CONSTANTINE the Great, the first emperor of the Romans who embraced Christianity. His father, Constantius Chlorus, rendered himself famous by his expeditions into Germany and Britain; and upon the abdication of Diocletian in 305, he shared the Roman empire with Galerius Maximinus, 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 by the Britons. 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 the year 308. Maxentius, who succeeded Galerius, opposed him, but was defeated, and drowned in the Tiber. The senate then declared Constantine chief or first Augustus, and Licinius his second associate in the empire. This occurred in the year 312. These princes published an edict, in their joint names, in favour of the Christians; but soon afterwards Licinius, jealous of the renown of Constantine, conceived an implacable hatred against him, and renewed the persecutions against the Christians. This brought on a rupture between the emperors, and a battle ensued, in which Constantine proved victorious. A short peace followed; but Licinius having shamefully violated the treaty, the war was renewed, when Constantine totally defeated him, and forced him to fly to Nicomedia, where he was taken prisoner and strangled, in the year 323. Constantine having now become sole master of the western and eastern empires, immediately formed the plan of establishing Christianity as the religion of the state; and for this purpose he convoked several ecclesiastical councils; but finding that he was likely to meet with great opposition from the Pagan interest at Rome, he conceived the design of founding a new city, as the capital of his Christian empire. (See CONSTANTINOPLE.) The glory which Constantine had acquired by establishing the Christian religion was tarnished by the part he took in the persecutions which were, towards the close of his reign, carried on by the Arians against their Christian brethren who differed from them; and, seduced by Eusebius of Nicomedia, he banished several eminent prelates, soon after which he died in the sixty-sixth year of his age and thirty-first of his reign.

As to the character of Constantine, he was chaste, pious, laborious, and indefatigable; a great and successful commander, and deserving his success by his shining valour and superior genius; and a protector of arts, which he encouraged by his beneficence. If we compare him with Augustus, we shall find that he overthrew idolatry by the same precautions and the same address which the other used to destroy liberty. Like Augustus, he laid the foundation of a new empire; but being possessed of less political skill, he failed to give it equal stability. He weakened the body of the state by adding to it, in some measure, a second head in the foundation of Constantinople; and by transporting the centre of motion and strength too near to the eastern extremity, he left without vigour, 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 earlier part of his reign he was equal to the most accomplished princes, and that, in the latter, he fell below the meanest. The younger Victor pretends, that in the first ten years he was a hero, in the succeeding twelve a robber, and in the last ten a spendthrift. But it is easy to perceive, with respect to the reproaches imputed to him by Victor, that the one relates to the riches which Constantine took from idolatry, and the other to those with which he loaded the church.