As today is the aniversary of the battle of the Milvian bridge, we will be looking into the divine manifestation that befell the emperor Constanine in 312 AD. We are focusing on the Roman author and bishop Eusebius today.
As one would suspect, scholarship is not united in its approach in this topic of study. Scholars have argued not only whether Constantine the Great was ever a Christian convert, but also when Constantine’s supposed conversion took place if this conversion did in fact happen. Scholars are divided on the year of the conversion and seemed to have narrowed the event to a few key dates in the emperor’s life. Gerberding and Moran claim that the earliest place in which the emperor Constantine’s conversion could have occurred was before or very shortly after the battle of the Milvian bridge against his co-emperor Maxentius on the 28th of October AD 312. Edwards, contrary to Gerberding and Moran, argues that Constantine’s conversion took place shortly following the passing of the Edict of Milan with another co-emperor Licinius in AD 313. Pohlsander on the other hand, places Constantine’s conversion twenty-five years after his victory at the Milvian Bridge, and on the emperor’s death bed, coinciding with his baptism from the bishop Eusebius of Nicomedia.
One of the main arguments arguing for Constantine’s acceptance of Christianity, his inevitable conversion, and later baptism by the bishop Euesbius of Nicomedia stems from the events that unfolded in the October of AD 312 just north of Rome at the battle of the Milvian Bridge. In year AD 312 the emperor Constantine was close to ending a civil war that had shaken the Roman world against his co-emperor Maxentius. Constantine and his armies were poised to march on the eternal city to seize Rome, however Maxentius and his armies would not allow Constantine to be able to just walk into the city unopposed. Constantine’s co-emperor Maxentius was in firm control of Rome and her surrounding lands, so in Constantine’s eyes, he needed to be removed so that he could get closer to his end goal of ending the civil war he began and becoming the sole emperor of Roman empire. The day prior to the engagement with Maxentius at the Milvian bridge, Euesbius of Caesarea wrote in The Life of Constantine that the emperor Constantine had received a divine manifestation from what he believed to be the Christian God.
“He said that about noon, when the day was already beginning to decline, he saw with his own eyes the trophy of a cross of light in the heavens, above the sun, and bearing the inscription, CONQUER BY THIS. At this sight he himself was struck with amazement, and his whole army also, which followed him on this expedition, and witnessed the miracle.” Euseb. Vit. Const. 1.28
Gutzman writing about Eusebius states that “Constantinian visions struck him as incredible”. This is a fair assessment of the situation from Eusebius, if the Christian God really did appear before the emperor Constantine, incredible would not begin to describe the encounter to Eusebius. Gutzman also claims about Eusebius that “He would not believe the story of the Chi Rho vision if Constantine had not told him the story himself” It would be well within reason that Constantine was not lying about this manifestation to Eusebius when he told him.
As an acting Roman polytheist, Constantine proclaiming an interaction with a monotheistic deity may not have served him any benefits. This revelation from Eusebius on Constantine’s confession that Gutzman tells us does strongly suggest the candor in Constantine’s encounter with the Christian God.
Next episode, we shall we be delving into the accounts of the manifestation from the Roman author Lactantius.
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