Constantine was the son of Constantius I Chlorus, one of the tetrarchs of the West, and Helena. Although his father had taken Flavius Valerius Severus as his Caesar, Constantine was declared emperor by the troops in York on his father's death in 306. He was then a participant in the civil wars which followed the collapse of the second tetrarchy. He is reputed to have been swayed toward Christianity by a vision shortly before the Battle of the Milvian Bridge then later passed the Edict of Milan, tolerating Christianity, which had previously been outlawed. For reasons which are debated, Constantine had his eldest son, Crispus, and second wife, Fausta, murdered. In 330 Constantine moved the capital from Rome to Byzantium, which was declared the 'new Rome' and was thereafter known as Constantinople. Despite being known as the first Christian Emperor, Constantine did not convert until on his deathbed. When Constantine died in 337, his body was buried in a sarcophagus at the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople at the centre of twelve other sarcophagi each with relics of the apostles.

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