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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Magnus Maximus, post: 2450695, member: 73473&quot;]When Constantine I died in Nicomedia in 337, he left the Roman world in religious turmoil. Constantine had been a Nicene christian who had promoted his new religion to fit with his concept of &quot;one god, one Empire, and one Emperor&quot;. At the council of Nicaea in 325 the Emperor tried to unite the Christian church by creating the Nicene creed which affirmed that the holy spirit and Jesus were equal to the father. Constantine and the council also declared that the teachings of Arius were heretical.</p><p>Arius taught that Jesus was not distinct from his father and was subordinate to him.</p><p>Constantine had Arius banished and his teachings burned. The edict he issued dealing with Arius can be found below.</p><p><i>&quot;In addition, if any writing composed by Arius should be found, it should be handed over to the flames, so that not only will the wickedness of his teaching be obliterated, but nothing will be left even to remind anyone of him. And I hereby make a public order, that if someone should be discovered to have hidden a writing composed by Arius, and not to have immediately brought it forward and destroyed it by fire, his penalty shall be death. As soon as he is discovered in this offense, he shall be submitted for capital punishment&quot;</i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p>Ironically enough, Constantine was baptized by an Arian priest on his death bed.</p><p>The problems really did not start until after Constantine&#039;s death; you see for all his talk of Imperial unity, Constantine couldn&#039;t even unite his children under a common religion.</p><p>Constantius II was a strange hybrid of Arianism and Nicene Christianity, his brother Constantine II was a Nicene christian but died shortly after becoming Emperor and doesn&#039;t really matter and shall not be mentioned again, and Constans was a&nbsp; staunch Nicene christian.</p><p>Problems between the two soon arose over the issue of a bishop in Alexandria named Athanasius. Athanasius was vehemently anti Arian and stirred up problems in the city, but the issue that brought him to&nbsp; the attention to Constantius was when the bishop declared that he would cut off the grain supply to Constantinople. Now you could get away with saying a lot in the ancient world but one thing that you don&#039;t even<b> hint</b> at was cutting off the grain from Egypt! Athanasius got off lucky, he was just exiled in one piece!</p><p><br /></p><p>The issue over Athanasius became so tense that Constans declared that if the troublesome bishop was not reinstated, he would declare war with Constantius II.</p><p>Constantius II was tied town on his eastern front with the persians and reluctantly reinstated Athanasius as the bishop of Alexandria to keep the peace.</p><p>Constantius II desperately tried to continue his father&#039;s policy of reuniting the Christian church, he called several more councils in the 340&#039;s and 50&#039;s, they all failed spectacularly!</p><p><br /></p><p>I find it fascinating to look at how diverse Christianity was at the time and how the Emperor&#039;s desperately and almost fanatically wanted to unify the church. I also find it a bit scary how the Empire almost fought a civil war over a crazy bishop in Alexandria!</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Sources</b></p><p><a href="http://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/203/2030077.htm" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/203/2030077.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/203/2030077.htm</a></p><p><i>Res Gestae by Ammianus Marcellinus</i></p><p><i><a href="http://www.fourthcentury.com/index.php/urkunde-33" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.fourthcentury.com/index.php/urkunde-33" rel="nofollow">http://www.fourthcentury.com/index.php/urkunde-33</a></i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><b>Pictures of Constantius II</b></p><p><b>[ATTACH=full]511873[/ATTACH] </b></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]511874[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]511876[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Other pictures.</b></p><p>A &quot;Byzantine&quot; mosaic depicting Arius in submission to Constantine I and the Orthodox at the Council of Nicaea.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]511882[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Constantine I burning Arian books</b></p><p>From a church cannon law of 825.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]511883[/ATTACH]</p><p>Now for the coin!</p><p>This is perhaps the nicest coin I own, when I first saw it my jaw hit the floor (Not joking). The style is perfect, the wear is minimal, and the strike is dead on! The light toning is just the cherry on top!</p><p>[ATTACH=full]511879[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>C. 337-355 CE</p><p>Pre-reform Siliqua</p><p><br /></p><p>Rev: VOTIS / XXX / MVLTIS / XXXX within wreath.</p><p>Constantinople mint .</p><p>Slight cabinet tone with super detail and metal</p><p>RIC 102</p><p>3.11g</p><p>21mm</p><p>Please post your coins of Constantius II or Constans.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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