Constantine: The anti-Jupiter

The rules for victors like Constantine was that he was required to enter the Capitolium and offer sacrifice to Jupiter; Constantine refused.

Diocletian’s empire was built on sacrifice, his persecutions inspired by a failed sacrifice. As soon as he defeated Maxentius, Constantine made it clear that a new political theology was coming to be, a political theology without sacrifice. It was a signal of the “opposition to sacrifice” that he would hold to consistently for the rest of his life.