§ 2. CONSTAiS^TINE THE GEEAT. 33
command as he supposed,' in tlie year 330, transferred the seat of his government to Byzantium, and thus fixed the policy, already initiated by Domitian, of orientalizing and dividing the empire. In the selection of the unrivalled locality he showed more taste and genius than the founders of Madrid, Yienna, Berlin, St. Petersburg, or Washington. With incredible rapidity, and by all the means within reach of an absolute monarch, he turned this nobly situated town, connecting two seas and two continents, into a splendid residence and a new Christian Rome, " for which now," as Gregory of Nazianzen expresses it, " sea and land emulate each other, to load it with their treasures, and crown it queen of cities." " Here, instead of idol temples and altars, churches and crucifixes rose ; though among them the statues of patron deities from all over Greece, mutilated by all sorts of tasteless adaptations, were also gathered in the new metropolis.' The main hall in the palace was adorned with representations of the crucifixion and other biblical scenes. The gladiatorial shows, so popular in Eome, were forbidden here, though theatres, amphitheatres, and hippodromes kept their place. It could nowhere be mistaken, that the new imperial residence was as to all outward appearance a Christian city. The smoke of heathen sacrifices never rose from the seven hills of ISTew Rome except during the short reign of Julian the Apostate. It became the residence of a bishop who not only claimed the authority of the apostolic see of neighboring Ephesus, but soon outshone the
' " Jubente Deo," says he in one of his laws. Cod. Theodos. 1. xiii. tit. v. leg. 7. Later writers ascribe the founding of Constantinople to a nocturnal vision of the emperor, and an injunction of the Virgin Mary, who was revered as patroness, one might almost suppose as goddess, of the city.
^ The Turks still call it emphatically the city. For Stambul is a corruption of Istambul, which means : els rriv iroXiv.
^ The most offensive of these is the colossal bronze statue of Apollo, pretended to be the work of Phidias, which Constantino set up in the middle of the Forum on a pillar of porphyry, a hundred and twenty feet high, and which, at least according to later interpretations, served to represent the emperor himself with the attributes of Christ and the god of the sun ! So says the author of Antiquit. Constant, in Banduri, and J. v. Hammer: Constantinopolis u. der Bosphorus, i. 162 (cited in Milraan's notes to Gibbon). Nothing now remains of the pillar but a mutilated pieca
34 THIBD PERIOD. A.U. 311-590.
patriM-cliate of Alexandria and rivalled for centuries the papal power in ancient Rome.
The emperor diligently attended divine worship, and is portrayed npon medals in the posture of prayer. He kept the Easter vigils with great devotion. He would stand during the longest sermons of his bishops, who always surrounded him, and unfortunately flattered him only too much. And lie even himself composed and delivered discourses to his court, in the Latin language, from which they were translated into Greek by interpreters appointed for the purpose.' General invitations were issued, and the citizens flocked in great crowds to the palace to hear the imperial preacher, who would in vain try to prevent their loud applause by pointing to heaven as the source of his wisdom. He dwelt mainly on the truth of Christianity, the folly of idolatry, the unity and providence of God, the coming of Christ, and the judgment. At times he would severely rebuke the avarice and rapacity of his courtiers, who would loudly applaud him with their mouths, and belie his exhortation by their works.'' One of these productions is still extant,' in which he recommends Christianity in a characteristic strain, and in proof of its divine origin cites especially the fulfilment of prophecy, including the Sibylline books and the Fourth Eclogue of Yirgil, with the contrast between his own happy and brilliant reign and the tragical fate of his persecuting predecessors and colleagues.
Nevertheless he continued in his later years true upon the whole to the toleration principles of the edict of 313, protected the pagan priests and temples in their privileges, and wisely abstained from all violent measures against heathenism, in the persuasion that it would in time die out. He retained many heathens at court and in public ofiice, although he loved to promote Christians to honorable positions. In several cases, however, he prohibited idolatry, where it sanctioned scandalous
• Euseb. v. C. IV. 29-33. Burckhardt, 1. c. p. 400, gives little credit to this whol« ■ccount of Euscbius, and thus intimates the charge of deliberate falsehood.
• Euseb. Vit. Const, iv. 29 ad fincm.
' Const. Oratio ad sanctorum coetum, was preserved in Greek translation bj E^tsebiufl as an appendix to his biography of the emperor.