A dubious anniversary

[Insidious Von]

A dubious anniversary is being noted with muted fanfare, if anyone noticed the football club Ac Milan sporting a red cross for a crest.

It is the 1700 anniversary of The Edict of Milan making Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. Emperor Constantine took on the principate with the Empire in disarray, he needed unity to achieve his political goals and he needed Christian support. The Edict insured the faith's survival into the present. But in the long run it proved to be bad news for Italy and by extension Constantinople.

 

[Insidious Von]

Constantine realized, after the fate of his rival Gerontius, that further persecution of Christians was futile.

When Diocletian became Emperor he brought to an end the era pf the barracks Emperors. In 296 he faced an external threat when the Allemani sacked Noricum (Vienna) and drove deep into the Empire. Diocletian met the threat with six legions under the command of Gerontius and the much younger Constantine. The Allemani were crushed near what is today Graz, guaranteeing the Empire free from Germanic invasion for 60+ years. With the Germans subdued Diocletian turned his attention to what he perceived as the internal threat - the Christians. He launched the harshest persecution of the faith ever recorded with the Bishop of Rome (The Pope) being executed along with most of his clergy. Constantine as a patron of Sol Invictus came through it unscathed, the Palestinian born Gerontius refused to renounce his Christian faith. For that he was tortured then beheaded, his head on display in the city of Nicomedia (in Asia Minor). Today we know him as St George.