WI: Constantine The Great dies at Milvian Bridge

Constantine the Great is (at least from my readings) credited with making it possible for Christianity to flourish, and his conversion is also said to have taken place during a battle where he saw a sign that inspired him to instruct his soldiers to paint a Christian symbol on their shields.

Suppose however, that he was not only defeated, but died in battle. What sort of effects would this have not only on the Roman Empire itself, but also on Christianity?
 

tenthring

Banned
The biggest potential effect is whether Constantinople gets built or not. It's impossible to overstate the importance of that city to world events, massive butterflies.

I don't expect Christianity to become the religion of the empire without Constantine. However, I do expect the empire to collapse in about the same manner, maybe even earlier (if there are more civil wars).

I do think that some emperors were in search of a more universalist faith. Pagan practices were very local and geography focused. The imperial bureaucracy and army was composed of people that didn't have strong geographic ties. Something was needed to bring them together, and things like Sol Invictus hint to this. As solidarity broke down and emperors became more and more just strongmen who won a series of civil wars some new kind of glue was needed.

You can say that some of that was true a couple hundred years ago, but I'd say there were some pretty big differences between 300AD and 100AD.
 
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