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 He was born at [[Naissus]] in Upper Dacia to [[Constantius I Chlorus]] and an innkeeper's daughter, [[Helena, mother of Constantine the Great|Helena]]. Constantine was well educated and served at the court of [[Diocletian]] after the appointment of his father as one of the two [[Caesar|Caesari]], at that time a junior emperor, in the [[Tetrarchy]] in [[293]]. On the death of his father Constantius in 306, he managed to be at his deathbed in Eburacum ([[York, England|York]]), where troops loyal to his father's memory proclaimed him Emperor. For the next 18 years he fought a series of battles and wars that left him as supreme ruler of the Roman Empire.
 
Constantine is perhaps best known for being the first Roman Emperor to endorse [[Christianity]], as a result of his victory in the [[Battle of Milvian Bridge]], which he credited to the Christian God. His adoption of Christianity may also be due to family influence: Helena was probably born a Christian, and demonstrated extreme piety in her later life. He legalized and strongly supported [[Christianity]] beginning around the time he became emperor, but he neither made paganism illegal nor made Christianity the state religion. Though the church prospered under Constantine's patronage, it also fell into the first of many public schisms.  He himself called the [[First Council of Nicaea]] to settle the problem of [[Arianism]], a dispute about the personhood and godhood of [[Jesus]].  He himself was not baptized and chrismated until close to his death. Ironically, Constantine may have favored the losing side of the Arian controversy, as he was baptized by an Arian bishop, [[Eusebius of Nicomedia]].
 
 His victory in [[312]] over [[Maxentius]] at the Battle of Milvian Bridge resulted with him becoming Western Augustus, or ruler of the entire western half of the empire. He gradually consolidated his military superiority over his rivals in the crumbling [[Tetrarchy]] until [[324]], when he defeated the eastern ruler, [[Licinius]], and became sole emperor. 
 
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 He was born at [[Naissus]] in Upper Dacia to [[Constantius I Chlorus]] and an innkeeper's daughter, [[Helena, mother of Constantine the Great|Helena]]. Constantine was well educated and served at the court of [[Diocletian]] after the appointment of his father as one of the two [[Caesar|Caesari]], at that time a junior emperor, in the [[Tetrarchy]] in [[293]]. On the death of his father Constantius in 306, he managed to be at his deathbed in Eburacum ([[York, England|York]]), where troops loyal to his father's memory proclaimed him Emperor. For the next 18 years he fought a series of battles and wars that left him as supreme ruler of the Roman Empire.
 
Constantine is perhaps best known for being the first Roman Emperor to endorse [[Christianity]], as a result of his victory in the [[Battle of Milvian Bridge]], which he credited to the Christian God. His adoption of Christianity may also be due to family influence: Helena was probably born a Christian, and demonstrated extreme piety in her later life. He legalized and strongly supported [[Christianity]] beginning around the time he became emperor, with the [[Edict of Milan]], but he neither made paganism illegal nor made Christianity the state religion. Though the church prospered under Constantine's patronage, it also fell into the first of many public schisms.  He himself called the [[First Council of Nicaea]] to settle the problem of [[Arianism]], a dispute about the personhood and godhood of [[Jesus]].  He himself was not baptized and chrismated until close to his death. Ironically, Constantine may have favored the losing side of the Arian controversy, as he was baptized by an Arian bishop, [[Eusebius of Nicomedia]].
 
 His victory in [[312]] over [[Maxentius]] at the Battle of Milvian Bridge resulted with him becoming Western Augustus, or ruler of the entire western half of the empire. He gradually consolidated his military superiority over his rivals in the crumbling [[Tetrarchy]] until [[324]], when he defeated the eastern ruler, [[Licinius]], and became sole emperor. 
 
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