CONSTANTINE, a kingdom of Barbary of that name, in Africa. It is bounded on the north by the Mediterranean, on the east by the kingdom of Tunis, on the south by Bildulgerid, and on the west by the river Sufegmar, which separates it from the kingdom of Bugia. The country is the New Numidia of the ancients, and had its own king; but it is now a province of Algiers.
CONSTANTINE the Great, the first emperor of the Romans who embraced Christianity. His father, Constantius Chlorus, rendered himself famous by his victorious expeditions to Germany and Britain: upon the abdication of Dioclesian, he shared the Roman empire with Galerius Maximinus in 305, and was at that time at York, where he died in 306; having first caused his son Constantine the Great to be proclaimed emperor by his army, and the English. Galerius at first refused to admit Constantine to his father's share in the imperial throne; but after having lost several battles, he consented in 308. Maxentius, who succeeded Galerius, opposed him: but was defeated, and drowned himself in the Tyber. The senate then declared Constantine chief or first Augustus, and Licinius his
second associate in the empire, in 412. These princes published an edict, in their joint names, in favour of the Christians; but soon after Licinius, jealous of Constantine's renown, conceived an implacable hatred against him, and renewed the persecutions against the Christians. Thus brought on a rupture between the emperors, and a battle, in which Constantine was victorious. A short peace ensued; but Licinius having shamefully violated the treaty, the war was renewed; when Constantine totally defeating him, he fled to Nicomedia, where he was taken prisoner and strangled in 323. Constantine, now become sole master of the western and eastern empires, immediately formed the plan of establishing Christianity as the religion of the state; for which purpose, he convoked several ecclesiastical councils: but finding he was likely to meet with great opposition from the Pagan interest at Rome, he conceived the design of founding a new city, to be the capital of his Christian empire; see CONSTANTINOPLE. The glory Constantine had acquired by establishing the Christian religion, was tarnished by the part he took in the persecutions carried on by the Arians, towards the close of his reign, against their Christian brethren who differed from them: seduced by Eusebius of Nicomedia, he banished several eminent prelates; soon after which, he died in 337, the 66th year of his age, and 31st of his reign.
As to the character of Constantine, he was chaste, pious, laborious, and indefatigable; a great general, successful in war, and deserving his success by his shining valour and by the brightness of his genius; a protector of arts, and an encourager of them by his beneficence. If we compare him with Augustus, we shall find that he ruined idolatry, by the same precautions and the same address that the other used to destroy liberty. Like Augustus, he laid the foundation of a new empire; but possessed of less political skill, he could not give it the same stability: he weakened the body of the state by adding to it, in some measure, a second head in the foundation of Constantinople; and transporting the centre of motion and strength too near the eastern extremity, he left without heat, and almost without life, the western parts, which soon became a prey to the barbarians. The Pagans were too much his enemies to do him justice. Eutropius says, that in the former part of his reign he was equal to the most accomplished princes, and in the latter to the meanest. The younger Victor, who makes him to have reigned more than 31 years, pretends, that in the first 10 years he was a hero; in the 12 succeeding ones a robber; and in the 10 last a spendthrift. It is easy to perceive, with respect to these two reproaches of Victor's, that the one relates to the riches which Constantine took from idolatry, and the other to those with which he loaded the church.