Page 13 - Countering Trinitarian Arguments With Historical Reference

derived from the New Testament. In effect, the later emperors retained Pagan idolatrous worship which had come from ancient Babylon and began to call it the religion of Christianity.”
The History of the Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire By Edward Gibbon, 1946, Chapter 20, pages 561-563, informs us of the historical facts that: “Whatever symptoms of Christian piety might transpire in the discourses or actions of Constantine, he persevered till he was near forty years of age in the practice of the established religion; and the same conduct, which in the court of Nicmedia might be imputed to his fear, could be ascribed only to the inclination or policy of the sovereign of Gaul. His liberality restored and enriched the temples of the gods: the medals which issued from his Imperial mint are impressed with the figures and attributes of Jupiter and Apollo, of Mars and Hercules; and his filial piety increased the council of Olympus by the solemn apotheosis of his father Constantius. But the devotion of Constantine was more peculiarly directed to the genius of the Sun, the Apollo of Greek and Roman mythology; and he was pleased to be represented with the symbols of the God of (Sun) Light and Poetry. The unerring shafts of that Deity, the brightness of his eyes, his laurel wreath, immortal beauty, and elegant accomplishments, seem to point him out as the patron of a young hero. The alters of Apollo were crowned with the votive offerings of Constantine; and the credulous multitude were taught to believe that the emperor was permitted to behold with mortal eyes the visible majesty of their tutelary [Sun] Deity, and that either walking or in a vision, he was blessed with the auspicious omens of a long (30 year) reign. [Promised to him by the Sun God Satan] The Sun was universally celebrated as the invincible guide and protector of Constantine;...”
History of the Byzantine Empire by Professor A. A. Vasiliev and Robert L. Reynolds Professor of History Copyright 1952, by the Regents of the University of Wisconsin Second English Edition, Revised, page 58-59: “When Constantine decided to create a new capital, he did not choose Byzantium at once. For a while, at least, he considered Naissus (Nish) where he was born, Sardica (Sofia), and Thessalonica. His attention turned particularly to Troy, the city of Aeneas, who according to tradition, had come to Latium in Italy and laid the foundations for the Roman state. The Emperor set out personally to the famous place, where he himself defined the limits of the future city. The gates had already been constructed when, as Sozomen, the Christian writer of the fifth century, related, one night God visited Constantine in a dream and induced him to look for a different site for his capital. After this Constantine’s choice fell definitely upon Byzantium. Even a century later travelers sailing near the shores of Troy could see the unfinished structures begun by Constantine.
Byzantium, which had not yet fully recovered from the severe destruction caused by Septimius Severus, was at that time a mere village and occupied only part of the cape extending to the Sea of Marmora. In 324 AD Constantine decided upon the foundation of the new capital and in 325 the construction of the main buildings was begun. Christian legend tells that the Emperor, with spear in hand, was outlining the boundaries of the city when his courtiers, astonished by the wide dimensions planned for the capital, asked him, “How long, our Lord, will you keep going?” He answered, “I shall keep on until he who
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