and as the portion of the empire most exposed
to attack. Hence the famous scheme of Diocletian to divide the burden of
government between four colleagues, in order to secure a better
administration of civil and of military affairs. It was a scheme,
however, that lowered the prestige of Rome, for it involved four
distinct seats of government, among which, as the event proved, no place
was found for the ancient capital of the Roman world. It also declared
the high position of the East, by the selection of Nicomedia in Asia
Minor as the residence of Diocletian himself. When Constantine,
therefore, established a new seat of government at Byzantium, he adopted
a policy inaugurated before his day as essential to the preservation of
the Roman dominion. He can claim originality only in his choice of the
particular point at which that seat was placed, and in his recognition
of the fact that his alliance with the Christian church could be best
maintained in a new atmosphere.

But whatever view may be taken of the policy which divided the
government of the empire, there can be no dispute as to the wisdom
displayed in the selection of the site for a new imperial throne, "Of
all the events of Constantine's life," says Dean Stanley, "this choice
is the most convincing and enduring proof of his real genius." Situated
where Europe and Asia are parted by a channel never more than 5 m.
across, and sometimes less than half a mile wide, placed at a point
commanding the great waterway between the Mediterranean and the Black
Sea, the position affords immense scope for commercial enterprise and
political action in rich and varied regions of the world. The least a
city in that situation can claim as its appropriate sphere of influence
is the vast domain extending from the Adriatic to the Persian Gulf, and
from the Danube to the eastern Mediterranean. Moreover, the site
constituted a natural citadel, difficult to approach or to invest, and
an almost impregnable refuge in the hour of defeat, within which broken
forces might rally to retrieve disaster. To surround it, an enemy
required to be strong upon both land and sea. Foes advancing through
Asia Minor would have their march arrested, and their blows kept beyond
striking distance, by the moat which the waters of the Bosporus, the Sea
of Marmora and the Dardanelles combine to form. The narrow straits in
which the waterway connecting the Mediterranean with the Black Sea
contracts, both to the n