CONSTANTINE I. 323 CONSTANTINE. and it was he who called the great Council of Nic£Pa (Xice) in Bithynia in 3'2.5 (sec XiCE, Council of), and presided at. the first sitting. By this council the doctrine of consubstantiality was defined, and the Xicene creed was adopted; but Constantine took no active part in the dis- cussion. He did not receive baptism until shortly before his death. CONSTANTINE IL, or Junior, Flavius Cl.uuus C'o.NST.VNTiNUS. A Roman Emperor (A.D. 337-40). He was the eldest son of Constan- tine the Great, and was born A.D. 317, at Arelate (Aries), in Gaul. He became joint Emperor with his brothers, Constantius and Constans, on the death of their father, in 337, receiving Gaul, Brit- ain, Spain, etc., as his share of the Empire. In 340 he invaded the dominions of Constans. and was killed in the battle of Aquileia (A.o. 340). CONSTANTINE VII., Porpiiyrogexitus (90,5-59). A Byzantine Emperor. He became, at the age of six. associate Emperor with his father, Leo VI., at seven the associate of his uncle, and at eight sole ruler ; but in reality he was the ruler only after the death of his father- in-law, Romanus ' ( q.v. ) , in 944. Even then, he jiaid more attention to literature than to State affairs, leaving the latter to his wife Helena. It is reported that he was poisoned by the wife of his son Romanus, who was his successor. He wrote a life of his grandfather, Basil I., and a number of political works, including: On the Themes: On the Ceremonies at the Court of Constantinople : and On the Administration of the Empire. Some of his works are published, in three volumes, in the Bonn edition of the Byzantine Historians. Consult: Krumbaeher, Oeschichie der bii::an1inisclien Litteralur (Nijrd- lingen, 1891) ; Rambaud. L'empire yrec au Xe siccle; Constantin Porplujrogenete (Paris, 1869). CONSTANTINE XL, "Pal.eologus (1404- 53 ) . The last of the Byzantine emperors. He as the son of the Emperor Manuel II.. and from 1427 to 1446 was engaged in almost continuous warfare against the Prankish princes of the Pelo- ponnesus. His brother, the Emperor John VIII., died in 1448. and Constantine became Emjjeror. He entered Constantinople in 1449, and showed himself an intelligent, brave, and resolute ruler, but his position was a hopeless one, Mohammed JI. was preparing for the final assault on Con- stantinople, and Constantine appealed in vain to the princes of Christendom. A long siege pre- ceded the capture of the city, which was finally accomplished May 29, 14.53. In the desperate battle waged at the gates of the city Constantine fell, slain by some unknown hand. Mohammed gave his body honorable burial. Consult Miyato- vitch, Constantine. the Last Emperor of the Greeks (London, 1892). See Btzantine Em- pire. CONSTANTINE, Konstantin Nikolate- viTCH 0827-92). A Grand Duke of Russia, the second son of Emperor Xicholas I. and brother of Alexander II. He was grand admiral of the Russian fleet, and, in addition, held numerous military offices. During the Crimean War he commanded the Russian fleet in the Baltic, and directed the defensive preparations which held the English and French armaments in check before Cronstadt. He earnestly supported his brother's liberal reform plans, and endeavored in many ways to promote the catise of enlighten- ment in Russia. He was appointed Governor of Poland in 18C2, but failed in his attempts to reconcile the Poles, and resigned soon after the outbreak of the Revolution in 1863. In January, 1865, he was appointed president of the Council of the Empire. On the accession of his nephew, Alexander III., he was deprived of most of his offices, and soon retired altogether from public life. CONSTANTINE, Konstantin Pavlovitch (1779-1S31). A (Jrand Duke of Russia, the sec- ond son of the Emperor Paul I. After the Con- gress of Vienna, the government of the newly- created kingdom of Poland was intrusted to him by his brother, the Emperor Alexander I. In January, 1822, on his divorce and remarriage out of the ranks of royalty, he executed a pri- vate deed by which he resigned his claims to the throne in the event of Alexander's death, and, when that event took place in 1825. he adhered to this resignation, although he had meanwhile,, in his absence, been proclaimed Emperor in Saint Petersburg. The succession thus fell to his- younger brother Xicholas. The character of Con- stantine's administration in Poland was not such as to conciliate any class of the people, and a widespread conspiracy was formed. The Revolu- tion of July (1830) in France supjdied the spark which was needed to kindle the revolu- tion in Poland, and he was obliged to flee for his life. He died soon after of the cholera. CONSTANTINE (1868—), Duke of Sparta, Crown Prince of Greece. He was born in Athens, and studied at the universities of Berlin and Leipzig. In 1889 he married the Princess So- phia of Prussia, sister of Emperor William II. He was appointed commander-in-chief of the Greek troops operating against the Turkish forces under Edhem Pasha, in Thessaly, in Slarch, 1897, and conducted the retreat from Dhomokos in May of that year. See Greece; Turkey. CONSTANTINE, Arch of. A famous arch at Rome, between the Palatine and Ccelian hills, southwest of the Coliseum, at the junction of the Sacred and Triumphal ways. It was erected in A.D. 313, to commemorate the Emperor Con- stantine's victory over 5Iaxentius. The arch is the best-preserved ancient monument of Rome, probably because the fact that its builder was a Christian Emperor saved it from destruction during the devastations of the Middle Ages. It has three openings and four colunnis on each face. Little more than the brickwork was c(m- temporary with Constantine, the marble facing, the statues of the Dacian kings, the eight col- umns, and the entablature having been taken from other buildings, especially from a destroyed arch of Trajan. CONSTANTINE, Basilica of. A vast ba- silica begun by !Maxentius and completed by Constantine, on the site of a former market at Rome. It had a nave over 100 feet high and 80 broad, supported on eight white marble columns, , of which one is now standing in front of the Church of Santa Maria IMaggiore. The entrance, originally facing the Colisetim. was later changed to the north, facing the Sacred Way. The pre- served portions of the basilica have served as a cattle-shed, a riding-school, a hayloft, and a drill- ing-place for recruits. The vaulting of the south aisle is still standing.
