How Did Constantine Legalize Christianity

The final piece to Christianity becoming the major religion it is today was Constantine. Constantine was one of four co-emperors in the tetrarch that Diocletian set up, but when Diocletian retired, Constantine was passed over for succession. Constantine would lead and army to take Rome. Before the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312 C.E. it is believed that Constantine had a vision of winning the battle with the symbol of Christianity, the “Chi Rho”, painted on the shields of his army: Figure 2 the first two letters in the Greek word for "Christ" superimposed on top of each other.

Whether Constantine’s army won because of a little divine intervention, or because his army was better, the outcome of that battle boosted Christianity in Rome. Constantine

Later, Christianity would become the official state religion in 391 C.E. This ironic reversal left all the other religions illegal. Some might say that this rebound mimics how the Romans never accepted defeat, and always came back on top. Rome was a major world power for many years and had many forms of government, from a Republic to an Empire. Religious changes occurred as well. From the very beginning of Rome, there were as many gods as there were citizens. Every household had deities and spirits watching over the occupants and there were also chief deities that citizens had to worship. Citizens could worship any number of gods they wished, so long as they made the proper sacrifices to the state gods. The government controlled the citizens in this way. On a positive note, giving the citizens a common belief system brought together vastly different people as a one. Another way that the government used religion as a means of control was