Battle of the Milvian Bridge and the Edict of Milan
- Date
- 28 October 312 – 313 CE
- Category
- Religion & ideology
- Region
- Italy (Rome) and Mediolanum (Milan)
- Era
- Classical Antiquity
- Significance
On 28 October 312 CE Constantine defeated his rival Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge outside Rome, where Maxentius drowned in the Tiber; the victory left Constantine master of the western empire.
Christian writers Lactantius and Eusebius reported that Constantine had fought under a Christian sign, the Chi-Rho, after a vision the night before, casting the battle as the turning point in his conversion. The following year, in February 313, Constantine and his eastern colleague Licinius met at Milan and agreed a policy, known as the Edict of Milan, granting freedom of worship to all and ordering the restoration of property confiscated from Christians during the Great Persecution. The edict did not make Christianity the state religion, but it ended systematic imperial persecution and inaugurated a new alliance between the Roman state and the Church. Together these events mark the moment when imperial power swung decisively behind Christianity, an alignment that would transform the religious landscape of the Mediterranean world and shape European civilisation for centuries.
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Empires active in 28 October 312 – 313 CE
- Kingdom of Funan50 CE – 550 CE
- Roman Empire27 BCE – 476 CE
- Sassanid Empire224 CE – 651 CE
- Teotihuacan100 BCE – 750 CE
- Kushan Empire30 CE – 375 CE
- Pyu City-States200 BCE – 1050 CE
Related religion & ideology events
- First Council of Nicaea convenes325 CE
- Edict of Thessalonica makes Nicene Christianity the state religion27 February 380 CE
- Judah ha-Nasi Codifies the Mishnahc. 200 CE
- The Kingdom of Aksum adopts Christianity under King Ezanac. 330s CE
- Council of Chalcedon and the First Permanent Christian Schism8 October - 1 November 451 CE
- Nagarjuna Founds the Madhyamaka School and Systematises Mahayana Philosophyc. 150 CE
Further reading
The wider story
A Little History of Religion
Accessible sweep of humanity's faiths and belief systems from prehistory to the present.
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