Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 1).djvu/31

 those which had been ruined. He even purchased ground, which had been previously occupied by private gardens, for the laying out of a hippodrome, a public luxury with which the town had never before been adorned. But the hateful name of Byzantium was abolished and the new city was called Antonina by Severus, in honour of his eldest son; a change, however, which scarcely survived the life of its author. Through Caracalla, or some rational statesman acting in the name of that reprobate, the city regained its political privileges, but the fortifications were not restored, and for more than half a century it remained defenceless against the barbarians, and even against the turbulent soldiery of the Empire. Beginning from about 250 the Goths ravaged the vicinity of the Bosphorus and plundered most of the towns, holding their own against Decius and several other short-*lived emperors. Under Gallienus a mutinous legion is said to have massacred most of the inhabitants, but shortly afterwards the same emperor gave a commission to two Byzantine engineers to fortify the district, and henceforward Byzantium again appears as a stronghold, which was made a centre of operations against the Goths, in the repulse of whom the natives and their generals even played an important part. *