Create a 8 pages page paper that discusses the life of constantine the great. Flavius Valerius Constantinus himself was destined to turn into the legendary Emperor Constantine the Great. He was the fi

Create a 8 pages page paper that discusses the life of constantine the great. Flavius Valerius Constantinus himself was destined to turn into the legendary Emperor Constantine the Great. He was the first Christian Roman Emperor, and In Hoc Signo Vinces played a very important role in this chapter of world history. This Latin phrase, which means “In this sign, you shall conquer,” was adopted by Constantine as a motto after he saw a vision of the cross with these words in the sky in the year 312, right before the Milvian Bridge battle. The vision was placed over the sun and meant nothing whatsoever to Constantine at first. The following night, however, he encountered Christ in a dream explaining to him that the battle could be won by the use of the cross. Constantine at once pledged to convert to Christianity if he actually did win the battle with the use of the cross. Once he had won the battle, there was no turning back for Constantine, for although he did not go through baptism until he had reached his deathbed, the man turned into a devout Christian who changed the world (Keresztes, 1981). The fact that Constantine the Great proclaimed Christianity to be the official religion of the Roman Empire at the beginning of the fourth century but was baptized shortly before his demise in 337, does not make him a heretic (as some people have suggested) given the early Christian belief that conversion erased all sins even if the acceptance of Christ took place on the deathbed (Wasilewska, 2002).

Constantine the Great had been raised in a pagan society. Before turning to Christianity, his two favorite pagan gods had been Mars and Apollo. As a matter of fact, worship of the sun was a very popular belief at the time in the Roman Empire (Grant, 1993). The establishment of the Christian faith throughout the pagan empire must not have been easy. The emperor had to utilize his vision of the cross&nbsp.and In Hoc Signo Vinces to fashion the labarum for the defense of his newfound religion.&nbsp. The labarum was a long golden spear that was joined by a traverse bar with a hanging silk cloth.