The Rise of Constantine

The Ancients

History Hit

History

4.7 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 20 September 2020

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The Emperor Constantine I, better known as Constantine the Great, is one of the most significant emperors in Roman history. His later Christian biographers lauded him as an icon, the man who set in motion Rome's dramatic transformation into a primarily Christian empire. And yet Constantine's own beliefs were deliberately ambiguous, as Professor David Potter explained. He learned from Diocletian, he witnessed the mistakes and the successes. He figured out how to heal divisions in the empire, but at the same time restore it to one man rule through blood and battle.

Constantine's military and administrative successes are often-overlooked, but these in themselves were extraordinary. In this podcast David and I chatted through Constantine's remarkable life, his legacy and why you wouldn't rate your chances of survival if you were part of his family.

David is the author of 'Constantine the Emperor'.

Some notes from the pod:

Galerius - A Roman emperor between 305 and 311

(Valerius) Severus - Galerius' preferred candidate to become the new Augustus in the west in 306, following the death of Constantius (Constantine's father). He was opposed by Constantine.

The Wall - Hadrian's Wall

The Chi Rho - a Christian symbol, but also a symbol of good fortune. Constantine painted the symbol on his soldiers' shields at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge.

Lactantius - an early Christian author who talked about the Battle of the Milvian Bridge.

Maximinus Daia - ruled alongside Licinius in the east. Formed an alliance with Maxentius against Licinius and Constantine. Defeated by Licinius.

Licinius - ruler of the eastern part of the Roman Empire. Co-ruled the Empire with Constantine for a while (doesn't end well!).

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Today we are talking about a Roman Emperor who would have wanted to be remembered as the
0:06.4	greatest Constantine I, Constantine the Great.
0:11.6	And joining me today is Professor David Potter.
0:15.3	David is the author of a biography about Constantine and in this podcast we're going to be focusing
0:21.4	on Constantine's rise to becoming the sole Roman Emperor.
0:26.0	And this podcast has it all.
0:27.5	We start in Nicarmedia in modern day Northwest Anatolia.
0:31.6	We go to Britain, we then go to France, we go to Italy until we get to Constantine's
0:36.4	final climactic clashes against his co-emperor, Licinius.
0:41.9	Here's David.
0:45.9	David, it's a pleasure to have you on the show.
0:50.1	It's a pleasure to be here.
0:51.4	Thank you for having me.
0:53.0	Now Constantine the Great, a man whose religious significance sometimes overshadows his other
0:59.4	extraordinary achievements.
1:00.9	Yes, it does.
1:01.9	Of course, a lot of later record was written by Christians and very heavily influenced
1:06.6	by especially the work of UCB at the Césaría, a man who was not actually very close to Constantine
1:12.7	at any point in his life and wrote his biography of Constantine after the emperor was dead.
1:19.4	Many other records for Constantine, which are primarily the record of his legislation,
1:26.0	gives us, I think, a much better take on his personality and on what drove him.
1:33.5	There's a particularly notable letter to the free-fictive Rome after the palace had been
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from History Hit, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of History Hit and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.