Eusebius, How Constantine Overthrew Maxentius and Favored Christianity (c. early 4th century C.E.)

In 312, Constantine the Great, already master of Gaul and Spain, overthrew Maxentius, the evil ruler of Italy, at the Milvian Bridge near Rome. The victory was followed by declarations by Constantine in favor of Christianity, although he did not formally become a Christian himself until he lay on his deathbed. Eusebius of Caesearea (c.263-c.339) wrote an early history of the Christian Church.

God the Supreme Governor of the world appointed Constantine to be prince and Sovran . . . so that while others have been raised to this eminence by the election of their fellow men, he is the only one to whose elevation no mortal may boast to have contributed.

As soon as he was established on the throne, he began to care for the interests of his paternal inheritance [especially Gaul and Britain], and visited with much considerate kindness all those provinces which had previously been under his father's government.

[Having subdued various barbarian neighbors of his part of the Empire, he beheld Rome the imperial city oppressed by the tyranny of Maxentius, emperor of Italy and Africa, and Constantine speedily resolved to deliver her.] Being convinced however that he needed some more powerful aid than his military forces could afford him, on account of the wicked and magical enchantments which were so diligently practiced by the tyrant, he began to seek for Divine assistance, [as more important even than] weapons, and a huge army. [He considered how divers emperors had invoked the heathen gods yet had come to destruction.] On the other hand he recollected that his father, who had pursued an entirely opposite course, who had condemned their error and honored one supreme God during his whole life, had found Him to be the Savior and Protector of his Empire, and the Giver of every good thing.

Accordingly he called on Him with earnest prayer and supplications that He would reveal to him who He was, and stretch forth His right hand to help him in his present difficulties. And while Constantine was thus praying with fervent entreaty, a most marvelous sight appeared to him in heaven, the account of which might have been difficult to receive with credit had it been related by any other person. But since the victorious emperor himself not long afterward declared it to the writer of this history, when he was honored with Ills acquaintance and society, and confirmed this statement with an oath, who could refuse to accredit the relation, since the testimony of after times has established its truth? He said that about mid-day, when the sun was beginning to decline, he saw with his own eyes the trophy of a cross of light in the heavens, above the sun, and bearing the inscription "BY THIS CONQUER" [In hoc signo vinces]. At this sight he himself was struck with amazement, and his whole army also, which happened to be following him on some expedition and witnessed the miracle.

He said, also, that he doubted within himself what this apparition could mean. [Presently he fell asleep] and in his sleep the Christ of God appeared to him with the same sign which he had seen in the heavens, and commanded him to procure a standard made in the likeness of that sign, and to use it as a safeguard in all engagements with his enemies.

At dawn of day he arose and told his friends his secret, then he called together his goldsmiths and jewelers, and sat in their midst, and described to them the figure of the sign which he had seen, bidding them copy it in gold and precious stones. It was made in the following manner. A long spear overlaid with gold formed the figure of the cross by means of a piece transversely laid over it. On the top of the whole was fixed a crown, formed by the intertexture of gold and precious stones ; and thereon were two letters indicating the name of Christ, . . . the [Greek] letter P [Latin R] being intersected by X [Latin CH] exactly in its center; and these letters the Emperor was in the habit of wearing on his helmet at a later period. From the traverse piece which crossed the spear [was a purple streamer, embroidered with jewels and gold; and on the staff hung a square banner bearing] a golden portrait, half length, of the pious Emperor and of his children.

[Constantine now devoted himself to the study of Christianity and the Bible,] and he made the priests of God his councilors and deemed it incumbent upon him to honor the God who appeared to him with all devotion. After this, being fortified by well-grounded hopes in Him, he undertook to quench the fury of the fire of tyranny.

[Meantime Maxentius at Rome was giving himself utterly over to deeds of cruelty and lust, and on one occasion caused his guards to massacre a great multitude of the Roman populace.]

In short it is impossible to describe the manifold acts of oppression by which this tyrant of Rome oppressed all his subjects; so that by this time they were reduced to the most extreme penury and want of necessary food, a scarcity such as our contemporaries do not remember ever to have existed before at Rome. Constantine, however, filled with compassion on account of all these miseries, began to arm himself with all warlike preparations against the tyranny, and marched with his forces eager to reinstate the Romans in the freedom they had inherited from their ancestors. . . . The Emperor, accordingly, confiding in the help of God, advanced against the first, second, and third divisions of the tyrant's forces, defeated them all with ease at the first assault, and made his way into the very interior of Italy.

Already he was close to Rome, when to save him from the need of fighting with all the Romans for the tyrant's sake, God Himself drew the tyrant, as it were by secret cords, a long way outside the gates. For once, as in the days of Moses and the Hebrew nation, who were worshipers of God, He cast Pharaoh's chariots and his host into the waves of the Red Sea, and at this time did Maxentius, and the soldiers and guards with him, sink to the bottom as a stone, when in his flight before the divinely aided forces of Constantine, he essayed to cross the river [the Tiber] which lay in his way, over which he had made a strong bridge of boats, and had framed an engine of destruction—really against himself, but in hope of ensnaring thereby him who was beloved by God. [But God brought this engine to be Maxentius's undoing:] for the machine, erected on the bridge with the ambuscade concealed therein, giving way unexpectedly before the appointed time, the passage began to sink down, and the boats with the men in them went bodily to the bottom. And first the wretch himself, then his armed attendants and guards, even as the sacred oracles had before described "sank as lead in the mighty waters." [So Constantine and his men might well have rejoiced, even as did Moses and the Israelites over the fate of Pharaoh's host in the Red Sea.]

Then Constantine entered the imperial city in triumph. And here the whole body of the Senate, and others of rank and distinction in the city—freed as it were from the restraint of a prison, along with the whole Roman populace, their faces expressing the gladness in their hearts, received him with acclamations and excess of joy – men, women, and children, with countless multitudes of servants, greeting him as "Deliverer, Preserver, and Benefactor" with incessant plaudits.

William Stearns Davis, Readings in Ancient History, vol II: Rome and the West (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1913), pp. 291-295.

Submit your answers to the questions below as determined by your instructor.

1. Why did Constantine issue the Edict of Milan?

2. Is the account of Constantine's conversion given by Eusebius to be considered believable?