![cover image](https://wikiwandv2-19431.kxcdn.com/_next/image?url=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/76/Constantine_Chiaramonti_Inv1749.jpg/640px-Constantine_Chiaramonti_Inv1749.jpg&w=640&q=50)
Edict of Milan
Legalization of Christianity in the Roman Empire, 313 / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:
Can you list the top facts and stats about Edict of Milan?
Summarize this article for a 10 year old
The Edict of Milan (Latin: Edictum Mediolanense; Greek: Διάταγμα τῶν Μεδιολάνων, Diatagma tōn Mediolanōn) was the February 313 AD agreement to treat Christians benevolently within the Roman Empire.[1] Western Roman Emperor Constantine I and Emperor Licinius, who controlled the Balkans, met in Mediolanum (modern-day Milan) and, among other things, agreed to change policies towards Christians[1] following the edict of toleration issued by Emperor Galerius two years earlier in Serdica. The Edict of Milan gave Christianity legal status and a reprieve from persecution but did not make it the state church of the Roman Empire,[2] which occurred in AD 380 with the Edict of Thessalonica.[3]
![Thumb image](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/76/Constantine_Chiaramonti_Inv1749.jpg/640px-Constantine_Chiaramonti_Inv1749.jpg)
The document is found in Lactantius's De mortibus persecutorum and in Eusebius of Caesarea's History of the Church with marked divergences between the two.[4][5] Whether or not there was a formal 'Edict of Milan' is no longer really debated among scholars, who generally reject the story as it has come down in church history.[6][1]
The version found in Lactantius is not in the form of an edict.[5] It is a letter from Licinius to the governors of the provinces in the Eastern Empire that he had just conquered by defeating Maximinus[7] later that same year and issued in Nicomedia.[1][8]