the Arian problem he was not acquainted with the religious situation in the East, where the prevailing sentiment was in favor of Arianism; the Emperor himself, educated in the West and influenced by his Western leaders, Hosius, bishop of Cordova, for instance, decided in favor of the Nicene Creed. This, of course, was in harmony with his views at the time, but was not suitable to conditions in the East. Later Constantine realized that the Nicene decisions were contrary to the spirit of the church majority and conflicted with the desires of the masses in the East; he then assumed a more favorable attitude toward Arianism. At any rate, during the last years of Constantine's reign Arianism penetrated to the court and was becoming every year more firmly established in the Eastern part of the Empire. Many of the partisans of the Nicene Creed were deprived of their sees and were sent into exile. The history of Arian predominance during that period is still not sufficiently clear because of the unsatisfactory condition of the sources.

Constantine, as we know, remained a pagan until the last year of his life. Only on his death bed was he baptized by Eusebius, bishop of Nicomedia, an Arian; but Spassky remarks, he died while uttering his direction that Athanasius, the famous opponent of Arius, should be recalled. Constantine made his sons Christians.

33

The foundation of Constantinople.-The second event of primary importance during Constantine's reign, next to the recognition of Christianity, was the foundation of a new capital on the European shore of the Bosphorus, at its entrance to the Propontis (Sea of Marmora), on the site of the former Megarian colony, Byzantium (Βυζάντιον).

Long before Constantine the ancients had been fully aware of the strategic and commercial advantages of Byzantium, situated as it was on the border of Asia and Europe, and commanding the entrance to two seas, the Black and Mediterranean. It was also close to the main sources of the glorious ancient cultures. Judging by the information which has come down to us, the Megarians had founded, in the first half of the seventh century B.C., a colony named Chalcedon, on the Asiatic shore of the southern end of the Bosphorus, opposite the site where Constantinople was built up in later years. 33 A. Spassky, p. 258.

A few years after the founding of this colony another party of Megarians established on the European shore of the south end of the Bosphorus, Byzantium, a colony whose name comes from the name of the chief of the Megarian expedition, Byzas (Búčas). The advantages of Byzantium over Chalcedon were well understood by the ancients. The Greek historian of the fifth century B.C., Herodotus (iv, 144) tells us that the Persian general, Megabazus, upon arriving at Byzantium, called the inhabitants of Chalcedon blind people, because, having a choice of sites for their city, they had chosen the worse of the two, disregarding the better site, where Byzantium was founded within a few years. Later literary tradition, including Strabo (vii, 6, c. 320) and the Roman historian, Tacitus (Ann. xii, 63), ascribes this statement of Megabazus, in a slightly modified form, to the Pythian Apollo, who, in answer to the question put by the Megarians to the oracle as to where they should build the city, answered that they should settle opposite the land of the blind. Byzantium played an important part during the epoch of the Graeco-Persian Wars and the time of Philip of Macedon. The Greek historian of the second century B.C., Polybius, analyzed in a superb manner the political and economic position of Byzantium. Recognizing the importance of the trade relations between Greece and the cities along the Black Sea, he wrote that without the consent of the inhabitants of Byzantium not a single commercial vessel would be able to enter or leave the Black Sea, and that the Byzantians thus controlled all the products of the Pontus indispensable to mankind.

Ever since the time when Rome ceased to be a republic the emperors more than once wanted to transfer the capital from republican-minded Rome to the East. According to the Roman historian, Suetonius (I, 79), Julius Caesar intended to move from Rome to Alexandria or to Ilion (former Troy). The emperors of the first centuries of the Christian era often deserted Rome for long periods of time during their extensive military campaigns and journeys through the empire. At the end of the second century Byzantium received a heavy blow: Septimius Severus, upon defeating his rival, Pescennius Niger, who was supported by Byzantium, submitted the city to terrible sack and almost complete destruction. Meanwhile the East continued to attract the emperors. Diocletian (284-305)

preferred to live in Asia Minor in the Bithynian city, Nicomedia, which he beautified by many magnificent new edifices.

When Constantine decided to create a new capital he did not choose Byzantium at once. For a while, at least, he considered Naissus (Nish), where he was born, Sardica (Sofia), or Thessalonica. His attention turned particularly to Troy, the city of Aeneas, who, according to tradition, had come to Italy, namely, to Latium, and laid the foundations for the Roman state. The Emperor set out personally to the famous place, where he himself defined the limits of the future city. The gates had been already constructed when, as Sozomen, the Christian writer of the fifth century, tells us, one night God visited Constantine in his dream and induced him to look for a different site for his capital. After this Constantine's choice fell definitely upon Byzantium. Even a century later travelers sailing near the shores of Troy could still see the unfinished structures begun by Constantine.84

Byzantium, which had not yet fully recovered from the severe destruction caused by Septimius Severus, was at that time a mere village and occupied only part of the cape extending into the sea of Marmora. In 324 A.D. Constantine decided upon the foundation of the new capital, and in 325 the construction of the main buildings was begun.35 Christian legend tells that the Emperor, with spear in his hand, was outlining the boundaries of the city, and when his courtiers, astonished by the wide dimensions planned for the capital, asked him, "How long, our Lord, will you keep going?" he answered, "I shall keep on until he who walks ahead of me will stop.' This was meant to indicate that some divine power was leading him. Laborers and materials for the construction works were gathered from everywhere. The best pagan monuments of Rome, Athens, Alexandria, Ephesus, Antioch were used in beautifying the new capital. Forty thousand Goth soldiers, the so-called "foederati," par

34 Sozomenis, Historia Ecclesiastica, II, 3.

35 See J. Maurice, Les Origines de Constantinople. Centenaire de la Société Nationale des Antiquaires de France (Paris, 1904), pp. 289-92; L. Bréhier, "Constantin et la fondation de Constantinople," Revue Historique, CXIX (1915), 248; D. Lathoud, "La consécration et la dédicace de Constantinople," Echos d'Orient, XXIII (1924), 289–94.

36 Philostorgii, Hist. Ecclesiastica, II, 9; ed. Bidez (1913), pp. 20-21, and other

sources.

ticipated in the construction of the new buildings. Many different privileges, commercial and financial, were proclaimed for the new capital in order to attract a larger population. Toward the spring of 330 A.D. the work had progressed to such an extent that Constantine found it possible to dedicate the new capital officially. The dedication took place on May 11, 330, and was followed by celebrations and festivities which lasted forty days.

It is difficult to estimate the size of the city in the time of Constantine. It is certain, however, that it exceeded by far the extent of former Byzantium. For protection against the enemy from the land, Constantine built a wall extending from the Golden Horn to the Sea of Marmora.

In later years ancient Byzantium became the capital of a worldempire, and it was called "the City of Constantine" or Constantinople. The capital adopted the municipal system of Rome and was subdivided into fourteen districts, or regions, two of which were outside the city walls. Of the monuments of Constantine's time almost none have survived to the present day. However, the church of St. Irene, which was rebuilt twice during the time of Justinian the Great and Leo III, dates back to Constantine's time and is still preserved (at present it houses the Turkish War Museum). Then the famous small serpent column from Delphi (fifth century B.C.), erected in commemoration of the battle of Plataea and transferred by Constantine to the new capital, was placed by him in the Hippodrome. It is still in the same place today, though it is somewhat disintegrated.

Constantine, with the insight of genius, appraised all the advantages of the position of former Byzantium, political as well as economic and cultural. Politically, Constantinople, or, as it was often called, the "New Rome," had exceptional advantages for resisting external enemies. It was inaccessible from the sea; on land it was protected by walls. Economically, Constantinople controlled the entire trade of the Black Sea with the Aegean and Mediterranean seas, and was thus destined to become the commercial intermediary between Europe and Asia. Finally, in the matter of culture, Constantinople had the great advantage of being situated close to the most important centers of Hellenistic culture, which inter

mixed with Christianity and, modified, resulted in a new ChristianGraeco-Roman culture which was called Byzantine culture.

The choice of a site for the new capital [writes Th. I. Uspensky], the upbuilding of Constantinople and the creation of a universal historical city is one of the indefeasible achievements of the political and administrative genius of Constantine. Not in the edict of religious toleration lies Constantine's great service to the world: if not he, then his immediate successors would have been forced to grant to Christianity its victorious position, and such delay would have done no harm to Christianity; while, by his timely transfer of the world-capital to Constantinople, he at the same time saved the ancient culture and created a favorable setting for the spread of Christianity."

Following the period of Constantine the Great Constantinople becomes the political, religious, economic, and cultural center of the Empire.

Reforms of Diocletian and Constantine.-In connection with the reforms of Constantine and Diocletian we immediately notice the establishment of a strict centralization of power and the introduction of a vast bureaucracy, with a definite separation of civil and military powers. These reforms must not be looked upon as something new and unexpected. The Roman Empire began its trend toward centralization of power as early as the time of Augustus. Parallel with Roman absorption of the new regions of the Hellenistic East with their higher culture and older forms of government established through long centuries, especially in the provinces of Ptolemaic Egypt, there was a gradual borrowing from the living customs and Hellenistic ideals of these newly acquired lands. The distinguishing characteristics of the states built on the ruins of the Empire of Alexander of Macedon (the Great), Parthia of the Attalids, Syria of the Seleucids, and Egypt of the Ptolemies, was the unlimited, deified power of the monarchs, manifested in particularly firm and definite forms in Egypt. To the Egyptian population Octavius Augustus, the conqueror of this territory, and his successors continued to be the same unlimited deified monarchs as had been, before them, the Ptolemies. This last point was quite the opposite of the Roman conception of the power of the first Princeps, which was an attempt to compromise between the republican institutions of Rome and the newly developing forms of government 37 Th. I. Uspensky, History of the Byzantine Empire, I, 60-62 (in Russian).