Constantinople was adorned with all the architectural elegance of the age, but the arts of sculpture and of decoration had so declined that Constantine was forced to rob the cities of Greece of their finest works in order to supply the deficiencies of his own artists: Athens and Asia were despoiled to adorn his semi-barbarous capital. The city was provided with a forum, in which was placed a column of porphyry upon a white marble base, in all one hundred and twenty feet high, upon which stood a bronze figure of Apollo. A hippodrome, or circus of great size, and the baths and pleasure-grounds, recalled the memory of those of Rome. Schools and theatres, aqueducts, fourteen churches, fourteen palaces, and a great number of magnificent private houses, added to the splendor of the new city. Constantine designed, it is said, to have called his capital the SECOND OR NEW ROME, but his own name has always been preferred.
Having thus provided a capital, Constantine next began to form a new constitution for his empire; he established, therefore, a complete despotism, all the power being lodged in the emperor, and all honors and titles being conferred by him alone. The name of Consul was still preserved, these officers being yearly appointed by the emperor; but we now notice the titles of Count and Duke joined with those of Quæstors and Proconsuls. All the civil magistrates were taken from the legal profession. The law was now the most honorable of the professions, and the law school at Berytus, in Phœnicia, had flourished since the reign of Alexander Severus.
The Roman Empire was divided into four great præfectures, which were themselves subdivided into dioceses and provinces. The præfectures were named that of the East, of Illyricum, of Italy, and of Gaul. A Prætorian Præfect had charge of each præfecture, and regulated its civil government; took care of the roads, ports, granaries, manufactures, coinage; was the supreme legal magistrate, from whose decision there was no appeal. Rome and Constantinople had their own Præfects, whose courts took the place of those of the ancient Prætors, while a considerable police force preserved the quiet of each city. The magistrates of the empire were divided into three classes, the Illustrissimi, or illustrious; the Spectabiles, or respectable; and the Clarissimi, or the honorable.
Constantine also made Christianity the established religion of the state, and appropriated a large portion of the revenues of the cities to the support of the churches and the clergy. His standing army was very large, but the ranks were now filled chiefly by barbarians, the Roman youth having lost all taste for arms. It is said the young men of Italy were in the habit of cutting off the fingers of the right hand in order to unfit themselves for military service.
In order to support this extensive system, Constantine was forced to impose heavy taxes upon his people. Every year the emperor subscribed with his own hand, in purple ink, the indiction, or tax levy of each diocese, which was set up in its principal city, and when this proved insufficient, an additional tax, or superindiction, was imposed. Lands, cattle, and slaves were all heavily taxed, and the declining agriculture of the empire was finally ruined by the exorbitant demands of the state. In Campania alone, once the most fertile part of Italy, one eighth of the whole province lay uncultivated, and the condition of Gaul seems to have been no better. Besides this, merchants, manufacturers, mechanics, and citizens were taxed beyond their power of endurance, while those who failed to pay were shut up in prison. Every fourth year these taxes on industry were levied, a period to which the people looked forward with terror and lamentation. Gifts were also demanded from the cities or provinces on various occasions, such as the accession of an emperor, the birth of an emperor's heir, the free gift of the city of Rome, for example, being fixed at about three hundred thousand dollars; and, in fine, the imperial despotism reduced the people to want, and hastened, even more than the inroads of the barbarians, the destruction of civil society.
Constantine in his old age adopted the luxury and pomp which Diocletian introduced from the East; he wore false hair of various colors carefully arranged, a diadem of costly gems, and a robe of silk embroidered with flowers of gold. His family, at an earlier period, consisted of Crispus, a son by his first wife Minervina, and the three sons of Fausta, Constantine, Constantius, and Constans. Besides these there were three daughters. Crispus, however, who was beloved by the people and the army, excited the jealousy of Fausta. Constantine was led to believe that his son was engaged in a conspiracy against his life, and Crispus was executed by his father's orders, together with Cæsar Licinius, the son of Constantine's favorite sister. Helena, the aged mother of Constantine, undertook to avenge her grandson. Fausta was finally proved to be unfaithful to her husband, and put to death, with many of her friends and followers. These fearful scenes within the palace recalled to the Roman people the memory of Nero and Caligula.
The three sons of Fausta were now the heirs of the throne, and, with their two cousins, Dalmatius and Hannibalianus, were carefully instructed by Christian professors, Greek philosophers, and Roman jurisconsults, the emperor himself teaching them the science of government and of man. They also studied the art of war in defending the frontiers of the empire; but no important war disturbed the last fourteen years of this reign. Constantine reigned thirty years, the longest period of any since Augustus; and he died May 22, A.D. 337, at his palace at Nicomedia, aged sixty-four years.
Constantine, although professing the Christian faith, was not baptized until a short time before his death, when he received that solemn rite with many professions of penitence, and of a desire to live in future according to the precepts of religion. He seems to have possessed many excellent qualities, was brave, active, and untiring, ruled with firmness, and gave a large portion of his time to the cares of state.