LIFE OF CONTSTANTINE.
Constantine the Great, born A. D. 274, was named Constantine, Caius Flavius Valerius Aurelius Claudius. His father was Constantius Chlorus[1] and the mother, his wife Helena.[2] Being the eldest son, Constantine, soon after the death of his father, in 306, was proclaimed emperor by the troops, and in 307 married Fausta, the daughter of Maximian; but Eusebius says that God, the supreme governor of the world, by his own will, appointed Constantine to be prince and sovereign.
"It is my intention," continues Eusebius, "to pass over very many of the deeds of this thrice-blessed prince, as, for example, his conflicts and engagements in the field, and his triumphs, and to speak and write of those circumstances only which refer to his religious character."
The father of Constantino had three colleagues m the government, Diocletian,[3] Maximian[4] and Ga-
- ↑ He was a son of Eutropius, a nobleman of Dardania, in Mœsia, and his wife, Claudia, a niece of the Emperor Claudius, of the Flavian line. The designation, "Chlorus," was given him on account of the paleness of his complexion.
- ↑ Helena was the daughter of an inn-keeper at Drepanum.
- ↑ The parents of Diocletian had been slaves in the house of Anulinus, a Roman senator. He became a soldier, and gradually rose, on account of his great talents, till he arrived at the imperial throne. "His reign was more illustrious," says Gibbon, "than that of any of his predecessors."
- ↑ Marcus Valerius Maximian, of obscure parentage, was named by Diocletian, his colleague in the Roman Empire, A. D.
