r preliminaries; in fact, the marriage was so little noted that some
historians claim that it never took place at all. These hold that Helena
was never anything more than the concubine of Constantius; but the fact
that Diocletian insisted upon her divorce proves that she was legally
married. That, as is often stated, the birth of Constantine took place
before the marriage of Helena may not be untrue. Some have found a
support for this allegation in the fact that "he first established that
natural children should be made legitimate by the subsequent marriage of
their parents." From the fact that a number of places lay claim to the
honor of being the birthplace of Constantine, it would seem that Helena
accompanied her husband in the wanderings consequent to the profession
of a soldier. Gibbon thinks that the historians who award this
distinction to Naissus, in Dacia, are the best authorities, though later
writers think it rightly belongs to Drepanum, the home of Helena. This
place was afterward called Helenopolis by Constantine, in honor of his
mother.

Theodoret seems to have thought that Helena gave her son a Christian
education, while, on the other hand, we are plainly told by Eusebius
that she was indebted to Constantine for her knowledge of Christianity.
It is very easy to entertain a doubt of both these theories. If Helena
was a Christian when Constantine was a child, and if she trained him in
that belief, his after conduct shows extremely unsatisfactory results of
a mother's teaching. Constantine certainly did not withdraw his support
and patronage from the ancient religion until he was past forty years of
age; and it is well known that he delayed his baptism until near the end
of his life, so as to enjoy the advantage of its purifying effect at the
latest possible moment. These cumulative circumstances render us
exceedingly sceptical of the possibility of so zealous a convert as was
Helena resulting from so indifferent a teacher as was Constantine.

When his son was eighteen years old, Constantius was promoted to the
rank of Caesar. This majesty, however, Helena was not allowed to share
with her husband. The innkeeper's daughter was displaced by a more
advantageous match with Theodora, the daughter of the Augustus Maximian.
Later on, Fausta, another daughter of Maximian, was married to
Constantine, and thus Theodora was made sister-in-law to her own
stepson. Such intricate matrimonial alliances were not uncommon a