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Oh yes! And, was it not Constantine who murdered his opposite-in-power to gain complete power? Did he not consolidate the fragmented Christian sects to form this basis of his political power? And, was this not the beginning of the Holy Roman Empire, a replacement of the Roman Empire? Did they not follow him because of his promise to protect them against persecutions? And, what happened to that promise? Was it kept? Or, was the thirst for power, that thirst felt in the Roman Empire, merely continued in the Holy Roman Empire? What kind of foundation is this for any honorable organization? And, did not the final blows of The thirty Years War complete the assent of this kind of power? Please elucidate me!
But, first, please read the following URLs:
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http://www.roman-emperors.org/conii.htm
Constantine II, whose full name was Flavius Claudius Constantinus, was the son of Constantine I and Fausta.[[1]] Primary sources for the life and reign of Constantine II are scarce.[[2]] He was probably born in Arles in the summer of 316 A.D. and, like his brothers, raised as a Christian. He was made a Caesar on 1 March 317 and was involved in military expeditions at an early age.[[3]] For instance, in 323, he seems to have taken part in Constantine I's campaigns against the Sarmatians.[[4]] In 326, he was nominally put in command of Gaul at the age of 10 soon after the death of his half-brother Crispus.[[5]] Constantine II's generals apparently won a victory over the Alamanni, since the title Alamannicus appears on his inscriptions from the year 330.[[6]] In 332 he was Constantine I's field commander during the latter's campaign against the Goths.[[7]] Before 335 he was married, but his wife's name is not known. In the years before his father's death in 337, he held court in Gaul.[[8]]
Following the death of their father on 22 May 337, and the subsequent murder of other relatives and heirs,[[9]] Constantine II and his two brothers met in the first part of September 337 in Pannonia where they were acclaimed Augusti by the army to apportion the empire among themselves .[[10]] Constantine's new realm included Britain, Gaul, and Spain. Upon his accession, he freed the fiery Trinitarian Bishop Athanasius from his exile and allowed him to return to Alexandria. [[11]] Whether Constantine II was motivated by sincere Trinitarian belief (popular in his realm) or if he wanted to cause problems from his brother Constantius II is unclear. In 340 Constantine II, in an attempt to seize some of his brother Constans' realm, died in a battle fought near Aquileia.[[12]]
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http://www.brainyencyclopedia.com/encyclopedia/c/co/constantine_i_of_the_roman_empire.html
Flavius Valerius Constantinus (Constantine I or Constantine the Great) (272 - May 22, 337), was proclaimed Augustus by his troops on July 25, 306; and ruled an ever-growing portion of the Roman Empire to his death.
He was born at Naissus in Upper Dacia to Constantius I Chlorus and an innkeeper's daughter, Helena. Constantine was well educated and served at the court of Diocletian after the appointment of his father as one of the two 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), 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.
Constantine also rebuilt the ancient Greek city of Byzantium, naming it Nova Roma, providing it with a Senate and civic offices similar to the older Rome. After his death it was renamed Constantinople, and gradually became the capital of the empire.
Although he earned his honorific of "The Great" from Christian historians long after he had died, he could have claimed the title on his military achievements alone. In addition to reuniting the empire under one emperor, Constantine also won major victories over the Marcomanni and Alamanni (306-08), the Vandals and Marcomanni (314-15), the Visigoths in 332 and the Sarmatians two years later. In fact, by 336, Constantine had actually reoccupied most of the long-lost province of Dacia, which Aurelian had been forced to abandon in 271. At the time of his death, he was planning a great expedition to put an end to raids on the eastern provinces from Persia by conquering that nation--something no Emperor since Trajan had contemplated.
He was succeeded by his three sons, Constantine II, Constantius II and Constans, who secured their hold on the empire with the murder of a number of relatives and supporters of Constantine. The last member of his dynasty was his grandson, Julian, who attempted to restore paganism.
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What a wonderful family!
.H.
----- Original Message -----
From: lauf-s
Sent: Thursday, October 28, 2004 1:13 PM
Subject: Re: SURVIVOR ST. HELENA
Maxentius falls into river and is ultimately voted off the island.
http://www.christianitysite.com/MilvianBridge.htm
Apparently he's the third so far. Marie Antoinette lost her head right away.
Rumor has it that both sets of Matta-Clark and Bijani twins are on the island.
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