Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 05.djvu/380

* CONSTANTINE. 322 CONSTANTINE I. and Cirta by the Roiimns, was a royal resi- dence. It was destroyed in the wars of !Max- entius against Alexander, about a.d. 311, but was soon rebuilt by Constantine the Great, from whom it derives its present name. It was a Jlourisliing town in the twelfth century, its com- mereial relations extending to Venice, Genoa, and I'isa. Subse(|uently it shared in general the fortunes of Algeria. The French captured it by assault, after a long siege, in 1837. Population, in 1901, 48,911, including 15,096 French resi- dents. CONSTANTINE. The name of two popes. — Constantine I. (Pope 708-15). His pontificate was marked by the submission of Felix, Arch- bisliop of Ravenna, to the supremacy of Rome, and by his voyage to Constantinople, at the in- vitation of .Justinian II., to confirm the decrees of the Quinisextan Council, which his immediate predecessor had refused to do. — Con'STAjjtine II. (Pope 707-08). He was forced into the see by his brother, Duke Toto of Nepi, but within a few months was overthrown and blinded liy an oppos- ing faction, his deposition being solemnly con- firmed b_y the Lateran Synod of 769, which laid down the rule that the Pope must be chosen from the College of Cardinals. CONSTANTINE I., Flavius VALERirs Au- EEi.ius CoNSTANTi.N'US, suniamed "the Great.' A Roman Emperor (a.d. 306-337). He was born soon after a.d. 270, at Xaissus, in lloesia. He was the eldest son of Constantius Chlorus, and first distinguished himself by his military talents under Diocletian, in that monarch's famous Egyptian expedition (206) ; subsequently he served under Galerius in the Persian War. In ."05 the two emperors, Diocletian and JIaximian, abdicated, and were succeeded by Constantius Chlorus and Galerius. Galerius, who could not endure the brilliant and energetic genius of Con- stantine, took every means of expo.sing him to danger, and it is believed that this was the period when he acquired that mixture of reserve, cunning, and wisdom which was so conspicuous in his conduct in after years. At last Constan- tine fled to his father, who ruled in the West, and joined him at Boulogne just as he was set- ling out on an expedition against the Piets in North Britain. Constantitis died at York, .July 25, 306, having proclaimed his son Constantine his successor. The latter now wrote a concilia- tory letter to Galerius, and requested to be acknowledged as Augustus. Galerius did not dare to quarrel with Constantine, yet he granted him the title of Caesar only. Political complica- tions now increased, and in a sliort time no fe«er than six emperors were 'in the field' — viz.: Ga- lerius, Licinius, and Maximin in the East, and Maximian. JIaxentius (his son), and Constan- tine in the West (a.d. 308). Maxentius, having quarreled with his father, forced him to flee from Rome. He took refuge with Constantine, but was imgrateful enough to plot the destruc- tion of his benefactor. This licing discovered, he fled to ^Marseilles, the inhabitants of which city gave him up to Constantine, who put him to death (a.d. 309). Maxentius professed great anger at the death of his father, and assembled a large army, with which he threatened Gaul. Crossing the Alps by Mont Cenis. Constantine thrice defeated IMaxentius — first near Turin, then under the walls of Verona, and finally near the Milvian Bridge at Rome, October 27, 312, Maxentius himself, in the last of these engage- ments, being drowned in an attem])t to escape .across the Tiber. It was during tliis campaign that he was said to have had the apparition in Ihe sky of a luminous cross with the words Hoo signo vinces, ''by this sign shalt thou conquer," as the contemporary historians Euseliius and Lactantius record. Constantine now entered the capital, disbanded the pnctorians. and adopted other judicious measures for allaying the public excitement. He was honored with the title of Pontifex ilaximus, or supreme dignitiuy of the pagan hierarchy. Constantine was now sole Emperor of the West. Similarly, by the death of Galerius in 311 and of Maximin in 313, Licinius became sole Emperor of the East. In 314 a war broke out between the two rulers, in which Licinius was worsted and was fain to conclude a peace by the cession of Illyrieum, Pannonia, and (rreece. Con- stantine gave Licinius his sister Constantia in marriage, and for the next nine years devoted himself vigorously to the correction of abvises in the administration of the laws, to the strengthen- ing of the frontiers, and to chastising the bar- Ijarians, who learned to fear and respect his power. In 323 war was renewed with Licinius, who was defeated and ultimately put to death. Constantine was now at the sununit of his am- bitions — the sole governor of the Roman world ; but Rome was no longer the political or geo- graphical centre of this world, and he determined to move the capital to Byzantium, w'aich he sol- cnmly inaugurated in 330 under the name of Constant inopolis. the City of Constantine. From here he ruled his vast empire until his death, which occurred ilay 27. 337. From the reign of Constantine. Christianity was not only recog- nized and tolerated, but became the religion of the rulers themselves. As to Constantine's per- sonal feeling in the question of Christianity and paganism much has ijeen written. By birth and education he was much inclined toward the grow- ing faith; his mother was a Christian, and his father Constantius. though a ])agan, was veiy tolerant, and would allow no direct acts of vio- lence in his part of the Roman domain during the great persecution of 303. Constantine was by nature mild and kind-hearted: his legislation was governed by humane principles. He abol- ished the system of branding the faces of con- victs; ordained that masters who killed their slaves were guilty of homicide, and published an edict of toleration which insured liberty of con- science throughout the Empire. The Christians were as yet but a minority of the whole popula- tion, but the Emperor openly sympathized with them and did not hesitate, upon occasion, to in- sult the pagans. Yet his Christianity was not deep-seated, though doubtless quite sincere as far as it went. He looked u]ion his overthrow of ^laxentius as due to the help of God. instinctu rliriiiitatis, as the inscription on his arch in Rome (see Constantine, Abch of), built in 315, shows; but the very form of expression displays a concession to pagan sensibilities that a rigorous Christian of the period would not have made. He retained the traditional pagan title of Ponti- fex IMaximus. as did his Christian successors of the fourth century, and his coins still bear the figures and names of the old gods. In the Arian controversy he sided with the Catholic bishops.