Constantine's Sword Page #3

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to beat his rivals

for control of the empire.

Now Rome itself was in his grasp...

right across this river.

I saw with my own eyes

the cross of light in the heavens.

It bore the inscription,

"By this sign, you will conquer."

I described the marvel

and its meaning to my men.

I told them to reproduce it.

A long spear crossed by a transverse

bar forming the figure of a cross...

to be carried

at the head of all my armies.

They are carrying their spears

in the sign of the cross...

and he comes on to this bridge...

Meets the enemy and

against all the odds wins

Constantine goes into Rome,

declares himself emperor...

And on the strength of that vision,

he becomes a Christian.

In the midst of the imperial city...

as a trophy of victory and the safeguard

of the Roman empire...

I ordered a statute of myself

with a lofty spear in the figure of a cross...

To be placed by my hand

with this inscription

''By this sign, I have conquered...

and liberated your city

from the yoke of tyranny."

What's the story?

When does this date to?

What year would they date this for?

Was made around 320

after Jesus Christ.

This was part of his glorification

as the new emperor.

Was it usually big?

- The biggest statue in Rome.

- This is the biggest? Really?

So we are all below,

and we are all subservient

But can you say what it meant that

the emperor was a Christian?

Constantine had a political strategy

to preserve the empire of Rome.

After Constantine. it was no longer

possible to go back to Pagan life.

Historian wonder whether Constantine's

conversion was real...

Or was it just a way to strengthen

his hold on power.

These frescos in an old Roman

covenant tell the story.

The great emperor falls to his knees

as he shares his crown with the Pope.

This is the moment when the sword

and the cross become one.

Christianity turns violent.

The things people do in the name of God.

When Constantine converted...

there were almost the same number

of Christians and Jews.

Today there are around

two billion Christians...

and only 15 million Jews.

Before l left Rome...

I went to look for the abandoned tomb

of Constantine's mother, Helena.

I remembered that she was

my mother's favourite saint.

Helene collected sacred

relics from the Holy Land,

the way my mother collected antiques.

- Excuse me, Mausoleum Helena?

- Yes.

Excuse me, signor Mausoleum Helena?

Thank you.

Historians know practically

nothing about the real Helena...

but she started to obsess me.

I remember the stories back in Sunday school

about her visit to Golgotha...

where Jesus had been crucified.

She found the Jew who knew

where the true cross was hidden...

and then he converted.

The story of Saint Helena and the Jew

could be a useful clue in my search.

Historians do know

that she came from Germany.

I remember my mother first told me

about Helena in Germany...

back when I was 16.

We lived in Wiesbaden, headquarters

of the US air force in Europe.

My father was chief of staff.

When my family was here in the '50s,

it was as privileged Americans.

I was just a kid but I saw my father

as a figure of tremendous power

The airbase was the point of the spear.

Fighters and bombers

targeting the iron curtain...

just a hundred miles away.

I was at home in this world

of power and virtue.

We had everything, even Elvis

stationed at a nearby army base.

In fact my brother had his eye

on a fellow 8th grader...

when the rumours spread to junior

high that she was dating Elvis.

Her name was Priscilla.

We were known in this neighbourhood as

the American General with many children.

My mother told me she was the blessed

mother's representative here on earth.

That is to say was her name was Mary...

and she made me understand

that she was associated with Mary.

Of course I was aware

that my father's name was Joseph.

My initials were J.C.

I just came of age...

and my relationship with mom and dad...

very much included God

in the family circle.

This road makes me think of my mother.

We used to drive on this road.

Where we were going were these really

important Catholic centres of devotion.

Mainz, Cologne Trier,

each one had a relic...

supposedly brought from the Holy Land

by Saint Helena...

and Mom needed to see them all.

Here in Trier in 1959...

Mom and I saw the most precious relics.

More precious even

than a piece of the true cross.

Helena is said to have brought it to Trier

because this was her hometown...

and she wanted it here

in the Cathedral...

built by her own son Constantine.

"In the ancient city of Trier, Germany...

"one of the most venerated relics

in Christendom...

"is shown publicly this year.

"United States Air force personnel

and their families...

"are among those privileged

to see a robe...

"said to have been worn by Christ.

"The vestments has been shown publicly

only at very rarely intervals.

I stood on the balcony

at the back of this church...

looking at that robe.

And to me it looked like

an over-sized T-shirt...

surrounded by people who were

profoundly moved by their conviction...

that this had been worn by Jesus.

I couldn't imagine then that the

whole idea of the robe could be fiction...

or that it would keep coming back in

the history of the Christians and the Jews.

Hollywood's version of "The Robe"

was the first movie in Cinemascope...

and the screenplay came

right out of the gospels.

Scholars now tell us...

that the robe of Jesus

in the new testament is pure invention.

It is based on the Psalm

in the Hebrew Bible...

written hundreds of years earlier.

That detail, "They will cast dice

from my robe"...

comes from Psalm 22.

It described an experience...

that seem to apply to Jesus.

The Story of the Robe was used

by the time of Constantine...

as one more excuse to blame the Jews...

for not believing in Jesus.

But if there was no robe.

And the other stories about Helena

and her relics are fiction.

What is the true story

about Constantine and his family?

I thought I might find the answer,

here in Trier.

Guten Tag.

Constantine?

Danke schn.

- And who is that?

- Fausta, Constantine's second wife

- So that's Constantine.

- Yes.

And this is Crispus, the son

of the first wife of Constantine.

- Crispus looks like his father.

- Indeed.

- What happened to him?

- He was killed by his father.

In the Roman baths

that Constantine build in Trier...

I met his biographer, Jon Drivers.

He ordered his eldest son Crispus

to be killed.

- Why?

- One of reasons may have been...

a relationships between Crispus

and Constantine's second wife Fausta.

What happened to Fausta?

She was killed also...

in an overheated bathroom,

on the order of Constantine.

So this one year he orders the execution

of both of his son and his wife.

It makes you actually wonder what

kind of a person Constantine was.

A ruthless,

and perhaps violent person.

Quite another person

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