Sópatros és Konstantinápoly alapítása – egy mágus Nagy Konstantin udvarában
Sópatros and the Founding of Constantinople - a Magician in the Courtyard of Constantine The Great

Summary/Abstract: We have no detailed and contemporary account of the rituals performed at the foundation of Constantinople; the later sources can be interpreted as evidence for a pagan ritual, which is, however, hardly compatible with the religious policy of Constantine in that years. In modern research the related passages (inasmuch as their veracity is not questioned) are explained as results of the instructions prescribed by the Roman sacral law or infiltration of Neoplatonism. The translation of the Roman Palladium buried under the statue of Constantine, the Tyche of the city called Anthousa and the related conception of sacred names did not inevitably involved pagan rituals if we define “paganism” as Eusebius did in his Vita Constantini writing on the foundation: bloody sacrifices and festivals of gods. In this case these rites can be regarded as an attempt to create a ceremony reflecting on the imperial ideology and propaganda.

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