This program is the second in a series of programs that compares and contrasts the lives and legacies of Constantine the Great and Jesus Christ and how both have impacted how we think and live today. This second program will focus on the persecution of the Christians and Constantine’s rise to power. The Diocletian persecution, a broken family, and political divisions within the Roman empire formed the background for Constantine’s education in what it meant to rule. When Constantine seized power in Rome, he credited the Christian God. This seismic shift was to define the world we live in today.