 During his life and those of his sons , Constantine was presented as a paragon of virtue . Pagans such as Praxagoras of Athens and Libanius showered him with praise . When the last of his sons died in 361 , however , his nephew ( and son @-@ in @-@ law ) Julian the Apostate wrote the satire Symposium , or the Saturnalia , which denigrated Constantine , calling him inferior to the great pagan emperors , and given over to luxury and greed . Following Julian , Eunapius began — and Zosimus continued — a historiographic tradition that blamed Constantine for weakening the Empire through his indulgence to the Christians . 
