Constantine (r. 306-337), despite his famed favoritism for Christianity, was not an adherent of Christian beliefs for most of his life. Modern Oxford University Press texts officially list Constantine’s date of birth as 272 or 273 (although the date is contested), and he only began actively positioning himself on the side of Christianity in the last two or three decades of his life. In the long pre-Christian period of his existence, Constantine worshipped like a traditional ancient Roman citizen, venerating the classical gods and participating in the cults of preferred deities. In particular, young Constantine was drawn to sun gods, including Apollo, Mithras, and Sol Invictus (the Undying Sun). Additionally, youthful Constantine followed the tradition in the Roman Empire of recognizing great imperial leaders as gods. Figures such as Julius Caesar, Augustus, Claudius, Vespasian, Titus, Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius were proclaimed as gods after their deaths, and such posthumous deifications of relatively well-behaved emperors became commonplace in the Roman Empire for almost the entire remainder of late antiquity. Consequently, this practice was still in place when Constantine’s family entered the fray of Roman politics.
Constantine’s father, Constantius, was a junior member of Emperor Diocletian’s tetrarchy government. Diocletian (r. 284–305) appointed a man named Maximian as his co-emperor in 286. These two co-emperor’s received the title of Augustus, and each augustus was assisted by a subservient Caesar—together, the four rulers made up the tetrarchy. Constantine’s father, Constantius, became the caesar of Maximian in 293. In his role as a junior leader, Constantius participated in the persecution of Christians, and was known to have destroyed churches. The Christian author, Lactantius (c. 240-320)—an associate of Constantine—forgivingly wrote, “Constantius, on the other hand, lest he should have seemed to dissent from the injunctions of his superiors, permitted the demolition of churches, — mere walls, and capable of being built up again…” (Lactantius, Of the Manner in Which the Persecutors Died, chapter 15). Despite this blemish on his later reputation, Constantius salvaged his renown by leading multiple successful military campaigns—a sure way to win the hearts and minds of the Roman public. He defeated the forces of usurpers in Roman Gaul (c. 293) and Britannia (c. 296), then shifted his focus to the Rhine frontiers, campaigning against the Franks, Saxons, and Alemanni by 298. Ultimately, Constantius succeeded Maximian as the next augustus of the Western Roman Empire in 305, but his reign was short. He died in 306, following yet another victorious military campaign in Britannia, this time against the Picts.
Constantine (r. 306-337), despite political machinations against him, successfully ascended to authority over his late father’s lands and legions. At the time, Constantius was deemed worthy of immediate posthumous deification. Constantine’s Christian biographer, Eusebius of Caesarea (c. 260-339), wrote about the death, succession, and deification, writing, “the emperor Constantius, who was always kindly disposed toward his subjects and friendly to the divine Word, died, leaving his lawful son Constantine emperor and Augustus in his place. He [Constantius] was the first [of the tetrarchs] to be proclaimed one of the gods, judged worthy of every posthumous honor that might be accorded an emperor as one of the kindest and mildest” (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, 8.13.12-12).
Curiously, despite the increased Christianization of Constantine’s personal life and government administration after the Battle of Milvian Bridge in 312, the practice of posthumous deification continued in the Roman Empire. Constantine himself, after his death in 337, was curiously granted godhood and the same divus title bestowed upon all of the other deified emperors. Constantine’s sons allowed the practice to continue, albeit with restrictions on sacrifices that had been implemented by Constantine. One such son, Constans I, is known to have given permission in 337 to a temple and priesthood in Hispellum that was devoted to Constantine’s imperial family. Interestingly, the zealous Christian emperor, Theodosius I (r. 379-392), was one of the last known emperors to be posthumously labeled with the divine divus title after his death.
Written by C. Keith Hansley
Picture Attribution: (Constantine the Great makes his solemn entry into the new city and consecrates it with great ceremony, by Peter Johann Nepomuk Geiger (1805-1880), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons and the NYPL).
Sources:
- Eusebius, The Church History: A New Translation with Commentary, translated by Paul L. Maier. Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 1999.
- The Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity, edited by Oliver Nicholson. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018.
- The Oxford Dictionary of Classical Myth and Religion, edited by Simon Price and Emily Kearns. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
- Lactantius’ Of the Manner in Which the Persecutors Died, translated by William Fletcher. From Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 7. Edited by Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1886.) Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. [https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0705.htm]
- [Lactantius’ Of the Manner in Which the Persecutors Died] https://topostext.org/work/732
- [Eusebius Ecclesiastical History] https://topostext.org/work/732
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Constantius-I
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Theodosius-I
The practice of deifying emperors only ended with Anastasius in 518, though it had increasingly been given a Christian gloss over the previous two centuries.