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Constantine....
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Bronze statue of Constantine
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Constantine was born at Naissus, (today's Niš, Serbia, Serbia and
Montenegro) in Upper Moesia, to Constantius I Chlorus, a general of
Greek
descent, and Flavia Iulia Helena, an innkeeper's daughter who at the time
was an adolescent of only 16 years. His father left his mother in c. 292
to marry Flavia Maximiana Theodora, daughter or step-daughter of Western
Roman Emperor Maximian. Theodora would give birth to six half-siblings of
Constantine, including Julius Constantius.
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Young Constantine was well educated and served at the
court of Diocletian in Nicomedia, after the appointment of his father as one
of the two caesares (junior emperors) of the Tetrarchy in 293. In 305, the
Augustus, Maximian, abdicated, and Constantius succeeded to the position.
However, Constantius fell sick during an expedition against the Picts and
Scots of Caledonia, and died on July 25, 306. Constantine
managed to be at
his deathbed in Eboracum (York) of Roman Britain, where the loyal general
Crocus, of Alamanni descent, and the troops loyal to his father's memory
proclaimed him an Augustus ("Emperor"). For the next 18 years, he fought a
series of battles and wars of consoladation that first obtained him co-rule
with the Eastern Roman Emperor, and then finally leadership of a reunified
Roman Empire. |
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Bronze coins struck for emperors often reveal details of
their personal iconography. During the early part of
Constantine's rule,
representations first of Mars and then (from 310) of Apollo as Sun god
consistently appear on the reverse of the coinage. Mars had been associated
with the Tetrarchy, and Constantine's use of this symbolism served to
emphasize the legitimacy of his rule. |
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Coin of Constantine, with
depiction of the sun god Sol Invictus, holding a globe and right hand
raised.
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After his breach with his father's old colleague
Maximian in 309–310, Constantine began to claim legitimate descent from
the 3rd century emperor Marcus Aurelius Claudius Gothicus, the hero of the
Battle of Naissus (September, 268). The Augustan History of the 4th
century reports Constantine's paternal grandmother Claudia to be a
daughter of Crispus. Crispus being a reported brother of both Claudius II
and Quintillus. Historians however suspect this account to be a
genealogical fabrication to flatter Constantine. |
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