Eusebius of caesarea refused to concede any continuity between Constantine, the first Christian emperor, and the Tetrarchs, his pagan predecessors who had initiated persecutions of the Christians. In his biography of the emperor he instead preferred comparisons with a biblical hero. As a model for the experiences of the young Constantine he highlighted the early life of the Old Testament lawgiver Moses, a foundling who had grown up among foreign “tyrants” before abruptly fleeing their plots. Constantine's conversion to Christianity was supposedly just as sudden, the consequence of a stunning vision before his battle outside Rome in 312. Eusebius' punctuation of the emperor's early reign with a sharp, discontinuous moment retains its powerful influence on modern interpretations, and not only of Constantine. This fascination with the novelty of Constantine's support for Christianity affects our evaluation of the antecedents of his reign too. In terms of structural features, such as the imperial administration, its offices, and its magistrates, Diocletian and Constantine can be said to have shared a “new empire.” In terms of personal religious beliefs, however, only Constantine was new. The conventional emphasis on the abruptness of his conversion and the fundamental differences between his religious policies and those of his Tetrarchic predecessors highlights the impression of significant contrast, sudden change, even bold disjunction at the beginning of his reign.