The cultural and religious crisis through which the Roman Empire was passing in thefourth century is one of the most significant events in the history of the world. The oldpagan culture came into collision with Christianity, which received official recognitionduring the reign of Constantine at the beginning of the fourth century and wasdeclared the dominant State religion by Theodosius the Great at the end of that samecentury. It might have seemed at first that these two clashing elements, representingtwo diametrically opposed points of view, would never find a basis for mutualagreement. But Christianity and pagan Hellenism did intermix gradually to form aChristian-Greco-Eastern culture subsequently known as Byzantine. Its center was thenew capital of the Roman Empire, Constantinople.
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