If the victory had been otherwise, the face of history might have been entirely changed: the Christian communities might have been permitted to maintain their original communal organization, at least in the Eastern Church, and Christ might still have had a kingdom upon earth. If Licinius had employed his naval superiority in offensive war, instead of keeping it cooped up under the shores of Asia, "in those narrow straits where its superiority of numbers was of little use or advantage," the probabilities are that he might have maintained his power at least in the East; but the Eusebii had "neutralized" the mighty fleet by that which Constantine denominated "the prophecy of Gaius of Chalcis," and Christianity was subverted everywhere, and the "legal establishment" of Constantine usurped its place. Almost immediately Constantine proceeded to mark out the boundaries of the city--Constantinople--which prescient John had seen from rocky Patmos; and he traced the boundaries thereof, going on foot with a spear in his hand, and declared that in so doing he was acting in obedience to the directions of God; and when those who were with him remonstrated against his tracing so vast a space for a city, the emperor replied: "I shall advance till He, the invisible guide who marches before me, thinks proper to stop." And so he laid off the boundaries of the city upon seven great hills, which included the ancient site of Byzantium, and soon began to lay the foundations, and to plan and to build the palaces, theatres, circus, amphitheatre, and churches of Constantinople. About the same time the emperor became greatly interested in the preparation of new copies of the Scriptures, and especially of the epistles of John; and he had learned clerks and skillful writers constantly employed in making copies in the new, running Greek text, which was lately come into use, and was more easy and beautiful than the uncial letters of an earlier age; and he distributed them to the bishops throughout the Roman Empire. And next he sent letters to all of the bishops, requesting them to meet in a solemn council of the whole Christian Church, at the city of Nicea, upon a designated day, in order to discuss and settle the disputed questions by which the world was agitated. And in conformity with this royal request, or order, in the year 325 was assembled the most remarkable body of men that the exigencies of political or religious life hath ever convened together in the history of the world; for it was the first oecumenical council ever called in Christendom, those which had preceded it having been assembled by the Christian bishops, of their own accord, and not by the authority of a prince or emperor, whose power was said to rule the habitable earth ([Greek: _Oikouméne_]).