Constantinople Founded, and the Church of Michael

The emperor, always intent on the advance of religion, built the most beautiful temples to God everywhere, especially in the chief cities, such as Nicomedia in Bithynia, Antioch on the river Orontes, and Byzantium. This last city he greatly improved, and made it the equal of Rome in power and in its share of the government. For when he had settled the affairs of the empire as he wished, and had set foreign affairs in order by wars and treaties, he resolved to found a city that would be called by his own name and be as famous as Rome. With this in mind he went to a plain at the foot of Troy, near the Hellespont, above the tomb of Ajax, where, it is said, the Achaeans kept their ships and tents while they besieged Troy. There he laid out the plan of a large and beautiful city, and built the gates on high ground, where they can still be seen from the sea by those sailing past. But when he had gone this far, God appeared to him by night and commanded him to look for another site. Led by the hand of God, he came to Byzantium in Thrace, across from Chalcedon in Bithynia, and there he was told to build his city and make it worthy of the name of Constantine. Obeying the words of God, he enlarged the city formerly called Byzantium and surrounded it with high walls. He also built magnificent houses southward through the districts. Since he knew that the former population was too small for so great a city, he filled it with men of rank and their households, whom he summoned there from the elder Rome and from other countries. He imposed taxes to pay for building and adorning the city, for supplying its people with food, and for providing everything else the city needed. He adorned it lavishly with a hippodrome, fountains, colonnades and other buildings. He named it New Rome and Constantinople, and made it the imperial capital for all who lived in the North, the South, the East, and along the shores of the Mediterranean, from the cities on the Danube, and from Epidamnus and the Ionian Gulf, to Cyrene and the part of Libya called Borium. [a]

He built a second council house, which they call the senate. He ordered the same honors and festival days as were customary among the other Romans, and he took pains to make the city that bore his name equal in every way to Rome in Italy. Nor were his wishes disappointed, for with God’s help it had to be admitted to be as great in population and wealth. I know of no cause for this extraordinary growth unless it was the piety of the builder and of the inhabitants, and their compassion and generosity toward the poor. The zeal they showed for the Christian faith was so great that many of the Jewish inhabitants and most of the Greeks were converted. Since this city became the capital of the empire at a time when religion was flourishing, it was not polluted by altars, Greek temples or sacrifices; and although Julian allowed idolatry to be brought in for a short time, it soon died out afterward. Constantine further honored this newly built city of Christ, named after himself, by adorning it with many magnificent houses of prayer. And God also worked together with the emperor’s purpose, and by divine signs persuaded people that these houses of prayer in the city were holy and brought salvation. [c]

In the general opinion of foreigners and citizens alike, the most remarkable church was the one built at a place formerly called Hestiae. This place, now called the Michaelium, lies on the right of those sailing from the Black Sea to Constantinople. It is about four miles from the city by water, but if you go around the bay, the journey between them is eight miles and more. The place got the name it now bears because it is believed that Michael, the divine archangel, once appeared there. I too affirm that this is true, because I myself received the greatest benefits there, and the experience of many others whom it truly helped proves it. For some who had fallen into terrible reverses or inescapable dangers, and others suffering from disease and unknown afflictions, prayed to God there and found their misfortunes changed. I would go on too long if I gave the details of every circumstance and person. But I cannot leave out the case of Aquilinus, who is living among us even now and is an advocate in the same court of justice as I am. I will tell what I heard from him about this event and what I saw. He was struck by a severe fever arising from yellow bile, and the physicians gave him some foreign drug to drink. He vomited it up, and the strain of vomiting spread the bile through him, which colored his face yellow. After that he vomited up all his food and drink. He stayed in this state for a long time; and since his nourishment would not stay down, the physicians’ skill was at a loss for his suffering. Finding himself already half dead, he ordered his servant to carry him to the house of prayer, for he declared earnestly that there he would either die or be freed from his disease. While he was lying there, a divine power appeared to him by night and commanded him to dip his foot in a mixture made of honey, wine and pepper. The man did so and was freed from his complaint, although the remedy went against the rules of the physicians’ profession, for a mixture so very hot is considered harmful in a disorder of the bile. I have also heard that Probianus, one of the physicians of the palace, who suffered badly from a disease in his feet, was likewise delivered from his sickness at this place, and was thought worthy of a wonderful and divine vision. He had once held to the pagan superstitions but had later become a Christian. Yet although he accepted, in one way or another, that the rest of our teachings were likely true, he could not understand how the salvation of all is brought about by the divine cross. While his mind was in doubt on this point, the symbol of the cross that lay on the altar of this church was pointed out to him in the divine vision, and he heard a voice plainly declaring that, since Christ had been crucified on the cross, the needs of the human race or of individuals, whatever they might be, could not be met by the service of divine angels or of devout and good men; for there was no power to set things right apart from the venerated cross. I have recorded only a few of the events I know to have taken place in this temple, because there is not time to tell them all.