the Holy Peace
Church of the Holy Power
Church of the Holy Wisdom
Church of the Virgin (Mary)
CONSTANTINE To give the city a Christian look.
HOST To adorn Constantinople historians claim you looted Roma of its treasures because you didn’t approve of its pagan senate and sexual permissiveness.
CONSTANTINE No, not looted like victorious legions plundering a conquered city. I merely removed from the old capital what was needed in the new capital. As emperor I had the right to beautify Constantinople.
HOST You had thousands of marble blocks transported from Roma to Constantinople as well as statuary, gold, silver, and precious stones. You removed rare Latin and Greek books from Roma’s libraries for your new libraries in Constantinople.
CONSTANTINE I was building a new capital.
HOST You removed from Roma statues of much revered pagan godesses such as Rhea mother of gods and Fortuna goddess of good luck. Prior emperors invoked Fortuna to protect them.
CONSTANTINOPLE Fortuna would also protect Constantinople.
HOST To emphasize the importance of Rhea and Fortuna you built shrines at which pagans could worship them in public. You claimed to be building a Christian city but you also built outstanding shrines for pagan public worship.
CONSTANTINE Because there were more pagans than Christians. Not even a Maximus Augustus could convert a pagan city to Christianism overnight.
HOST To give further stature to Constantinople you removed one of Roma’s most important symbols the Trojan Palladium (Pallas Athena). What do you think Aeneas would have thought of you removing from Roma its ultimate symbol of security? Were you really a pagan at heart?
CONSTANTINE No, Constantinople would be Christian.
HOST You said Christian. Did you mean Catholic?
CONSTANTINE There were many Christian sects in the East, Arians for example, that believed in the Church of Christ but did not recognize the Church of Roma or its pope.
HOST To that end you destroyed the Temple of Jupiter and replaced it with the Shrine of Saint Mocius martyred by Diocletian.
CONSTANTINE God appointed me his vicar to rule over a Christian empire.
HOST Speaking of a Christian Empire your mother sojourned with you in Constantinople. She requested travel documents to visit Palestina, the Holy Land.
CONSTANTINE She confessed to me her great remorse over Crispus’ death. She told me the reason for her pilgrimage was to expiate her silence in the Crispus-Fausta tragedy. Before she departed I appointed her Augusta.
HOST Did she replace your deceased wife as the official Augusta?
CONSTANTINE Any woman I appoint Augusta is an official Augusta. As supreme emperor of the empire it was my duty to bestow upon my family any title with all its attendant privileges. I issued credential letters to my mother authorizing her to request funds from treasuries of Palestina’s provincial governors. As Augusta my mother would have my authority with all its associated powers. In Palestina she would be shown the utmost courtesy and protection.
HOST I understand that Constantia and others accompanied her in that pilgrimage. That would be the years 327-328.
CONSTANTINE She and Constantia were Arians and had always talked of going to the Holy Land where Arianism was popular. My mother and Constantia urged me to convert to Arianism but I sympathized with Catholics.
HOST Maximian’s widow Eutropia, mother of your deceased wife, was one of the pilgrims in your mother’s retinue.
CONSTANTINE Eutropia sympathized with my mother. Recall that in order to become a Tetrarch Caesar my father had to renounce my mother to marry Theodora.
HOST My notes record your mother’s travel route was overland through Syria down to Palestina.
CONSTANTINE No, that would be quite an expedition even for my legions. The safest and quickest mode of transportation was by sea. Her retinue of pilgrims sailed for Palestina aboard my transport vessels guarded by triremes. In Palestina they were protected by a posse of my legionaires.
HOST In Palestina you and she embarked upon extensive church building projects.
CONSTANTINE In her first official act she pardoned criminals and slaves, gave alms to the poor, and distributed food to the hungry.
HOST In Bethlehem where Jesus was born you authorized the construction of the Church of the Holy Nativity.
CONSTANTINE In Jerusalem pagans desecrated the cave in which Jesus was entombed. At that site, I approved my mother’s plan to construct the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. In a letter to Bishop Macarius in Jerusalem, I requested him to make available to her all the money and resources she requested.
HOST For that and other churches.
CONSTANTINE Also in Jerusalem we built the Church of the Resurrection and on the Mount of Olives the Eleona Church, later dedicated the Church of the Ascension.
HOST Eutropia was also instrumental in getting a church built.
CONSTANTINE At Mamre Oak in Hebron, Eutropia noticed that there were pagan shrines over the tombs of the five Patriarchs (Alexandria, Antiochia, Constantinople, Jerusalem, and Roma). She requested that I destroy those pagan shrines and build a church there.
HOST It was under the shade of the Mamre Oak Jesus spoke to Abraham, Moses, Elijah, and preached to his disciples. It was there on the Mount of Olives Jesus was transfigured to the Son of God in the presence of his disciples. Manifested beside the transfigured Jesus were Moses and Elijah.
CONSTANTINE At that site I approved the construction of the Church of the Transfiguration.
HOST Why did you build so many churches?
CONSTANTINE To show respect for God and Christ Savior.
HOST Your mother is best known for having discovered at Golgotha the cross upon which Jesus was crucified. It was the most important event of her pilgrimage.
CONSTANTINE She had a vision that the site where Jesus was crucified contained relics of that cross. She asked Bishop Macarius to show her the site and ordered it excavated. Workmen found pieces of three crosses and nails stained with blood.
HOST How did she discover which cross was the Holy Cross or True Cross upon which Jesus was crucified?
CONSTANTINE There was a sick woman nearby. My mother declared that the Holy Cross would cure her. With Bishop Macarius’ help she laid pieces of the first cross upon the woman nothing happened; pieces of the second cross were also ineffective. When pieces of the third cross were placed on the woman, she got up and was cured. My mother recovered all the pieces of the blood stained Holy Cross and its nails.
HOST Your mother’s retinue was the first to make a pilgrimage to Palestina. Today thousands of pilgrims visit Jerusalem just to walk where your mother walked, where Jesus walked, along the Via Dolarosa. In another interesting incident you gave money to a Jew. You had issued edicts against Jews.
CONSTANTINE To build more churches in Palestina I gave authority to Joseph of Tiberius whom my mother had befriended. He was a Jew who converted to Christianism. I ordered procurators in Palestina to provide Tiberius with money from their treasuries.
HOST Today those churches still attract pilgrims to the Holy Land. Another important event was your mother’s baptism.
CONSTANTINE My mother was baptized in the true manner, in the Jordan River. That’s my intention. Having been baptized in the Jordan completed her pilgrimage. On her way back to Roma she stopped in Constantinople to show me the blood stained wooden pieces and nails.
HOST Is it true those relics were used to cure the sick?
CONSTANTINE So I was told.
HOST And you used some of the nails to forge a bit for your warhorse?
CONSTANTINE True, in war one needs many allies. To memorialize her momentous discovery she had built in Roma, within the grounds of the Sessorian Palace, the Church of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem. In its reliquary she placed the cross’ blood stained pieces and nails.
HOST Your mother died at 80 having had an extraordinarily long, full, and productive life. She bequeathed her considerable estate to you and your sons.
CONSTANTINE In Roma I built her a magnificent mausoleum ornamented with one of my many triumphal processions, including my victory over Maxentius. My mother venerated the Arian Lucian. To honor her in her birthplace Drepanum, I renamed the city Helenopolis, built the Church of Saint Lucian, and had her image minted in coinage.
HOST That church was sometimes called the Church of the Martyrs, a popular name in North Africa and the East. In proselytizing for God you approved the building of churches throughout the empire – Aquileia (Trieste, Italy), Numidia (Algeria), Nicomedia, Antiochia, and Alexandria.
CONSTANTINE In order to prove my commitment to God. In Trèves to further honor my mother I upgraded the cathedral constructed by my father.
HOST I encountered an interesting tale about that cathedral. In its reliquary are now what are believed to be the cloak of the Virgin Mary and the Robe of Jesus, called the Holy Coat of Trèves. Of course that reliquary was established long after your reign.
CONSTANTINE In Nicomedia I rebuilt the church destroyed by Diocletian during the Great Persection. In Antiochia next to the imperial palace I built the Golden Octagon Church to a great height. Its roof was covered by gold foil that reflected the light of Sol Invictus, God’s light shed upon Earth. That light, seen for miles around, was a beacon drawing Christians and pagans to the church.
HOST It was reported that in order to build all those churches you looted treasures from pagan temples and then destroyed them.
CONSTANTINE Paganism was slowly being supplanted by Christianism. Pagans assembled in disunited groups without central leadership. Christians were well organized throughout the East. The central leadership for Catholics remained in Roma.
HOST Both religions shared the common concept of multiple deities. Pagans believed in many gods, Christians believed in one God of three parts. You issued edicts extending privileges to the clergy while suppressing pagan practices. You promoted to important positions Christian men of inferior status and intellect. It was said you were Christianism’s mentor and best friend.
CONSTANTINE God chose me his vicar and instructed me to build a Christian empire. I ruled in accordance with my perception of God.
HOST To implement policies of government you advertised for Roman Senators, those pagans whom you eschewed. But the respondents who immigrated had not the aristocratic bearing and political expertise of senate patricians in Roma.
CONSTANTINE I advertised for competent magistrates to administer Constantinople. I needed their administrative experience to establish and implement my new government. Those who came were more amenable to my policies. I also advertised for educators to establish schools of art, language, medicine, and rhetoric. To attract and retain experienced magistrates, I gave them honorary titles such as Eminence, Excellency, and Highness.
HOST The Roman Senate would never have approved such pretentious titles. To attract competent magistrates you paid them high salaries, built them luxurious homes, even villas.
CONSTANTINE But only for the best of them, the most proficient in implementing my policies.
HOST Complaints posted in your Forum Constantini noted that many of your highly paid magistrates were merely ill-bred craftsmen engaged in frequent bouts of drinking and vomiting.
CONSTANTINE When dealing with people there are always exceptions
HOST You invited to Constantinople important persons and world leaders, receiving them with much ostentation. To impress them you hired panegyrists to promote your accomplishments and victories.
CONSTANTINE I had to attract prominent world leaders to negotiate trade agreements and offer them my protection from potential enemies. I worked tirelessly to enlarge Constantinople’s importance.
HOST Today you would be called a workaholic.
CONSTANTINE What?
HOST Our designation for those who work tirelessly to achieve their goals.
CONSTANTINE To populate Constantinople I permitted older soldiers to leave military service if they promised to become farmers, raise families, and live Christian nonviolent lives. I also advertised for immigrants to come to Nova Roma.
HOST Why did you advertise for Nova Roma instead of Constantinople?
CONSTANTINE For name recognition, to emphasize my intention to continue old Roma’s tradition of panem et circenses (bread and circuses). Immigrants came by the thousands.
HOST Were you prepared to dole all that welfare in you startup capital?
CONSTANTINE I was obliged to do so.
HOST Being on the dole the new immigrants did little or no work. When you appeared in public they threw flowers at you, applauding your continuation of Roma’s welfare. Your distribution of grain was modeled on that of Roma. Your Nova Roma was on its way back to the old Roma.
CONSTANTINE I needed the people’s support.
HOST Unlike your Constantinople my country has an overpopulation of immigrants. We advertised for them hundreds of years ago when we needed workers. Now that we have more workers than we can employ they keep coming, invading our southern borders like barbarians who invaded you northern frontier. Unlike your coloni they are the permitted reapers of our tax dollars.
CONSTANTINE If you are truly a superpower why doesn’t your presider stop the invasion?
HOST Uninvited foreigners who invade our borders are illegal aliens. You had a problem with your northern border. America has a problem with its southern border. We have a Catiline conspiracy going on and need a Cicero to expose and end it.
CONSTANTINE Why do your politicians tolerate the invasions?
HOST Illegal aliens work on our farms for less money than Americans are paid. In return farmers contribute huge sums of money to political campaigns which keep incumbents in power. It’s strictly quid pro quo.
CONSTANTINE Are they the same cowardly politicians you spoke of?
HOST Yes, and for the same political reasons all our presidents have refused to stop the invasions. The illegal aliens are paid by politicians to cast the illegal votes that keep them in power. Moreover the illegal aliens demand all the privileges of citizenship. They receive welfare, food stamps, medical care, education, etc. All those entitlements while American citizens are denied the same. Here’s an example. The emergency room of a hospital was crowded with illegal aliens from Mexico; they were given emergency care. In that emergency room was an American citizen denied care because he didn’t have health insurance.
CONSTANTINE You need to depose your presider and replace him with an emperor. An emperor would order his army to secure the border. You told me you were a miltary superpower. Why doesn’t your presider muster an army on your southern border? Is the Mexico you speak of more powerful than America?
HOST No no. Mexico is a corrupt country whose leaders steal money from its people and are now extorting money from America. Instead of fighting and pushing Mexicans them back we employ them. We even surpass your doles by giving them our citizen’s tax dollars to send back to Mexico, thereby enriching its treasury while depleting ours. While scornfully declaring they’re not American, they proudly trumpet their Mexican heritage while demanding American entitlements. More intolerable are the politicians whose succor gives free college education to these illegal aliens while depriving American citizens of the same entitlement.
CONSTANTINE That’s the opposite of what Galerius did. He closed the schools. I didn’t approve of that but neither do I approve of your citizens paying for the education of illegal aliens.
HOST Politicians have debased America by nullifying the rights of its citizens. These politicians are now considering of giving amnesty and even extending citizenship to Mexican illegal aliens.
CONSTANTINE That being your predicament your politicians are more cowardly than our Roman politicians. I’m afraid your country is declining towards mediocrity and loss of its superpower. I tell you this. America is ripe for the plucking by a determined enemy force.
HOST Moreover the Mexican government transports to our border pregnant Mexican women ready to give birth. They run across our border to drop their newborns on our soil. The newborns are automatically entitled to all the privileges of American citizenship.
CONSTANTINE Do what we did. The big healthy ones we raised as Romans. Weaklings were exposed to death.
HOST We couldn’t do that. We believe in accepting the huddled downtrodden masses. The problem is that tens of millions of illegal Mexicans are already in America.
CONSTANTINE Did you say tens of millions? Did you mean thousands?
HOST No, tens of millions.
CONSTANTINE Your nation is due to fall of its own complacency or maybe foolish beneficence, or perhaps cowardice.
HOST Our culture has declined because of the assembly line production of boiler plate communist professors who with impunity support the invasion of America by illegal aliens.
CONSTANTINE In that case, do what Galerius did. He fired them.
HOST We can’t do that. We have something called free speech.
CONSTANTINE Free to destroy your country? Do what I did. I confronted the northern barbarian invaders and repulsed them. Your country must confront and repulse the southern invaders from Mexico.
HOST But they sneak back in; they return like swallows.
CONSTANTINE Do what we did. If they don’t look like or act like Romans we questioned them and if they couldn’t speak Latin we made them salves. You’ve got to resettle the best of them or kill them.
HOST Kill the illegals?
CONSTANTINE If you don’t they’ ll conglomerate to enclaves ruled by their own leaders instead of yours. Eventually their culture will clash with or even supplant your culture.
HOST Our republic is slowly declining because of its exuberant avarice, individual and corporate.
CONSTANTINE Did you say republic? Where is your Caesar who will return your nation to its people?
HOST I’m afraid that’s impossible. Many years ago we had a pretender Caesar but he, Jefferson, died after the founding of our republic.
CONSTANTINE Did he rebel against your republic?
HOST Only in his writings, to remedy political injustice.
CONSTANTINE Pretenders are a problem; they talk, talk, talk. If they do act, their actions are ineffective.
HOST We recently had a pretender president like that. Enough of this; it’s too depressing. I prefer the impunity of your experiences, so back to Constantinople. Once when transport vessels full of grain failed to reach Constantinople, you blamed and killed a pagan priest.
CONSTANTINE Because he cast a spell on the wind causing it to blow my vessels off course, prolonging the temporary famine and my ability to provide free grain to the people.
HOST Surely humans have no control over wind.
CONSTANTINE Despite my edicts against sorcery there were pagans who practiced it.
HOST Although you vowed never to return to Roma you did.
CONSTANTINE I visited Roma to pacify disgruntled senators, upstarts emulating Caesars, and others looking for excuses to begin a domestic war. During my visit the people and senate gave me cool receptions. They didn’t like my support of Christianism or my demonstrated preference for eastern dress and adornment. When I refused to pay homage to Jupiter, they complained and demonstrated in public their great displeasure. I quickly returned to Constantinople where I received a hearty welcome.
HOST After that depressing experience you employed hundreds of spies to report anarchists and malefactors. The Roman Senate would never have approved of imperial spies among its citizens.
CONSTANTINE I employed reporters not spies. Their mission was to expose incipient plots against my family and me because I was making plans for the future.
HOST Speaking of the future Licinius’ son Lucinianus was planning revenge against you because you had his father executed.
CONSTANTINE He was planning to avenge his father’s death because he thought I killed him. I tried reasoning with the young man but he was intent on revenging his father. In spite of Constantia’s pleas I had him executed to avoid another domestic war.
HOST You tried to preserve religious peace by convening a second council at Nicaea.
CONSTANTINE Because Arian bishops in the East persisted in revising the Nicene Creed to Arius’ view. Bishop Anthanasius the stalwart exponent of the creed defended its proclamation that the Son was consubstantial with the Father. His steadfast opposition led to the defeat of the proposed Arian revision. But determined eastern bishops spread Arianism along the Danube frontier and throughout Sarmatia.
HOST In 328 Goths again invaded Dacia.
CONSTANTINE I prepared for war. In my mobile chapel, attended by priests and deacons, we prayed for another victory over the barbarians.
HOST In that decade you defeated the Goths for the 3rd time.
CONSTANTINE I had grown weary of war. My father was right; it’s better to make peace with your enemies. The peace settlement required me to integrate their prisoners of war into my army. Actually I preferred the large gruff Goths over other more civil prisoners. But the integration caused a problem with Alemanni in my army. Goths and Alemanni hated each other more than they hated Romans.
HOST In 330 you celebrated the 25th anniversary of your reign and dedicated Constantinople.
CONSTANTINE I officially declared the city my new capital, my Nova Roma, making it my political and religious seat of power.
HOST In the 18 years since your victory over Maxentius you had been engaged in many foreign and domestic wars and had convened many councils to resolve religious disputes. Finally in 330 you were able to officially declare Christianism the Roman Empire’s religion. You made that declaration in Constantinople, not in Roma.
CONSTANTINE Before Nicaea war was my main occupation. In Constantinople it was Christianism. I declared Constantinople a Christian city, cedant arma togae (let arms yield to the toga).
HOST From battle dress to the robes of peace. So pagans residents of Byzantium now lived in Christian Constantinople.
CONSTANTINE Most of the estimated 50,000 people were pagan and I needed their support. Christians and pagans lived in peace.
HOST In the center of the city you built the Forum Constantini, where you were memorialized with statues including plaques of Sol Invictus revered by pagans.
CONSTANTINE Throughout the city crosses and other Christian exhibitions were integrated with pagan relics. I allowed pagan priests to perform in public their ancient rites. I had the cross with the chi-rho monogram embroidered on my vestments. Thinking of my mother, I dedicated the city to the Blessed Virgin Mary. I ordered images of my mother and Fausta minted in coinage.
HOST You included Fausta?
CONSTANTINE In keeping with the celebration the two women in my life, one Christian the other pagan.
HOST During dedication celebrations your soldiers paraded a giant statue of you throughout the streets to display to the people their supreme emperor, the giant collosus who bestrode the East and West of the Roman Empire. Christian and pagan priests followed the statue chanting prayers and praising you.
CONSTANTINE Christians and pagans were free to participate in the dedicatory celebrations.
HOST You hired panegyrists to extol your virtues and the expected renown of Constantinople. You were again compared to Moses. I have that recitation by a panegyrist (reads):
Moses was raised in the court of his eventual enemy Pharaoh. Constantine was raised in the courts of Diocletian and Galerius.
Moses freed Jews from the tyrant Pharoah. Constantine freed Romans from the tyrants Maxentius and Licinius.
When Moses saw the Golden Calf and Jews dancing around it he destroyed the two stone tablets. When Constantine saw the depraved conduct of worshipers in pagan temples he destroyed the temples.
Moses prophesied he would lead Jews to the Promised Land of Canaan and conquer it. Constantine prophesied he would conquer Byzantium and led Romans to Constantinople.
Moses was a lawgiver, so is Constantine.
Moses was shown the design for the Ark of the Covenant. Constantine was shown the design of the cross and the chi-rho saving symbol.
Moses was the servant and spokesman for God, so is Constantine.
After the dedication you issued new edicts befitting your new capital. They were distributed in Latin and Greek because Greek was the predominant language there.
CONSTANTINE But to serve in government Greek speakers had to learn Latin.
HOST In America we have yet to learn that lesson. Spanish speaking immigrants and illegal aliens refuse to learn English.
CONSTANTINE To differentiate Constantinople from Roma, I issued edicts allowing Christians and pagans to marry. I prohibited crucifixion and gladiatorial combat. On the other hand, I offered citizens the same cultural privileges of Roma by inviting artists, musicians, philosophers, and rhetoricians to improve the cultural life of Constantinople.
HOST You also issued more edicts against Jews.
CONSTANTINE I prohibited the Jew’s savage practice of circumcision. I prohibited Jews from stoning to death or enslaving those Jews who had converted to Catholicism. Judaism discriminates against idolatry, therefore against Christians. The rites and practices of Jews are strangely secretive, not universal. Ignoring Jesus as Christ the Messiah, Jews believed his Second Coming would be their First Coming. They expected too much. I had to keep an eye on them.
HOST You issued edicts slouching towards theocracy, favoring religion over government.
CONSTANTINE To assure a Christian capital, I declared that government magistrates could not annul decrees issued by bishops. To end celibacy I offered land to men and women who got married. Families were needed to populate Constantinople. I separated civilian prefects from military generals, making both answerable directly to me.
HOST Like our president with congress and the military. But Constantinople lacked the aristocratic bearing and prestige of Roma and its patrician senate.
CONSTANTINE To our benefit because pagan patricians in Roma did not tolerate Christians.
HOST About this time you issued more edicts on sexual morality.
CONSTANTINE As God’s representative on earth my edicts missioned God’s will. People must honor God’s power and fear his anger. I vigorously protected domestic virtues and punished by mutilation offenses against chastity and marriage vows such as adultery.
HOST But adultery claims for itself the allurement of sexual adventure.
CONSTANTINE Thereby demeaning the sanctity of marriage. Adultery must be punished. In that respect Constantinople would not repeat the sexual excesses of Roma.
HOST What about rape?
CONSTANTINE All rapes were punishable, some by death depending upon the circumstances.
HOST What about homosexuality?
CONSTANTINE An accepted but limited practice. I didn’t approve of it.
HOST It was reported common among priests.
CONSTANTINE Yes and I made it unlawful for priests to engage in that depraved practice with young catechumens.
HOST In America pedophilia by priests is depleting the treasuries of Catholic churches. Our courts ordered those churches to pay compensation to tens of thousands of young boys who had been sexually abused by priests. Did you order the the early church to pay compensation to abused boys?
CONSTANTINE No, in fact homosexual priests were retained because the church needed priests more than young boys. Young boys were not compensated because most of them were slaves. Sometimes priests were custodians of young boys. In those cases they cared for them. Pedophilia was common especially in Aegyptus. When priests there ended their indecent practices, the Nile rose making the land more fertile.
HOST What about women?
CONSTANTINE There weren’t any women priests.
HOST I mean women who had sex with other women.
CONSTANTINE An accepted pagan practice. I discouraged it.
HOST How about women who raped other women?
CONSTANTINE Depending upon the circumstances of the rape, women penetrators were punished.
HOST Wasn’t that cruel and unusual punishment?
CONSTANTINE Exceptions vitiate rules. We made exceptions for schisms and heresy and look what happened. Adherence to law, to orthodoxy, makes for Blessed Tranquility.
HOST In America most rapes of women by women are kept quiet because the victims fear the shame of unwanted publicity.
CONSTANTINE I didn’t suffer a sorceress to go unpunished. When rapes were witnessed and reported we posted in the Forum the names of women rapists who were then scorned by the public.
HOST You were cruel to slaves, condemning to death male slaves having sex with women.
CONSTANTINE With free Roman women.
HOST Free as in citizen?
CONSTANTINE Yes.
HOST But when a master freed one of his female salves, he maintained the right to demand her services.
CONSTANTINE An accepted custom among masters of slaves, requesting especially their blond former female slaves from our northern frontier.
HOST If a male slave raped a free woman, you had hot lead poured into his mouth so he could no longer speak of his desire for her. You even ordered the lead to be that mined in Hispania.
CONSTANTINE The very mine my military engineers discovered when I conquered it.
HOST But even with your tortures and executions, peoples’ behavior didn’t change that much. It was claimed you had the sexual purity and convictions of a celibate monk.
CONSTANTINE Exotic cultural diversity leads to arguing, anarchy, and domestic war. I believed in strict morality and cultural orthodoxy. Idle salves have flights of fancy which if pursued get them into trouble or cost them their lives.
HOST On a totally different subject, one of your edicts suggested that citizens should write their own Wills.
CONSTANTINE If you threw a stone in Roma you’d probably hit a lawyer. There weren’t many lawyers in the East. I urged people there to take advantage of Roma’s Corpus Juris by writing their own Wills. I urged them to use plain language. I urged illiterates to recite their Wills in the presence of trusted witnesses who were not beneficiaries.
HOST I’m not sure what that means.
CONSTANTINE According to Roman law a witness cannot be a beneficiary.
HOST In 333 you appointed as Caesar your third and youngest son 13 year old Constans.
CONSTANTINE To assure an unbroken dynastic succession.
HOST In 334 there was more war. This time Goths turned against Sarmatians and attacked them instead of you. Sarmatians begged you for help.
CONSTANTINE Accompanied by my son, the young Caesar Constantius 2, we crossed the Danube using the long bridge I had built. We defeated the Goths and captured their king. In a triumphal march through the Forum Constatnini, we displayed the captured king to joyful citizens.
HOST In your new Roma you continued the triumphal marches of old Roma.
CONSTANTINE Tired of war, I negotiated peace agreements with Goths and Sarmatians. I offered them land for farms, money and resources for public buildings, baths, roads, etc. But I insisted they convert to Christianity; they agreed. The best of their fighters were integrated into my legions, the rebellious ones were made slaves. Peace brings prosperity.
HOST And taxes.
CONSTANTINE To meet the obligations of that peace, I had to redistribute tax money from the West to the East.
HOST Speaking of the East, Constantia urged you to pardon her Arian friend of Eusebius of Nicomedia. You exiled him for his opposition to the Nicene Creed.
CONSTANTINE To that end I recalled him from Trèves. Eventally we became friends but he continued to oppose Athanasius, at that time a bishop. I didn’t intervene because I had no desire or need to further prosecute their dispute over the creed. To assure religious peace, I voided the prohibition against Arians thereby allowing them to practice freely.
HOST In 335 Athanasius and Euisebius of Caesarea were in Constantinople. Again they confronted each other and argued over the same old religious differences. Eusebius persuaded you to summon bishops to a council to resolve once and for all differences among Christian sects.
CONSTANTINE I addressed by letter bishops in the East, North Africa, and the West. As general of God’s army on earth I urged them to resolve their differences. I stressed that the church should be free from the strife and malicious criticism concocted by arrogant bishops. I reminded them that unity of agreement would relieve my heart of anxiety, that unity and peace are pleasing to God. To resolve their lingering problems I summoned bishops to the Council of Tyre moderated by Eusebius.
HOST Athanasius complained too many enemy bishops were in attendance. The Tyre council also failed to resolve the schism. It seems to me that when men’s intellects are involved, God is only an observer.
CONSTANTINE The main problem was Athanasius. He refused to alter his orthodox views and to cease oppressing Arians and Melitists. Because of his intransigence the council condemned him. Meanwhile Athanasius had secretly departed for Constantinople. When the council adjourned I invited the bishops to Jerusalem for the dedication of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and for my 30th anniversary celebration.
HOST At the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, Eusebius of Caesarea delivered the dedicatory oration (reads):
Inspired by God the emperor Constantine Maximus Augustus made the decisions, provided the money and prestigious imperial properties upon which to build magnificent churches. Here in Jerusalem we dedicate
the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, an example of his and his mother’s beneficence. Constantine established the Nicene Creed and organized disputatious popes and bishops into an hierarchy thereby instituting organized Christianism, etc.
But another bishop in attendance boldly declared that you were blessed by God and in heaven you would rule alongside the Son of God. You were noticeably annoyed at his excessive praise.
CONSTANTINE One accepts praise with dignity but sycophantic praise is embarrassing and should be rejected.
HOST While in Jerusalem Constantia and her friend, Eusebius of Nicomedia, urged you to pardoned Arius whom you banished to Illyricum because of his opposition to the Nicene Creed.
CONSTANTINE I agreed only on condition that Arius accept the creed. I summoned him to Constantinople so I could question him. In person before me he confessed his faith in the creed and I pardoned him.
HOST Shouldn’t that pardon have come from the pope?
CONSTANTINE It was I who banished him, not the pope. Eusebius proposed that Alexander the Bishop of Constantinople hear Arius’ confession and give him communion but the bishop refused.
HOST The same Alexander from Alexandria?
CONSTANTINE No, no the Alexander Bishop of Constantinople.
HOST Your pardon did not obtain for Arius his hoped for indulgence in the church.
CONSTANTINE Therefore Eusebius volunteered to hear Arius’ confession and offer him communion. The next day on his way to the church Arius was mortally stricken with intestinal distress. He died in the ignominy of severe convulsive cramps and diarrhea. Bishop Alexander remarked that his refusal to hear Arius’ confession had God’s approval because Arius was not worthy to receive communion. When news of his death reached Athanasius he declared Arius’ painful death was a sign of God’s anger and punishment in exorcising his evil before meeting his maker.
HOST Athanasius had his own problems because he was charged with having ordered the murder of a Melitist bishop whom he persecuted.
CONSTANTINE The charge was proved false when Athanasius produced the living bishop.
HOST After Arius’ death Eusebius of Nicomedia persuaded you to convene a council to deal with Athanasius who was condemned at Tyre and continued to oppress Melitians.
CONSTANTINE In the East there were more Arian Christians than Catholic Christians. The Arian bishop Eusebius of Nicomedia had a large following. They insisted I convene a council to resolve the lingering religious dispute with their persecutor Athanasius. I summoned bishops to the Council of Jerusalem but Athanasius, the resolute defender of the Nicene Creed, remained in Constantinople and refused to attend.
HOST Arians charged Athanasius was intolerant of them and other fellow Christians who did not accept the Nicene Creed.
CONSTANTINE At the council the condemned Athanasius continued his intransigent behavior, continued violence, and intimidation of Arians. The council voted to depose him. To preserve peace with Arians I exiled him to Trèves. Unfortunately in Italia and North Africa Donatists were still rebelling and ignoring my prefects
HOST At the Council of Jerusalem you presented your plan for converting barbarians to Christians.
CONSTANTINE In my proselytizing letter to them I stated that through my leadership and intervention barbarians would learn to worship God. They knew I have power and feared it; therefore they would behave like Christians because they feared me. My letter instructed them to genuflect before the altar and make the sign of the cross to show respect for God. To reinforce my letter I issued edicts forbidding heretics and pagans to assemble for public worship.
HOST In spite of your reputed religious tolerance you confiscated pagan properties and even ordered certain pagan temples destroyed in Cilicia (Turkey) and Syria.
CONSTANTINE For the benefit of God and the church. In Cilicia there was a shrine dedicated to an imposter who called himself Spiritual Savior. Gullible pagans went there to be saved from their afflictions. They offered valuables to the pretentious Savior, a demon who administered sleep potions. During their sleep he performed upon those unfortunate souls depraved and unspeakable acts. He was a Satan, not a Savior. I ordered my soldiers to destroy his shrine and execute him.
HOST And Syria?
CONSTANTINE There was a sacred grove in the mountains of Syria where effeminate men, in honor of Aphrodite, practiced unspeakable sexual acts with men and women. I ordered my soldiers to set that grove on fire. There was also a Temple of Venus where wives and daughters prostituted themselves in her honor. Their despicable acts were against common morality. I dispatched my soldiers to that temple and had them destroy it.
HOST It’s obvious you shunned the sexual practices of Venus worshippers.
CONSTANTINE Perverted practices debauching the natural union of man and woman for producing sons to be presumptive heirs and daughters to be bargained for political advantage.
HOST Over the years our sexual pursuits have not changed much. Today in America we could use someone like you to issue an edict against Jews in Hollywood who produce ritual prostitution in live shows, movies, and TV.
CONSTANTINE In Temples of Venus prostitution was a pagan honor. In Christianism it’s an affront to the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life, and a sin against God’s commandments.
HOST Engaged in war you constantly broke God’s commandment against killing.
CONSTANTINE Required for the preservation of the empire, for the preservation of Christian life which honors God.
HOST That’s what the traditores claimed.
CONSTANTINE It was my duty to eliminate temples of prostitution.
HOST But before you destroyed those temples, you looted them of their valuables - gold, silver, marble, mosaics, and precious stones.
CONSTANTINE I used the gold and silver to cast much needed new coins. In building new churches I adorned trhem with valuables taken from the temples.
HOST In 336 you celebrated the 30th anniversary of your reign. Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea, one of your closest advisers, delivered the celebratory oration. In his eulogy he declared you to be more than a model emperor. He considered you the new Moses, the emperor who would lead the Roman Empire from paganism to Christianism.
CONSTANTINE That extravagant celebration included worldwide ambassadors from India where the sun rises to Britannia where the sun sets.
HOST In describing your unbroken string of victories – Brtiannia, Gallia, the Rhine frontiers, Pontis Milvio, Byzantium, etc.– Eusebius elevated your victories almost to the level of Jesus’ miracles. He declared that you, being God’s true representative on Earth, ranked above the pope in Roma.
CONSTANTINE In my letter of appreciation to Esuebius I avowed that my mission on earth was to lead a good life and punish evil doers who persecuted Christians.
HOST But in another of his eulogies his comparison of your mother with the mother of God was a bit oxymoronic. How can God the creator have a mother?
CONSTANTINE I’m sure he meant mother as in mother of Jesus. We each had mothers. My reverence is only for God the Supreme Deity. If I do not obey God he will punish me as he did Maxentius and Licinius.
HOST As human Jesus was different from you, different from God.
CONSTANTINE Et tu!
HOST What?
CONSTANTINE You too, again bringing up Nicaea?
HOST Well then, on to the most important matter of that year. You prepared a Will appointing your three sons heirs.
CONSTANTINE To assure dynastic succession, I appointed my three sons the future ruling trinity.
HOST A satirist wrote that unlike the three Magi who bore gifts to the infant Jesus, Constantine’s three sons came to receive gifts of the empire’s riches and territories.
CONSTANTINE That ‘s what dynastic succession means. Later in a codicil I added my stepnephew.
HOST Three and one are four. Did you plan on resurrecting Diocletian’s Tetrarchy?
CONSTANTINE No, familial preferences worked out that way.
HOST Later you added another stepnephew.
CONSTANTINE Thereby avoiding probable wars among the appointed and presumptive heirs in my extended family. Rather than adding another codicil, I prepared a new Will. In it I decreed my 5 heirs be raised Christian and made the following appointments.
My first son Constantine 2 – Caesar of West to rule from Britannia to Italia.
My second son Constantius 2 – Caesar of East to rule from Asiana to the Euphrates Valley.
My third son Constans – Caesar of Illyricum and North Africa.
Delmatius my stepnephew – Caesar of Macedonia, Achaea, and Thracia.
Hannibalianus my stepnephew – King of Kings to rule the buffer zone between Constantius 2 and the Persian King Shapur 2.
HOST Speaking of KIng Shapur 2 he was persecuting Christians in Persia as did his father.
CONSTANTINE I received word that he was planning to invade Armenia. Fearing retaliation from me the king dispatched his diplomatic mission to me in which he proposed peaceful coexistence. I wrote a letter to the king, had it translated to Greek, and delivered by his ambassador.
HOST I have a copy of that long letter. I’ve highlighted parts of it (reads):
…The God I represent is the one whose sign my army, dedicated to God, carries on its shoulders, and to whatever task the Word of Justice summons it goes directly; and from those men I get immediate and happy recompense in marks of signal victory. This is the God I profess to honor with undying remembrance, and him I clearly perceive with unsullied and pure mind to take highest place…He takes pleasure in works of kindness and gentleness, befriending the meek, hating the violent, loving faithfulness, punishing unfaithfulness, shattering all ostentacious power, taking vengeance on overweening arrogance; those who proudly exalt themselves he utterly destroys, while he gives what they deserve to the humble and forgiving. With this class of persons – I mean of course the Christians, my whole concern being for them – how pleasing it is for me to hear that the most important parts of Persia too are richly adorned! May the very best come to you therefore, and at the same time the best for them, since they also are yours…These therefore, since you are so great, I entrust to you, putting their very persons in your hands, because you too are renowned for piety. Love them in accordance with your own humanity. For you will give enormous satisfaction both to yourself and to us by keeping faith.
HOST A diplomatic letter with undertones of retribution if the king continued to persecute Christians.
CONSTANTINE It was my warning to king Shapur 2 to stop persecuting Christians. Also the king’s empire lay east of the Euphrates because his father lost Mesopotamia to Galerius and he was determined to recover it. We agreed to maintain the status quo.
(337)(Life of Constantine, Eusebius of Caesarea, pp 177-178)HOST The last 10 years of your rule were free of domestic or foreign wars but Persian King Shapur 2 complained that your stepnephew Hannibalianus’ buffer zone was a threat to his rule.
CONSTANTINE Hannibalianus ruled over the buffer zone between Shapur 2 and my son Constantius 2. I assured the king it was intended to keep separated the two armies, his and my son’s.
HOST I recall another buffer zone from which you attacked Licinius.
CONSTANTINE Because of Licinius’ plot to depose me. Hannibalianus’ appointment was political, titular only; he had no army. When the crafty king realized that he invaded Christian Armenia and replaced its king with a Persian ruler. He broke the treaty negotiated with Roma.
HOST The king claimed that treaty was not valid because Roma was no longer the capital of the empire. He claimed you moved the capital to Constantinople and had not renewed the treaty.
CONSTANTINE I was obliged to rescue Armenia from Persia’s usurpation because I had promised it protection. Constantius 2 and I were preparing an expedition to march against the king when I became ill.
HOST That would be in 337 during Lent.
CONSTANTINE My doctor advised me to go to the drier climate of Nicomedia. I departed Constantinople leaving Constantius 2 in charge. Not improving in Nicomedia, my doctor advised me to bathe in the mineral springs at Helenopolis. There in the Church of Saint Lucian, which I built to honor my mother, I knelt on the cold marble floor of its martyry and prayed for recovery. My health didn’t improve so I decided to return to the palace in Nicomedia.
HOST I must propose the following however disagreeable to you. It was rumored that Constantius 2 impatient to wear the imperial purple had your cook poison you.
CONSTANTINE Nonsense, my trusted cook was like a stepson to me; he prepared all my meals.
HOST Your son could have bribed the cook. The rumor was that your son poisoned you in revenge for your executions of his mother Fausta and stepbrother Crispus. Also, as in the case of Crispus, you had not yet promoted him to Augustus.
CONSTANTINE My doctors assured me my illness was not due to poison but to an ulcerating disease. While working on logistics for the invasion of Persia, I grew weary of my illness. I was tired so I decided to suspend my activities and rest in Achyrion a villa outside Nicomedia.
HOST Why not remain in your luxurious palace with its entire staff at your service?
CONSTANTINE That was the problem, having to deal with a palace staff, visitors, requests, etc. Feeling weak and seriously ill I wanted to rest, to avoid the obligations thrust upon an emperor. I had Constantius 2 take over the administration of the palace and preparations for war.
HOST You celebrated the Easter holidays at the villa with family and friends, including the two bishops Eusebius.
CONSTANTINE That Easter Sunday I complained of feeling weaker and sicker. My doctor told me there was nothing more he could do.
HOST Is that when you requested Bishop Eusebius of Nicomedia to baptize you?
CONSTANTINE I had given up all hope to be baptized in the River Jordan as were Jesus and my mother.
HOST After Nicaea you exiled Eusebius then pardoned him.
CONSTANTINE All was forgiven and we became friends.
HOST Then on that Easter Sunday you asked him to baptize you.
CONSTANTINE Eusebius wanted to review with me the usual catechistic requirements for adult baptism. I told him I heard the voice of God commanding me to be baptized immediately.
HOST Did you take advantage of baptism to cleanse your soul for resurrection on Easter Sunday, the day of Jesus’ resurrection?
CONSTANTINE Eusebius informed me that I should confess my sins so that I might be baptized in a state of grace.
HOST I have Bishop Scribus’ record of the conversation between you and Eusebius in that momentous event in which you were baptized to become the first Christian emperor of the Roman Empire.
CONSTANTINE For such a momentous occasion, I requested a secretary and notary.
HOST I'll read Scribus' account of that conversation:
CONSTANTINE "This is the moment I have long hoped for, as I thirsted and yearned to win salvation in God. It is our time too to enjoy the seal that brings immortality, time to enjoy the sealing that gives salvation, which I once intended to receive at the streams of the River Jordan, where our Saviour also is reported to have received the bath as an example to us. But God who knows what is good for us judges us worthy of these things here and now. So let there be no delay. If the Lord of life and death should wish us to live again here, even so it is once and for all decided that I am hereafter numbered among the people of God, and that I meet and join in the prayers with them all together. I shall now set for myself rules of life which befit God.
EUSEBIUS I will hear your confession.
CONSTANTINE I don’t know how to begin, what to confess.
EUSEBIUS Your sins.
CONSTANTINE Sins against God?
EUSEBIUS Against the church, the teachings of Jesus, and the promise of Christ Savior.
CONSTANTINE All of which I advocated through my beneficence and support.
EUSEBIUS To the glory of God and Roma but as emperor you had tens of thousands killed in wars and skirmishes in the name of the empire.
CONSTANTINE I was obliged to kill; an emperor’s first duty is to protect his people. I protected the empire against Alemanni, Franks, Goths, Sarmatians, Persians, and others intent on doing Romans harm.
EUSEBIUS That’s true.
CONSTANTINE Defending the empire I defeated Roma’s enemies and established Christianism. After defeating the pagan tyrant Maxentius I liberated Roma and dedicated myself to God in appreciation of my victory. After defeating the pagan tyrant Licinius I made Constantinople my Nova Roma, the Christian capital of the empire. I greated the empire in the name of God
EUSEBIUS All that is true but you also conquered Roma’s neighbors shedding more blood than necessary to assure peace.
CONSTANTINE I made preemptive strikes to prevent potential enemies from killing Romans. Caesar did the same.
EUSEBIUS Caesar defied the senate when he entered Roma with his army, strictly forbidden for good reason.
CONSTANTINE But the people of Roma welcomed Caesar the Triumphator. The senate understood all too well the peoples’ welcome and honored him with the statue inscribed – Senatatus Populusque Romanus (Senate and People of Roma). Caesar’s statue still stands overlooking the Roman Forum, the people’s meeting place.
EUSEBIUS All that is true but now, while not in the heat of battle, you must confess your sins. You murdered your father-in-law.
CONSTANTINE Not true. I offered Maximian execution or suicide; he chose suicide.
EUSEBIUS You ordered the murders of your son Crispus and and wife Fausta.
CONSTANTINE I see their faces daily; they still haunt me. I confess their deaths were my most grievous fault. May Christ savior forgive me.
EUSEBIUS Not under imminent threat you ordered the murders of Licinius, his son Licinianus, Bassianus, and many others.
CONSTANTINE For the integrity and peace of the empire. I ask God to forgive me. I recite the centurion’s simple prayer and beg God to allow me to enter under the roof of his heavenly tent.
EUSEBIUS May Christ Savior redeem your soul and forgive you.
CONSTANTINE As general of God’s salvation army I promise God that if I survive my illness, I will first do my duty to defeat the evil Persian king who’s persecuting Christians. Afterwards I’ll retire to live in peace, to escape the molestations of evil men, to live an ascetic life devoted to God.
HOST Bishop Scribus recorded that you shed your imperial purple robe and naked, with hands clasped in prayer, knelt before the bishop as catechumen. That Easter Sunday with laying-on of hands and Holy Water the bishop baptized you.
CONSTANTINE At that moment I felt myself rising from advocate to Christian champion. I had the vision that in my chariot I rose to heaven where God greeted me with extended arms. Being in a state of grace, I covered my naked body with the pure white robes of a neophyte. I chose that moment so that my immaculate soul, claimed by the Holy Spirit, would ascend to heaven and be received by God. It was only then that I understood the asceticism of Donatists and Melitists.
HOST Meaning?
CONSTANTINE Living a pure and holy life devoted to God.
HOST With your last expiratory breath you uttered sotto voce words that Bishop Scribus didn’t understand.
CONSTANTINE I whispered "Blessed by baptismal grace my immaculate soul clothed in divine light is now worthy to ascend to heaven. I see God, his head enveloped by the nimbus of Sol Invictus".
HOST In Constantine’s last audible expiration God replaced Jupiter but not Sol Invictus, God’s light upon Earth. During his last days Constantine’s illness continued through 7 weeks of the Easter festival, from Easter to Pentecost. He died on Pentecost Sunday 22May337 without any family member at his side. He was 57.
Church and State
It’s interesting to note that during his baptism Constantine the Great knelt while Bishop Eusebius stood over him in the superior position. In exercising his new found power the bishop reigned supreme over the stricken emperor, the Maximus Augustus of the Roman Empire. God was only a tourist in the power struggle between church and state. Constantine was God’s Hercules whose odyssey was to be the first Catholic Christian Emperor and thereby establish Christianism the state religion of the vast Roman Empire. He succeeded in the former but failed in the latter. When he died pagans outnumbered Christians.
Wake and Funeral
When Constantine died Constantius 2 was nearby and received his Will. Unlike pagan emperors whose corpses were cremated, Constantine specified in his Will that his uncremated Christian corpse be entombed. Using exotic techniques learned in Aegyptus, his doctor embalmed Constantine's body. His body was laid in his gold coffin lined and palled with imperial purple. It was wrapped in the pure white garments of a neophyte. His head was nimbused with an eastern gold diadem set with precious stones rather than Roma’s crown of laurel. A cross with the chi-rho monogram was inserted between his crossed hands resting on his chest.
Complying with Constantine’s wishes Constantius 2 assumed command as funeral director. His death was broadcast by couriers throughout the empire, his labara flown at half-mast, games and public spectacles cancelled, baths and markets closed. Like lost sheep soldiers, centurions, and tribunes wept at the death of their Good Shepherd.
Guarded by his battle hardened legions the funeral procession made its way from Nicomedia to Chrysopolis, scene of his great victory over Licinius. Attended by his personal bodyguards the coffin was placed aboard one of his transport vessels, bedecked imperial purple standards and his labara, and escorted by trireme vessels across the Bosporus Straits. Under heavy military guard the coffin was transported to his palace in Constantinople. Lying in state in the great hall of his luxurious palace the coffin was placed upon a dais enclosed by 10 lighted towering gold candelabras, one for each member of his immediate family – his father Constantius, mother Helena, first wife Minerva, son Crispus, second wife Fausta and their 5 children: Constantine 2, Contantius 2, Constans, Constantia, and Helena. The coffin was guarded by his personal and favorite tall blond bodyguards from the northern frontier, the children of barbarians he fought, killed, conquered, resettled, some of whom converted some to Christianism. They kept the vigil day and night, sometimes weeping at the loss of their great general and beneficent emperor. His battle hardened faithful legions proclaimed his sons future Augusti of the Roman Empire.
Leaders and foreign dignitaries worldwide filed past the coffin of the Roman Empire’s greatest emperor since Octavian Augustus. Eastern dignitaries in customary manner fell to their knees in obeisance before the coffin of Constantine the Great. In reverence Christians genuflected and crossed themselves before the coffin. Today Christians still practice that memorial ritual. Ecclesiastics grieved at the loss of their champion, church hero, benefactor, apostolic departed soul, the enemy of paganism and Satan. The Roman Senate insisted Constantine be entombed next to his mother in his family’s mausoleum in Roma. However Constantius 2 carried out the final instructions of his father’s Will for entombment in Constantinople.
Led by Constantius 2 there followed a grand military ceremony attended by his bodyguards and a selected legion in full battle dress. Flown at half-mast were Constantine’s conspicuous labara with cross and chi-rho monogram. The funeral cortege in sepulchral pilgrimage congregated in the Church of the Holy Apostles where Bishop Eusebius of Nicomedia prayed for the repose of Constantine’s departed soul in celebrating the equivalent of a Requiem High Mass.
The coffin was transferred to his mausoleum next to the Church of the Holy Apostles. He was entombed in the raised repository in the middle of 12 monuments, one for each apostle, signifying that Constantine was the 13th apostle. Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea gave the entombment oration with phrases such as:
Constantine rules even in death. He alone proclaimed God throughout the empire. If any deserves eternal life it is he. He was not the Egyptian Phoenix that rises from its own ashes. He was the sprouting seed that sustained the Roman Empire and nourished Christianism. He is with Christ the Savior and Redeemer in the vault of heaven. His likeness had never been seen among the Greeks, Persians, or barbarians. His likeness never again will be seen. Previous emperors were honored as the greatest but he was the only emperor chosen to be Servant of God, External Bishop, and Vicar of Christ.
So great was he that he was honored with multiple titles:
Maximus Augustus (Supreme Emperor)
Constantine the Great
Everlasting Hero of Christians
Emperor-Apostle
Father and Prince of the Church
Father of the Nicene Creed
Founder of Peace
Guardian of the Cross
Imperium in Imperio (Sovereign within Sovereign)
Liberator and Prince of Peace
Proclaimer of God
Savior of Christianity
Uniter of the Roman Empire
Victor Constantius (Champion Constantine)
Delmatius and Hannibalianus his stepnephews and heirs were conspicuously absent from the wake and funeral.
Although Constantine was entombed in Constantinople, Romans still practicing pagan funerary rites, honored him with the ceremony of deification. In memoriam Constantine’s images were cast in coinage with Christian overtones. On one side of those coins he’s shown with eyes toward heaven; on the other side he’s shown in his chariot ascending to heaven with the hand of God extended to greet him. In the end, emperor or slave, pagan or Christian all life expires.
Memento mori, sum quod eris" (Remember you must die, I am what you will be).
Summary
Despite domestic wars Constantine ruled for 31 years (306-337) longer than any emperor except Octavian, the first Augustus, who ruled for 41 years (BC27- 14AD). Constantine ruled over the vast Roman Empire a superpower greater than America. He was a superb military general who, with smaller armies, never lost a war. He was a shrewd politician, effective social reformer, and a charismatic emperor. The first Christian emperor of the Roman Empire he replaced paganism with Christianism making it the state religion
An autocratic emperor he carefully controlled his enormous power over the church, military, and state. There were exceptions to his control – the contentious Roman Senate, Donatists, and Arians. Intolerant of any threat to his autocratic rule, he ordered the execution of potential successors including his son Crispus. He superbly managed political power by manipulating his challengers, such as Maxentius and Licinius, into wars they lost. Obviously some associates must have considered him a bully always barking out orders to be followed exactly as given. Constantine did whatever had to be done to achieve his goals. He strove to control events in order to satisfy his huge ego. Embarked upon an activity he was highly motivated to finish it. To satisfy his father’s prophecy of dynastic succession he committed himself to military power. He was orthodox to an intransigent degree of ultra morality, a Christian ideolog who severely punished venial sexual sins such as adultery.
Constantine was called Great because he greated the empire’s territories, commerce, infrastructure, and religious toleration. Roma’s imperial rule was brutal and beneficent. Its imperial legions conquered foreign territories, made them provinces, and enslaved some of the people. The provinces were exposed to Roman culture. A way of life that normally increased the peoples’ standard of living by its social progress (welfare), individual rights protected by law, and public construction projects. But Roman culture was expensive, made affordable by taxing some people beyond their means to pay. America is following Roma’s footsteps.
Constantine’s Personality
Except for authors and orators, one’s personality should be judged by his behavior more than his words. Constantine’s personality is amply expressed by his behavior.
The supreme commanding general of armies, he lost some battles but never a war. After defeating barbarians he threw their two kings into an amphitheater where they were torn apart and eaten by starving beasts. Other defeated kings were thrown into an arena where gladiators slaughtered them. Having grown weary of war he made peace with his perennial Gothic enemies and Sarmatians. He was excessively susceptible to plots to depose him. On dubious plots to depose him he ordered the execution of his son Crispus, Bassianus, Licinius, and his son Licinianus. When he made Constantinople his new capital, he abandoned Italia and Roma to the invading hordes of northern barbarians. A military mass murderer he became a devout Christian.
Connstantine continued Roma’s welfare program by doling corn/grain, oil, and wine. He sometimes returned tax money to provinces in financial trouble and favored cultural orthodoxy over diversity. He loved his first wife Minervina but divorced her to gain political advantage. Because of his puritanical sexual morality he had his wife Fausta murdered on reports of her dubious adultery. He brutalized abusers and perverters of sexual purity.
As Pontifex Maximus Constantine was the empire’s chief pagan priest. But he converted to Christianism and established it as the empire’s state religion. As God’s agent on earth he suppressed paganism, proselytized for Christianism, nurtured religious orthodoxy, and suppressed religious schisms. He was covetous of territory fighting for every hectare but generous to the church gifting it imperial properties and choice parcels of land.
Accounts of Constantine describe him as a complex personality full of contradictory behavior. That description is likely applicable to most highly motivated persons. If there’s a selfish gene, it’s dominance is probably expressed as an imperial gene. Still going on today among warlords in Africa are genocide and slave trade in the struggle for imperial power.
CONSTANTINE’S CHRISTIAN LEGACY
Constantine the pagan, Maximus Augustus, convert, and 13th apostle put the pagan Roman Empire on the road to Christianism. In 312 ever since Constantine had his revelatory dream, the night before the decisive battle of the Pontis Milvio (Milvian Bridge), the cross and chi-rho monogram have been associated with Christianism. If Constantine had not championed, supported, and proselytized for the Church of Roma would Christianism have survived? If you’re Christian consider the following:
Constantine made Roma the center of Christianism by using his imperial authority to finance the Church of Roma, its papacy, and by building basilicas in and around the city.
Although the Nicene Creed has been modified many times Christians today continue to observe its guiding precepts. If Constantine had not opposed schismatic sects they might have triumphed over the Church of Roma and evolved to a Christianism having doctrines in common with Islam.
Constantine’s imperial authority made it possible for his mother Helena to visit Palestina where she engaged in many charitable acts, had churches built, and popularized it as the Holy Land. If it weren’t for his participation would Christians today still be making pilgrimages to the Holy Land?
In proselytizing for Christianism throughout the empire, Constantine constructed and/or upgraded many churches, notably:
In Antiochia:
Church of the Golden Octagon
Constantinople Area
Church of the Holy Apostles
Church of the Holy Peace
Church of the Holy Power
Church of the Holy Wisdom
Church of the Virgin (Mary)
In Helenopolis:
Church of Saint Lucian (aslo called Church of Martyrs)
In Palestina (in association with Helena his mother):
Church of the Holy Sepulcher (Jerusalem)
Church of the Nativity (Bethlehem)
Church of the Transfiguration (Mamre Oak, Hebron)
Church of the Resurrection (Jerusalem)
Church of the Ascension (Mount of Olives, Jerusalem)
Roma Area:
Basilica of Saint John Lateran
Basilica of Saint Peter
Basilica of Saints Marcellus and Peter
Basilica of Saint Paul
Church of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem
Trèves
Basilica of Augusta Trevorium
(named for his mother Helena, Augusta Imperatrix)
A Matter of Interpretation
Constantine wrote several prayers. Following are two interpretations of his most popular prayer.
You alone we know as God,
You are the King we acknowledge,
You are the Help we summon.
By you we have won our victories,
Through you we have overcome our enemies.
To you we render thanks for the good things past,
You also we hope for as giver of those to come.
To you we all come to supplicate for our Emperor
Constantine and for his God beloved Sons:
That he may be kept safe and victorious for us in long, long life, we plead.
(Life of Constantine, Eusebius of Caesarea, p 160)
O Sole God –
Thee we acknowledge
Thee we honor as our king
Thine aid we implore!
By thy favour, victory has been ours.
Through thee, we have been made stronger than our enemies.
We give thanks to Thee for Thy past benefactions
And put our trust in Thy future blessings.
With one mouth, we pray to Thee
Beseeching Thee long to preserve for us
Safe and Triumphant
Our emperor Constantine and his Pious sons.
(Constantine the Great, John H. Smith, p 247)
Tutelary Christian God
Some historians and scholars accuse Constantine of using the Christian God for his personal benefit. What else is new? God is always used to satisfy one’s personal needs. Constantine used God for victory in war and for establishing Christianism in the Roman Empire. In Germany Luther used God to protest papal corruption, initiate the Protestant Reformation, and establish the Lutheran Church. Henry 8th used God to obtain a divorce, remarry, and establish the Anglican Church from which evolved the Methodist Church.
Today Christian ecclesiastics use their tutelary God’s clay to mold images for sustaining their incumbency. Here are some examples:
Catholics were prohibited from eating meat on Friday (so that God’s apostolic fishermen could sell them fish); today they may.
Catholics were prohibited from cremating their dead; today they may.
Christian women were prohibited from being ordained; today they may.
Christian homosexual ecclesiastics were prohibited from being ordained. In America today homosexual priests may be consecrated bishops.
Unlike previous pagan emperors whose corpses were cremated, Constantine’s Christian body was entombed, a burial tradition Christians still practiced today 2,000 years later. Because of vanishing real estate due to overpopulation, the pope recently declared that Catholics may be cremated.
Ecclesiastics are free to revise religious doctrine because God never said or wrote anything. They assumed God’s power and ascending to the sphere of religious fantasy promise their meek parishioners forgiveness of sins, resurrection, and eternal life in a nonexistent heaven. Religious zealots have established
hundreds of Christian sects. Here are a few: Adventist, Apostolic, Assembly of God, Baptist, Catholic, Congregational, Disciples of Christ, Eastern Orthodox, Evangelical, Lighthouse, Lutheran, Methodist, Mormon, Pentecost, Presbyterian, Unitarian-Universalist. Some of these sects are further divided into subsects. Today to say one is Christian, without sectarian distinction, is merely to declare oneself a follower of Christ. Today disparate Christian sects endure and have segregated God into the personality cults of their zealous founders. TV Evangelists offer gullible Christians charismatic round trip excursions flying the flight path of Jesus, from earth to heaven and back to earth.
The light of a dead star, millions of light years distant, is only now approaching earth to be observed. So it is with Constantine and Christianism almost 2,000 years after his death. If you are Christian, Constantine is your founding father. If it were not for Constantine would Christianism today be a dominant world religion?
You might be worshiping Jupiter, Sol Incivtus, and Venus. Believers in a supernatural power of a god have transited from unknown gods, to Jupiter, to Christian God. Who or what or which god is to be worshiped in the future?
Revelation
In Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance and in the NIV Exhaustive Concordance the words Christ and Christian are found only in the New Testament. In both those concordances the word Trinity is neither in the Old Testament nor New Testament. To account for the divinity of Trinity bishops applied Manichean duality to justify the Father and Son. To account for the Son’s birth on earth they created the Holy Spirit for the incarnation of the Jesus homunculus in the Virgin Mary. Jesus’ appearance on earth extended Manichean duality to Christian triality, the Trinity – God the Father, the Son of God, and Holy Spirit. Keep in mind the following (a) Trinity was conceived by early Christian ecclesiastics to explain the incarnation of the Virgin Mary for birthing Jesus the Son of God and (b) religion is man made and revised whenever it pleases the religion makers.
Today Christians continue to believe in the mystery of Trinity (Mysterium Fidei). In accepting Mysterium Fidei rational Christians abandon their intellect for religious faith. Let it be known that Christianism is a fantastic vestment cut from the whole cloth of religious fabrication. Religion molds superstition into the virtual reality of devotion. Eventually Christianism and all religions will expire because of their missense, superstition, and inherent fallibility. Ever since Constantine’s conversion Christianism was the Roman Empire’s state religion, except for the brief rule of Emperor Julian, the apostate and last pagan emperor.
Sainthood
Sainthood is bestowed by Christians ecclesiastics upon persons of exceptional holiness. Canonization is the Christian process by which ecclesiastics arbitrarily decide which deceased persons were holy enough to be exalted to sainthood. In this process ecclesiastics apply personal preferences in reaching their decisions. One of the requirements for sainthood is that candidates had to perform miracles. To believe that pagan gods performed miracles is to insert oneself into the mindset of ancient pagans. The claim that Jesus performed miracles requires one to have blind faith in the Gospels. But to believe that candidates for sainthood performed miracles is to assail one’s intelligence to the exclusion of anthropology.
Saint Constantine?
Constantine is revered a saint in the Middle East but not by the Church of Roma. If anyone deserved to be canonized a saint it was Constantine. He made the papacy wealthy beyond all expectation and the most powerful religious power in the Roman Empire. He built churches throughout the empire, exempted the church from taxation, convened councils to define church doctrine and protected it from annulment by public magistrates, made sainthood possible by instituting administrative and hierarchical procedures for the Church of Roma.
In wars Constantine was responsible for killing thousands but so did Saint Joan of Arc the transvestite woman warrior. She led French soldiers against the occupying British killing them in the Loire Valley and at Orléans. But the evil Constantine also had his son and wife murdered. Were these murders the reason why the Church of Roma never canonized Constantine? My guess is that the Church of Roma was peeved because he was not baptized by a Catholic Christian bishop. He was baptized by Bishop Eusebius an Arian Christian. The self-serving spiteful Church of Roma fawned over his beneficence in the name of God but did not extend to him its forgiveness with sainthood, even though it forgave traditores who denied their Catholic faith. Old disputes do not die or fade away; they linger for centuries creating problems for posterity.
Saint Helena and Saint Athanasius
Constantine’s mother Helena and Bishop Athanasius were canonized. Helena was made patron saint of converts to Christianism and to divorced Christians, even though she was never married. Athanasius was made a saint because he championed orthodox Catholicism. He was one of the Doctors of the Church of Roma, even though he persecuted Arians and destroyed their churches.
Roma’s Legacy
Lactantius prophesied that Roma was founded by the bestial violence of the She-Wolf and would fall by the same means. The prophesied destiny of Roma for superpower status was attained despite the madness and internecine murders by some of its emperors.
In 455 barbarian hordes swept down the boot of Italia encountering little resistance from tens of thousands of their welcoming kinsmen – Alemanni, Franks, Goths – who immigrated or resettled there. When Roma fell the barbarian Odoacer he was proclaimed king of Italy (476). What didn’t fall was Roma’s cultural legacy – governmental administrative procedures, language, its body of law applied in civil and criminal courts, engineering achievements, public buildings, baths, roads, business of commerce and trade, etc. In its time the Roman Empire’s superpower was greater than that of America. Like it or not, agree or not, our western culture evolved from the culture of Imperial Roma.
Roma’s legacy, inherited by Europe, was transported to America. But America is repeating Roma’s mistakes such as indiscriminate welfare, big government, high taxes, getting sucked into foreign conflicts, immigration to the point of surfeit and overpopulation. Today 2,000 years later there are backward nations not yet advanced to the cultural effectiveness of Roma’s legacy.
Christian Asceticism and Islam
The Donatist schism endured in North Africa and the East until the 5th century. During Constantine’s reign shismatic Christian sects in the East practiced
asceticism by subjugating the flesh and cultivating poverty. Those mortifying rituals were carried over to Islam.
In his youth the Arab Muhammad traveled to Syria where he met the Christian monk Bahira. Muhammad was impressed with the mortification rituals of Christians. He also noted that Jews and Christians had sacred books (Bible). Arabs had no sacred book. The archangel Gabriel was God’s messenger to Jews and Christians. Before 630 Gabriel also appeared to Muhammad and revealed to him God’s message – submission to the will of God, mortifying the self by subjugating the flesh, and cultivating poverty. His prophecies became the scriptures of the Koran and founded Islam. But Muhammad led his army against the perceived enemies of Islam killing thousands. In 630 he marched against Mecca, slaughtered thousands, and conquered it to established Islam as the new religion of Arabia. Islam is a religion founded upon war.
Today almost 2,000 years later subjugating the flesh and cultivating poverty is still practiced by Muslims. In the Middle East and elsewhere Islam remains a source of conflict with prosperous religions, such as Judaism and Christianism, which have a higher standard of living than Muslims.
Dynastic Succession
In his attempt to assure dynastic succession Constantine named 5 joint emperors in his Will.
His elaborate succession plan probably collapsed when Delmatius and Hannibalianus failed to attend his funeral. After Constantine’s entombment, his sons delayed the inauguration of their titles and concomitant official duties. The delay was purposefully intended to provide time for them to plan their Roman style blood bath, the execution of all appointed or presumptive male heirs.
To assure the dynastic succession Constantius 2 ignored his father’s Will by ordering the murder of all the male ascendants of Constantius and Theodaora (his grandfather and grandmother). By not attending Constantine’s wake or funeral, Delmatius and Hannibalianus were the first to be murdered because they showed contempt for their uncle. Other cousins, such as Gallus and Julian, were spared because they were too young to interfere with the succession plan. Constantine’s three sons publicly declared they were innocent of the murders and were officially installed as joint emperors. Thereafter the three joint emperors met in Illyricum to settle among themselves the division of the vast Roman Empire:
Constantine 2 the first son was named Emperor of West (337-340) to rule over Britannia, Gallia, and Hispania. He was Catholic.
Constatius 2 the second son was named Emperor of East (337-361) to rule from Constantinople. He was Arian Christian as were Fausta his mother and Helena his grandmother.
Constans the third son was named Emperor of West (337-350) to rule over Italia, North Africa, and Illyricum. He was Catholic.
There must have been distrust not only of nephews but also among brothers. Constantine’s Will intended to be a peaceful plan for ruling the empire continued instead the internecine struggle for power.
Recapitulation
337
Constantine banished Athanasius to Trèves. He was forgiven by Constans
and allowed to return to Constantinople.
338
Constantine died before marching against the Persians. Thereafter King
Shapur 2 conquered Roman provinces from Persia to the Sea of Marmara
(between Europe and Turkey).
339
After Constantine’s death Eusebius of Caesarea became his biographer. He
wrote the Life of Constantine and In Praise of Constantine. Eusebius
extolled Constantine as the emperor whose destined rule was to end
paganism for the fulfillment of Christianism. Eusebius died in 339.
Constantius 2 appointed Eusebius of Nicomedia the Bishop of Constantinople. Eusebius became his mentor.
Ariansist Christians attacked Athanasius who fled to Roma for protection.
340
Orthodox Christians in the West established Catholicism under
jurisdiction of the Bishop of Roma, a pope, with the Church of Saint
Peter the symbol of Roman Catholicism.
Overwhelmed by visions of becoming supreme emperor of the empire Constans, Emperor of West (337-340), tried to annex Italia where Constantine 2 ruled. The two brothers quarreled continuing the sanguinary treacheries of ruling the empire. In the ensuing battle for Italia Constans killed Constantine 2 nullifying Constantine’s plan for joint rule by his sons. Constans annexed Britannia, Gallia, and Hispania. Thereafter the Roman Empire was divided between Constans who ruled the West from Roma and Constantius 2 who ruled the East from Constantinople.
342
Constans visited Britannia, the last Roman Emperor to do so.
343
The Council of Sardica declared that a deposed bishop could appeal to
the pope, Bishop of Roma, for a new trial. Eastern bishops disagreed
with the appeal process and quit the council. This widened the gap
between eastern and western Christianism still evident today 2,000 years
later.
346
Constans threatened to attack Constantius 2 unless he fully pardoned
Athanasius allowing him to return to Alexandria, which he did.
350
Constans was killed by the usurper Magnentius who became Emperor of the
West.
353
Constantius 2 defeated and killed Magnentius to become supreme emperor
of the vast Roman Empire as had his father.
355
Constantius 2 defeated the barbarian hordes invading Gallia, the Danube
and Rhine frontiers, and Mesopotamia.
Constantius 2 appointed his cousin Julian (331-363) a Caesar to rule in Gallia and Britannia. Julian was born in Constantinople. Recall that Constantius 2 and his brothers had Julian’s father and male cousins executed to eliminate any potential heir to the emperorship. Becasue he was only a boy of 6, Julian was spared during the bloodbath. An orphan he was raised by the killers of his father and male cousins. Well educated Julian was fluent in Latin and Greek. Greatly influenced by paganism he repudiated Christianism becoming apostate. His repudiation might have evolved from his renunciation of uncle Constantine, who converted the empire from paganism to Christianism, and of Christian Constantius 2 involved in the murders of his father and male cousins.
357
Julian defeated the Franks and Alemanni on the Rhine frontier.
360
In 360 Constantius 2, emperor of East, tried to conscript the best of
Julian’s legions in preparation for war against Persia.
361
Julian’s legions rebelled against being conscripted by Constantius 2 and
proclaimed Julian emperor. Constantius 2 voided the field promotion and
marched against Julian but on the way suddenly died. He was entombed in
Constantinople next to his father. Constantius 2 gave the East 24 years
of peaceful coexistence with the West. An Arian Christian he tried to
unify the Church under Arianism. In doing so he persecuted Catholics and
passed laws against paganism. Like his father he was generous to his
friends, including Arian clergy and churches, and cruel to his enemies.
Of the three sons he was most like his father.
In Constantinople the emperor Julian issued edicts tolerating paganism, reviving and restoring it to its former glory. He was devoted to the pagan gods of Greece and Roma to such an extent that he integrated their worship into his government. Pagans elevated him to hero status and spiritual leader. His writings extolled paganism and its practices including ritual prostitution in Temples of Venus. He was intolerant of Christians and persecuted them, especially those who defiled pagan temples and places of pagan worship (such as the grove of Daphne whose laurel leaves crowned Roman emperors). Julian replaced the 3 Gods of Trinity with his multiple pagan gods.
363
Julian was born in Constantinople the first Christian capital of the
Roman Empire. It’s ironic that the nephew of the first Christian emperor
renounced Christianity. He was the Roman Empire’s last pagan emperor and
died in Persia in 363.
410
The Goths swept down through Gallia and Italia demolishing Roma’s great
infrastructure – aqueducts, bridges, buildings, roads, planned
landscape. In 416 returning from Roma to Gallia the poet Rutilius
Namatianus wept at the ubiquitous desolation. Moved to tears he wrote:
Hear, loveliest Queen of all the world, thy world,
O Rome, translated to the starry skies!
Hear, Mother of Men, and Mother of Gods!
We, through thy temples, dwell not far from heaven.
Thee sing we, and, long as Fate allows, will sing;
None can forget thee while he lives and breathes….
Far as the habitable climes extend
Toward either pole thy valour finds its path.
Thoud hast made of alien realms one fatherland;
The lawless found their gain beneath thy sway;
Sharing thy laws with them thou hast subdued,
Thou hast made a city of the once wide world.
(The Mask of Jove, Stringfellow Barr, pp 529-530)
End of Book