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who later married Julian. But he also had another son from a concubine, called Crispus, older than his other sons, who also often distinguished himself in the war against Licinius. His stepmother 13 Fausta, having become madly in love with him erotically, since she found him not compliant, accused him to his father as being in love with her and having attempted to violate her many times. For which reason Crispus was also condemned to death by his father, who had been persuaded by his wife. But when the emperor afterwards learned the truth, he also punished his wife both for her licentiousness and for the murder of his son. For Fausta, having been brought into a bath that was fiercely heated, there violently ended her life. And as the Sarmatians and Goths had been set in motion against the Roman dominion and were plundering the region of Thrace, Constantine the greatest arose against them; and having reached Thrace, he clashes with the barbarians and sets up a most glorious trophy against them. And having wished to raise up a city in accordance with a divine oracle, so that he might call it by his own name, at first he proposed to found it in Sardica; then in Sigeum (which is a promontory of the Troad), where they say he also laid foundations. And again in Chalcedon he began to raise up the city. And it is said that 14 eagles flew down and seized the builders' ropes; and flying across the strait between, threw them down at Byzantium. At any rate, this having happened many times was reported to the emperor; and the event did not seem to be happening by chance, but that the divine power was indicating something through this. So the emperor himself comes to Byzantium, surveying the place, he is pleased with it, changes his purpose, transfers the artisans there from Chalcedon, builds the city lavishly, calls it Constantinople after his own name, and dedicates it to the Virgin and Mother of God. And now with the city completed, on the eleventh of the month of May its birthday, or rather dedication festival, is celebrated, in the year five thousand eight hundred thirty-eight. at which time, as some have related, having called the astronomer Valens, the most exact of those then engaged in this art, he ordered him to draw up 15 a horoscope for the birthday of the city, so that he might know for how many years it was destined to last. But he declared that it would last for six hundred and ninety-six years; which indeed had already passed long ago. Therefore one must either suppose the prophecy of Valens to be false and the art mistaken, or one must think that he meant those years, in which the customs of the state and the constitution were observed and the senate was honored and its citizens flourished and there was lawful rule, that is, the imperial power, but not outright tyranny, with the rulers considering the common property as their own and using them for their own pleasures, and some of these not pious, and giving the public funds as gifts to whom they wish and not behaving toward their subjects in the manner of shepherds, who shear the excess wool and sparingly partake of the milk, but in the manner of robbers slaughtering the very sheep and gorging on their flesh or even sucking out the very marrow. So the city was thus rebuilt by that pious emperor on the site of ancient Byzantium. But Byzantium, even formerly, happened to be a city not among the nameless or the obscure, but flourishing in multitudes of citizens and in wealth 16 and in the nobility of its men and in the strength of its walls, and so much so that for three years in the time of Severus, who reigned in old Rome, it was besieged by the Romans and that they suffered many things from the besieged, as has been previously related by me in my account of Severus. And concerning the power of the Byzantines and the strength of their walls, Dio says these things in his account of Severus: "And Byzantium had very strong walls; for their breastwork was built with thick, square stones bound together with bronze plates, and the inner part of them was fortified with both earthworks and buildings, so that the whole was one thick wall

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ἣ τῷ Ἰουλιανῷ συνῴκησεν ὕστερον. εἶχε δὲ καὶ ἐκ παλλακῆς υἱὸν ἕτερον, Κρίσπον καλούμενον, τῶν ἄλλων αὐτοῦ υἱέων πρεσβύτερον, ὃς καὶ παρὰ τῷ πρὸς Λικίννιον πολέμῳ πολλάκις ἠρίστευσε. τούτῳ ἡ μητρυιὰ 13 Φαῦστα ἐπιμανεῖσα ἐρωτικῶς, ἐπεὶ μὴ εὐπειθοῦς ἐκείνου ἐτύγχανε, κατεῖπε πρὸς τὸν πατέρα ὡς ἐρῶντος αὐτῆς καὶ βιάσασθαι πολλάκις ἐπιχειρήσαντος. διὸ καὶ θάνατον ὁ Κρίσπος παρὰ τοῦ πατρὸς κατεδικάσθη, πεισθέντος τῇ γαμετῇ. ὡς δ' ἔγνω μετέπειτα ὁ αὐτοκράτωρ τὸ ἀληθές, καὶ τὴν γυναῖκα ἐκόλασε διά τε τὸ ταύτης ἀκόλαστον καὶ τὸν φόνον τὸν τοῦ παιδός. εἰσαχθεῖσα γὰρ ἐν λουτρῷ ἡ Φαῦστα σφοδρῶς ἐκκαυθέντι ἐκεῖ τὴν ζωὴν βιαίως ἀπέρρηξε. Σαρματῶν δὲ καὶ Γότθων κατὰ τῆς Ῥωμαίων ὑπηκόου κεκινημένων καὶ τὴν Θρᾳκῴαν μοῖραν ληιζομένων, διανίσταται κατ' αὐτῶν Κωνσταντῖνος ὁ μέγιστος· καὶ τὴν Θρᾴκην καταλαβὼν τοῖς βαρβάροις συρρήγνυται καὶ κατ' αὐτῶν ἵστησι λαμπρότατον τρόπαιον. Κατὰ δὲ θεῖον χρησμὸν βουληθεὶς ἀνεγεῖραι πόλιν, ὡς ἂν αὐτὴν ἐπὶ τῷ οἰκείῳ καλέσῃ ὀνόματι, πρότερον μὲν ἐν Σαρδικῇ ταύτην κτίσαι προέθετο· εἶτα ἐν Σιγαίῳ (τὸ δὲ τῆς Τρῳάδος ἐστὶν ἀκρωτήριον), ἔνθα καὶ θεμελίους αὐτὸν καταβαλέσθαι φασί. καὶ αὖθις ἐν Χαλκηδόνι τὴν πόλιν ἤρξατο ἀνιστᾶν. λέγεται δὲ 14 καθίπτασθαι ἀετοὺς καὶ τὰ τῶν οἰκοδόμων ἁρπάζειν σπαρτία· τὸν μεταξὺ δὲ διιπταμένους πορθμὸν ῥίπτειν αὐτὰ κατὰ τὸ Βυζάντιον. τοῦτο γοῦν πολλάκις γενόμενον ἀπηγγέλη τῷ βασιλεῖ· καὶ οὐκ ἐδόκει τυχαίως γίνεσθαι τὸ γινόμενον, ἀλλά τι διὰ τούτου τὸ θεῖον παραδηλοῦν. ἐφίσταται γοῦν αὐτὸς τῷ Βυζαντίῳ ὁ αὐτοκράτωρ, τὸν τόπον κατασκοπῶν ἀρέσκεται, μετατίθησι τὸν σκοπόν, μετάγει τοὺς τεχνίτας ἐκ Χαλκηδόνος ἐκεῖ, τὴν πόλιν φιλοτίμως οἰκοδομεῖ, Κωνσταντινούπολιν αὐτὴν ἐπὶ τῷ ὀνόματι τῷ οἰκείῳ καλεῖ, καὶ ἀνατίθησιν αὐτὴν τῇ παρθένῳ καὶ θεομήτορι. Ἤδη δ' ἀπαρτισθείσης τῆς πόλεως, κατὰ τὴν ἑνδεκάτην τοῦ Μαΐου μηνὸς τελεῖται τὰ ταύτης γενέθλια εἴτουν ἐγκαίνια, ἔτους ἐνισταμένου πεντακισχιλιοστοῦ ὀκτακοσιοστοῦ τριακοστοῦ ὀγδόου. ὅτε, ὥς τινες ἱστορήκασι, τὸν ἀστρονόμον καλέσας Οὐάλεντα, τῶν τότε περὶ τὴν τέχνην ταύτην ἐσχολακότων τὸν ἀκριβέστερον, ἐκέλευσεν ἐπὶ τῷ γενεθλίῳ τῆς πόλεως συντάξαι 15 θεμάτιον, ἵν' ὁπόσους μέλλοι διαμεῖναι αὕτη γνοίη ἐνιαυτούς. ὁ δὲ εἰς ἑξακοσίους καὶ ἐνενήκοντα πρὸς τοῖς ἓξ ἐνιαυτοὺς διαρκέσαι αὐτὴν ἀπεφοίβασεν· οἵπερ ἤδη καὶ παρερρυήκεσαν πρὸ πολλοῦ. ἢ γοῦν ἐψευσμένην ὑποληπτέον τὴν τοῦ Οὐάλεντος πρόρρησιν καὶ διημαρτημένην τὴν τέχνην ἢ ἐκεῖνα νομιστέον ἐκεῖνον εἰπεῖν τὰ ἔτη, ἐν οἷς τὰ τῆς πολιτείας ἔθη ἐτηρεῖτο καὶ ἡ κατάστασις καὶ ἡ γερουσία τετίμητο καὶ οἱ ταύτης ἤνθουν πολῖται καὶ ἔννομος ἦν ἐπιστασία, τὸ κράτος δὴ τὸ βασίλειον, ἀλλ' οὐκ ἄντικρυς τυραννίς, ἴδια τὰ κοινὰ τῶν κρατούντων λογιζομένων καὶ εἰς οἰκείας ἀπολαύσεις χρωμένων αὐτοῖς, καὶ τούτων ἐνίας οὐκ εὐαγεῖς, καὶ δωρουμένων οἷς βούλονται τὰ δημόσια καὶ οὐ ποιμένων τρόπον τοῖς ὑπηκόοις προσφερομένων, κειρόντων τὸ περιττὸν τῆς τριχὸς καὶ πεφεισμένως ἐμφορουμένων τοῦ γάλακτος, ἀλλὰ δίκην λῃστῶν αὐτὰ καταθυόντων τὰ πρόβατα καὶ τῶν σαρκῶν ἐμφορουμένων ἢ καὶ αὐτοὺς ἐκμυζώντων τοὺς μυελούς. Ἡ μὲν οὖν πόλις οὕτω παρὰ τοῦ εὐσεβοῦς ἐκείνου βασιλέως ἀνῳκοδόμητο κατὰ τὸ πάλαι Βυζάντιον. τὸ δὲ Βυζάντιον πόλις καὶ πρῴην ἐτύγχανεν οὐ τῶν ἀνωνύμων ἢ τῶν ἀσήμων, ἀλλὰ καὶ πλήθεσι πολιτῶν εὐθηνουμένη καὶ πλούτῳ 16 καὶ ἀνδρῶν γενναιότητι καὶ τειχῶν ἐρυμνότητι, καὶ τοσοῦτον ὡς ἐπὶ τρεῖς ἐνιαυτοὺς ἐπὶ Σευήρου τοῦ ἐν Ῥώμῃ τῇ παλαιᾷ βασιλεύσαντος παρὰ Ῥωμαίων πολιορκεῖσθαι καὶ πολλὰ παρὰ τῶν πολιορκουμένων ὑποστῆναι αὐτούς, ὡς ἐν τοῖς περὶ Σευήρου μοι προϊστόρηται. Περὶ δὲ τῆς τῶν Βυζαντίων δυνάμεως καὶ τῆς τῶν τειχῶν ὀχυρότητος ταῦτα ὁ ∆ίων ἐν τοῖς περὶ Σευήρου φησί· "Τείχη δὲ τὸ Βυζάντιον καρτερώτατα εἶχεν· ὅ τε γὰρ θώραξ αὐτῶν λίθοις τετραπέδοις παχέσι συνῳκοδόμητο πλαξὶ χαλκαῖς συνδουμένοις, καὶ τὰ ἐντὸς αὐτῶν καὶ χώμασι καὶ οἰκοδομήμασιν ὠχύρωτο, ὥστε καὶ ἓν τεῖχος παχὺ τὸ πᾶν εἶναι