# Why did the Emperor Constantine choose Christianity? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 25, 2003, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-emperor-constantine-choose-christianity/209551 "2003-10-25T20:36:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2003, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-emperor-constantine-choose-christianity/209551/21 "2003-10-27T16:14:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by notquitekarpov \* > **As an aside I though Mithrites was the god of choice within the Roman army. I assume this differs from Sol Invictus, or is it another identical religion going under a different name?** Here’s a really quick answer. There was a Syrian sun god called Elagabal (Lord of the sun), and one of the emperors, Heliogabalis (which is a Latin version of the name) was a priest of that god. When he became emperor, he took the religion with him to Rome, where Elagabal was worshiped under the name “Sol Invictus” (the conquering son). Heliogabalis was crazy, decadent, and was killed and overthrown, and the worship of Sol Invictus faded into the background. 50 years later, the emperor Aurelian took the throne (in 270). Aurelian , who beleved in Mithraicism, revived the worship of Sol Invictus, associated Sol Invictus with Mithras, and made the worship of Sol Invictus part of the official state cult. Remember that in ancient, prechristian Rome, religion took one of two forms…there was an individual’s personal religion, which the state, in general didn’t care about, and then there was the official state religion, which was funded and regulated by the State. So, by making Sol Invictus part of the offical pantheon, and associating him with Mithras, what Aurelian was doing was giving the worship of Mithras governmental support. So, from Aurelian to Contstantine, the Cult of Sol Invictus and the mysteries of Mithras coexisted, both as independent entites, but with a good deal of overlap. ---
**Author:** ![Earthling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/90db22/32.png) [@Earthling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earthling)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2003, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-emperor-constantine-choose-christianity/209551/22 "2003-10-27T17:12:34Z")
It’s all about money. > [@](#): > > As the economy of the Roman Empire continued to deteriorate, the desperate emperors searched for even more radical solutions outside the economic realm…in 303, [Diocletian] began the horrendous persecution of Christians that was to last for a decade. The persecution of Christians added money to state coffers and provided plenty of victims for the shows in the Colosseum. > … > After supposedly receiving a vision of the cross with the words _in hoc signo vinces_ (in this sign, you will conquer) just prior to a major battle, Constantine reversed the religious policies of Diocletian and ended the persecution of Christians… > > Constantine recognized that the persecutions had provided very little benefit to anyone. As it did with all traitors, the state had confiscated much of the Christians’ property, but the small sect had relatively little property or wealth. The persecution of a religious group, however, proved to be a bizarre new tool crafted by the state, and once it was devised, the state looked for new reasons to use it. If the emperor could not obtain much property from the Christians, then he needed to target a wealthier group from whom to confiscate property. Constantine found that wealth in the many well-endowed pagan temples throughout his empire. > … > Although it is difficult to determine the precise motive after the passing of so many centuries, it may well be that Constantine’s desire to acquire the wealth of the great temples played an important role in his support of the Christians and his eventual conversion to their religion. No matter what his motive, he certainly benefited greatly from the confiscation of temple wealth. Source: Jack Weatherford, _The History of Money_, ©1997, Three Rivers Press, pp. 59-61. Is that the one and only definitive answer? I don’t know, but I think it’s plausible and certainly interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2003, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-emperor-constantine-choose-christianity/209551/23 "2003-10-27T17:45:26Z")
**Aldebaran** has a point, though IMHO his perspective does not do justice to the Constantine-Christianity connection. Constantius’s first wife, (H)Elen, was a committed Christian; she was Constantine’s mother, and presumably taught him her faith in his early childhood, prior to Constantius divorcing her. To what extent that teaching remained a part of Constantine’s psychology and personal beliefs is something one can only infer from his actions and utterances. The worship of the sun, as Helios/Sol Invictus and associated with Apollo and Mithras in a syncretic belief structure, was indeed popular among the Army in the late Third and early Fourth Centuries. It was “the soldier’s faith.” Christianity was a minority belief in the Army, though it was growing in popularity throughout the Empire. Constantine’s actions were no doubt a combination of personal belief and political expediency, as are most religiously-influenced actions of people with political power throughout history. The “deathbed baptism” of Constantine is not a factor in deciding his belief – since it was common understanding at the time that baptism wiped away sin, and that while sin after baptism could be forgiven, it required a long and demeaning public penance to do so. Ergo, most believers put off baptism until late in their lives, to get the maximum cleansing effect from it. Several early Church writers remark on this as a common practice (which they usually deplored). To what extent he was a sincere believer in Christianity at any given time in his life is debatable – but there is little doubt that he did adopt it as his faith. BTW, the Edict of Toleration is, according to my reading, something forced by the Constantine faction on Licinius, not the latter’s idea at all. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-emperor-constantine-choose-christianity/209551.md?page=1)