In a short span of time, in the fourth century, Byzantium made the leap from a relatively insignificant harbor city to the de facto capital of the world. Constantine moved there from Rome and gave his empire a new (and Christian) founding. He also laid the foundations for a political milieu that made “Byzantine” a byword meaning complicated, bureaucratic, and corrupt. Constantinople’s laws, for better and worse, circumscribed the movements and actions of many of the later Fathers.

Links

Mike Aquilina, Rabbles, Riots, and Ruins: Twelve Ancient Cities and How They Were Evangelized https://www.amazon.com/Rabbles-Riots-Ruins-Ancient-Evangelized/dp/1621646785/

Eusebius, Life of Constantine 3.54 https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2881

Socrates Scholasticus, The Ecclesiastical History 1.16 https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2884

John Julius Norwich, A Short History of Byzantium https://www.amazon.com/Short-History-Byzantium-Julius-Norwich/dp/0679772693/

Thomas Madden, Istanbul: City of Majesty at the Crossroads of the World https://www.amazon.com/Istanbul-City-Majesty-Crossroads-World/dp/0670016608

They Might Be Giants, “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)” https://youtu.be/0XlO39kCQ-8?si=MvE92tpEJcFeYDlx

Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com/

Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/

Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org/

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