This program is the second in a series of programs that compares and contrasts the lives and the legacies of Constantine the Great and Jesus Christ, and how both have impacted the way we think and the way we live today. This second program will focus on the persecution of the Christians and Constantine’s rise to power. The Diocletian persecution, together with 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.