1-5. The Defeat of Licinius and the Challenge of the Church
It soon appeared which was the better statesman. Constantine drew nearer to the Christians, while Licinius drifted into persecution, devising annoyances enough to make them enemies but not enough to make them harmless. Thus Constantine allows manumission in church, judges the Donatists, closes the courts on Sundays, loads the churches with gifts, and, at last (May 323), frees Christians from all pagan ceremonies of state. Recent opinion (Jonquet, Pears) seems to place the campaign in 324. The question is difficult: but the Council of Nicaea seems firmly fixed for 325, the preparations for it cannot have begun till the war was ended, and no room seems left for them if the battle of Chrysopolis is placed in Sept. 324.
Licinius drove the Christians from his court, forbade meetings of bishops, and meddled vexatiously with their worship. This gave the war something of a religious character; but its occasion was not religious. The Goths had been pretty quiet since Aurelian had settled them in Dacia. It was not till 322 that Rausimod their king crossed the Danube on a foray. Constantine drove them back, chased them beyond the Danube, slew Rausimod, and settled thousands of Gothic serfs in the adjacent provinces. But in the pursuit he crossed the territory of Licinius; and this led to war. Constantine's army was 130,000 strong, and his son Crispus had a fleet of 200 sail, in the Piraeus. Licinius awaited him with 160,000 men near Hadrianople, while his admiral Amandus was to hold the Hellespont with 350 ships. There was no idea of using the fleet to take Constantine in the rear.
After some difficult manoeuvres, Constantine won the first battle (3 July 323), but was brought to a stop before the walls of Byzantium. Licinius was safe there, so long as he held the sea; so he chose Martinianus his magister officiorum for the new Augustus of the West. Meanwhile Constantine strengthened his fleet, and his son Crispus completely defeated Amandus in the Hellespont. Licinius left Byzantium to defend itself — it had held out two years against Severus — and prepared to maintain the Asiatic shore. Constantine left Byzantium on one side and landed near Chrysopolis, where he found the whole army of Licinius drawn up to meet him.
The battle of Chrysopolis (18 or 20 Sept 323) was decisive. Licinius fled to Nicomedia, and presently Constantia came out to ask for her husband's life. It was granted, and Constantine confirmed his promise with an oath. Nevertheless Licinius was put to death in October 325 on a charge of treasonable intrigue. The charge is unlikely but Licinius was quite capable of it, and his execution docs not seem to have estranged Constantia from her brother. But perhaps the matter is best connected with the family tragedy which we shall come to presently.
As a general, Constantine ranks high among the emperors. Good soldiers as they mostly were, none but Severus and Aurelian could boast of any such career of victory as had brought Constantine from the shores of Britain to the banks of the Tiber and the walls of Byzantium. But after the "crowning mercy" of Chrysopolis there was no more fighting, except with the Goths.
The last fourteen years of Constantine (323-337) were years of peace: and the first question which then confronted him was the question of religion. By what road did he approach Christianity, and how far did he come on the journey?
Two fables may be dismissed at once — the heathen fable told by Zosimus in the fifth century, that the Christians were complaisant when the philosophers refused to absolve him for the murder of his son Crispus; and the papal fable of the eighth century, that he was healed of leprosy by Pope Sylvester, and thereupon gave him dominion over "the palace, the city of Rome, and the entire West." These legends are summarily refuted by the fact that he was baptised in 337, not as they tell us, in 326.
Turning now to history, we have no reason to suppose that he owed Christian impressions to his mother's teaching: but Constantius was an eclectic of the better sort, and a man of some culture; and his memory contrasted well with that of his colleagues. Constantine seems to have begun where his father left off, as more or less monotheistic and averse to idols, and more or less friendly to the Christians, and all these things grew upon him. The last of them may not have meant much at first, for even hostile emperors like Severus and Diocletian had sense enough to keep on good terms with the Christians when they were not prepared to crush them. But Constantine was drawn to them personally as well as politically; by his pure life and genuine humanity as well as by his shrewd statesmanship. Their lofty monotheism and austere morals attracted the man, their strong organisation arrested the attention of the ruler.
When Diocletian threw down his challenge to the Church, he made religion the urgent question of the time: and the persecution was a visible failure before Constantine was well settled in Gaul. If Diocletian had failed to crush the Church, others were not likely to succeed. Maximin or Licinius might hark back to the past , but Constantine saw clearly that the Empire would have to make some sort of terms with the Church, so that the only question was how far it would be needful or safe to go. For the moment, a little friendliness to the Gaulish bishops was enough to secure the good will of the Christians all over the Empire.
Then came the wars of 312-3, which forced on Constantine and Licinius the championship of the Christians, and made it plain good policy to give them full legal toleration. Licinius stopped there, and Constantine did not make up his mind without anxiety. The God of the Christians had shown great power, and might be the best protector; and in any case a firm alliance with their strong hierarchy would not only remove a great danger, but give the very help which the Empire needed. On the other hand, it was a serious thing to break with the past and brave the terrors of heathen magic. Moreover, the Christians were a minority even in the East, and he could not openly go over to them without risk of a pagan reaction. So he moved cautiously.
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