Original subtitles

[music playing]

\h\h\h\hNARRATOR: Faced with barbarians at his doorstep,

usurpers on the frontiers, and \hrebellious subjects in Rome

\h\h\hitself, the third century emperor Aurelian

turns to the soldiers’ \h\h\hown god for help

and manages to restore and \hunite the broken empire.

\h\h\hBut before his work can take root,

\hhe is assassinated, leaving the empire at risk once again.

Now, in the troubled days of the late Roman Empire,

many rulers vie for power.

\h\h\h\hFrom this chaos, one man emerges, eliminating his rivals

\h\h\hand uniting the empire under the sign of a new god.

His name is Constantine.

And he will stop at nothing \h\hto save a dying empire.

\hThird century Rome is wracked by internal strife and barbarian

invasions.

\h\hBut by 295 AD, a powerful new emperor

has emerged as the \hempire’s savior.

His name is Diocletian.

\h\hWhat Diocletian has chosen to do addresses

a number of the concerns and \ha number of the challenges

the empire faced in \hthe third century.

\hOne element that Diocletian brings

in is a redefinition of the way frontiers were to be defended.

\h\hNARRATOR: Emperor Diocletian collection

\h\h\hcreates a mobile imperial army, always

available to send reinforcements to the vulnerable frontier.

One of his most capable \h\h\himperial soldiers

\his Constantine, only 17 years old.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hHe was a distinguished soldier.

That is to say that he was very courageous in battle

\hand that he performed all sorts of feats of daring do.

NARRATOR: These early signs of greatness in Constantine

have not escaped the notice \h\h\hof Emperor Diocletian.

Diocletian keeps the young \h\hsoldier close at hand,

claiming a desire to groom Constantine for a position

of power within the empire.

Diocletian’s other \hmajor reform is

to divide the empire between \hfour co-emperors, one each

in Illyricum and Italy while \hConstantine’s father rules

from Gaul.

\h\hDiocletian himself governs from Nicomedia in Asia Minor.

But Diocletian knows how easily his chosen co-emperors could

turn on him.

To prevent this, he keeps their sons, including Constantine,

in his court where they are \htrained as master soldiers

under his watchful eye.

\h\h\h\hRICHARD BURGESS: Constantine was sent off

\hto the courts of Diocletian to obtain the proper education

\hfor a member of the upper class, a literary education,

philosophical education.

He learned Greek, which he wouldn’t have known.

\h\hBut most important, he had a military education.

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hNARRATOR: But Constantine’s life in court

is anything but comfortable, \h\h\hfor as a father figure

and an emperor, Diocletian \hrules with an iron fist.

DAVID S. POTTER: He begins \h\h\hto rule increasingly

by issuing a whole series of extremely heavily moralizing

\h\hedicts telling people what to do,

\h\h\h\htelling them how to be better citizens and so forth.

NARRATOR: Diocletian insists \h\hthat everyone at court,

including Constantine, make \h\hregular sacrifices, for,

\h\h\habove all, Diocletian believes unity in the empire

comes from appeasing \hRome’s pagan gods.

But another religion is gathering many converts,

putting Diocletian’s \h\h\hplans at risk.

Its followers worship the son \hof a new god, Jesus Christ.

\h\h\hThe church had not only grown numerically,

\h\hbut it had also grown quite wealthy.

It had come to control \h\h\hlarge buildings.

It was, in many ways, a thriving institution within the Roman

Empire.

NARRATOR: An institution that Diocletian believes

is a threat to Rome.

\hMICHAEL KULIKOWSKI: He was extremely concerned

\hthat the health of the state and the health of Rome itself

was tied up with Roman religion.

And Christians were \ha threat to that.

\h\h\hChristians who had been tolerated for nearly 40 years

\h\h\h\hwere clearly a large percentage of the population

in the big cities.

\hAnd it’s clear that there were Christians in the army.

And there were Christians \h\hin the imperial court.

\hNARRATOR: Diocletian begins in his own imperial army, where he

requires that all soldiers make sacrifices to the gods of Rome,

though many Christians refuse.

MICHAEL KULIKOWSKI: Diocletian \hbelieved that anything that

interfered with the cultivation of Rome’s protecting gods

\h\h\hwas a genuine threat to the state

and could destroy the state, \h\hcould destroy the state

from within.

\hThis is the way he looked upon Christians in the army.

\h\h\hNARRATOR: Punishment for rejecting the emperor’s edict

is death, a brutality \h\hthat Constantine,

as a soldier in Diocletian’s army, is forced to witness.

\h\hConstantine grows troubled by the fear and discord borne

of Diocletian’s reforms.

\hIt is a discord that will soon spread beyond the army.

\h\h\h\hIn 303 AD, Emperor Diocletian issues an edict

against all Christians that \hbecomes known as the Great

Persecution.

DAVID S. POTTER: As soon as the persecution edict was issued,

it unleashed what is virtually a culture

of administrative cruelty.

\h\hRoman officials, in carrying out the edict,

\h\h\h\h\hwhen they met resistance were expected

\h\h\h\hto bring the defendants to court,

\h\hand to torture them for evidence,

\h\h\h\hand try to force them to officially and publicly give up

their Christianity.

\h\h\h\h\h\hNARRATOR: The Great Persecution marks the beginning

\hof what the Christians call the Era of Martyrs.

Any Christian who proclaims \h\h\h\hhis faith in public

is subject to death.

FLORIN CURTA: In many ways, \h\hDiocletian’s persecution

\h\h\h\h\hbrought previous persecutions way farther.

It’s probably the closest Roman emperors came to destroying

the entire system.

\hThat is probably why so many martyrs commemorated

\h\hby the Christian church are said to have suffered for Christ

during Diocletian’s reign.

NARRATOR: Despite \hhis reservations

about the persecutions, \h\h\h\h\h\hConstantine

must stay on good terms with the man who will likely determine

his future.

But when Diocletian unexpectedly falls ill and is forced

\h\hto retire, Constantine is surprised to find himself shut

out of the succession plan.

\h\h\hEDWARD J. WATTS: Diocletian, it seems,

understood that Constantine \h\h\hrepresented something

of a threat.

\h\h\h\h\hConstantine had campaigned with Diocletian

and had done a reasonably good \hjob during these campaigns.

\hWe’re told that later in his life,

Diocletian actually had \himprisoned Constantine

\h\hin his court to prevent Constantine

from going to his father’s court and establishing a relationship

with his father’s army.

NARRATOR: But now, with nothing left to keep him in the east,

Constantine resolves to grab hold of his destiny

\hand finally escape Diocletian’s grasp.

\h\hConstantine travels from Nicomedia to Boulougne, Gaul

\h\h\hto meet his father who now rules Spain, Gaul, and Britain.

Constantine’s father, \hEmperor Constantius,

\h\h\his by now old, unwell, and troubled

by the extended absence \hof a son he longs for.

\hBut in 305 AD, Constantine is finally united with his father,

a man more like him in nature \h\hthan Diocletian ever was.

DAVID S. POTTER: Constantius, as far as we can tell in the west,

\hwas a good deal more relaxed in his approach to government.

And he certainly found that it \hwas quite possible to ignore

\hsome of the things that Diocletian told him to do.

NARRATOR: Constantine \hfinds in his father

a more compassionate leader.

And Constantius finds his son has grown into the kind of man

\hwho could one day take his place on the throne.

When Emperor Diocletian \h\h\hretires in 305 AD,

Constantine is finally released from his controlling grip

\h\h\hand free to join his aging father Constantius in the west.

\h\h\h\h\h\hOne of Rome’s four co-emperors, Constantius rules

over Spain, Gaul, \hand Britain, now

threatened by barbarian Picts.

In 305 AD, he and Constantine travel

from Boulougne to Britain to put down the rebellion.

\h\hThe Picts are a ferocious tribe in present day Scotland

that has long plagued \h\h\h\hRoman Britain.

\h\h\h\hIn battle, these bloodthirsty barbarians

\h\hpresent a serious challenge for Constantine and his father.

These barbarian neighbors \hin the fourth century

\h\h\h\hare much better organized than they had

been in previous generations.

The Roman armies faced far more difficult campaigns in Europe

than they previously had.

NARRATOR: To make matters worse, Emperor Constantius’ health is

in serious decline.

The ailing emperor, \h\hhe clearly was

\hsick by the time he had come with his son

to face the danger of the Pict.

He had gone on to this campaign as yet another indication

of how serious the threat was.

NARRATOR: With Constantius’ \h\h\h\hhealth in question,

it is up to Constantine to \hlead his father’s troops

\h\h\hand secure their allegiance in battle.

\h\h\h\h\hDAVID S. POTTER: When Constantine rejoined his father

\h\h\h\h\hin the west, Constantius made sure

that he began to assume a place in the higher command echelon,

\hthat he joined the army on campaign, that the soldiers

came to know him, and that \h\hhe would actually have

a natural place within \h\hthe administration

of the Western Empire.

\h\h\hThis had always been Constantius’ hope for him.

NARRATOR: With his military prowess,

Constantine wins the loyalty of the army.

\hBut the victory cannot save his father’s life.

In the end, Constantine \h\hwill lose the father

he has only just come to know.

[music playing]

\h\h\hEDWARD J. WATTS: When his father died,

\h\h\hthe army thought enough of Constantine

that they immediately \hclaimed him empire.

In a way, this is a natural occurrence.

It was an army that knew \hConstantine’s father,

respected Constantine’s father, and now knew the son as well.

They understood, in \ha sense, what they

were getting with Constantine.

\h\hNARRATOR: In an empire where the death of a ruler

too frequently leads to violent coups and ambitious plays

\h\h\h\h\h\h\hfor power, Constantine’s succession

is smooth and bloodless.

But when barbarian Franks \h\hattack Gaul in 306 AD,

\h\h\hConstantine faces his first challenge as emperor.

He heads south from Britain \h\hto meet them in battle.

\hEDWARD J. WATTS: The Franks clearly

\h\h\hunderstood the death of Constantius

was an opportunity, \hand an opportunity

\hthat they could take advantage of.

Constantine though demonstrated a great capacity as a commander

and beat back this initial incursion.

NARRATOR: As a new emperor, \hConstantine wastes no time

proving his worth.

DAVID S. POTTER: The emperor was expected

\hto be in personal command of the army

and was very often \h\hexpected to be

in command in the front rank.

\hConstantine seemed himself to have been a very capable

frontline soldier.

He is often seen to be leading cavalry charges in his battle.

He’s a very able tactician.

\h\hNARRATOR: He is also wise and knows

\h\h\hthat to establish his power, he must win the trust

of the populace as well.

\hThe captured Frankish leaders provide the perfect opportunity

to do just that.

\hConstantine parades the barbarian captives

in the streets of Trier, \hin modern day Germany,

\h\hto show his people he will protect them.

\h\h\h\h\h\hNOEL LENSKI: Constantine’s well aware

\hthat the primary objective of any empire at this point,

if he wants to gain \h\hand hold power,

is to fight with barbarians.

\hSo Constantine does this in grand fashion.

\h\h\h\hConstantine undertakes campaigns against the Franks.

\hAnd we have evidence that he captured a couple of Frankish

\h\h\hkings, whom he then put on display

in the arena for the delight \h\h\hof the Gaulic masses.

NARRATOR: Ultimately, \h\h\h\hthe barbarians

will be thrown to the beasts, \h\h\hsending a clear message

that Constantine will \h\hnot tolerate those

who threaten the Roman Empire.

But in 306 AD, the empire is threatened from within when

\h\h\ha usurper named Maxentius seizes power in Rome, declaring

himself emperor and taking \hcontrol of most of Italy

and North Africa.

The usurper Maxentius \h\h\h\h\hwins support

by promising to cut taxes \h\hand provide free grain

to the people of Rome.

Like Constantine, he is the son of a former co-emperor.

RICHARD BURGESS: Constantine \h\h\hwas proclaimed emperor

by the troops in July 306.

And Maxentius is sitting \h\hin Rome is thinking,

well, he’s emperor.

I want to be emperor too.

\hAnd so what happens is at the end of 306,

he is proclaimed emperor.

\h\h\h\h\h\hNARRATOR: But unlike Constantine’s, Maxentius’ claim

to the throne is not legitimate.

\h\h\h\hMaxentius defeats, imprisons, and eventually

murders the rightful co-emperor of Italy.

And soon, the people of Rome will learn his promises are

nothing but lies.

In 311 AD, the Romans revolt when the free grain and tax

cuts are only offered \h\h\hto the wealthy.

Ordinary citizens must steal \hwhat they can to survive.

RICHARD BURGESS: Maxentius \his not a popular leader.

He was a particularly \h\h\hruthless leader.

He put down revolts \h\h\hvery bloodily.

There were rumors going around that he was seducing senators’

daughters.

\hThere were problems with the grain supply.

\h\hHe was taxing people, which they’d never been taxed before.

NARRATOR: The desperate uprising of Rome’s oppressed masses

\h\h\h\hoffers an unexpected opportunity for Constantine.

\h\hHoping to save the people of Rome

and expand his own reach into Italy,

Constantine travels \hfrom Gaul to Milan

\h\h\h\hto strike a deal with another co-emperor, Licinius.

\hIt is a deal to consolidate power.

To seal their alliance, \hLicinius is betrothed

to Constantine’s sister.

\h\h\hNOEL LENSKI: Constantine played every game in the book.

He was an extremely \hambitious person.

\h\h\h\hAnd there was no avenue to power that he

was going to leave open.

\h\hThat meant that, in his early years,

he was willing to do all \hsorts of manipulations

\hto try to continue to climb the ladder.

\h\hNARRATOR: Together, Licinius and Constantine

\htrick their co-emperors in the east into believing

\h\htheir intentions are only to oust Maxentius.

\hConstantine looks to take advantage of the situation

and starts calling Maxentius \h\han illegitimate emperor

and usurper.

\h\h\h\h\hConstantine and his supporters justify an invasion

\h\h\h\hagainst Maxentius as a necessary removal of a tyrant

from the city of Rome.

NARRATOR: But once \hRome is secure,

Constantine and Licinius will \hset their sights on seizing

control of the entire empire.

\h\hIn 306 AD, when the usurper Maxentius seizes power in Rome,

Constantine strikes an alliance with his equally ambitious

co-emperor Licinius to destroy Maxentius

\h\h\hand divide the empire between them.

\hWhile Licinius is occupied with defending the empire’s

northern border from barbarian invaders,

\hConstantine marches on Rome, laying siege

\hto the imperial city where Maxentius hides.

Within the walls of Rome, \hthe devout pagan senses

will base his strategy on \hthe sheep entrails read

by his priest.

NOEL LENSKI: When it came \htime to fight a battle,

\h\h\hMaxentius was interested in having

some sort of divine protection.

And he followed the procedures \hthat any good Roman emperor

would have followed in order \h\hto seek that protection.

\hNARRATOR: But desperate to determine if he should

\hwait Constantine out or face him in battle,

\hMaxentius also seeks guidance from the words of the Sibylline

prophecies.

NOEL LENSKI: One of the sources that Maxentius turned to

were the Sibylline oracles.

These were books of prophecies \h\h\hthat were kept by Roman

priestly colleges.

\hAnd these priests would then investigate certain questions

and pull out an oracle.

\hThis is an oracle in which he is told that an enemy of Rome

will die today.

For this reason, it seems Maxentius changes his plan

and makes a decision that he won’t wait Constantine out.

He’ll go out and meet Constantine in battle.

NARRATOR: Assuming \hthat Constantine

\h\h\his the enemy of Rome referred to by the oracle,

Maxentius prepares his army for war.

Meanwhile, just outside \h\hof Rome, Constantine

prepares to meet Maxentius \h\h\hon the battlefield.

Knowing his troops will be severely outnumbered,

Constantine grows uneasy.

\hEDWARD J. WATTS: Constantine began

to get very concerned about the strength of his forces.

\h\hAnd we’re told he prayed that some god would help him

\h\h\hand received a vision in response.

And this is interpreted \h\h\h\h\hby Constantine

as a Christian vision.

\h\h\hNARRATOR: The fourth century historian Eusebius

of Caesarea records \h\hwhat is supposed

to have happened as recounted to him by Constantine himself.

ACTOR AS EUSEBIUS (VOICEOVER): Around noon time, when the day

\h\h\h\h\hwas already beginning to decline,

\hhe saw before him in the sky the sign of a cross of light.

He said it was above the sun and it bore the inscription

"conquer vitus."

NOEL LENSKI: What he claims to have seen

was a symbol that looked like a cross with a sort of P form

at the top of it.

That is the letters Chi Rho that would have formed the first two

letters of Christ’s \h\h\hname in Greek.

And there are some sources \hthat claim that he also

\hheard a voice at the same time that said that he would conquer

by this sign.

\hNARRATOR: Constantine orders his soldiers to place the Chi

Rho on their shields \h\h\hand standards,

transforming the Christian \h\hsymbol from an object

of persecution to one of honor.

NOEL LENSKI: Constantine \h\h\hassumed a new god,

or a god that had formerly been rejected as his divine force,

as his victory power.

By taking on the Christian god, the god that had been subjected

to persecution by \hformer emperors,

Constantine was therefore doing something quite revolutionary.

\h\h\hNARRATOR: With his conversion, Constantine

turns his impending battle \hwith the pagan Maxentius

into a test of religions.

Constantine meets Maxentius \h\h\hat the Milvian Bridge

which, passing over \h\hthe Tiber River,

is the only obstacle between Constantine

and an open road to Rome.

\h\h\h\h\h\hThough grossly outnumbered by Maxentius,

\h\hConstantine and his army now marked by the Christian Chi Rho

ride into battle with courage.

\h\hEDWARD J. WATTS: The battle of Milvian Bridge

is significant battle.

The forces are arrayed \hagainst each other.

\h\h\hAnd despite a numerical advantage,

\h\hMaxentius’ forces are pushed back by Constantine

towards the river.

\h\hNARRATOR: It is at the banks of the Tiber

that Maxentous’ fate is sealed.

\hConstantine forced Maxentius to give battle with the Tiber

at his back.

It’s a terrible position to be in as Constantine’s force

pressed on his own.

Maxentius’ army fell apart.

\h\h\hWith no other options, the usurper

Maxentius flees with his army, attempting to swim

across the Tiber River to Rome.

But Maxentius, with his heavy \h\h\harmor weighing him down,

does not survive the swim.

Days later, his bloated \h\h\hand deformed body

is pulled from the Tiber, final proof

that the usurper’s regime has fallen.

\hEDWARD J. WATTS: Constantine has won a significant victory

\h\hat Milvian Bridge that eliminates the opposition

of Maxentius and, even \hmore significantly,

gives Constantine control of \ha full half of the empire,

including the wealthy \h\hprovince of Italy.

NARRATOR: Maxentius’ fate \h\his a powerful reminder

\h\hof Constantine’s strength and of what befalls those who

dare to oppose him.

RAY VAN DAM: Constantine \h\hwent out of his way

\hto dredge his body out just so they could parade his head

\hthrough Rome and then send it to North Africa

\hto demonstrate that this previous emperor was dead

\h\hand Constantine had now taken over.

NARRATOR: His victory \h\h\h\hover Maxentius

\h\halso proves to Constantine that the Christian god is more

powerful than the pagan \h\h\hgods of his enemy.

With the defeat of Maxentius, \h\hall of the Western Empire

belongs to Constantine.

\hAs agreed, he leaves the east for Licinius to take.

They meet in Milan where Constantine and Licinius

confirm their mutual support through marriage as planned.

\hConstantine decides to bind himself to Licinius or bind

Licinius to his cause.

He takes one of his half \h\hsisters, Constantia,

\h\h\hand marries her to Licinius, who recognizes

\hthat this is the natural way of making an alliance.

\h\h\h\hNow to begin with, the marriage itself actually marks

the point at which the two, \h\hConstantine on one hand

and Licinius on the other, \hagreed on the policies.

NARRATOR: One of these \h\hpolicies reflects

\h\h\hConstantine’s recent adoption of Christianity.

MICHAEL KULIKOWSKI: \h\hThe two emperors

consulted on how they would carve up power between them.

And one element in this decision was

to extend toleration \h\hfor Christianity

throughout the whole empire.

Licinius was not a Christian himself, although he agreed

with Constantine to stop the persecution

throughout the empire.

NARRATOR: For now, such agreements come easily.

\hBut an alliance borne of ambition is fragile.

And Constantine must recognize \hthat his sole co-emperor is

also his greatest rival.

After forming an alliance \h\hwith Emperor Licinius,

\h\hConstantine defeats the usurper Maxentius in Italy.

Now convinced that the Christian god granted this victory,

Constantine is determined to show his appreciation.

For the first time in \h10 years, Christians

throughout the empire are \hable to worship freely.

\h\hAnd for the first time ever, their faith

is shared by the emperor.

MICHAEL KULIKOWSKI: Constantine had converted to Christianity.

\h\h\h\h\hHe had embraced quite seriously the task of defending

the Christian church.

NARRATOR: His family, including his son and heir Crispus,

converts as well.

Constantine not only extended toleration

to the Christian church.

But in the territory \h\h\hhe controlled,

he favored Christians \h\h\hvery thoroughly.

NARRATOR: In 313 AD, Constantine and Licinius jointly issued

the Edict of Milan, recorded by the fourth century author

Lactantius.

ACTOR AS LACTANTIUS (VOICEOVER): We grant both to Christians

\h\hand to everyone freedom to follow whatever religion they

want to so whatever divinity \hthere is in heaven may be

appeased and made \hfavorable to us

\hand to all who are set under our power.

NARRATOR: But in the years that followed,

\hConstantine’s relationship with Licinius deteriorates.

As Licinius battles his way \hto dominance in the east,

his hunger for power grows.

RICHARD BURGESS: So \hLicinius goes off

and does his own thing, as it were, in the east.

\hBut Constantine doesn’t trust him.

\h\hAnd there are growing tensions between the two.

\hNARRATOR: After nine years of shared rule,

both emperors covet control \h\hover the entire empire.

\hIt is a rivalry that will quickly

drive Rome towards civil war.

\hIn the east, Christians soon bear the brunt of the growing

conflict.

\h\h\h\h\hAs supporters of the Christian Emperor Constantine,

they are now Licinius’ \h\h\hgreatest threat.

They pay a heavy price.

MICHAEL KULIKOWSKI: Ultimately, one of the responses

was a renewal of persecution.

\h\hAnd the reason for that, of course, was very simple.

Constantine was known to be \ha defender of Christians.

\h\h\hAnd Christian subjects of Licinius

\h\h\h\hcould look like a fifth column, could look like enemies

in Licinius’ own territories.

So he chooses to persecute them.

NARRATOR: As the churches and \hholy books go up in flames,

so does the old alliance between Licinius and Constantine.

\h\h\h\h\hFor Constantine, now a seasoned ruler of middle years,

\h\h\h\h\h\hthe persecution of Christians is just the excuse

he needs to attack Licinius.

\hHe quickly orders his troops to march on his eastern rival.

DAVID S. POTTER: Constantitne \hwas an especially effective

cavalry leader.

\hWe often find himself at the head of cavalry,

\hmoving around the flanks of his enemy.

He certainly does this to Licinius.

\h\hNARRATOR: At Constantine’s side is his able son and heir

Crispus, who proves his worth in battle as well.

Together, they drive \hLicinius eastward.

\h\h\h\hFrom Adrianople, Constantine and Crispus

pursue Licinius to Byzantium \h\h\hand on to Chrysopolis

where he makes his final stand.

There, in 324 AD, with the \hentire empire at stake,

\h\hConstantine and Crispus face Licinius side by side.

Crispus inherited his father’s \hability on the battlefield.

Crispus was another \h\hmilitary genius.

Without Crispus’ help, the \hsuccess against Licinius

may never have happened.

NARRATOR: Constantine and Crispus annihilate

\hLicinius’ army, fighting once more under the banner

of the Christian god.

\hDAVID S. POTTER: The battle of Chrysopolis

was really over before it began.

\h\hConstantine was able to bring his own troops

\h\hinto the territory of Licinius without any kind

of effective resistance.

His own army had been victorious now easily in several battles.

\h\hLicinius’ own confidence seems to have been minimal.

\hNARRATOR: And in the final battle,

\h\h\h\h\htheir victory wins Constantine’s sole rulership

of the entire empire.

Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea.

ACTOR AS EUSEBIUS (VOICEOVER): \h\h\h\h\hThe eastern regions

\hwere united with those of the west.

\hAnd the whole body of the Roman Empire

was graced by a single \h\hand supreme ruler.

NARRATOR: Imprisoned \h\h\hin Nicomedia,

\hLicinius will face a brutal punishment.

The only witness is \hhis beloved wife,

the sister of Constantine.

RAY VAN DAM: His relationship \h\h\h\h\h\hwith like Licinius

is interesting.

\h\h\hLicinius is technically, remember, his brother-in-law.

Licinius’ wife pleads for \h\hmercy for her husband.

\hFor a while, Constantine seems to grant that sort of clemency.

They share a meal.

Licinius is sent into exile.

Then he’s executed.

NARRATOR: Despite his wife’s pleas,

Licinius’ execution is swift \h\hand bloody, making clear

that Constantine shows no mercy, even to members of his family.

With the elimination \h\h\h\hof Licinius,

\h\hConstantine now rules the entire unified empire

and intends to make his loyal \hson Crispus a junior emperor

in the West.

As co-emperor, Crispus shares in his father’s

plans for a new Christian \h\h\hcapital in the east

to be located at Byzantium.

MICHAEL KULIKOWSKI: After \h\hConstantine conquered

\hthe entire empire, he wanted to create a brand

\h\hnew city in his own name and he did, Constantinople.

He chose a strategic \h\hlocation halfway

\h\hbetween the most important frontiers.

And he deliberately chose to create a new city that

\hwould have no association with his pagan predecessors.

It was a city that had \hno rival traditions.

It was a Christian city.

NARRATOR: But even as \hhis greatest dreams

come to fruition, trouble brews among those closest

to Constantine’s heart, his wife Fausta and son Crispus.

\h\hRICHARD BURGESS: Crispus was the son

of Constantine’s first wife.

\h\hHis last three sons were the sons of his second wife,

Fausta.

And their can’t help but have \h\hbeen some kind of tension

\hbetween the two groups, especially

on Fausta’s side, because she \hwould clearly want her sons

to get what’s coming to them.

\h\h\h\hBut of course, Crispus is in the way.

\h\h\h\hNARRATOR: Jealous that Crispus has been granted power

in the West, Fausta \h\h\his determined

to secure even greater \hpower for her sons,

no matter what the cost.

\h\h\h\hWith his son Crispus, Constantine

defeats his last rival, \hLicinius, and finally

unites the empire under his new Christian faith.

But Constantine’s unity is soon threatened as riots break out

\hover religious differences within the Christian church.

EDWARD J. WATTS: The situation \h\hhe finds among Christians

\hin the eastern empire is one of great turmoil.

\h\hThere’s a controversy raging about the nature of Christ that

\h\h\his also tied up with the question of who ought to have

authority in the eastern church.

NARRATOR: Rival bishops \h\h\hincite mob attacks

against other Christians \hwith opposing beliefs.

\h\hIt is a violence not seen since the days of persecution

over 20 years earlier.

\h\h\h\hDesperate for a resolution, Constantine

\hdemands the church officials put an end

to the bloody controversy.

MICHAEL KULIKOWSKI: So he calls together

a council of over 300 \hbishops and has them

meet at a city called Nicaea.

He charges them with arriving at a single definition of what

Christians believe.

NARRATOR: The result is the \hNicene Creed, a statement

\h\h\h\hof faith that has survived over 1,600 years

and is still recited today \h\hin Christian churches

around the world.

MAN (VOICEOVER): We believe in one god, the father almighty,

\hmaker of all things visible and invisible,

\hand in one lord Jesus Christ, the son of god,

the only begotten of the father.

MICHAEL KULIKOWSKI: But it’s a definition of Christian belief

that not everyone \hcan agree with.

\h\h\hAnd this stores up a great deal of trouble for the future,

because it means that \h\hrival Christians,

\h\h\h\hrival Christian beliefs, are constantly

\h\hjockeying for imperial favor throughout the rest

of the century.

And it means that emperors \hare regularly distracted

from other business \h\h\hof government

by trying to manage \h\h\hthe rivalries

among different Christians and \hdifferent Christian bishops.

NARRATOR: Perhaps it is this distraction

that blinds Constantine to a rivalry much closer

to his heart.

In 326 AD, Constantine’s \h\h\h\h\h\hwife Fausta

attacks the integrity \hof his son, Crispus.

MICHAEL KULIKOWSKI: Crispus was Constantine’s eldest son

from an early marriage.

And he did not have \h\hthe same mother

as his half brothers had.

And it’s quite clear that \hhe was in strong rivalry

\h\h\h\hwith his three younger half brothers.

NARRATOR: As part of \han elaborate plot,

\hFausta delivers shocking news, claiming that Crispus has tried

to seduce her.

[inaudible]

\hEDWARD J. WATTS: Things don’t go very well for Crispus at all.

Fausta was eager to get \hCrispus out of the way

\h\h\hso her legitimate sons could succeed without threat

from Crispus.

\hNARRATOR: Constantine, unable to see that it is his wife, not

\h\hhis son, who has betrayed him, orders

Crispus to be prepared \h\h\h\hfor execution.

Imprisoned in distant Pola, modern day Croatia, Crispus

insists on his innocence.

\hThough his cries fall on deaf ears,

he has an advocate in \hConstantine’s court.

Constantine received advice from his own mother Helena

that perhaps it was Fausta herself who had engineered

\hthis little plot, had pretended to be violated

\h\hor to have been set upon by Crispus in order

that she, Fausta, could promote the interests of her own sons.

Constantine had certainly \h\h\h\hacted too hastily

and was aware of that.

\hNARRATOR: Fausta pays for her treachery with her life.

But Constantine’s realization \hcomes too late for Crispus.

\h\h\h\hThe prison guards have already received their orders

to execute the royal son.

NOEL LENSKI: What exactly \hhappened, we don’t know.

\hBut it was a terrible blow to the Roman Empire

that Crispus was sacrificed \h\hon the altar of history.

\h\h\h\h\hNARRATOR: And Constantine is left only

with a devastated conscience.

\h\h\h\hAs a sort of penance, Constantine

\hspends the last years of his life building churches

\hin Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Constantinople, and Rome.

\h\h\hAmong the most magnificent of these

churches is one built \hon the site thought

to be Saint Peter’s tomb in Rome, a place of pilgrimage

for Christians to this day.

\h\hFLORIN CURTA: It is for his churches

that Constantine is better known.

That in itself is an indication both

of his pro-Christian policies \h\h\h\hand of the attachment

to the Christian faith.

\h\hNARRATOR: Refusing to abandon this faith

\hdespite its ongoing disputes, Constantine

\hdirects the construction of the glorious basilica of Saint

Peter himself.

\hFLORIN CURTA: It’s an extraordinary explosion

\hof architecture in a way that did not exist before

in the Roman Empire.

\h\h\hAnd the variety of plans could be explained

both by the variety \h\h\hof architects

that Constantine involved in this

\hand most likely by his own ideas.

He was involved in almost \h\h\hevery project there.

And he was a man that actually had his own ideas about what’s

going on.

NARRATOR: Constantine \h\h\h\hcan only hope

that this devotion at \hthe end of his life

will erase a multitude of sins for Constantine knows

\h\h\h\h\hthat his day of reckoning is not far off.

\hOld and unwell, he finally requests baptism in 337 AD.

EDWARD J. WATTS: It would make sense for Constantine

to delay his baptism, \h\h\hbecause emperors

had a dangerous and dirty job.

And sometimes they had to do difficult and sinful things

as a consequence of their job.

To delay baptism until the end of one’s life made some sense.

\h\hThose dangerous, and dirty, and sinful things

that one had to do could be washed away before you die.

\h\h\hNARRATOR: Haunted by these sins, Constantine wants nothing

\hmore than to die with a clean conscience, purified

by the waters of baptism.

\hBy the end of his life, Constantine

is something of a sort \hof living visionary

\hwho, at the point when he’s baptized,

wanted to take off his imperial robes

and live ever thereafter \h\has a sort of priest.

NARRATOR: At the end of his life,

Constantine finally finds peace in the faith he wrote about

throughout his life.

ACTOR AS CONSTANTINE \h\h\h\h(VOICEOVER):

\h\hI know that I am in the true sense blessed,

that now I have been shown \hworthy of immortal life,

\h\h\hthat now I have received divine light.

NARRATOR: Constantine dies in May of 337 AD

\hafter more than 30 years of rule.

NOEL LENSKI: Constantine \h\h\h\hwas tremendously

successful as an emperor, \htremendously successful

as a military leader.

\h\h\h\hThis was a man who clawed his way into power

using raw ambition.

\hAnd at every turn, he used that same ambition

in order to win the day.

\hNARRATOR: Throughout his life, Constantine

fights to keep the fragile \h\hempire whole, unified

under his new religion.

\hBut nothing, not even faith, can save it now.