Constantine’s eyes danced with eagerness and excitement as they rode through the busy streets of Nicomedia. On every side he could see new buildings going up, magnificent temples to the favorite Roman gods, Jove, Hercules and Apollo, as well as additions to stadium and amphitheater all signs of a prosperous and rapidly growing Roman city.
Workmen in short tunics of cloth reaching to their knees carried burdens through the streets to their shops. Lucullus, Constantine’s tutor in Naissus, had said that these men were highly organized into guilds and corporations, some of them so influential that even the Emperor had to deal with them in carrying on the affairs of government, and over almost every shop he could distinguish the emblem of the guild to which its owner belonged.
Merchants and members of the nobility wore longer tunics as a rule than the artisans, but only very occasionally did he see a ceremonial toga, such as he had heard was still frequently worn in Rome. The workmen were usually barefoot or wore sandals with wooden soles, but those who could afford the price affected leather boots reaching sometimes to the calf. Occasionally he saw a high government official robed in silken tunic and embroidered dalmatic a strip of rich cloth draped about his neck moving through the streets preceded by his lictors. These bore proudly the bundled rods and axes that were their official emblem, while a slave held over his master’s head a richly colored umbrella as protection against the hot rays of the sun.
Once the two riders were forced to pull their horses aside to allow the passage of a large wagon drawn by oxen. Constantine was surprised to see people looking out of windows cut into the sides, but Marios told him there was even space in some vehicles such as this for people to sleep while on long journeys from city to city along the highways traveled by the Imperial Post.
Signs hanging from the shops along the streets indicated the crafts practiced by those inside: veterinary surgeons, sheep shearers, barbers, seamstresses, tailors, attendants for the bath, teachers of rhetoric, solicitors, scribes with their scrolls and waxed tablets, and skilled workers in marble and tile. Sellers of fruit displayed upon their stands such delicacies as roast apples, apricots and sweet melons, almonds, walnuts, figs from Syria, dates, peaches and cherries. And vegetable peddlers cried their stores of carrots, artichokes, asparagus and many other delicacies.
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