h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Reading the opening points made me wonder about the whole Capital of the Empire thing.

I recall that the capital of the empire was shifted from Rome to Milan in 286, some time before Constantine. The politics of Rome had become so inbred and vicious that the Emperors had refused to go there for years. The removal of the government to a more functional (less dysfunctional) city was a natural step.

Secondly, I didn't think the government moved from Milan to Constantinople until 359. This would have made the change sometime after Constantine's death.

It's probably more complicated than I've made out; the old Senate continued to operate in Rome, while a new one operated from Constantinople. The Western Empire was probably administered from Milan while the Easten Empire was certainly administered from Constantinople. So what the capital was depended on who you asked. Constantine certainly considered his city to be the capital.

The Rome-Milan-"New Rome" comments are correct per my favorite source- the inimitable Gibbon. His quite sensible comment is, "The [Western] court was, for the most part, established at Milan, whose situation, at the foot of the Alps, appeared far more convenient than that of Rome, for the important purpose of watching the motions of the barbarians of Germany." (Vol. II) Further, he first showed that the Empire had been some time without an Italian-born Emperor. And he had often made the point that the Senate had only symbolic value to the Emperors since Augustus, if not since Julius.
At least a quarter-century after the Great One's death, Constantius II made a "triumphal" trip from Milan to Rome in the classic manner.

I'm very much enjoying these threads, BTW. There are so many, and they interlock so often ... Should I call them Byzantine?