110 Chapter 6
matters, he continued the policies of his predecessor
and surpassed him in ritualizing the imperial office. All
trace of republican values were abandoned. Under
Constantine, the emperor became a godlike figure sur-
rounded by eastern rituals who spoke to all but the
most privileged of his subjects from behind a screen
(see illustration 6.5).
Eastern ritual was appropriate because the empire’s
center of gravity had long since shifted to the east. The
constant military pressure exerted by the Germans had
drained the west of much of its wealth. What little re-
mained tended to flow eastward, as westerners contin-
ued to purchase craft and luxury items from the more
advanced cities of Syria and Asia Minor. More than
ever, the west had become a land of vast, self-sufficient
latifundia, worked by tenants and isolated from the
shrinking towns whose chief remaining function was to
house a bloated imperial administration. Constantine,
who had spent most of his adult life in the west, knew
this all too well. That was why, in 324, he established a
new capital at Byzantium on the shores of the Bosporus.
Rome, the city, had declined in importance. Most of the
emperors since Marcus Aurelius had passed their reigns
closer to the military frontiers, and some had never vis-
ited the ancient capital. Constantine’s move was there-
fore an acknowledgment of existing realities. Byzantium,
renamed Constantinople in honor of himself, was at the
strategic and economic center of the empire. Rome,
though still a great city, was becoming a museum.
Moving the imperial capital from Rome to Con-
stantinople hastened the decline of the west, but it was
only one of several steps taken by Constantine that re-
vealed the shape of the future. The most important was
his personal acceptance of the Christian religion. His
reasons for doing so are not entirely clear. Constantine’s
mother, Helen, was a Christian, but he grew up a vir-
tual hostage at the pagan court of Diocletian. It was not
until the battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312 that he had
his troops paint Christian symbols on their shields. Af-
terward, he claimed that a flaming cross in the sky had
led them to victory. Constantine’s grasp of Christian
principles remained weak to the end, and he may have
converted simply because he thought that the magic of
the Christians was stronger. An element of political cal-
culation probably also entered into his decision.Illustration 6.4
Model of Diocletian’s Palace at Split.The emperor built
this palace on the Dalmatian Coast after A.D. 293 for his retire-
ment. The concern for security indicates the limited success of
his reforms and a certain distrust of his fellow tetrarchs.