A century

4th century

9 stories from this century.

The Cabinet June 27, 2026 · Milvian Bridge, Rome

The Roman Emperor Who Reportedly Saw a Cross in the Sky Before the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312 CE and Made Christianity a Tolerated Religion the Following Year

Constantine I defeated his rival Maxentius at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge outside Rome on 28 October 312 CE. The contemporary Christian writer Lactantius records that Constantine had ordered the Chi-Rho symbol painted on his soldiers' shields after a vision. Constantine issued the Edict of Milan with co-emperor Licinius the following February, legalising Christianity throughout the empire.

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The Footnote June 26, 2026 · Rome

The Greek Soldier Who Wrote the Last Great Latin History of the Roman Empire

Ammianus Marcellinus was a Greek-speaking Roman army officer who wrote, in his retirement at Rome in the 380s and early 390s AD, a thirty-one-book Latin history covering the years 96 to 378 AD. The eighteen surviving books are the principal narrative source for 4th-century Roman politics, religion, and military affairs.

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The Footnote June 26, 2026 · Constantinople

The Christian Emperor Whose 391 Edict Authorised the Destruction of Every Major Pagan Temple in the Roman Empire

Theodosius I's edicts of 391 and 392 AD prohibited all pagan religious practice across the Roman Empire and authorised the demolition of pagan temples. The Serapeum of Alexandria was destroyed within months. The legal framework defined the institutional end of Greco-Roman paganism.

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The Cabinet June 25, 2026 · Plato's Academy, Athens

The Greek Cosmology of Twenty-Seven Nested Crystal Spheres That Aristotle Inherited and Europe Believed for Two Thousand Years

Eudoxus of Cnidus proposed in the 360s BC that the apparent motions of the planets could be explained by a system of 27 concentric rotating spheres centred on the Earth. Aristotle expanded the model to 55 spheres. The framework substantively defined European cosmology until Tycho Brahe.

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The Footnote June 25, 2026 · Athens

The Greek Orator Whose Lost Athenian Speeches Were Recovered From Under an Archimedes Prayer Book

Hyperides was one of the ten canonical Attic orators of the 4th century BC. Almost all of his speeches were lost in late antiquity. Three substantial portions were recovered in 2002 from the same Constantinople prayer book that preserves the Archimedes Palimpsest, using multispectral imaging.

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The Cabinet June 24, 2026 · Akademia, Athens

The Athenian School That Taught Greek Mathematics for Nine Hundred Years

Plato's Academy was founded around 387 BC and closed by Justinian's edict in 529 AD. For most of that nine-century period the Academy was the institutional core of Greek mathematical and astronomical teaching — the lineage that produced Eudoxus, Aristotle, Theaetetus, and most of the substantively classical Greek mathematical tradition.

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The Footnote June 24, 2026 · Pompey's Pillar, Alexandria

The 27-Metre Granite Column in Alexandria That Has Almost Nothing to Do With Pompey

The 27-metre red granite column that stands on the Alexandrian acropolis where the [Serapeum once was](/articles/serapeum-destruction-391) is the largest free-standing ancient column in the Mediterranean world. The Crusaders gave it the name "Pompey's Pillar" in the 14th century. It was actually erected in 297 AD as a victory monument for the Roman emperor Diocletian, 350 years after Pompey was dead.

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The Cabinet June 24, 2026 · Patriarchate of Alexandria

The Patriarch Who Destroyed the Serapeum and Whose Nephew Would Preside Over Hypatia's Murder

Theophilus of Alexandria served as patriarch from 385 to 412. He was the principal Christian figure behind the 391 destruction of the Serapeum, was substantially responsible for the systematic dismantling of Alexandrian Hellenistic-pagan religious institutions, and was succeeded by his nephew Cyril — under whose patriarchate Hypatia was murdered in 415.

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The Cabinet June 18, 2026 · Serapeum, Alexandria, Egypt

The Day the Christians Burned the Other Library

In 391 the Patriarch of Alexandria, with imperial authority, took a mob to the Serapeum and tore it apart. The temple had been the most important Egyptian library outside the Mouseion. After this day there was no library at Alexandria worth the name.

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