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PersonAD 272 – AD 337

Constantine the Great

Also called: Constantine I

Roman emperor (r. 306–337) who legalised Christianity with the Edict of Milan (313), called the Council of Nicaea and moved the capital to Constantinople

Son of Constantius, a junior emperor of the Tetrarchy, he was proclaimed emperor by the army in Britain in 306. He defeated Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge in 312 to win the west, and overcame Licinius in 324 to rule the whole empire again. He stabilised the currency with the gold solidus and bound tenant farmers (coloni) to the land to secure taxes. In 330 he moved the capital to Constantinople, shifting the empire’s centre to the east. He was baptised shortly before his death.

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1 related event

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    AD 313 – AD 325Christianity Legalised: the Edict of Milan and the Council of Nicaeamonarch

    In 313 Emperor Constantine legalised Christianity with the Edict of Milan, and in 325 he convened the Council of Nicaea, which made the position of Athanasius orthodox.

Themes this person appears in

  • Greece and Rome2000 BC – AD 476

    From the Aegean civilisation to the fall of the Western Roman Empire — the classical civilisation built by the democracy of the polis and the Roman republic and empire