…the emperor is forced to take to his bed near Nicomedia.

Here, Constantine receives baptism, putting off the imperial purple for the white robes of a neophyte; and he dies on May 22, 337.

He is buried at Constantinople in his Church of the Apostles, whose memorials, six on each side, flank his tomb.

This is less an expression of religious megalomania, however, than of Constantine's literal conviction that he was the successor of the evangelists, having devoted his life and office to the spreading of Christianity.

One of his final decrees had been the abolition of crucifixion within the Roman Empire.