° ñEmperor Constantine made Christianity the religion of the empire and founded the city of Constantinople.ñ
Constantine (c. AD 274-337) was the son of Constantius (c. AD 250-306), one of the four rulers of the Roman Empire in Diocletian's tetrarchy (AD 292-305). By the time Constantius died in AD 306, he was joint emperor with Galerius. Constantine was proclaimed his father's successor by the army at York, in northern England. Six years later, in AD 312, he defeated Maxentius, his rival for power in the western Empire, at the battle of the Milvian Bridge. Constantine attributed this crucial victory to the support of the Christian God, and began to favour the Christian religion above any other in his empire.
In AD 324, Constantine defeated Licinius, head of the Roman Empire in the East. This made him sole ruler of the entire empire, stretching from the Middle East to the Atlantic. After this victory, Constantine founded a new imperial capital: Constantinople. The new city was built on the site of Byzantium, a Greek town on the Bosporus, the straits that divide Europe from Asia. Sited midway between the Eastern and Western worlds, Constantinople was the ideal capital for ruling the whole extent of the empire. It quickly became a second Rome. Constantine made Christianity the most favoured and privileged religion in the Roman Empire. Apart from Emperor Julian (AD 332-363), known as the "Apostate", all of Constantine's successors were Christians. In AD 391, Emperor Theodosius I (AD c.346-395) ordered the closure of all non-Christian temples and banned all non-Christian rites and rituals throughout the empire.
~Division and decline~
The building of Constantinople and the adoption of Christianity as the official religion did not solve the political and economic problems of the Roman Empire. Divisions remained acute and often violent. Christians persecuted "heretics" - fellow Christians who differed on minor points of dogma. Rival contenders for the imperial throne frequently fought one another for supreme power. Rome itself was increasingly neglected. Fully occupied in defending the provinces, emperors rarely, if ever, visited the city. They resided in Milan, Thessalonica, Nicomedia, Treves, or Antioch. Constantinople became the capital of the empire in the East as Rome was capital of the empire in the West. By the end of the fourth century, relations between the East and West of the empire had deteriorated. The two worlds failed to form a common front as the threat of Barbarian invasions mounted once more. u ) ···
