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THE QUESTION OF CONSTANTINE’S CHRISTIANITY AND DISCUSSIONS ON HIS DEATH

Year 2017, Volume: 18 Issue: 33, 493 - 517, 31.07.2017
https://doi.org/10.21550/sosbilder.310413

Abstract

Constantine, one of
the most remarkable emperors of Rome, was born in Naissus in 270 BC. His
father, Constantinus I Chlorus (305-306 AD), was an Illyrian general who served
in Roman army. After Emperor Diocletian's withdrawal of the throne in 305 AD
his father was declared as Augustus and Constantine joined his father’s
campaign in Boulogne. After his father’s death during their campaign to the
north of Scotland, the army proclaimed Constantine as Augustus. However the
eastern Augustus, Galerius, recognized him as a Caesar, instead of an Augustus.
He dominated the western part of the empire by defeating Maxentius in the
Battle of Milvian Bridge in 312 AD. Constantine and the eastern Augustus
Licinius met in Mediolanum in 313 AD and shared the empire then they signed the
Edict of Milan which gave Christianity a legal status within the Empire.
However, Constantine, who was planning to dominate the whole empire, defeated
Licinius in 324 AD at the end of a series of struggles and he became the unique
emperor of the Roman Empire. From this moment on, he pursued a policy in favor
of Christians. On the other hand he did not accept Christianity officially
until his death. For this reason, many researchers believe that he accepted
Christianity for political reasons. The emperor got ill during his Sassanid
campaign and died in Nicomedia in 337 AD. Constantine has made two important
decisions that affect today's world. The first one of these decisions is to
release and support Christianity, and the second is to choose Constantinople as
the new capital.

References

  • Amerise, M. (2005). Il Battesimo Di Costantino Il Grande: Storia Di Una Scomoda Eredita. Hermesa- Einzelschriften Book 95. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag.
  • Ammianus Marcellinus, Rerum Gestarum Libri (The Later Roman Empire: A.D. 354-378), Translated by Andrew Wallace-Hadrill and Walter Hamilton, Penguin Classics, London, 1986.
  • Aurelius Victor, De Caeseribus, translated with an introduction and commentary by H.W. Bird, Liverpol University Press, Liverpol, 1994.
  • Babelon, Jean (1933). La collection de monnaies et médailles de M. Carlos de Beistegui. Paris.
  • Barnes, T.D. (1973). “Lactantius and Constantine”. The Journal of Roman Studies, vol. 63, s. 29–46.
  • __________ (1985). “Constantine and the Christians of Persia”. The Journal of Roman Studies, vol. 75, s. 126-136.
  • __________ (1998). “Constantine, Athanasius and the Christina Church”. Constantine (History, Historiography and Legend), ed. by Samuel N.C. Lieu and Dominic Montserrat, London-New York: Routledge, s. 7-20.
  • Burgess, R.W. (1999). “ ‘Achyron’ or ‘proasteion’ The Location and Circumstances of Constantine’s Death”. Journal of Theological Studies, vol. 50, No.1, s. 153-162.
  • Cassiodorus, Chronicon (Chronicle), Edition Mommsen, 1894; English translation by Bouke Procee, 2014.
  • Daryaee, T. (2009). “Shapur II”. Encyclopædia Iranica, online edition available at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/shapur-ii, (erişim tarihi 15.02.2017).
  • Doğancı, Kamil (2012). “Antik Dönemde Bithynia'dan Geçen Ticari ve Askeri Yollar”. Prof. Dr. Ömer Çapar’a Armağan, Ankara: Hel Yayıncılık, s. 93-104.
  • Drake, H. A. (1988). “What Eusebius Knew: The Genesis of the ‘Vita Constantini’”. Classical Philology, vol. 83, s. 20–38.
  • Eusebius, De Vita Constantini, Life of Constantine, translated by Averil Cameron and Stuart Hall, Oxford University Press, New York, 1999.
  • Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, with an English translation by J.E.L. Oulton, Volume II, Books 6-10, Loeb Classical Library No. 265, Harvard University Press, London, 1952.
  • Eutropius, Breviarum Historiae Romanae (Roma Tarihinin Özeti), çev: Çiğdem Menzilcioğlu, Kabalcı Yayınevi, Humanitas Dizisi:9, İstanbul, 2007.
  • Eutropius, The Breviarium ab urbe condita, A Brief History from the Founding of the City, trans. H.W. Bird, Liverpool University Press, Liverpol, 1993.
  • Hughes, B. (2017). A Tale of Three Cities: Istanbul. London: by Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
  • İplikçioğlu, B. (1997). Eskibatı Tarihi I. Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu Basımevi.
  • Jerome, Chronicon (Chronicle), translated and edited by Roger Pearse and friends, Ipswich, UK, 2005.
  • Kaçar, T. (2004). “Üsküdar Savaşları ve Bizans’ın Temelleri”. Üsküdar Sempozyumu I (Bildiriler), c. I, İstanbul, s. 21-28.
  • ________ (2005). “Origo Constantini Imperatoris‐İmparator Constantinus’un Yükselişi”. Tarih İncelemeleri Dergisi, c. XX, Sayı:1, s. 135-155.
  • ________ (2013). “Roma İmparatorluğu, Hristiyanlar ve Milano Fermanı’nın 1700. Yılı”, Toplumsal Tarih. Şubat Sayısı.
  • Kaymaz, Y. (2014). “Büyük Constantinus’un Hıristiyanlığı Meselesi”. Sakarya Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi Dergisi, Cilt: XVI, Sayı: 29, s. 213-235.
  • Lactantius, De Mortibus Persecutorum (On the Deaths of the Persecutors), Trans. J. Vanderspoel, Ante Nicene Farhers, c.7, Edinburgh, 1994.
  • Lieu, S. (1998). “From History to Legend and Legend to History The Medieval and Byzantine Transformation of Constantine’s Vita”. Constantine (History, Historiography and Legend), ed. by Samuel N.C. Lieu and Dominic Montserrat, London-New York: Routledge, s. 136-176.
  • Malalas, The Chronicle of John Malalas, A Translation, a translation by. E. Jeffreys, M. Jeffreys & R. Scott vd., Melbourne, 1986.
  • Miller, K. (1962). Die Peutingersche Tafel. Stuttgart: F.A.
  • Mitchell, S. (1998). “The Cities of Asia Minor in the Age of Constantine”. Constantine (History, Historiography and Legend), ed. by Samuel N.C. Lieu and Dominic Montserrat, London-New York: Routledge, s. 52-73.
  • Norwich, J.J. (2013). Bizans (Erken Dönem MS 323-802). çev: Hamide Koyukan, İstanbul: Kabalcı Yayınevi.
  • Orosius, Historiarum Adversum Paganos (History Against the Pagans), translated by I.W. Raymond, Columbia University Press, New York, 1936.
  • Orosius, Historiarum Adversum Paganos, Libri VII, ed. C. Zangemeister, Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, Vol. 5, Vienna, 1882.
  • Ostrogorsky, G. (1981). Bizans Devleti Tarihi. Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu Yayınları.
  • Özçelik, F. (2008). Vita Constantini Kutsal İmparator Constantinus’un Hayatı. Yüksek Lisans Tezi. Balıkesir: Balıkesir Üniversitesi.
  • Pohlsander, H.A. (2004). The Emperor Constantine. New York: Routledge.
  • RIC: Roman Imperial Coinage: vol. VII: Constantine and Licinius (A.D. 313-337), ed. by C.H.V. Sutherland and D. Litt, London 1966.
  • Rohrbacher, D. (2002). The Historians of Late Antiquity. London and New York: Routledge.
  • Salway, B. (2001). “Travel, Itineraria and Tabellaria”. Travel and Geography in the Roman Empire. ed. by Colin Adams and Ray Laurence, New York, s. 22-66.
  • Stephenson, P. (2016). Büyük Konstantin. çev: Gürkan Ergin, İstanbul: Türkiye İş Bankası Kültür Yayınları.
  • Stevenson, J. (2003). “Lactantius”. New Catholic Encyclopedia. Washington, vol. VIII, s. 274.
  • Vasiliev, A.A. (2016). Bizans İmparatorluğu Tarihi. çev. Tevabil Alkaç. İstanbul: Alfa Basım Yayım.
  • Woods, D. (1997). “Where Did Constantine I Die?”. Journal of Theological Studies, Vol. 48:2, s. 531–535.
  • Zosimus, Nea Historia (New History), A translation with commentary by Ronald T. Ridley, Australian Association for Byzantine Studies, Canberra, 1982.

I. CONSTANTINUS’UN HRİSTİYANLIĞI MESELESİ VE ÖLÜMÜ HAKKINDAKİ TARTIŞMALAR

Year 2017, Volume: 18 Issue: 33, 493 - 517, 31.07.2017
https://doi.org/10.21550/sosbilder.310413

Abstract

Roma’nın en çok iz bırakan imparatorlarından biri olan
I. Constantinus MS 270’lerde Naissus’da doğdu. Babası I. Constantius Chlorus (MS
305-306) Roma ordusunda görev yapan İllirya kökenli bir generaldi. İmparator
Diocletianus’un MS 305’de tahtan çekilmesiyle babasının augustus ilan edilmesinin
ardından onun Boulogne’daki kampına katıldı. Britanya’ya düzenledikleri sefer
sırasında babası ölünce askerleri tarafından augustus ilan edilse de Doğu
augustusu olan Galerius onu caesar olarak tanıdı. MS 312’deki Milvius Köprüsü
Savaşında Maxentius’u yenerek imparatorluğun batısına hakim oldu. MS 313’de
Doğu augustusu Licinius ile Mediolanum’da bir araya gelerek imparatorluğu
paylaştılar ve Hristiyanlığa yasal bir nitelik kazandıran Milano Fermanı’nı
imzaladılar. Ancak tüm imparatorluğa hakim olmak isteyen I. Constantinus bir
dizi mücadele sonunda MS 324’de Licinius’u yenerek tek başına Roma imparatoru
oldu. Bundan sonraki süreçte Constantinus açıkça Hristiyanları kayıran bir
politika izledi. Bununla birlikte resmi olarak Hristiyanlığı ölüm döşeğine
kadar kabul etmedi. Bu nedenle birçok araştırmacı onun siyasi nedenlerle
Hristiyanlığı kabul ettiğine inanır. İmparator doğudaki Sasaniler üzerine
çıktığı sefer sırasında hastalanır ve MS 337’de Nikomedia’da hayatını kaybeder.
I. Constantinus günümüz dünyasını etkileyen iki önemli karar almıştır. Bu
kararlardan ilki Hristiyanlığı serbest bırakması ve desteklemesi, ikincisi ise
Constantinopolis’i yeni başkent seçmesidir.

References

  • Amerise, M. (2005). Il Battesimo Di Costantino Il Grande: Storia Di Una Scomoda Eredita. Hermesa- Einzelschriften Book 95. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag.
  • Ammianus Marcellinus, Rerum Gestarum Libri (The Later Roman Empire: A.D. 354-378), Translated by Andrew Wallace-Hadrill and Walter Hamilton, Penguin Classics, London, 1986.
  • Aurelius Victor, De Caeseribus, translated with an introduction and commentary by H.W. Bird, Liverpol University Press, Liverpol, 1994.
  • Babelon, Jean (1933). La collection de monnaies et médailles de M. Carlos de Beistegui. Paris.
  • Barnes, T.D. (1973). “Lactantius and Constantine”. The Journal of Roman Studies, vol. 63, s. 29–46.
  • __________ (1985). “Constantine and the Christians of Persia”. The Journal of Roman Studies, vol. 75, s. 126-136.
  • __________ (1998). “Constantine, Athanasius and the Christina Church”. Constantine (History, Historiography and Legend), ed. by Samuel N.C. Lieu and Dominic Montserrat, London-New York: Routledge, s. 7-20.
  • Burgess, R.W. (1999). “ ‘Achyron’ or ‘proasteion’ The Location and Circumstances of Constantine’s Death”. Journal of Theological Studies, vol. 50, No.1, s. 153-162.
  • Cassiodorus, Chronicon (Chronicle), Edition Mommsen, 1894; English translation by Bouke Procee, 2014.
  • Daryaee, T. (2009). “Shapur II”. Encyclopædia Iranica, online edition available at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/shapur-ii, (erişim tarihi 15.02.2017).
  • Doğancı, Kamil (2012). “Antik Dönemde Bithynia'dan Geçen Ticari ve Askeri Yollar”. Prof. Dr. Ömer Çapar’a Armağan, Ankara: Hel Yayıncılık, s. 93-104.
  • Drake, H. A. (1988). “What Eusebius Knew: The Genesis of the ‘Vita Constantini’”. Classical Philology, vol. 83, s. 20–38.
  • Eusebius, De Vita Constantini, Life of Constantine, translated by Averil Cameron and Stuart Hall, Oxford University Press, New York, 1999.
  • Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, with an English translation by J.E.L. Oulton, Volume II, Books 6-10, Loeb Classical Library No. 265, Harvard University Press, London, 1952.
  • Eutropius, Breviarum Historiae Romanae (Roma Tarihinin Özeti), çev: Çiğdem Menzilcioğlu, Kabalcı Yayınevi, Humanitas Dizisi:9, İstanbul, 2007.
  • Eutropius, The Breviarium ab urbe condita, A Brief History from the Founding of the City, trans. H.W. Bird, Liverpool University Press, Liverpol, 1993.
  • Hughes, B. (2017). A Tale of Three Cities: Istanbul. London: by Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
  • İplikçioğlu, B. (1997). Eskibatı Tarihi I. Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu Basımevi.
  • Jerome, Chronicon (Chronicle), translated and edited by Roger Pearse and friends, Ipswich, UK, 2005.
  • Kaçar, T. (2004). “Üsküdar Savaşları ve Bizans’ın Temelleri”. Üsküdar Sempozyumu I (Bildiriler), c. I, İstanbul, s. 21-28.
  • ________ (2005). “Origo Constantini Imperatoris‐İmparator Constantinus’un Yükselişi”. Tarih İncelemeleri Dergisi, c. XX, Sayı:1, s. 135-155.
  • ________ (2013). “Roma İmparatorluğu, Hristiyanlar ve Milano Fermanı’nın 1700. Yılı”, Toplumsal Tarih. Şubat Sayısı.
  • Kaymaz, Y. (2014). “Büyük Constantinus’un Hıristiyanlığı Meselesi”. Sakarya Üniversitesi İlahiyat Fakültesi Dergisi, Cilt: XVI, Sayı: 29, s. 213-235.
  • Lactantius, De Mortibus Persecutorum (On the Deaths of the Persecutors), Trans. J. Vanderspoel, Ante Nicene Farhers, c.7, Edinburgh, 1994.
  • Lieu, S. (1998). “From History to Legend and Legend to History The Medieval and Byzantine Transformation of Constantine’s Vita”. Constantine (History, Historiography and Legend), ed. by Samuel N.C. Lieu and Dominic Montserrat, London-New York: Routledge, s. 136-176.
  • Malalas, The Chronicle of John Malalas, A Translation, a translation by. E. Jeffreys, M. Jeffreys & R. Scott vd., Melbourne, 1986.
  • Miller, K. (1962). Die Peutingersche Tafel. Stuttgart: F.A.
  • Mitchell, S. (1998). “The Cities of Asia Minor in the Age of Constantine”. Constantine (History, Historiography and Legend), ed. by Samuel N.C. Lieu and Dominic Montserrat, London-New York: Routledge, s. 52-73.
  • Norwich, J.J. (2013). Bizans (Erken Dönem MS 323-802). çev: Hamide Koyukan, İstanbul: Kabalcı Yayınevi.
  • Orosius, Historiarum Adversum Paganos (History Against the Pagans), translated by I.W. Raymond, Columbia University Press, New York, 1936.
  • Orosius, Historiarum Adversum Paganos, Libri VII, ed. C. Zangemeister, Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, Vol. 5, Vienna, 1882.
  • Ostrogorsky, G. (1981). Bizans Devleti Tarihi. Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu Yayınları.
  • Özçelik, F. (2008). Vita Constantini Kutsal İmparator Constantinus’un Hayatı. Yüksek Lisans Tezi. Balıkesir: Balıkesir Üniversitesi.
  • Pohlsander, H.A. (2004). The Emperor Constantine. New York: Routledge.
  • RIC: Roman Imperial Coinage: vol. VII: Constantine and Licinius (A.D. 313-337), ed. by C.H.V. Sutherland and D. Litt, London 1966.
  • Rohrbacher, D. (2002). The Historians of Late Antiquity. London and New York: Routledge.
  • Salway, B. (2001). “Travel, Itineraria and Tabellaria”. Travel and Geography in the Roman Empire. ed. by Colin Adams and Ray Laurence, New York, s. 22-66.
  • Stephenson, P. (2016). Büyük Konstantin. çev: Gürkan Ergin, İstanbul: Türkiye İş Bankası Kültür Yayınları.
  • Stevenson, J. (2003). “Lactantius”. New Catholic Encyclopedia. Washington, vol. VIII, s. 274.
  • Vasiliev, A.A. (2016). Bizans İmparatorluğu Tarihi. çev. Tevabil Alkaç. İstanbul: Alfa Basım Yayım.
  • Woods, D. (1997). “Where Did Constantine I Die?”. Journal of Theological Studies, Vol. 48:2, s. 531–535.
  • Zosimus, Nea Historia (New History), A translation with commentary by Ronald T. Ridley, Australian Association for Byzantine Studies, Canberra, 1982.
There are 42 citations in total.

Details

Journal Section Articles
Authors

Kamil Doğancı

Publication Date July 31, 2017
Published in Issue Year 2017 Volume: 18 Issue: 33

Cite

APA Doğancı, K. (2017). I. CONSTANTINUS’UN HRİSTİYANLIĞI MESELESİ VE ÖLÜMÜ HAKKINDAKİ TARTIŞMALAR. Uludağ Üniversitesi Fen-Edebiyat Fakültesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, 18(33), 493-517. https://doi.org/10.21550/sosbilder.310413