Lyceum & Book Club - Week 12 - Lecture Notes - Constantine - Part 2

We can see a gradual shaping of both the faith institution of Christianity by Constantine and the enabling of its advancement while he actively worked to bring the whole of the populace under a single belief system that advanced his political agenda.

Two thirds of Constantine’s top government were non-Christian because the vast majority of the population at the beginning of this cycle were non-Christian and those who had the knowledge and ability to run the government were not necessarily Christian.

What Constantine did was promote those who had the experience and ability he needed into top positions, but never in positions of power.

He only placed Christians, a group that was loyal to him personally for both their own advancement and that of the Christian movement, into positions of power. His advancement of his agenda was their advancement of their agenda. Christians were not likely to be swayed by any challenger to his power to plot against him.

Pragmatic placement of persons with ability to run things, but no power; ideological placement in positions of power persons aligned to him as their only way to achieve their movement objectives . It reflected his continuation of a policy of balance that gave him what he wanted while keeping everything else stable.

In 321, he made Sunday the official day of rest and banned all markets or public offices opening on that day. It worked out conveniently that Sunday was also sacred to those who worshiped the Roman Sun God, Sol Invictus (which was one of the prominent gods worshiped in the Roman Empire at that time). So at this point in time, he promoted the Christian ideology while not repressing the established pagan faith.

He included the caveat that there were no restrictions on farm work on Sundays. The majority of the common population were farmers, so for the majority of the population, there really was no “Day of Rest”.

Crucifixion, which Christians viewed negatively with its association with Jesus, was banned, and replaced with hanging. Achieved the same purpose, but it elevated his stock within the Christian community.

Constantine changes the practice of keeping prisoners in total darkness and instead, they were allowed to be outdoors and have sunlight. Condemned men could choose to die in the arena, but publicly displayed gladiatorial games were eliminated in 325; the condemned were no longer branded on their face, instead they were branded on their feet. All of these changes were said to be dictated by Christian beliefs.

Regarding Constantine’s actions toward Jews:

From wiki:

He enforced the (325 Council of Nicaea’s) prohibition against celebrating the Lord's Supper on the day before the Jewish Passover, which marked a definite break of Christianity from the Judaic tradition. From then on, the solar Julian Calendar was given precedence over the lunisolar Hebrew calendar among the Christian churches of the Roman Empire.

Constantine made some new laws regarding the Jews; some of them were unfavorable towards Jews, although they were not harsher than those of his predecessors. It was made illegal for Jews to seek converts or to attack other Jews who had converted to Christianity.They were forbidden to own Christian slaves or to circumcise their slaves. On the other hand, Jewish clergy were given the same exemptions as Christian clergy

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Up until 325, Constantine kept the symbols on his coinage and other official motifs, of the main pagan religion (Sol Invictus) of the Roman Empire (and his own personal beliefs until he converted to Christianity). It was not until toward the end of his reign that he started to order the dismantling of pagan temples in the Empire and confiscating all of their treasure.

He made the position of Christians a privileged one above all others, even while he did nothing overt to repress non-Christians. Joining Christians and Christianity ensured you had a path to social and economic advancement over non-Christians. Christian clergy did not have to pay certain taxes, the Christian church was endowed with land and other wealth, Constantine had a number of basilicas built. The Christian community is where the social and power connections were developing and those smart enough to recognize this were in on the ground floor of a rising movement.

By 324, Constantine had defeated all other co-Emperors and from that time on, ruled alone.

He started the process of readying the little fishing village of Byzantium soon after defeating Licincus, the emperor of the east, in 324 and finally moved his capital in 330 to what would be called Constantinople.

In designing his new capital, Constantine employed overtly Christian architecture and built the churches within the city walls where there had been no pre-existing temples from other religions.

The one thing Constantine did do once he started construction of his new capital that specifically targeted non-Christians was to tax them and their temples to pay for tax the construction. This tactic of favoring one select faith by making it a privileged pathway while making the choice to align with any other faith a financial burden and closed path to upward mobility was a common tactic used by other leaders of other religions, and the consequence is that eventually the resources that went to other faith institutions dried up as their followers decreased (or their followers decreased as the prestige and funding decreased). Without followers and funding, pagan temples closed. No forced conversions was needed.

By the end of Constantine’s reign, we do hear of him confiscating the wealth held in and by the pagan temples and having them destroyed, but it took a long time for him to take a hand in speeding things up with the disintegration of pagan prominence in the empire.

He still ruled over the western half of the empire as well as the east, he just did it in reverse from what was done previously; keeping the capital in the east as opposed to Rome, which was increasingly vulnerable from Germanic tribes migrating and settling from the north.

The Roman Empire becoming identified with Christianity and its being so closely tied to Constantine as a faith and community personally loyal to him had a negative affect on tolerance of the Christian community elsewhere.

From wiki:

Beyond the limes, east of the Euphrates, the Sasanian rulers of the Persian Empire, perennially at war with Rome, had usually tolerated Christianity. Constantine is said to have written to Shapur II in 324 and urged him to protect Christians under his rule. With the establishment of Christianity as the state religion of the Roman Empire, Christians in Persia would be regarded as allies of Persia's ancient enemy. According to an anonymous Christian account, Shapur II wrote to his generals:

You will arrest Simon, chief of the Christians. You will keep him until he signs this document and consents to collect for us a double tax and double tribute from the Christians … for we Gods have all the trials of war and they have nothing but repose and pleasure. They inhabit our territory and agree with Caesar, our enemy.

— Shapur II, A History of Christianity in Asia: Beginnings to 1500

It also had a negative affect on the development and independence of the Christian church itself.

From rpi.edu:

Constantine's profession of Christianity was not an unmixed blessing to the church. Constantine used the church as an instrument of imperial policy, imposed upon it his imperial ideology, and thus deprived it of much of the independence which it had previously enjoyed.

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In 306:

Maximian - 56 years old

Constantinus - 56 years old

Helena - 60 years old

Theodora - 31 years old

Constantine - 34 years old

Maxentius - 23 years old

Fausta - 17 years old

Crispus - 3 years old (Caesar - 317)

Constantine II - born 316 (Caesar - 317)

Constantinus II - born 317 (Caesar - 324)

Constans - born 320 (Caesar - 333)

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I want to stop here a moment and talk about Constantine’s mother, Helena. There was not much written about her previous to Constantine’s rise in status because women were not considered all that important in regard to the wider events in the world and because she was not high born. But there is also the fact that after Constantine became a ruler, he reshaped the narrative about his own life and Christian writers there after created such a propaganda campaign that repurposed every event and person according to a created Christian mythology and narrative, that combined its hard to know what the truth is of anything unless we can find reliable verification elsewhere.

It is said she was born in Turkey on the coast in Bithynia, which was a Greek city near Constantinople. The reason we assume it was her birthplace is that Constantine renamed it Helenopolis in her honor after her death around 330AD and built a church there. Constantine spent a great deal of time in the city towards the end of his life. It has also been suggested she was born in the Balkans. What we know is that even in the official narratives about her life, her earlier life is not mentioned at all.

Likewise, we don’t know the circumstances of her relationship with Constantinus. Were they legally married, was she his concubine or were they in a common law marriage? The relationship is described in all three manners in several conflicting sources. The label “concubine” seems to have started by Maxentius as part of a negative propaganda campaign against Constantine, trying to intimate that Constantine’s origins and birth were outside the pale of propriety. But whatever else, it appears it was a committed relationship and not a casual affair.

Constantinus divorced or separated some time before 289 when he married Theodora; it was not something done quickly or in haste. He sent Helena and Constantine to live at the court of Diocletian in Nicomedia where Constantine was said to have grown up with Maxentius. Constantine was well regarded at the court and grew to be a member of the inner circle. Helena never remarried and apparently lived a quiet life out of the limelight, but she was very close to her son who “had a deep regard and affection for her”.

In 312 once Constantine had secured his position as sole emperor in the West in 312, not only did he declare himself a Christian, he brought his mother to live in the imperial court and raised her public presence to a position of honor.

In 316, on the occasion of his son, Constantine II’s birth, she appears in the Eagle Cameo, portraying Constantine’s family.

In 325, Constantine bestows the title, Augusta Imperatriz (Empress) upon her and gave her unlimited access to the imperial treasury in her mission to the Middle East.

In 326, Constantine sent her on a mission to Syria, Palestine and Jerusalem where she was to oversee the commission of a new church. Legend has it that she discovered holy sites where churches were to be built and discovered various religious relics, including the robe Jesus wore and the True Cross (upon which Jesus was crucified), which it is said, she brought back with her when she returned in 328. Eusebius of Caesarea says she was around 80 years old at this time.

From wiki:

According to Eusebius of Caesarea, who records the details of her pilgrimage to Palestine and other eastern provinces, she was responsible for the construction or beautification of two churches, the Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem, and the Church of Eleona on the Mount of Olives, sites of Christ's birth and ascension, respectively. Local founding legend attributes to Helena's orders the construction of a church in Egypt to identify the Burning Bush of Sinai. The chapel at Saint Catherine's Monastery—often referred to as the Chapel of Saint Helen—is dated to the year 330 AD.

She died around 330 with Constantine by her side.

Many Christian religious institutions, from Eastern Orthodox to Lutheran, honor her in some way.

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Now, let’s talk about Constantine and his son, Crispus.

Crispus was born in 303. Again, the relationship of his mom, Minervina, is even more unclear than Constantinus’ was with Helena.

In 307, Constantine suddenly marries Fausta. It does not appear that Minervina and Constantine had a serious relationship as his father had with Helena. It may be also that Minervina was dead by this time. Whatever the case, we do not hear that she or her son were sent to live at any court and we never hear about her again. But we do hear that instead of sending Crispus away to be raised in another’s court which was common, Constantine chose to keep his son by his side and raise him, himself in Gaul.

What we hear is that the two had a strong relationship. We also hear that Crispus’ troops adored him. It was said he was much like his father in ability as a commander.

After Constantine’s victory over Licinius, Constantine honoured Crispus’ contribution to his victory by depicting Crispus’ face on imperial coins, statues, mosaics, cameos, etc.

Eusebius of Caesaria wrote for Crispus that he is "an Imperator most dear to God and in all regards comparable to his father."

Crispus was the most likely choice for an heir to the throne at the time. His siblings Constantine II, Constantius II and Constans were far too young and knew very little about the tasks of an emperor - wiki

And not two years pass before we hear of Constantine having his son summarily put to death.

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Which brings us to the issue of Constantine’s heirs and the position of Caesar. Constantine named both Crispus and Constantin II as “Caesar” to his one position of Augustus, which was totally different than anything that had been done before. It put both of them in a position of being kept in status limbo - a constant state of hope of being the one that was promoted to Emperor upon Constantine’s death. It kept them loyal and in line and protected Constantine’s power (throne and life).

And that may have an affect on the scandal of 326.

Suddenly we hear that at sometime between May and June, Constantine has his eldest son arrested in Croatia where Crispus was stationed and very quickly is put to death by poison. Some say there was no trial and others say the trial was very quick. Constantine had heirs to spare; what he would not have sacrificed would have been his control over his absolute authority. With this set up, you could see how Fausta wanting to ensure that her sons were chosen over Constantine’s first born, might have led her to accuse Crispus of acts that would be sure to enrage Constantine toward Crispus. But if that is so, then she miscalculated because in July, she dies in an overheated bath or baths room. Suicide or execution? Whether he decided that Fausta should also pay a penalty for creating the set up that led to Crispus’ execution might have followed and put his remaining heirs on their toes to not repeat the mistake of causing him issues or whether she committed suicide is just one of the many unanswered questions about this event.

But we don’t know what the truth is because Constantine placed both Crispus and Fausta under an erasure of their memory order and had all mention of them removed from every record. Few ancient sources were willing to even mention what had happened and why. Maybe few actually knew what went on behind closed doors that led to Constantine making the decisions he did or to Fausta and what decisions she may have made. And so much propaganda and active myth making went on concerning the issue that we can’t trust what anyone years removed have to say on the event.

Their names were wiped from the face of many inscriptions, references to their lives were eradicated from the literary record, and their memory was condemned. Eusebius, for example, edited out any praise of Crispus from later copies of Historia Ecclesiastica, and his Vita Constantini contains no mention of Fausta or Crispus at all - wiki

We find a later emperor writing that Fausta was beautiful and a good person, so obviously one of Fausta’s sons removed the erasure notice from his mom (but not from Crispus) once he became Emperor and Constantine was out of the picture to object.

The rumors said that Fausta accused Crispus of betrayal against Constantine, or that she accused Crispus of having raped her or having propositioned her or trying to pursue her romantically (or was spreading rumors of such). Some say that Fausta (who was much younger than Constantine) had pursued Crispus and when he rejected her, in retaliation, she brought up these trump charges that it was Crispus who did the pursuing.

One theory says that Crispus had been exiled in disgrace to Croatia because he did have an affair with Fausta and there committed suicide by poison and Fausta a month later, in an attempt to induce abortion by way of an overheated bath, accidentally died. (Who knows, maybe Fausta did have an affair and was pregnant, just not by Crispus, though we don’t hear of anyone else being accused or executed, if that was the case). There has also been speculation that after Fausta’s accusations against Crispus proved to be false, Fausta committed suicide by raising the temperature of her bath or baths room to fatal levels.

The thing with the charge of a sexual nature is that recent scholarship shows Crispus and Fausta could not have physically been anywhere near each other since at the time indicated one was in Constantinople and one had been in Germany on campaign.

Because the sexual narrative follows the myth of Phaedra and Hippolytus a little too closely in script, it is doubtful it is the true storyline.

A popular myth arose, modified to allude to the Hippolytus–Phaedra legend, with the suggestion that Constantine killed Crispus and Fausta for their immoralities; the largely fictional Passion of Artemius explicitly makes this connection.The myth rests on slim evidence as an interpretation of the executions; only late and unreliable sources allude to the relationship between Crispus and Fausta, and there is no evidence for the modern suggestion that Constantine's "godly" edicts of 326 and the irregularities of Crispus are somehow connected. - wiki

Others said that Crispus may have been pushing Constantine to retire and name him Augustus or that Crispus was caught plotting against Constantine, perhaps with Fausta and Licinius II involved.

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Licinius II was Licinius’ son with his wife, the step-sister(by way of Constantine’s father) of Constantine I, born in 315. Licinius named him Caesar in 317 by mutual agreement with Constantine. At the same time,Crispus and Constantine II were also named Caesar. This way, none of the young Caesars could claim seniority, including Crispus, who was the only one not an infant.

After Constantine’s final defeat over Licinius in September of 324 and Licinius surrendered, Licinius’ wife/ Constantine’s step sister stepped in and urged leniency and Licinius was given a reprieve wherein, he retired to Greece as a privater citizen. At that time Licinius II was stripped of his position as Caesar. Constantine had Licinius executed on trumped up charges in the spring of 325 and he was hanged. (Licinius’ co-emperor in the east, Martinian,was also executed at some point between 324 and 325).

Licinius II was executed on Constantine’s orders in 326 in the same year that both Crispus and Fausta were executed. He was also subject to a damnatio memoriae decree.

From wiki:

This left the branch of the Constantinian dynasty – descended from Constantius I's relationship with Helena – in control of the imperial college.

Within two years of the defeat and surrender of Licinius, Constantine had not only put his brother-in-law and former co-augustus to death, but also executed his nephew Licinius II, the son of his sister Flavia Julia Constantia….. leaving Constantine the sole augustus and the Constantinian dynasty in control of the entire empire - wiki

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And then there is this plot line, that Helena had begged Constantine to not have her favourite grandson killed (perhaps she did not favor the sons by the sister of the person who had her replaced as wife of Constrantinus), but Constantine had him executed anyway and she was grief stricken and blamed him and Fausta, so to appease Helena, he had Fausta executed as well.

Whatever it was, we can assume a few things - there was at least a month to two months between Crispus’ death and Fausta’s. (it is said Licinius was executed afer Fausta's death. So whatever it was that condemned Crispus to death was not of a nature that would automatically condemn Fausta as well, such as her involvement in any plot to overthrow Constantine, which wouldn’t make sense on a number of levels.

Whatever led to Fausta dying might not even have been connected to the incident with Crispus and the two incidents simply have been merged, either purposefully by Constantine and writers who wanted to boost his position or in the natural course of how people will combine separate events looking for a storyline that appeals and those who could set the story straight figured it worked for them as well.

But Fausta does seems to have been involved in “exposing” or “damning” Crispus to Constantine.

And we hear from sources that Constantine later regretted having Crispus executed when the accusations proved false. We never hear that he said this about Fausta.

It is said that Constantine looked to pagan priests who were friends of his, such as Sopater of Apamea, for the purification of his soul, but they refused, considering the act committed by Constantine as unforgivable.- wiki

But he still had them both place under damnatio memoriae and rumors about the circumstances tinged with unsavory accusations against both were either instigated as a campaign of negative propaganda (which we have seen Constantine utilize before)by Constantine or such a nasty narrative against both was allowed to spread. And that ban was never rescinded by Constantine, whether he regretted the action in regard to Crispus or not, it must have suited his purposes.