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History Series: 40 Martyrs of Sebaste
History of the 40 Martyrs of Sebaste
Roman Empire vs. Christian Legionnaires
A remarkable event took place in the early 4th century Roman Empire. The early church historian Bishop Eusebius tells the story of his contemporary, the Roman Emperor Constantine, who, before a battle against his rival Emperor Maxentius in 312 AD at the Milvian Bridge outside of Rome, had a dream (or vision) that he was to conquer in “the sign of Christ.”
Explaining this to his troops, they made a battle standard of the Greek letters chi and rho, the first two letters of Christ in Greek, and were victorious. Constantine converted to Christianity and, in 313 AD, declared in the Edict of Milan that Christianity was now to be a legitimate religion (Latin: religio licita) with toleration toward Christians across the Roman Empire. This ended the Empire-wide Great Persecution of the church under the earlier Emperor Diocletian.
But it didn’t stay that way. Constantine’s brother-in-law and co-ruler, Emperor Licinius, co-authored this edict, but civil war soon erupted between them. Licinius was Augustus in the East Empire (Balkans), and Constantine was Augustus of the West — not to be confused with Emperor Caesar Augustus. [In Greek-speaking provinces, the honorific title “Augustus” was…
