ic and most living in the moribund
Empire seemed to have gathered round the Church. The persecution did but
emphasize its worth and influence.

Constantine did not force his followers to change their beliefs with
him; but he encouraged and rewarded those who did. Under him was held
the first general council of the faith. The bishops gathered from all
the different cities of the world to compare ideas and settle more
exactly the doctrines to be taught. Christianity stepped out from its
hiding-place and supplanted paganism as the state religion of the
Empire.[14]

As though the unimportance of Rome were not thus sufficiently
established, Constantine abandoned the decaying capital altogether, and
built himself a new city, Constantinople, at the junction of Europe and
Asia. This became the centre of the changing world. Built upon the site
of an old Greek colony, it was almost wholly Greek, not only in the
nationality of the people who flocked to it, but in the manners of the
court which Constantine created around him, in the art of its
decorators, in the language of its streets.[15] The Empire remained
Roman only in name. The might of a thousand years had made that name a
magic spell, had sunk its restraining influence deep in the minds of
men. It was not lightly to be thrown aside.

Julian, a nephew of Constantine, who after an interval succeeded him
upon the throne, abandoned the adopted religion of his family, and tried
to revive paganism.[16] Julian was a powerful and clever man; he seems
also to have been an honest and an earnest one. But he could not turn
back the current of the world. He could not make shallow speculation
take the place of earnest faith. Altruism, the spirit of brotherhood,
which was the animating force of Christianity, might and later somewhat
did lose itself amid the sands of selfishness; but it could not be
combated by one man with a chance preference for egotism.

Julian turned to a worthier purpose. He died fighting the barbarians.
These, held back for a time by Diocletian and Constantine, were
recommencing their ravages with renewed force. And now a change comes
over the character of the invasions. Hitherto they had been mere raids
for plunder; but now a huge, far-reaching, racial movement was in
progress.

From the distant plains of Asia came the vanguard of the Huns, a race of
horsemen, whose swift steeds enabled them to scatter or concentrate at
will around slower-paced opponents.[17]