The Arian Controversy and the Council of Nicea

[TITVS SABATINVS AQVILIVS]

If Constantine was a crypto-pagan he sure hid it well with his anti-pagan legislation.

Yes, hid it. And to understand how he actually was pagan (solar, like his father Costantius Clorus), let's see how his conversion was not a real conversion, not for his soul, for sure, but just a pragmatic way to get the full reign. It's typical of the pagan hermetic/alchemic ambients hiding the core of the truth. That makes sense if you consider that Costantinus as solar pagan, could be also an initiated and for that, accustomed to a certain sincretism. That was common in the men of the classic era, and started to end in its real and original form with the rise of the Christians since the IV century.

Anyway, during the italian campaign, worried about the magic arts often used by Maxentius in battle and convinced that because of that he never could defeat his rival (even because Iuppiter and Hercules could not succeed to help Severus and Galerius against the very Maxentius), Costantinus, according to the traditional religious roman concept of Pax Deorum, (arcaic Pax Divom) looking for a sure and actual alliance with the strongest God: the Sun! The “Summus Deusâ€