“I invoke thy blessing, O Supreme God! Be gracious to all thy citizens of the Eastern provinces; bestow on them salvation through me, thy servant. And well may I ask this of the Lord of the universe, Holy God; for by the guidance of thy hand have I undertaken and accomplished salutary things. Thy banner, the cross, everywhere precedes my armies: whenever I advance against the enemy, I follow the cross, the symbol of thy power. Hence I consecrate to thee my soul imbued with love and fear. Sincerely I love thy name; and I venerate thy power, which thou hast revealed to me by so many proofs, and by which thou hast confirmed my faith.” This would be deemed extraordinary language to appear in the proclamation of any, even of the most Christian monarch of the present day. How much more remarkable must it have seemed coming from a Roman emperor just emerging from paganism, and addressed to the whole Roman world! It was the wish of Constantine that Christianity might be the recognized religion of the empire, and that all his subjects might be united in the worship of the one true God. Still he favored perfect toleration. Yet Christianity was every way encouraged. Distinguished Christians were placed in the highest offices of state. Chaplains were appointed in the army. Though no compulsion was exercised, all the soldiers were invited and encouraged to attend public worship. The city of Rome for a long time had ceased to be the only capital; and Constantine chose, with great sagacity, Byzantium, at the mouth of the Bosphorus, as the new capital, giving it the name of Constantinople, after himself. This imperial city enjoyed a very salubrious clime, and occupied a position, for the accumulation of wealth and the exercise of power, unsurpassed by that of any other spot upon the globe. It was situated upon an eminence which commanded an extensive view of the shores of Europe and Asia, with the beautiful Straits of the Bosphorus flowing down from the Black Sea on the north, emptying into the Sea of Marmora, and thence descending through the Dardanelles, or Hellespont, to the Mediterranean on the south. These were avenues of approach through which no foe could penetrate. The city was favored with a harbor, called the Golden Horn, spacious and secure. The site of Constantinople seems to have been designed by Nature for the metropolis of universal European dominion. The wealth, energy, and artistic genius of the whole Roman empire were immediately called into requisition to enlarge and beautify the new metropolis. The boundaries of the city were marked out fourteen miles in circumference. Almost incredible sums of money were expended in rearing the city walls, and in works of public utility and beauty. The forests which then frowned unbroken along the shores of the Euxine Sea afforded an inexhaustible supply of timber. A quarry of white marble, easily accessible, upon a neighboring island, furnished any desired amount of that important building-material.