Constantine the Great

Constantine the Great was known to be brave and active, and he ruled the Roman Empire with fairness. He as well followed the Constantinian Dynasty like his father. He ruled the Roman Empire for thirty years, which is the longest period since Augustus, who was also a Roman emperor. Sources say that since he was converted to Christianity later in his life, he was not baptized until some time before his death. Sources agree that Constantine died while campaigning against Persians,

One of Constantines greatest accomplishments was creating Constantinople, which is also known as New Rome, and the present day is Istanbul, Turkey. Constantine moved the capital of Rome to Byzantium, which was a city in Greece. According to Constantine, it was god who told him to move the capital, which he renamed in his own honor as Constantinople. He enriched and enlarged the city at huge expense. He created massive walls around the buildings placed large chains in the water to protect Byzantium. In the capital, Constantine also built forums, hippodromes, a circus, baths, pleasure grounds, and many others to make it very similar to his home country, which was Rome. In addition, he also constructed theatres, schools, churches, palaces, aqueducts, and a great number of private houses for people to live in. In the year 330, to honor the new city that he created, he issued special commemorative coins.

Some time after the city was fully constructed and ready, he created a new form of government for his empire. According to sources, the type of constitution that he formed was despotism, which means that all the power was held in his hands. Though he gained a lot of power, he did however listen politicians and even the citizens for advice. Constantine greatly improved the city, and made it very similar to Rome in terms of power and influence. Constantine believed moving the capital to Constantinople would benefit economic development in the Empire. Such move left Rome as one of the greatest and wealthiest cities of the world, as well as the capital of the Western Empire. Not only Constantine created his own capital, he turned it into a beautiful city by adding creative art and architecture. He also filled Trier with imperial buildings and Rome with baths. Lastly, he constructed the great arch of Constantine near the Great Coliseum.

He strengthened the main circular wall around the city with military towers and stronger gates. Constantine was constantly strengthening and building up cities and areas of the empire to ensure the safety and prosperity of the citizens. Throughout Constantine's early reign he relied a lot on his father's reputation until he had made a name for himself and proven himself a legitimate emperor to the empire. Early on Constantine learned great amounts about how to run the Roman military and how to create a sustainable, vibrant empire.

A few years into Constantine's reign, the empire endured a civil war due to a rebellion by Maximian. In 310 Maximian rebelled against Constantine while Constantine was away with the Franks. Maximian said that Constantine was dead and claimed the throne for himself. Most of Constantine's army remained loyal to him and they eventually induced Maximian to leave. When Constantine heard about the rebellion he immediately left what he was doing and began marching his army up the Rhine. Maximian fled to the city of Marseille and was eventually captured, punished for his crimes and committed suicide.