ABSTRACT
The foundation of Constantinople, only sixty miles away, sealed the fate of Nicomedia forever, though not immediately. Constantine himself continued to spend time there, rebuilt the city's great basilica in 332, and five years later fell fatally ill on his way to campaign against Persia.7 He retired to a suburban villa, where he called on one of the leaders of the church, the Arian bishop Eusebius, who baptized the emperor on his deathbed. Eusebius himself soon rose to be bishop of the new capital (evidently already regarded as a more desirable see), a post he held till his death in 342.8
Nicomedia's last period of glory came in the decades after the foundation of Constantinople, when it was associated with two of the most famous men of their day, the rhetorician Libanius and the emperor Julian. Both spent time in the city which they loved and praised. As a student at Nicomedia in 344-45, Julian affected a monastic life, read the scriptures in public, and was even ordained a deacon of the local church. It was here that his conversion to paganism began. At the time, Libanius was lecturing in the
5 Lactantius, MP12-14.
