Constantine the Great's impact on the Roman Empire

The Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire) was the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages and Constantinople(Byzantium) became its capital. Diocletian created a new form of an "administrative" system because the Roman state became too big. There was an over-extension. Diocletian decided to divide Rome into two empires, an East Empire and a West Empire. The two empires then had sub-divisions. In the sub-divisions, Diocletian assigned for each of the states or cities to have two emperors and two ceasars. However, the Roman Empire gets invaded by the Huns and the Western Empire collapses. With this decline, comes a new ruler, Constantine the Great. He becomes emperor of the Eastern Empire and and Constantinople becomes the capital. The most significant culture feature of this empire (Byzantine) was the rise of Christianity. Constantine becomes a main supporter of this religion because of a vision he had. In his vision he saw a religious symbol (Labarum) and it told him to conquer. He had this "dream" before the battle of Milvian Bridge. At this battle Constantine and his army won. This was coincidence enough to convert him to Christianity. Constantine wanted to spread his wisdom to others so he offered grants and gifts in a form of persuasion. After much of this "preaching" Christianity becomes the dominant religion in the Roman Empire. Constantine started to build monestaries to improve the expansion of the religion. Eventually, Christianity becomes "Romanized". An example of this romanization would be the structure and look of Catholic churches we see today. Christianity became so popular and so expanded, that anyone who was not part of it was considered barbarian. The Byzantine Empire and Rome were forever changed by this religion. This empire was one of the most powerful economic, cultural, and military forces in Europe. It can be said, "Constantine converts to Christianity and Christianity converts to Rome."