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Many such as the Christian writer Eusebius argued that Constantine’s order that his troops put a Christian symbol on their shields was proof his conversion before the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312 AD. However, it was usual for a leader to seek the support of a God. In the polytheism, prevalent in the Roman Empire, people would simply offer sacrificSe and thanks to the deity that they believed would be most likely to help them. Constantine’s instructions for his soldiers could be interpreted as merely seeking the support of the Christian God and not as a sign of his conversion to Christianity. Lacentius, a contemporary writer argued that because Constantine ordered his soldiers to display a Christian symbol,<ref> Lacentius XIV</ref> it did not mean that he had converted. Adopting a Christian symbol was a remarkable action, given that the Roman elite scorned that religion and that most of the population was pagan.
However, Constantine had appeared to sympathize with the Christians during the persecution of Diocletian in particular. The Christian community in the west had been generally spared the worst effects of the persecution. There is a long-standing argument in the secondary literature that Constantine ‘conversion’ before the Milvian Bridge was a strategy to secure Christian support and to unify the empire. However, this is unlikely given the relative strengths of Christianity and paganism in the Empire.<ref> Roth, J. (2013). <i>Constantine revisited </i> (London, Wipf & Stock Pub, 2015), p. 67 </ref>
Paganism was not in any way in decline in the Empire during Constantine’s reign. In this context, Constantine’s alleged conversion would have been remarkable, especially given his ambition to unify the Roman Empire. The army was still largely pagan, and every Emperor depended on for his authority and even his life, on the soldiers' loyalty.<ref> Cameron, p. 104</ref> Then there was the Roman and Provincial nobility, who were still pagan, and every Roman Emperor needed their cooperation to control the Empire. <ref>Cameron, p. 102</ref> The fact that Constantine did order his legionaries to display a Christian symbol in battle is significant in the development of his religious beliefs. Because such a move was politically risky, in the context of the times when so many were pagan. This would suggest that Constantine did have some religious experience before the Milivian Bridge, even if it was not an outright conversion. Constantine’s experience in 312 AD, cannot be regarded as a conversion because it was not followed by his baptism and the public profession of that religion. In the 4th century, AD baptism was the final and public proof of conversion.
