Note 67 — Chapter I · CONSTANTINOPLE IN THE SIXTH CENTURY[3]

Ciampini (De Sacr. Aedific., a C. Mag., etc., Rome, 1693), enumerates twenty-seven. Eusebius says many (Vit. C., iii, 48). It is curious, however, that the dialogue Philopatris (in Lucian) gives an impression that in or after 363 (Gesner’s date, formerly accepted) churches were so few and inconspicuous that the bulk of the population knew nothing about them. The Notitia, again, half a century later, reckons only fourteen within the city proper, including Sycae (Galata). Probably, therefore, these twenty-seven churches attributed to Constantine are mostly suppositious, for even in the reign of Arcadius it would seem that there were not many more than half that number.