Constantine was also the first Christian emperor, with the exception of PhilippusPhilip, the Arab, emperor from 244 to 249. who seemed to me to have become a Christian merely in order that the one-thousandth year of RomeThe one-thousandth year since the founding of the city. might be dedicated to Christ rather than to pagan idols.The words are those of Orosius, vii. 28. But from Constantine down to the present day all the emperors that have been chosen were Christians, with the exception of Julian, whose disastrous life forsook him in the midst of the impious plans which it was said that he was devising.

Moreover, Constantine made the changeFrom the pagan to the Christian religion. in a just and humane fashion; for he issued an edict that the temples should be closed without any shedding of pagan blood. Afterwards he destroyed the bravest and most populous of the Gothic tribes in the very heart of the barbarian territory; that is, in the lands of the Sarmatians.

Constantine also put down a certain Calocaerus,He was a camel-driver. who tried to achieve a revolution in Cyprus. He made Dalmatius, son of his brother of the same name,See 2, 2, note 6, above. a Caesar; Dalmatius’ brother Hannibalianus he created King of Kings and ruler of the Pontic tribes,See Amm. xiv. 1, 2, note 2. after giving him his daughter ConstantianaThis was Constantia, wrongly called Constantina in xiv. 11, 22 and elsewhere, afterwards wife of Gallus Caesar. in marriage. Then it was arranged that the younger Constantine should rule the Gallic provinces, Constantius Caesar the Orient, Constans Illyricum and Italy, while Dalmatius was to guard the Gothic coastline.The name Gothica ripa was applied at that time to Thrace, Macedonia and Achaia While Constantine was planning to make war on the Persians, he died in an imperial villaThe place where he died was called Ancyrona or Anchyro or Anchyronis, Hieron., , ann. Abr. 2353 (). in the suburbs of Constantinople, not far from Nicomedia, leaving the State in good order to his sons. He was buried in Constantinople, after a reign of thirty-one years.From the death of Constantius Chlorus, in 306, to 337.

Now during the reign of Zeno AugustusEmperor of the East, 474–491. at Constantinople, the patricianSee Vol. I, Introduction, p. xxviii; at this time a patricius outranked a praetorian prefect. Nepos came to the Port of the city of Rome,Portus Augusti, modern Porto; see Index I, Vol. I. deposed Glycerius,Emperor of the West, 473–474. Nepos forced him to become a priest, and soon after that he was made a—bishop at Salona. Julius Nepos was emperor from 474 to 475. who was made a bishop, while Nepos himself became emperor at Rome. Presently Nepos cameThe present participle in this writer is often used as a finite verb. to Ravenna; he was followed by the patrician Orestes with an army,Nepos had given him command of the troops in Gaul. and in fear of his coming Nepos embarked on board a ship and fled to Salona,Or Salonae (Caes., iii. 9, 1 f.), a Dalmatian seaport; modern Split (formerly Spalato) in Yugoslavia. where he remained for five years; but later he was slain by his own men. Soon after Nepos left Rome Augustulus was made emperor and ruled for ten years.