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27 October 312
On the eve of 27 October 312 Constantine saw a sign (of the Cross?) in the sky that he later attributed as a sign from the Christian God that brought about his 'miraculous' victory over Maxentius the next day at the Milvian bridge just north of Rome.
The 27 October 312 event has come down to us as the moment of his conversion to Christianity (because Constantine said so under oath). [Please do your own reading/research on the Battle of the Milvian Bridge to get a fuller picture. I'm only calling out this date as the beginning of a Christian imperial regime specifically within the city of Rome, a regime, moreover, very much still existing within the realm of Roman Paganism.]
Constantine was at that time Augustus of the Western half of the empire (ruling from what is now Trier, German), and Maxentius was the usurptive ruler of Italy and North Africa. Maxentius was both Constantine's brother-in-law and uncle because Constantine's wife Fausta was 1) the sister of Maxentius and 2) the sister of Theodora who was the wife of Constantine's father, Constantius I. [By this time Constantine had already caused of death of Maxentius' father, Maximian, who was at his death an ex-Augustus that wanted to be back in power.]
Maxentius died on 28 October 312 at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, which happened to also be the anniversary of Maxentius' own rise to power in Rome on 28 October 306.
Constantine marched triumphantly into Rome on 29 October 312, but he did not end his procession at the (Pagan) Temple of Jupiter on the Arx.
I purposely mention the intricate familial relations of Constantine because there are two matriarchs that survive throughout most of Constantine's reign, namely Helena, the mother of Constantine and first wife of Augustus Constantius I, and Eutropia, the wife of Augustus Maximian. Eutropia is especially interesting because not only is she the grandmother of Constantine's latter five children [the mother of
Constantine's first born Crispus was Minervina, not Fausta], but she is also the grandmother of Constantine's five half brothers and sisters. Furthermore, it is interesting that Eutropia survived given the fact that Constantine was the cause of death for both her husband (Maximian) and her son (Maxentius).
[Contrary to all history so far, I speculate that Helena and Eutropia were secretly Christian believers well before 27 October 312, and, moreover, that Christianity was what bonded Helena and Eutropia. I'll return to this towards the end of my posts.]
The first Constantinian Christian basilica in Rome was erected at the Lateran palace, which according to sources originally belonged to Fausta, Constantine's wife (there is even speculation that the Lateran Palace was part of Fausta's dowry when she married Constantine). It is thus historically surmised that Fausta was indeed born in Rome when her father Maximian was Western Augustus. In any case, it would seem that the Maximian/Eutropia side of Constantine's family knew Rome very well, while Constantine and Helena themselves were new comers to Rome.
It is not hard to imagine the confusion of emotions that very likely ran through Constantine's family after the fall of Maxentius. The very question of who was now safe had no definite answer. And it is to the issue of safety first that brings me to my 'theory' of why the Lateran became the first imperially sanctioned Christian site in Rome (as opposed to the site of an apostle's or martyr's burial which is where all subsequent Constantinian basilicas in Rome occurred). It seems reasonable that there were still factions in Rome loyal to Maxentius, let alone against Christianity, and thus the threat to Constantine's family, and now also his religious beliefs, was indeed extant. As historically recorded, the Lateran palace became the
official residence of the then reigning Pope Miltiades. The Basilica Constantiniani (as St. John Lateran was first called) was built on the grounds of equestrian guards quarters adjacent to the Lateran palace. I speculate that not only did Pope Miltiades come to live in the Lateran palace, but that Fausta and Eutropia came to live there as well. Thus the imperial family was secure (and removed from the center of Rome), and the Papacy was now officially protected as well, and furthermore, the new Constantinian regime in Rome presented a united Imperial-Christian front to the rest of Rome.
Helena's first residence in Rome may well also have been the Lateran palace, but, if that is the case, she then later moved to the Sessorian palace literally down the street from the Lateran, which is today the site of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme.
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