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Image of the cross painted on the shields of all of his warriors. >> constantine vowed to convert to christianity if he won the battle. and for centuries, his victory was seen as a turning point for christianity. but did constantine really convert to the faith his empire had tried to destroy? >> some historians have doubted whether constantine actually converted in the year 312, and it's true that there's some evidence that he retained a devotion to some of the roman gods. even after allegedly converted, for example, he minted coins in which he had a picture of the sun god. the inscription on ...

Sun, a reference to the sun god who in fact was overall. and so was he really a worshipper of the god of jesus or was he a worshipper of the sun god? >> by that time, of course, christians ran in the millions. and i suppose constantine thought if you can't beat them, join them. and i think with his mother, too, well, he thought that this is true. >> constantine had an influential mother, helena, a devoted christian. she traveled to the holy land and located the most important sites from the christian story, building great shrines that remain among the holiest christian places today. >> she was...

Rose from the dead. and also a church built to honor the giving of our father, the lord's prayer. she had a building program there. and she had the money and his support. >> constantine also found in her faith something that would redeem him. >> he knew christian faith very well, and he knew baptism remitted all your sins, and he had quite a bit of blood on his hands. he wasn't the head of the roman empire for being mr. nice emperor. >> indeed, constantine was ruthless. he killed his son, his wife and several relatives. he had persecuted and tortured christians. yet with numbers in the million...

Essence of christian belief. >> what we now call the nicaean creed, "i believe in god, the father almighty and heaven on earth." those tenets of faith come down from the 4th century and are still the bottom line of christian teaching today. >> in the heart of the nicaean creed and christian faith is the jesus was both god and man. >> the earliest communities were already giving jesus the worship that could only be given to god. this is happening 30 years of jesus' death, but to find a philosophical language in which to say it, in which to formulate it, that took 300 years. the council of nicae...

>> the empire at this time was maybe 60 million people, so there might have been something like 3 million christians at this time. and they were known to be a problem throughout the empire, and so dioclesians decided to try to persecute the christians. >> a religion whose founder told people to turn the other cheek now witnessed its followers slaughtered by the thousands in public spectacles. it was another roman emperor, constantine, who came to the rescue. was his vision of jesus just before battle a miracle, or just smart politics to pacify a growing faith?