4. How do you see that Constantine "had married Christianity and state politics and in doing so had changed both forever"?
By making Christianity the most encouraged religion of Rome, he inevitably united Church and State into a union that lasts to this day. Constantine, either in attempt to or not, made a new definition of what it meant to be 'Roman', now not only being defined by by your nationality, but also by your religion. Before Constantine's Christianity, Rome followed a branch of polytheistic paganism which in a way served as multiple religions. Those who were worshippers of Neptune were not necessarily worshippers of Jupiter and so on. This made Roman paganism very isolated from itself by nature. Christianity on the other hand cannot function like that. It is structured under a singular and omnipotent God, universally and wholly worshipped by Christians. Now in Constantine's Rome, the structured government functioned in the same way as Christianity. While the government may fund the Church in this case, the Church fuels the Roman government to be unified and omnipotent.
Great photographs! Perhaps also it is the "transcendent" nature of a universal religion that offers political advantage. As you mention, appeal to a higher and unquestionable legitimacy in the form of a Christian God was, for Constantine, the authority he needed to support any political maneuver.
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