Constantine and Dicius
... the kill of Christians who died as martyrs. The authorities started arresting Christians and through a combination of promises, threats and tortures they forced them to abandon their faith. One of the results if this persecution was the new title that appeared, “the confessors” which became very highly respected by the other Christians. The people were considered either an apostate or martyrs, depending on who they worshiped. After all the work of trying to re-educate the people in Rome, two years later Gallus succeeded him and his policies were set aside. Six years later a man called Valerian began a new persecution using Decius ideas. He was killed and the church enjoyed forty years of peace. From Rome to Constantinople (page 113-120, chapter 13) Before the battle at the Milvian Bridge, Constantine was already thinking in extending his territory. He spent many years planning and studying the territory that he wanted to conquer. Constantine was a very astute man that challenged his opponents one by one. He fought Maxentius with just one part of his army; by that time he established contact with Licinius, who was Maxentius’ neighbor to the east. Constantine offered Licinius his half-sister in order to preclude the possibility of taking the land of Maxentius while he was invading him. After the victory at the Milvian bridge he was in control of half of the empire and the other half was controlled between Licinius and Maximus Daia. By this time, Licinius and Constantine were allies. They were in Milan when they received the news that Maximus invaded Lucinius’ territory and have taken the city of Bizantium. The battle was something inevitable, so they moved quickly. Weeks later Maximus was death and the empire was then divided between Licinius and Constantine. There was only one person between Constatine and the whole empire, Licinius. It is said that Constantine made up a conspiracy against him in order to have facts and attack Licinius. As I already said, Constantine was an excellent strategist; he studied his enemy and decided to take the city of Byzantium, which is very close to Asia where almost all the resources came from. After that battle, a period of peace followed. More than 10 years of peace while Constantine consolidated his power in his new territories. After the period of peace, Constantine decided to invade again, with the new ideology that Licinius territory was not a Christian land. Using the pretext that he was in pursuit of a band of barbarians who had crossed the Danube, Constantine invaded his brother in law, but Licinius immediately ordered his troops to fight against him, no matter what the emblem was. After a hard and bloody fight, Licinius went to Byzantium. There he thought he was going to receive everybody’s support in order to keep the city, but his people where inexperienced and most of them died in a storm and at battle. Licinuis, by this time, knew that he was being persecuted by one of the most powerful warriors ever known, so he went to Asia Minor where he was defeated, and finally, Constantine was the master and only owner of the entire Roman Empire. He moved to the city of Byzantium and wanted that to be one of the most beautiful and enormous cities of the world, he constructed walls that surrounded the city and started giving free services in order that the people move there. The city grew immediately and amazingly, he putted statues everywhere and constructed what he wanted. But life didn’t give Constan...