04 — The Christian Emperor

Constantine’s use of imperial power on behalf of the Church, and the darkest deed of his reign. This section treats the so-called Edict of Milan (313), the flood of pro-Christian legislation and church-building that followed, and the founding of Constantinople as New Rome in 330 — and then faces plainly the executions of his son Crispus and his wife Fausta in 326, the chapter the sources least explain and Eusebius wholly omits.

Tradition: Pan-Orthodox

Here the emperor’s public acts and his private crimes stand side by side, and the collection holds them together as it holds together the sanctity and the statecraft of every ruler-saint (the model is St. David the Builder: A King and a Saint). The first file follows the transformation of the Church’s legal and physical condition and the birth of the Christian capital; the second names the dynastic killings of 326 without softening them, sets the hostile and the silent sources against each other, and reports the interpretations both-sides, per METHODOLOGY §4.2.

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File Description
milan-legislation-and-new-rome.md The 313 settlement (properly a letter/protocol with Licinius, not an “edict”); restitution of property; pro-Christian and moral legislation; church-building at Rome and Jerusalem; the founding and dedication of Constantinople (330).
crispus-and-fausta.md The executions of 326: Crispus at Pola, Fausta in the overheated bath; the hostile testimony of Zosimus and Zonaras, the total silence of Eusebius, and the interpretations, reported both-sides and left unadjudicated.

See Also