Why did Constantine I Really Convert?

[ST88]

This question has bothered me for a long time. Why did Constantine I convert to Christianity in the early 4th century? He did a lot of odd things. He moved the capital of the Roman empire to Constantinople, presumably to be more able to retain control of the eastern territories and to realign the Roman Empire with the ancient Greek civilization. Greek was a primary language in the Eastern Roman Empire.

Before his conversion, he was at least tolerant towards Christianity as per the edict of Galerius. His defeat of the pretender to the throne, Maximin (in 312), was supposedly precipitated by his an omen -- a flaming cross in the sky with the words, in Latin, "In this sign thou shalt conquer" (according to Eusebius). This began his long, slow slide into Christianity, and the Republic's eventual adoption of this religion as "official".

It is my opinion that there was no such revelation or dream before the Battle of Mulvian Bridge, and that the long, slow slide into Christianity was part of a political strategy designed to not only break with the pagans in Rome, but provide for a base in the eastern territories, i.e., Judea, to better defend against and attack the Middle and Near Eastern powers, like Persia. Aligning with the Jews/Christians in Judea would mean fewer internal military problems in the area and that soldiers would have been able to be recruited from them.

Also, there are many places in the Bible where subjects are taught to be deferential to their government, whatever form of government that may be. The populace is told to render under Caesar what is Caesar's -- i.e., taxes, if they should be under that dominion. They are told to turn the other cheek when hit, so they can be abused if necessary with little or no consequences. Look at the Bible from an administrative point of view, and it becomes a guidebook for how to rule over Christians.

This strategy appears to have worked until the Persian conquest of Jerusalem in 614:

[nikolayevich]

You raise some interesting points. I for one am not convinced that he did in fact "convert" but rather think that his demagoguery over a rapidly growing Christian populace is likely. I should mention that I'm no expert on this, but have learned a few things from some good people who have given it wider study.

Constantine is accredited with many Christian events, but too many of them were pagan in origin. A good example is Christmas, everything about it (originally) was totally pagan. It's not simply the wrong date for the birth of Christ; it was a former worship day for the birth of another god. It became more "Christian" over the years and I certainly don't mean to say I have a problem with Christians spreading light at Christmas. However, what Constantine seems to have done is take pagan festivities and places (temples to various gods) and dedicate them to Christianity, where the Bible clearly says that pagan places and things should be destroyed, not modified and moved into.

Conquering by the cross? Yeah... sounds kinda self-serving... I agree with your suspicion.