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Constantine initiated the dominance of Christianity in the Roman world, though he was not actually baptized until on his deathbed in 337, and though Christianity did not become the sole official religion of the Empire until 380. The significance of this is that it replaced the tolerant communal Roman pagan state religion with an inherently intolerant creed religion, which has remained the dominant religion in Europe ever since. This represents both continuity and change, a major break with the past on the part of Constantine and his successors, and continuity from then on down to the present.

That revolution also had two major continuing spin-offs, namely the rise of Islam, a creed religion that became intolerant on the Christian model, and rabbinical Judaism, which, under the influence of Christianity, changed from a tolerant communal religion into an intolerant quasi-creed religion. (See Chapter 10.)

Constantine’s second revolution was the establishment of Constantinople, which would come to be the permanent Christian capital of the Byzantine Empire until its fall to the Ottomans in 1453.

By bringing members of the senatorial aristocracy back into high office, Constantine effected a third revolution, which endorsed, boosted, bolstered, and reactivated the aristocratic ethos that had been the hallmark of Roman society from the early Republic. This revolution, too, proved long-lasting, surviving until the French Revolution, and still not entirely extinct. (See Chapter 5.)