138- The New Rome

Hello, and welcome to the history of Rome, episode one thirty eight, the new Rome. So last time, we focused exclusively on Constantine's relationship with and promotion of Christianity. Obviously, the emperor's push to convert the empire was a hugely important step in the development of the Roman Empire. There were still wars to be fought, a government to be run, and oh, yeah, a whole new Rome to build. So today, I wanna dive into all the not overtly Christian aspects of Constantine's reign. I say not overtly Christian because the emperor's religion was so tangled up in everything that he did that you can't just separate it out and say, this stuff has to do with Christianity, and this stuff doesn't. Even something as basic as the construction of Constantinople, which was a project undertaken first and foremost for strategic and political reasons, winds up taking on a heavy Christian dimension. It's inescapable. That was just the nature of the man. They didn't wind up calling him the equal of the apostles for nothing. Speaking of Constantinople, we might as well start there because Constantine broke ground on his new capital practically the morning after he defeated Licinius in September. The rapidity with which he moved to transform the ancient city of Byzantium into the new city of Constantinople speaks to how much thought Constantine had given the project prior to his victory over Licinius. So the questions we must ask are, why did Constantine feel like he needed a new capital, and why did he choose Byzantium for his imperial makeover? As you know, Rome itself had ceased to be the political and military capital of the Roman Empire a long time ago. Round about February, the emperors had moved decisively away from the eternal city to more strategically sound locations across the empire. And in the sixty five years or so since Gallienus first set up shop in Milan, multiple cities had wound up serving as imperial capitals at one point or another. Trier along the Rhine, Milan in Italy, Syremium along the Danube, Nicomedia at the crossroads between Europe and Asia, and Antioch in the Far East. But as Constantine surveyed the military and political situation of the empire following his victory at Chrysopolis, no one of these cities really satisfied his vision for what a true imperial capital should be. They all had their merits as regional capitals, but if it was really going to be one emperor ruling one empire, then one capital was called for. Constantine needed a city that was centrally located, easily defensible, situated on the sea with a good harbor, and had easy access to the Danube frontier, which everyone understood to be the most volatile in the empire. Of the existing capitals, Nicomedia was the most obvious candidate to become Constantine's headquarters. And by that point, it was already recognized as being one of the preeminent cities of the empire. But the emperor didn't really like that it …