Alex’s Reviews > Ten Caesars: Roman Emperors from Augustus to Constantine > Status Update

"Theodora [Justinians wife] is also remembered for sponsoring legislation to help women by stopping forced prostitution and giving women greater rights in divorce and in owning property."

"Gibbon suggested long ago that Christianity played a big role in the fall of Rome because it sapped the fighting spirit of its people. This is nonsense. The eastern half of the Roman Empire was more passionately Christian than the west, and it did not fall in 476."

"Outside of the mosque is the tomb of Mehmed, the conqueror who made Constantinople a Muslim governed city. By associating himself with Constantine’s resting place, Mehmed strengthened his claim to be Kayser-i-Rum—that is, Caesar of Rome. So potent was the reputation of the man who remade the Roman Empire in a new image."

"With the end approaching, he [Constantine] was baptized. It was common at the time to postpone baptism to near death, in order to minimize the danger of sinning after baptism. He died on May 22, 337. Constantine had three surviving sons by Fausta."

Constantine both increased taxes and instituted a new gold-based currency to end inflation.

"Constantine was no friend to the Jews. Yet by Roman standards, he was not the worst of enemies, either. He didn’t destroy the temple like Vespasian and Titus or bathe Judea in blood like Hadrian. Nor did he destroy Jewish communal life, which continued to thrive both in the land of Israel and in the Diaspora."
Constantine also decreed that when slaves of Jews converted to Christianity, they became free.

"After the defeat of Licinius, Constantine became more openly Christian. In 326, when he visited Rome to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of becoming emperor, for the first time he refused to sacrifice to Jupiter, which led to protest."

Constantine dispossessed pagan temples, but he also increased spending to the poor. He's a more complex figure than other scholars admit.

"Even after 312, Constantine engaged in murder and bloodshed that would make even a pagan blush. But conversion does not make someone perfect. Constantine undoubtedly spread the gospel and made the church splendid and safer. Surely that made him a Christian."

"Was Constantine a sincere convert? Although the words sincerity and politician don’t usually go together, there is reason to think that he was. Ancient people took dreams and omens seriously. Previous emperors certainly did, and they consulted astrologers as well. Modern Westerners always look for the “real motive,” but we are often blind to the reality of religious motivation."

"Both Constantine and Maxentius proclaimed religious tolerance in the lands they controlled, stretching from Britain to North Africa, as well as the restoration of Christian property confiscated during the Great Persecution."