ABSTRACT
Constantine was the eldest son of Constantius by a barmaid named Helena. He was born at Naissus (Nish, in Yugoslavia) on 17 February in about 290. When Constantius became Caesar he had to divorce Helena in order to marry Maximian’s daughter Theodora, and little Constantine was sent to be educated at the court of Diocletian. Here he rose to be a tribune and witnessed the great persecution. In one of his later edicts he recalls priests from the oracle of Apollo at Branchidae reporting that the oracle was dumb ‘because of the just upon the earth’ and Diocletian’s asking what this phrase meant and receiving the reply: ‘The Christians, of course.’ On his father’s accession as Augustus he asked Galerius for leave to join him, but Galerius repeatedly put him off until Constantine at last gave him the slip. He rejoined his father at Boulogne, preparing to embark for a campaign in Britain. On 23 July 306 Constantius died and the army proclaimed his son Augustus.
