>>Nowadays he is known to us as Constantine the Great, and with good reason: with the exceptions of Jesus Christ, the Prophet Mohammed, and the Buddha, he was to be perhaps the most influential man who ever lived
Agree/disagree? And if he's not number 1 (or four, whatever), where would you place him? I feel he should definitely be in the top 10.
He looks manly as fuck
>>339723
>Christ
>Muhammad
>Constantine
And heres Abraham bitterly masturbating in the corner.
>>339744
He wasn't really that relevant to us Westerners.
In the grand scheme of things, Napoleon, Caesar/Augustus, and Alexander were all more important than him.
>>340077
Is Alexander that relevant for the West? Most of what he did seems to only affect the East.
As far as Christianity goes, Paul was the most influential person, even much more so than Jesus himself.
>turned Christianity from an exclusively Jewish ethnic sect into an universalist religion
>spread Christianity to Greeks which forced Christianity to absorb a cockload of Hellenistic philosophical concepts
It could be argued that if it wasn't for Paul, Christianity would either vanish with the siege of Jerusalem or remain an obscure shitty Jewish sect in the Mediterranean diaspora.
>>340100
Yeah in the second part I meant world wide, and Alexander was pretty important since he created the conditions for the birth of an entire civilisation (which is now the Islamic world).
>>340107
Paul was awesome.
>>340107
Well, Jesus was still pretty fucking great, and he created something completely new in the history of mankind.
Paul is the one who turned it into a religion, and into the foundation for two civilisations. Which really wasn't what Jesus had in mind at all, and almost the opposite in many ways, but still extremely important in a different sense.
he made anime possible
>>339723
Not even close to being top 100.
>>340186
>Having theology this basic
>>340758
edgy
>>339723
>pull rome out of nth civil war
>reorganize the army and beauracracy to stave off the fall of the west for another two hundred years
>found retardedly unattackable city on the corner stone of europe and Asia
>allowed Christianity to take over the world for 500 years
>his invincible city sits at all land trade between two continents
>it protects ungrateful christian barbarians from mahomet for 800 years
>it is a convenient repository of accumulated knowledge from antiquity
yeah he's probably up there
>>340077
He's extremely relevant to us. The entire concept of "the west' is basically a juxtaposition of Christian Europe to the religions of the east, (and other various places.) Constantine was integral to the Christianization of Europe.Without the influence and legacy of Rome behind it, Christianity probably doesn't gain such a foothold in Europe.
>>340985
>edgy
>>339744
>Zarathushtra Spitama can't even get it hard
>>340915
Quality post.
Best emperor
a christian emperor was inevitable since the religion was already widespread, he didn't do much to influence anything in the long run but people still get a hard on for him because "dude he like invented christianity hahaa"
the only evidence he even was a christian himself and didn't still worship sol invictus was from Lactantius I believe, who recorded that Constantine converted before the battle of the Milvian bridge after he saw a cross shaped comet blazing in the sky and got his army to paint their shields with the chi-rho
pretty fantastical, f a m
>>343320
>a christian emperor was inevitable since the religion was already widespread
So was Manichean emperor, (some kind of) Jewish emperor, Neo-Platonic emperor, Arian or any-another-kind-of-Christianity emperor. By 300 only about 5% of population were Christians, Constantine's conversion caused massive influx of converters, with Church becoming good place for roman nobility to regain some kind of authority. Before Constantine were was no unified Christian church, with some kind of common doctrine. His insistence on uniformity and strict church hierarchy created the Church we know today.
>the only evidence he even was a christian himself and didn't still worship sol invictus was from Lactantius I believe, who recorded that Constantine converted before the battle of the Milvian bridge after he saw a cross shaped comet blazing in the sky and got his army to paint their shields with the chi-rho
He was baptized on deathbed, by Arian priest ironically.
>>343417
>By 300 only about 5% of population were Christians,
source?
>Constantine's conversion
writing edicts favorable to christians does not equal converting
>Before Constantine were was no unified Christian church,
after and during his reign there wasn't one either, the arians had serious opposition in the majority of the empire and the Donatists controlled north africa
>His insistence on uniformity and strict church hierarchy created the Church we know today.
show me one of his edicts directly related to reforming church hierarchy
as far as I know it was the fact that christianity had a well functioning hierarchy and church system coupled with an easy to understand doctrine that so many people converted to it, especially slaves who influenced their masters
>>343320
That map is absolut bullshit. Until 325 Christianity was pretty marginal in its influence and extent, this map says that every major city of the Roman world was already Christian by 325.
Monotheism wouldn't exist without Zoroaster. The Jews never become henotheists which means they never become monotheists meaning the very notion of Christianity cannot come about as Yahweh isn't the sole god and so on and so forth.
"Who was most important" is stupid because the farther back you go the more you can change.
>>343481
no shit m8
>>343454
>source
Coming Out Christian in the Roman World, IIRC, or maybe it was The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians.
>writing edicts favorable to christians does not equal converting
Yes, but everyone saw which way the wind is blowing. He started to appoint Christians to positions of power, and hist heirs were openly Christians from the start. It's like in the USSR, technically you don't have to be a communist party member to be promoted, but in practice it was the requirement and this is why millions joined the party. Like, you don't have to be a Christian to gain a promotion, but it surely helps to go to the same church the Emperor does.
> the arians had serious opposition in the majority of the empire and the Donatists controlled north africa
Again, yes, but there was no idea of unified church with common doctrine. Arianist and Chalcedonist views coexisted for decades in the church without anyone giving a shit. It was Constantine's idea to use state power to enforce the only true doctrine.
> show me one of his edicts directly related to reforming church hierarchy
He recognized authority of bishops over their parishes, for example. IIRC he allowed bishops to use state road systems to travel to Chalcedone, thus granting them the status of state officials. I maybe wrong with the last one, but the fact he presided over the council gave them moral authority, and made them almost part of the state.
>>341409
>muh /pol/ bogeyman
>>339723
I agree with the statement mostly because Constantine guaranteed Christianity's unified doctrine, allowing it to not only survive as it struggled to before, but thrive from that point onward.
Before the Council of Nicea, Christianity was very fragmented on their core beliefs, such as whether Jesus was wholly man or wholly god, the role of the Holy Spirit, the importance of Saints and martyrs, and a whole myriad of issues.
The council was called for all Christian leaders to talk and agree on what are Christianity's beliefs from that point on, and the Nicene Creed was the result, keeping the church unified for nearly 800 years, and ultimately gave the institution the tools to rise rapidly in power along with Constantine's decriminalization of Christian beliefs.
It's safe to say that without Constantine's influence in propelling Christianity to its rapid rise in influence, and overseeing to the religion's unified beliefs to prevent fragmentation, Christianity would have spit into dozens of smaller factions that would have eventually died off on their own.
>>343617
> keeping the church unified for nearly 800 years
Actually church conflicts were constant during this period, large parts of the Empire considered each other heretics, new councils only made it worse. By the time of Islam conquest majority of Christians in Egypt and Syria considered Constantinople Patriarch and the Emperor heretics, and thus were quite happy to have Muslim overlords, who gave no shit about which version of Christianity they adhere as long ad they paid their taxes. The most interesting thing is, these Christians are still living there, keeping their traditions since 5th century.
>>339723
Saint Paul is more important to Christianity than Constantine.
The problem with important figures is that the most important ones are the ones so far back we don't know of them, because of the butterfly effect
Uh, no.
Genghis Khan was more influential.
I would probably put Socrates out there, as well. And Confucius.
>Proclaimed Emperor in my city
>walk past his statue every week
Feels good. All the Chinese tourists taking selfies in front of him have no idea.
