Emperor Constantine - Rome's First Christian Emperor

Of all the notable Roman Emperors, Constantine stands out because he changed the face of Christianity forever. Born about February 27, AD 285, Constantine inherited his father's position as Caesar upon his death in AD 306. During this time, the Roman Empire was in turmoil and split into eastern and western partitions, each governed by a Caesar. When Constantine's father died, he began a political crusade to unite the Empire and systematically worked his way to a position where he battled with his main enemy, Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge. When the bridge collapsed, Maxentius and his army were killed, leaving Constantine the ruling Caesar of a larger territory.

In his continued efforts to unify the split empire, he declared that persecution of Christians was forbidden and he declared himself the emperor of the Christian people. Whether or not he truly believed in Christianity is up for debate, since he wasn't baptized until he was about to die, but he realized the strength behind the Christians and knew that to bring the people together, they needed a central religion. Even though he now protected and accepted the Christians, he remained a worshipper of the sun god and even noted this fact on his triumphant arch in Rome.

A symbol chosen by Constantine to represent his newly empirical religion was the chi-rho. This is a representation of the first two letters in Greek of the word 'christ'. The chi is Greek for ch and rho is r. The symbol itself looks like an 'x' superimposed over a 'p'. This was the new state symbol for Christianity, but clever Constantine knew his subjects may not readily accept a completely foreign religion, so he maintained tolerance of pagan practices and tied in rituals and ceremonies to Christianity, to make acceptance more palatable.