The tale is not only romantic, but probably true. The year is 306. A young man arises in the dead of a late spring night in the imperial palace at Nicomedia in Asia Minor. He slips down to the emperor's stables and commandeers the palace horses. He is thirty-two years old, and by all reports quite handsome. He has been a hostage. Now he is making his escape and seeking to delay pursuit.

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His escape would change history, for his name was Constantine. He would become the first ruler in the western world to base the laws of the state upon the teachings of Jesus Christ. But he had to decide how far such efforts could go in a largely non-Christian society. For centuries to come, this baffling question would confront emperors, kings, prime ministers, heads of state right down to President George W. Bush, who faces precisely the same issue today. And many ask if Constantine himself was truly a Christian? Or was he merely an opportunist, using the Christian faith for purely political ends? Historians would debate this question down through the centuries.

However, many facts about this man are well established. The son of Constantius Chlorus, Roman emperor in the West, Constantine was fleeing Galerius, emperor in the East. For ten years, he was held at the eastern court as a captive guest. If Constantius Chlorus should ever try to become sole ruler of the empire, the life of his son would be forfeit.

When Galerius became emperor in 305, Constantius Chlorus formally requested that his son be allowed to join him. Galerius outwardly consented, but connived to make it impossible for Constantine to leave. Thus Constantine's decision to escape and embark on the longest continuous horseback ride recorded in the ancient world--more than sixteen hundred miles across Europe to the northeast coast of France. His biographer, Lactantius, comments that this was typical of Constantine's intelligence, ambition and decisiveness. He engineered his flight on the very night before he was to be hauled before Galerius to become a more explicit kind of prisoner. When Galerius awoke at noon the next day, and learned that Constantine was long gone, he burst into tears.

Conquest of the Empire
The eastern emperor had reason for fear. When Constantius Chlorus died, Constantine knew he must act quickly. He must seize power over the entire empire, East and West, or perish ignominiously like so many of the pathetic series of soldier-emperors who preceded him. He faced stiff opposition from six other claimants for the imperial throne, each fully aware that he could rule safely only by destroying the other five.

The most formidable was Maxentius, ensconced in the city of Rome and stoutly supported by its Senate. Maxentius's standing troops and cavalry outnumbered Constantine's forces by nearly two to one. Moreover, the city was fortified by a twenty-foot, twelve-mile wall, built against possible barbarian attacks. Then, while marching on Rome, something happened to Constantine, something so vital, so shattering, that it would fundamentally change him, the world and even Christianity. Eusebius, another biographer and a man who knew Constantine well, tells it this way:

Constantine called on God with earnest prayer and supplications that he would reveal to him who he was, and stretch forth his right hand to help him in his present difficulties. And while he was thus praying with fervent entreaty, a most marvelous sign appeared to him from heaven...He said that about noon, when the day was already beginning to decline, he saw with his own eyes the trophy of a cross of light in the heavens, above the sun, and bearing the inscription, 'Conquer by this.' At this sight, he himself was struck with amazement, and his whole army also, which followed him on this expedition, and witnessed the miracle. And while he continued to ponder and reason on its meaning, night suddenly came on; then in his sleep the Christ of God appeared to him with the same sign which he had seen in the heavens, and commanded him to make a likeness of that sign which he had seen in the heavens, and to use it as a safeguard in all engagements with his enemies.