Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 1).djvu/36

 next commenced operations at Chalcedon. By 328, however, he had come to a final decision, and Byzantium was exalted to be the actual rival of Rome. This event, occurring at so advanced a date and under the eye of civilization, yet became a source of legend, so as to excel even in that respect the original foundation by Byzas. The oracles had long been lapsing into silence, but their place had been gradually usurped by Christian visions, and every zealot who thought upon the subject conceived of Constantine as acting under a special inspiration from the Deity. More than a score of writers in verse and prose have described the circumstances under which he received the divine injunctions, and some have presented to us in detail the person and words of the beatific visitant. On the faith of an ecclesiastical historian we are asked to believe that an angelic guide even directed the Emperor as he marked out the boundaries of