Constantine the Great: Rise and Reforms

This assignment examines the life and reign of Emperor Constantine I, focusing on his rise to power, religious reforms, military strategies, and lasting legacy. It details his battles against rivals like Maxentius and Licinius, his establishment of Christianity as the official religion, and the founding of Constantinople as the new capital. The text also analyzes Constantine's administrative reforms, including the division of the army into limitanei and comitatenses, and their impact on the Roman Empire's stability and growth.

Running head: CONSTANTINE THE GREAT
CONSTANTINE THE GREAT
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Author Note:

1CONSTANTINE THE GREAT
Constantine the first was the Roman emperor who ruled Rome in early fourth century.
He was the first emperor who saw his empire to emerge as a Christian state. Before becoming
the emperor, he fought alongside with his father against Britain. After his father’s death he
was declared to be the emperor by his troops (Beeler et al.). Constantine began to fight to
strengthen and make his designation official, he began to fight for power thus the civil war
started. He fought against different Roman divisions including that of Maxentius’. Accounts
of the emperor’s life state that he met the forces of Maxentius on the Tiber river and ordered
to paint the Christian symbol on the shields of his army (Woods). According to the accounts,
Constantine believed Christianity to be his strength therefore he conquered the Bartle and
entered Rome. Through this battle, Constantine became the emperor of the western part of
Rome. During 324, he tried his strength in the battle against Licinius, the only eastern Roman
emperor. After defeating him, Constantine reunited the entire empire of Rome. He founded
the city of Constantinople as the capital of Rome.
After securing his designation, Constantine focused on the administration by bringing
some very important changes in his state. He introduced two major reforms in both the
military as well as political spheres. The time was marked by the incursions of the barbarians
in the poorly secured places near Rhine and Danube rivers. The Romans therefore followed
the strategy of forward defence to actively assault the powers of the barbarians (Ahangar et
al.). Now Constantine brought new military reforms in his policy that reduced military
importance to the military importance of the border provinces and increased significance on
transporting as well as maintaining the Roman masses in the major urban centres. He brought
two-point division in the military. He employed a portion of his army in the frontier
provinces termed as limitanei and others in the main field armies known as comitatenses.
The policy was to defend the barbarian tribes initially until the heavy force arrive.

2CONSTANTINE THE GREAT
Another reform that Constantine introduced in his reign focused on the religious
decision making procedure. He organized a council of Christian bishops that began to make
the chief decisions on the directions of the church (Odahl). The key resolutions of this council
of Nicaea was to agree to a contract on the matter of divinity of Jesus which was one of the
divisive issues in the early churches. This reform ended the confusion regarding Jesus’s
existence as a divine figure or a human being. The reformation also established a particular
day for celebration ending the reliance on the Jewish calendar.
The age of Constantine is marked by the enormous growth in the military and political
power of the Roman empire. His capital Constantinople remained the centre of political force
for more than thousand years. His more important political legacy was that Constantine
replaced tetrarchy of Diocletian with the norm of dynastic succession.

3CONSTANTINE THE GREAT
References:
Ahangar, H. Abdollahzadeh, et al. "Signed Roman domination in graphs." Journal of
Combinatorial Optimization 27.2 (2014): 241-255.
Beeler, Robert A., Teresa W. Haynes, and Stephen T. Hedetniemi. "Double Roman
domination." Discrete Applied Mathematics 211 (2016): 23-29.
Odahl, Charles Matson. "Constantine and God: Imperial Theocracy for the Christian Divinity
in the First Christian Emperor's Beliefs and Policies." The Ancient World (2015).
Woods, David. "Constantine the Great: a partial account-BARNESTIMOTHY,
CONSTANTINE. DYNASTY, RELIGION AND POWER IN THE LATER ROMAN
EMPIRE (Blackwell Ancient Lives; Wiley Blackwell; paperback edn. Chichester2013). Pp.
xiii+ 266, pls. 10. ISBN 978-1-118-78275-0 (pbk.).£ 22." Journal of Roman Archaeology 28
(2015): 923-930.