constantine won the batt of the milvian bridge, became the sole emperor of the roman empire, and thenshift of geopolitics, relocates the center of roman rule from the eternal city, me, to a new city, constantinople. >> narrator: to reunite a divided empire, constantine moved the capitafrom rome to a more strategic location, the anent city of byzantium, a renamed it constantinople. >> an important part of what was going on here was jockeying at the imperial administration. en clearly, by thof the third century, christianity was a major force to be reckoned with throughout the empire, and something that had to either be suppressed or had to be integrated. galerius, constantine's rival, instigators of the persecution, favored the option of suppression. constantine and his associates favored the option of integration. >> constantine was a consummatet pragmand a consummate politician. and i think he gauged well the upsurge of interest and support christianity was... was receiving, and so played up to that very nicely and exploited it in his own rule. >> when constantine came into power and