 Modern interpretations of Constantine 's rule begin with Jacob Burckhardt 's The Age of Constantine the Great ( 1853 , rev. 1880 ) . Burckhardt 's Constantine is a scheming secularist , a politician who manipulates all parties in a quest to secure his own power . Henri Grégoire , writing in the 1930s , followed Burckhardt 's evaluation of Constantine . For Grégoire , Constantine developed an interest in Christianity only after witnessing its political usefulness . Grégoire was skeptical of the authenticity of Eusebius ' Vita , and postulated a pseudo @-@ Eusebius to assume responsibility for the vision and conversion narratives of that work . Otto Seeck , in Geschichte des <unk> der <unk> Welt ( 1920 – 23 ) , and André <unk> , in L 'empereur Constantin ( 1932 ) , wrote against this historiographic tradition . Seeck presented Constantine as a sincere war hero , whose ambiguities were the product of his own naïve inconsistency . <unk> 's Constantine is a philosophical monotheist , a child of his era 's religious syncretism . Related histories by A.H.M. Jones ( Constantine and the Conversion of Europe , 1949 ) and Ramsay MacMullen ( Constantine , 1969 ) gave portraits of a less visionary , and more impulsive , Constantine . 
