Wonderfully Sharp Bronze Follis of Emperor Constantine I (The Great) with COA.

Flavius Valerius Constantinus, son of Flavius Valerius Constantius, an army officer, was born around 280 CE in Naissus (modern day Serbia) and died on May 22, 337 CE in Ancyrona (modern day İzmit, Turkey). He was the first Emperor to convert to Christianity and strongly steered the Empire toward his found religion. He believe his God had favored him and he diligently sought his deity’s aid in the manner that other Romans sought favor of their deities. He introduced special Christian iconography to be utilized as talismans, such as a monogram placed on the shields of his troops to woo victory from heaven. He also oversaw an official address to Christian ecclesiastical issues and it was under his tutelage that the Council of Nicaea set the basic agreements of Christian dogma and shaped which books were deemed suitable for a standard set of texts – the Bible. Despite his religious zealotry Constantine I was as bloodthirsty as any Roman Emperor could be, overseeing the assassinations of son and even his wife. His zealotry though earned him rebuke in Rome, a city he visited only once. It was in his newly founded Constantinople that most invested his enthusiasm, though it must be noted that he accumulated a string of unbrken military successes in both the West and the East. his greatest success though was in establishing a dynastic succession which established a heriditary Christianized ruling class as the new power-structure in the Empire, a structure which was to survive even unto the present in so many lands.