I'm going to show you how great I am.

This is our fighting power.

I just want to say from the bottom of me heart, I'd like to take this chance to How to Take Over the World. This is Ben Wilson. Today we are talking about

Constantine, the great, the first Christian emperor. This is part of my mini series on the rise of

Christianity. Christianity currently has 2.2 billion adherence. That is about a third of the world

population. And I find

that just so remarkable, especially when you consider its humble origins. And so this series is

partially trying to work out what happened here. Like, how does one go about creating a movement

with this type of power and influence? Constantine is a huge figure in Christianity's rise.

He is the first Christian Roman emperor. He did much to popularize

Christianity in Europe and the Near East. And he was a remarkable leader in other ways. He built

one of the world's great cities, Constantinople, which is now known as Istanbul, which I think on

its own, if he had only done that, that would make him worthy of studying on this podcast, even if he'd

done nothing else. I mean, he founded one of the world's great cities, and he founded it more than 1,500 years ago. It's still a great city. He also unified

the Roman Empire, carried out a number of reforms, and was a great conqueror. He was a remarkable

revolutionary leader in many ways. He was also a controversial leader. His conduct is, I would

say, not what you would expect from the first Christian emperor.

So it's also interesting to dive into.

How do you square his Christianity with his ruthless nature?

This is someone who had his son and his wife executed.

It was absolutely merciless in purging his enemies in any potential threats,

even if they were young, serving a dive into that as well.

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