Diocletian's reforms established the rule of four, called the Tetrarchy, where four emperors controlled the newly reorganized Roman Empire. Unbeknownst to Diocletian this particular reform would be a recipe for civil war. In the year 306, a year after Diocletian's abdication, Constantine I was raised to imperial power over the Western Empire following the deaths of his father and then Augustus; Costanzo. During Constantine's reign he quickly gained popularity and consolidated his power while the rest of the emperors competed and quarreled with each other. Eventually the empire was strategically conquered by two emperors Licinius and Constantine. This peace, however, did not last long and in the year 324 Licinius surrendered to Constantine after the battle of Chrysopolis. Eighteen years after his accession as Augustus, Constantine had sole power over the Empire and earned the respect and admiration of his soldiers and people. When Constantine came to rule the Empire in its entirety, it was in chaos. The capital Rome was a shadow of its former self: “Constantine abandoned his attempt to hold the world empire together. There was no longer an eternal Rome served by subject peoples. There could be nothing but salvation” (Lamb 18). Constantine looked east towards Byzantium. The Byzantines were an isolated group who never really played a role in the growth of the Roman Empire, yet Constantine's certainty could not be overlooked. Structures and a fortified wall were hastily erected around the city and in the year 330, during the Olympics of 276, it was dedicated as "The almost forgotten name of Anthusa" (Lamb 20). Locals knew it as the City of Constantine or Constantinople. Constantine now had a home for his work... middle of paper... With advances in technology today one can only wonder what kind of “Basilica cannon” our generation will see in use, although the nuclear bomb is incontrovertibly at the forefront of this analogy. Constantinople, a city that was like no other, and unfortunately an example of the ravages of technological progress in warfare. Works Cited Harris, Jonathan. Constantinople: capital of Byzantium. New York: Hambledon Continuum, 2007. 40,52,108,112. Print.Agnello, Harold. Constantinople: the birth of an empire. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc, 1957. 18,20. Pan-Orthodox, Neo-Byzantine print. About the Great Church. Neo-Byzantine Movement, 2005. Web. .Runciman, Steven. The fall of Constantinople. New York: The Syndics of Cambridge University Press, 1965. 128.133. Press.