cahn

Mike Duncan thinks it wasn't that Constantine wasn't a sincere believer but that he was, and that he was pretty convinced he'd go to hell unless he got baptized shortly before his death, since baptism clears you from all your sins even more thoroughly than confessing them does. (Especially at a point where confession/penance/absolution as later practiced in institional Christiany might not yet have been practiced this way. But the idea that baptism would cleanse you completely certainly was.)

OHHHHH that makes perfect sense!
(In principle my religion teaches that repentance clears you as thoroughly as baptism, but in practice people don't always act as if they believe that.)

and remember, as opposed to his pagan predecessors, Constantius was a Christian monarch, meaning killing your family is now officially frowned upon and has to be explained.

I just want to say that I love how you phrase things, it makes me laugh.

If I were Julian, growing up in the knowledge that my Christan uncle had murdered most of my family and the Christian bishops, including the Pope, let him get away with it without denouncing him because they did not want to loose their new state support, I would not have been too impressed with the new religion, either.

I've heard of Julian the Apostate but never with any context, so I guess I just always figured he was some guy who liked the old ways. But this makes so much sense.