La naissance de Constantinople et la fin des voyages impériaux (IVe-Ve siècle)

Abstract

The foundation of Constantinople as a new or second capital of the Roman Empire brought about a change in the orientation of the movements of the imperial court. These movements are mainly known to us through the legal documentation, since emperors on the move enacted a large number of laws of which a small part has been preserved in the two legal compilations of late Antiquity, the Theodosian Code and the Justinian Code. Even though these preserved laws do not necessarily represent the emperors’ day to day activity, they constitute nevertheless the primary source of information for reconstructing the geography and chronology of their travels, for which Constantinople was the hub, since the city stood exactly between the Danubian and Euphrates frontiers. By the end of the 4th century, official trips were limited to the regions close to the capital and, after 450, to the vicinity of Constantinople. This progressive sedentarisation of imperial power represented a concentration of authority and did not in an...