314-339 CE (Superpowers)

Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus was heir apparent on Benedictus' death in 324 CE, and became the Emperor Constantine I following a suspiciously private crowning assembly. Though many rumors persisted about the event, later historians have agreed that it was most likely attended by a majority from the Senate, and perhaps, even by the Christian Pope of the day, Sylvester I. Ceremonies aside, Constantine entered the position with quite a lot on his plate, with the Empire having not quite recovered from the economic crisis that began the century, and with the national debt still at a rather unpleasant level. Still, the Emperor can not really be pegged as a frugal, or ambitious leader, just a leader, though whilst his financial views themselves were rather neutral, his capability in playing them out was unquestionably efficient. Few Emperors before or since have had such an understanding of the handling of armies, a trait he not only gained from his father, but also learned by himself and under the tutelage of prominent military commanders, such as the General George of Nicomedia.

Civil Events
Aside from the usual government job of repairing existing infrastructure, Constantine engaged in virtually no civil projects for nearly the entire early part of his reign. A disproportionate amount of government income was being put to the use of paying the national debt, a case which had been neglected for several decades already. The only thing of note, in those early years, were his propensity for bathhouses. Already in his golden years, the old Emperor enjoyed nothing more than to meditate in any of his nation's many baths, of which he built over 20 of them. This included the Baths of Constantine in Rome, the largest of the Empire at the time.

His turning point would come in 329 CE, when the equestrians were pushing for an increase in rights for Christians, especially to make up for the comparatively "harsher" treatment of Christian beliefs from the last Roman emperor. Were it only for this, the Emperor would have taken no action because the risk of upsetting the Pagan poor would be too great. However, the government estimates grossly missed the percentage of Christians in the Empire, believing it to be somewhere around 20-30%. In reality, around 53-54% of the Empire's total population was under the Christian faith, mostly in relation to the Pope, but with a good portion professing beliefs in more heretical ideas.

Even more, the ideas of Christianity had taken a firm hold within the upper classes of society, senators and equestrians alike. This demographic reality stemmed from an enormous amount of reasons, from the few but extreme cases of Christian martyrdom, to the zen-like profoundness people found in its biblical teachings, Christianity was something that appealed to the intellectuals of society whose latest theories in the sciences of biology and physics were seeming to point heavily away from the world of warring Gods and nature spirits and more to some kind of complex universe expressing a fascinating uniformity. In another time, atheism would have perhaps been the result of this shift, but with Christianity already on the rise, and it being so vastly different from the old beliefs, it was primed to pick up the slack from the growing number of Roman disbelievers. Furthermore, many of the staunch polytheists were already gravitating towards the Imperial Cult of Emperor worship, something which was seeming not so farfetched with the last emperor living to as old as 76. This made the switch to Christian beliefs even easier for many people.

And so it was in 330 CE that Constantine issued the Edict of Milan, expressing state recognition of the Christian religion as the one true belief system of the Roman Empire. Though this met with opposition by the few remaining Roman polytheists, believers in other religious saw this as just an inconsequential difference to them, and with full support from the heavily Christian Senate, overall unrest from the reform was largely unnoticeable. With the decrease in unrest from Christians, it can even be said that the act decreased unrest within the Empire by a noticeable margin.

From here, the Emperor's intentions became far more obvious to the public at large. Old Roman temples were being converted all the time to churches, the money of the polytheistic priests being largely taken by the government as a "conversion payment". Though there were several rebellions against these measures in still polytheistic places like Britannia, the change was still considered a smooth shift. Several large Cathedrals and Christian Basilicas were also constructed from scratch, in particular were the Basilica of St. Peter in Rome and the Church of the Holy Sepulcre in Jerusalem.

The profits being made from the christianization of Roman temples were seen at the time as the answer to the government's financial problems. Constantine however, had other plans. He had the profits saved and invested carefully to use in his grandest imperial project, the creation of a new religious and financial capital for the Empire. Some believed he had in mind to actually replace Rome with his Constantinopolis, but since he died before it was completed, no one would ever know the truth of this matter.

Still, since most of his design plans for the city were completed already, its construction, started in 335 CE, continued until its official inauguration in 347. Built over the old Greek colony of Byzantium, it was located in the perfect place to exert control over virtually all imperial commerce as well as the funding of armies along the Eastern Frontiers. Furthermore, the awe-inspiring Cathedral of Saint George in the city's square, the Augustaeum, sets the tone for the religious scene of the city.

His major civil act, after the Edict of Milan, was the holding of the First Council of Jerusalem, a religious council of all Christian leaders hoping to firmly determine the true dogma, from the heresy. Occurring in 333 CE, the Council's decisions were one of the greatest defining moments of the Christian religion, and therefore, of the Roman Empire, if not the world. Aside from the obvious effects stemming from each decision, the now stabilized nature of Christian teaching would cause a gradual decrease in heretical offshoots of Christianity, at least in the Empire itself anyways.

Back to Timeline or Superpowers

Also see Geopolitics