CONSTANTINE (A.D. 306-337).--The career of _Constantine_ was stained by acts of cruelty towards members of his own family. In the closing period of his life, he was less just and humane than in earlier days. The change which had taken place in the imperial system was signally manifest in his removal of the seat of government to CONSTANTINOPLE, which was built up by him, and named in his honor. Placed between Europe and Asia, on a tongue of land where it was protected from assault, it was admirably suited for a metropolis. But the change of capital involved dangers for the western portions of the empire, exposed as they were to the assaults of the barbarians. The changes in the government begun by Diocletian were completed by Constantine. The empire was divided, for purposes of government, into four _prefectures_, each of which was subdivided into _dioceses_. _Constantine_ established, likewise, different classes of nobles, the type of modern systems of nobility. He organized the army afresh, under the _Master of the Horse_ and _Master of the Foot_, each, however, commanding, in action, both infantry and cavalry, and each having under him _dukes_ and _counts_. In short, the system of central and despotic administration, with subordinate rulers, which _Diocletian_ began, was perfected by _Constantine_. Diocletian, in order to fortify the imperial power against the army, had shared his power with "a cabinet of emperors," which his genius enabled him to control. To prevent the breaking up of the empire through the system of viceroys thus created to preserve it, Constantine separated the civil authority from the military as regards the subordinate rulers, while both functions were united in himself. He still further exalted his throne by giving it even more of an Oriental character, by creating a multitude of officials, who were satellites of the sovereign, and by becoming the secular head and guardian of the Christian Church. The arrangements of his court, with its grades of officials, from the chamberlain downwards, were after the Oriental pattern. THE DOWNFALL OF HEATHENISM.