In July of the year 335 Constantine celebrated his Tricennalia, i.e. his thirtieth year on the throne. The festivities in honour of this anniversary were obviously held in his new capital, Constantinople. Constantine was the Roman emperor with the longest reign since the great Augustus. It was not until the…
In 327 Constantine was about 55 years old. By the standards of the day the emperor was an old man. But he had many reasons to be quite content. The Roman Empire had been united again under his rule and the introduction a couple of years back of a new…
The year 326 was meant to be a year of feast and celebration for the emperor Constantine. His last remaining rival Licinius was dead, the Roman Empire was united again under a single emperor and for the moment the unity within the Christian church had been restored thanks to the…
In the spring of 324 Constantine and Licinius were both ready for war. According to Zosimus, Constantine had gathered an army of almost 120,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry, while Licinius commanded almost 150,000 infantry and 15,000 cavalry.[1] These numbers may remind us of the battle of Lugdunum, fought in the…
A trip to Venice can never be complete without a visit to what is arguably the Serenissima’s most important and most famous religious edifice: the Basilica di San Marco. What is most surprising about the basilica is that, although it is almost a millennium old and has been dedicated to…