Dates

• 272/3 Constantine born
  305 Constantius (father) becomes augustus
• 306 Constantius dies at York
• 311 Galerius issues decree of tolerance and dies
• 306/7 Maxentius (son of Maximian) usurps power at Rome
  Maximian returns to power, gives Constantine the title augustus, and his daughter Fausta in marriage
  308 Maxentius and Maximian quarrel. Maximian flees to Constantine.
  Demetrius Alexander, vicar of Africa, is proclaimed augustus by his troops
  Galerius calls conference at Carnuntum in Pannonia
  Maximian is persuaded to abdicate again
  (309/310) Galerius appoints a second augustus, Licinius, and eventually recognises Constantine as augustus
  310 Maximian tries to usurp power again, but is unsuccessful and flees to Marseilles where he is forced to commit suicide / or was executed
  311 Galerius dies, calling off the persecution of the Christians
  Maxentius and Maximin (Galerius' nephew) become allies
  Licinius and Constantine become allies
• 312 Battle of Milvian Bridge ; Constantine
• 313 Constantine meets Licinius in Milan, and Licinius marries Constantine's sister, Constantia
• Edict of Milan
• Revolt of Maximin - defeated by Licinius
  316 preliminary clash between Constantine and Licinius
  317 Crispus and Constantine II (Constantine's sons) and Licinius II (Licinius' son) become caesars
• 324 Constantine defeats Licinius
• Constantius II (only a boy) becomes caesar in charge of Gaul
• Work starts on Constantinople
• 325 First Oecumenical Council meets at Nicaea
• 326 Mint at Constantinople established
  Constantine visits Rome to celebrate his 20th anniversary
• Execution of Crispus and of Fausta
• 327 onwards: building in Holy Land
• 330, 11th May Constantinople inaugurated

  332 Constantine II defeats the Goths on the Danube with the help of the Sarmatians

• 333 Constans (Constantine's youngest son) becomes a caesar
  334 Sarmatians are forced to seek sanctuary in the empire; more than 300,000 settle within the empire
  335 Dalmatius (Constantine's nephew) becomes a caesar

• Inauguration of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem

• 337 Constantine dies: Constantine II , Constans and Constantius II

Constantine

Works:

'The oration to the Saints' - translation and commentary by M. Edwards, Constantine and Christendom (Liverpool, TTH, 2003)

Legal rulings in the Codex Theodosianus (trans. Pharr)

Rescripts in the Life of Constantine:see
B. H. Warmington, 'The sources of some Constantinian documents in Eusebius' Eccesiastical History and Life of Constantine' Studia Patristica XVIII (Kalmazoo, 1985)

- 'Eusebius of Caesarea's versions of Constantine's Laws in the Codex' in Studia Patristica XXIV (Leuven, 1993), 201-7

Coins: P. Bruun, Roman Imperial Coinage 7, Constantine and Licinius (London, 1966)
- Studies in Constantinian Numismatics: papers from 1954 to 1988 (Rome, 1991)

Sources

See B. Bleckmann, 'Sources for the reign of Constantine', in Lenski ed. The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Constantine, 14-34

Eusebius
Lactantius
Eutropius, Breviarium. Ab urbe condita, trans. H. W. Bird (Liverpool, TTH, 1993) and online
Aurelius Victor, Liber de Caesaribus, trans. H. W. Bird (Liverpool, TTH, 1994) and Epitome online
Zosimus, New History (the pagan viewpoint) trans. R. Ridley, (Melbourne, 1982) 1814 translation online
A. D. Lee, Pagans and Christians in late antiquity: a sourcebook (London, 2000)

Discussions
• J. Burckhardt, The Age of Constantine the Great (1852, translated 1960)
• C.B. Coleman, Constantine the Great and Christianity (New York, 1914, reprinted 1968)
• Norman H. Baynes, “Constantine and the Christian Church” Proceedings of the British Academy 15 (1929) 341-442. ( revised 1972)
• A. H. M. Jones, Constantine and the conversion of Europe (London 1948, revised 1962)
A. Alföldi, translated by H. Mattingly, The Conversion of Constantine and Pagan Rome (Oxford, 1948)
• H. Dörries, Constantine the Great (1954, translated Bainton, New York, 1972)
• Alistair Kee, Constantine versus Christ(London, 1962)
  Ramsay MacMullen, Constantine (New York, 1969)
• P. Keresztes, Constantine: A great Christian monarch and Apostle (Amsterdam, 1981)
• T. D. Barnes, Constantine and Eusebius (Harvard 1981): review by A. Cameron, JRS (JSTOR) 73 (1983), 184-90; review by H.A. Drake, American Journal of Philology 103 (1983), 462-6
• - The New Empire of Diocletian and Constantine (Harvard, 2002)
• - many articles, most collected in
• - Early Christianity and the Roman Empire (London, 1984)
• -From Eusebius to Augustine, selected papers 1982-1993 (Aldershot, 1994)
• D. Wright, 'The true face of Constantine the Great', DOP 41 (1987), 493-507
• Diana Bowder, Diocletian and Constantine
• H. A. Pohlsander, The Emperor Constantine (London, 1996, 2nd ed. 2004): review BMCR 97.12.07
•  T.G. Elliott, The Christianity of Constantine the Great (Scranton, PA , 1996)
• R. R. R. Smith, 'The public image of Licinius I: portrait sculpture and imperial ideology in the early fourth century', JRS 87 (1997), 170-202
• M. Wallraff, 'Constantine's devotion to the Sun after 324', Studia Patristica XXXIv (Leuven, 2001), 256-69
• S. N. C. Lieu and D. Montserrat edd., Constantine, History, Historiography and Legend (London, 1998)
• H. A. Drake, Constantine and the Bishops: the politics of intolerance (Baltimore, 1999)
• Elizabeth DePalma Digeser, The making of a Christian empire : Lactantius & Rome (Cornell, 2000)
• P. Weiss (trans. A. Birley), 'The Vision of Constantine', JRA 16 (2003), 237-59.
• C. M. Odahl, Constantine and the Christian empire (London, 2004)
• R. Ross Holloway, Constantine and Rome (Yale, 2004).
• A.K. Bowman, A. Cameron and P. Garnsey edd., The Crisis of Empire, A.D. 193-337, Volume XII of the Cambridge Ancient History, second edition (Cambridge, 2005)
• Noel Lenski ed. The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Constantine (Cambridge, 2006)
• Constantine the Great : York's Roman emperor, edd. E. Hartley, J. Hawkes, M. Henig (York, 2006)
• Cambridge History of Christianity II: Constantine to c. 600 edd. A. Casiday and F. W. Norris (Cambridge, 2007)
• Raymond Van Dam, The Roman Revolution of Constantine (Cambridge, 2008)
• Jeremy Schott, Christianity, empire, and the making of religion in late antiquity (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008)
  

   

Page updated November 2, 2009