1. The “Awakening” of Constantine

2. Christianity and Empire: The History of Persecution
The Modern Myths
The Actual Facts (which are bad enough!)
The New Testament
The Emperor Nero (64 CE)
Decius ( CE)
Diocletian ( CE)
Pleas for Tolerance!

3. The Emperor Constantine
Upbringing
Birth: ca 273 CE
Early Life
Diocletian and The Tetrarchy (293 CE)
The Usurper Maxentius and The Civil War
The Battle at the Milvian Bridge (312 CE)
Constantine’s Conversion: October 28, 312!

4. Constantine’s Vision(s)
The Accounts
The Pagan Panegyric (310 CE): Apollo and Sol Invictus
Eusebius’s Life of Constantine (339 CE): “By this sign conquer”
Lactantius, Deaths of the Persecutors (315 CE): The night before battle
A Possible Synthesis

5. Central Questions Was Constantine’s Conversion “Genuine” ?
Pagan Imagery on His Coins
Not Behaving as a Christian! (Family murders!)
A Death Bed Baptism
Was Constantine’s Conversion “THE” Key to the Success of Christianity?
Did Constantine Make Christianity the Official State Religion?

6. The New Christian Empire
Church and State Under the New Christian Emperor
Church and State Throughout All of History
Constantine: Emperor and Christian
Benefits Bestowed
Direct Involvement (the Arian Controversy)
The Family of Constantine down to Julian the Apostate
Theodosius I ( CE) and the Legislation of Christianity
Christian Intolerance
The Bold New World

7. Was Christianity a Triumph?