Tracing the Spread of Early Christianity Through Coins

035Few events in human history have had the impact that the Christianization of the Roman Empire has had on Western civilization.

The person chiefly responsible for bringing about this dramatic change was the Roman emperor Flavius Valerius Constantinus, Constantine the Great, who ruled from 307 to 337A.D.

Our chief source for the facts of Constantine’s life is a biography by Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea in Palestine. Eusebius, a contemporary of Constantine, wrote his Vita Contantini, “The Life of Constantine,”¹ as a eulogy shortly after Constantine’s death. Some additional facts are also provided by Lactantius, who was a contemporary Christian apologist.²