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Secondary sourceDocument313 AD

Edict of Milan

Constantine the Great · 313 AD

The 313 agreement between Constantine and Licinius granting religious freedom and restoring Christian property, a turning point for Christianity in the Roman Empire.

Constantine co-issued this agreement with Licinius, marking his pivotal shift toward tolerating and favoring Christianity.

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Manuscript page of handwritten Greek text in brown ink on cream parchment, with a decorated red and gold initial letter at the left margin. A dark ink blot is visible in the middle of the text block. The script is a cursive Greek hand, and the page appears to be from a 16th-century codex.
Edict of Milan, text preserved in Eusebius's Historia Ecclesiastica, manuscript copy, first half of the 16th century. The British Library.

About this source

What it is

The Edict of Milan was an agreement reached in 313 between the emperors Constantine and Licinius to treat Christians benevolently and allow religious freedom across the empire. No original document survives; its text is known from two later writers, Lactantius and Eusebius of Caesarea, who recorded differing versions in Latin and Greek.

Why it matters

The agreement gave Christianity legal status after decades of persecution, though it did not make it the empire's official religion. It shows Constantine, alongside his co-emperor Licinius, shifting imperial policy toward Christians and reveals how much Roman identity before this had been tied to the traditional gods.

Look closer

  • Why does no original document survive, and what does that tell us about how we know about ancient events?
  • Why might Lactantius and Eusebius have written different versions of the same agreement?
  • What does the edict's wording about pleasing the gods tell us about Constantine's own religious position in 313?

This document is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Constantine the Great on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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Woodcut-style medallion portrait in profile of a man in a plumed helmet with a laurel wreath, holding a spear, with the inscription CONSTANTINVS MAX AVG around the rim. Above it a Roman-numeral heading and German text; below, German text and a monogram M 2 on a book page.Artifact

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Josse van Gietleughen

Photo of the south-facing attic inscription on the Arch of Constantine in Rome: a large carved Latin inscription in two rows of capital letters on pale marble, flanked by two statues of captive or attendant figures, with a blue sky above.Artifact

Primary source

Arch of Constantine

Roman Senate · c. 312-315

Medieval illuminated manuscript page with four framed scenes in gold and blue panels. Bottom left shows a bishop with halo baptising a nude figure in a font of flames, while a crowned figure looks on. Other panels show standing saints and a scene of a figure with a torch.Painting

Secondary source

Constantine the Great Baptised by St Sylvester

c. 1200

Title page of a book reading 'Ecclesiastical History: The Life of the Blessed Emperor Constantine, in four books, from 306 to 337 A.D., by Eusebius Pamphilus', London, Samuel Bagster and Sons, 1845. Includes a library stamp and a publisher's ornament.Book

Secondary source

Life of Constantine

Eusebius of Caesarea · 345

Title page of a 1684 printed book: 'L. Caecilii Firmiani Lactantii, De mortibus persecutorum, liber; cum notis Johannis Columbi ad Gisbertum Cuperum', printed at Aboae by Johannes Winter in Finlandia. Below the text is a woodcut of a pelican-like bird with young on a branch, and a faded library stamp reading 'Bibl. Collegii ... Augsburg'.Book

Secondary source

De mortibus persecutorum

Lactantius · after 316

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