Note 62 — Chapter I · CONSTANTINOPLE IN THE SIXTH CENTURY[3]

The name occurs in Cod. Theod. from 323 onwards, but also as a palpable error at an earlier date. See Haenel’s Chronological Index. It is thought coins stamped CP. were issued as early as 325 (Smith, Dict. Christ. Biog., i, p. 631). Had Constantine fixed on any other place it is probable that “New Rome” would have passed into currency as easily as “New York.” But the Greeks did not call their city Constantinople till later centuries. Thus with Procopius, the chief writer of the sixth century, it is always still Byzantium.