superstition
which prevailed in their own times, assure us that Constantinople was
consecrated to the virgin Mother of God.]

[Footnote 67: The earliest and most complete account of this
extraordinary ceremony may be found in the Alexandrian Chronicle, p.
285. Tillemont, and the other friends of Constantine, who are offended
with the air of Paganism which seems unworthy of a Christian prince, had
a right to consider it as doubtful, but they were not authorized to omit
the mention of it.]

[Footnote 68: Sozomen, l. ii. c. 2. Ducange C. P. l. i. c. 6. Velut
ipsius Romae filiam, is the expression of Augustin. de Civitat. Dei, l.
v. c. 25.]

[Footnote 69: Eutropius, l. x. c. 8. Julian. Orat. i. p. 8. Ducange C.
P. l. i. c. 5. The name of Constantinople is extant on the medals of
Constantine.]

[Footnote 70: The lively Fontenelle (Dialogues des Morts, xii.) affects
to deride the vanity of human ambition, and seems to triumph in the
disappointment of Constantine, whose immortal name is now lost in
the vulgar appellation of Istambol, a Turkish corruption of. Yet the
original name is still preserved, 1. By the nations of Europe. 2. By
the modern Greeks. 3. By the Arabs, whose writings are diffused over
the wide extent of their conquests in Asia and Africa. See D'Herbelot,
Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 275. 4. By the more learned Turks, and by the
emperor himself in his public mandates Cantemir's History of the Othman
Empire, p. 51.]

The foundation of a new capital is naturally connected with the
establishment of a new form of civil and military administration.
The distinct view of the complicated system of policy, introduced by
Diocletian, improved by Constantine, and completed by his immediate
successors, may not only amuse the fancy by the singular picture of a
great empire, but will tend to illustrate the secret and internal causes
of its rapid decay. In the pursuit of any remarkable institution, we may
be frequently led into the more early or the more recent times of the
Roman history; but the proper limits of this inquiry will be included
within a period of about one hundred and thirty years, from the
accession of Constantine to the publication of the Theodosian code; [71]
from which, as well as from the Notitia [71a] of the East and West, [72]
we derive the most copious and authentic information of the state of the
empire. This variety of objects will suspend, for some time, the course
of the narrative; but the inte