Licinius

But Diocletian divided it between himself and Maximus, A.C. 285.

And it continued in that divided state till the victory of Constantine the Great over Licinius, A.C. 323, which put an end to the heathen persecutions set on foot by Diocletian and Maximus, and described the opening of the fifth seal.

But this division of the empire was imperfect, the whole being still under one and the same senate.

The same victory of Constantine over Licinius, a heathen persecutor, began the fall of the heathen empire, described at the opening of the sixth seal.

And the visions of the seal continue till after the reign of Julian the Apostate, he being a heathen emperor, and reigning over the whole Roman Empire.

The affairs of the church begin to be considered at the opening of the fifth seal, as was said above.

The Nicolaitans are also complained of in the fourth epistle, under the name of the woman Jezebel, who calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce the servants of Christ to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed to idols.

The woman, therefore, began now to fly into the wilderness.

Without entering into a minute description of his sufferings, which are particularized by Eusebius and Lactantius, it is perfectly right to observe that he who delighted so long to make men feel the most exquisite misery might say at last with Adonai Bezek, As I have done, so God hath requited me.

Maximin attempted to succeed him in all his eastern dominions, but was prevented by Licinius, whom Galerius had nominated Augustus, who took possession of Asia Minor.

But Syria and Egypt, with their dependencies, remained still under Maximin.

Here he renewed the persecution with much malevolence and artifice.

But the mischiefs which his authority introduced continued under tyrants more ferocious than himself, and he lived not only to see these mischiefs, without power to check them, had he been so disposed, but also, what probably more afflicted his mind, to find his daughter Valeria, the widow of Galerius and her mother, his own wife Prisca, treated with great injustice by his successors, and to solicit their release in vain.

Worn out with grief and vexation he ended his days at length, a monument of the instability of all human greatness.

He lived not to see the catastrophe of his wife and daughter, who after a long course of sufferings were put to death by Licinius.

It is foreign to the design of this history to particularize their story, which after all is very mysterious.

The Emperor Constantine is famous for being the first to adopt Christianity and also is the founder of the great city of Constantinople.

To achieve sole rulership over the empire, he defeated another contender named Licinius.

Both the army of Constantine and the army of Licinius were formed in large part of men recruited from beyond the Danube.

In essence, to some extent, Constantine and Licinius were competing for the same pool of military talent.

Shortly thereafter, in the early 330s, Constantine concluded a crushingly successful military campaign against the Goths beyond the Danube.

He imposed a formal treaty on the Goths in the year 332, one of the first formal agreements of this kind between the Romans and a barbarian group.

But Diocletian divided it between himself and Maximus.

AC 285 And it continued in that divided state till the victory of Constantine the Great over Licinius AC 323, which put an end to the heathen persecutions set on foot by Diocletian and Maximus.

and described the opening of the fifth seal.

But this division of the empire was imperfect, the whole being still under one and the same senate.

The same victory of Constantine over Licinius, a heathen persecutor, began the fall of the heathen empire, described at the opening of the sixth seal.

And the visions of the seal continue till after the reign of Julian the Apostate, he being a heathen emperor.

and reigning over the whole roman empire the affairs of the church begin to be considered at the opening of the fifth seal as was said above then she is represented by a woman in the temple of heaven clothed with the sun of righteousness and the moon of jewish ceremonies under her feet and upon her head a crown of twelve stars relating to the twelve apostles and to the twelve tribes of israel When she fled from the temple into the wilderness, she left in the temple a remnant of her seed,

The woman, therefore,

Plus, something must have occurred before the Battle of Milvian Bridge, because soon after seizing power, Constantine thought of himself as a Christian and almost immediately started returning property to Christians that had been confiscated during the Great Persecution a few years before under Emperor In 313, he sponsored the construction of a bunch of huge churches like the Lateran Basilica in Rome, and he even granted food rations to the Christians of North Africa.

This series of pro-Christian policies culminated with the Edict of Milan, a decision between Constantine and his co-emperor Licinius to legalize Christianity in the empire.

In 314, one year later, Constantine wrote a letter to a bunch of bishops calling them dearest brethren and claiming to be a follower of the almighty God like them.

During that same year, he set up a statue of himself holding a Cairo symbol in his hand with an inscription reading, by this sign, I saved and delivered your city.

All of this to say, conversion didn't mean he suddenly started acting like a pious saint.

He acted like an emperor that would have made any character in Game of Thrones proud.

He executed his ten-year-old nephew, he executed his own son and his own wife, He decimated the armies of his rivals, including his co-emperor Licinius.

And he must have been making a lot of these religious decisions with political goals in mind, whether that meant granting permission to build a pagan temple in Spello or sponsoring a council of Christian bishops to end a divisive controversy.

But Diocletian divided it between himself and Maximus.

AC 285 And it continued in that divided state till the victory of Constantine the Great over Licinius AC 323, which put an end to the heathen persecutions set on foot by Diocletian and Maximus.

and described the opening of the fifth seal.

But this division of the empire was imperfect, the whole being still under one and the same senate.

The same victory of Constantine over Licinius, a heathen persecutor, began the fall of the heathen empire, described at the opening of the sixth seal.

And the visions of the seal continue till after the reign of Julian the Apostate, he being a heathen emperor.

and reigning over the whole roman empire the affairs of the church begin to be considered at the opening of the fifth seal as was said above then she is represented by a woman in the temple of heaven clothed with the sun of righteousness and the moon of jewish ceremonies under her feet and upon her head a crown of twelve stars relating to the twelve apostles and to the twelve tribes of israel when she fled from the temple into the wilderness she left in the temple a remnant of her

The woman,

Without entering into a minute description of his sufferings, which are particularized by Eusebius and Lactantius, it is perfectly right to observe that he who delighted so long to make men feel the most exquisite misery might say at last with Adonai Bezek, As I have done, so God hath requited me.

Maximin attempted to succeed him in all his eastern dominions, but was prevented by Licinius, whom Galerius had nominated Augustus, who took possession of Asia Minor.

But Syria and Egypt, with their dependencies, remained still under Maximin.

Here he renewed the persecution with much malevolence and artifice.

But the mischiefs which his authority introduced continued under tyrants more ferocious than himself, and he lived not only to see these mischiefs, without power to check them, had he been so disposed, but also, what probably more afflicted his mind, to find his daughter Valeria, the widow of Galerius and her mother, his own wife Prisca, treated with great injustice by his successors, and to solicit their release in vain.

Worn out with grief and vexation, he ended his days at length, a monument of the instability of all human greatness.

He lived not to see the catastrophe of his wife and daughter, who after a long course of sufferings were put to death by Licinius.

It is foreign to the design of this history to particularize their story, which after all is very mysterious.

Maximian was there.

So too was Licinius, an old companion in arms of Galerius, and his most trusted lieutenant.

Of the debates which took place, no word has survived.

But the fact that Diocletian was invited to attend is clear proof that Galerius regarded him with the profound respect that was due to the senior Augustus, and the founder of the system which had broken down so badly.

We know of only one certain result of this strange council of emperors.

It is that a new Augustus was created by Galerius, without passing through the intermediate stage of being a Caesar.

He was found in Licinius, to whom was assigned the administration of Illyria, with the command of the Danubian legions, and the status of second rank in the hierarchy of the Augusti, or rather of the Augusti in active life.

Galerius, we may infer, was sensible of the approaching breakdown of his health, and wished his friend Licinius to be ready to step into his place.

make himself recognizable within that tradition but at the same time somehow create his own brand within it to overshadow the specific predecessors that he's trying to surpass replace whatever um and yeah so when you mention constantinople and and constantine specifically I can't help but be reminded that Constantine himself did the same thing with Constantinople.

This was a city that had been the base of his rival, Licinius.

And there have been arguments that aspects, maybe not the main reason, but an aspect of Constantine's decision to create Constantinople there was to kind of obliterate Licinius and his memory in the city.

This is a long established Roman game that emperor is playing, right? I mean, yeah, you know, maintaining continuity, but, you know, kind of eliminating the memory of your predecessors and rivals.

So let's talk a little bit about Constantinople itself in this way, because kind of isn't Nicaea a surrogate, right? Constantinople in the period of the exile.