10. There are three opinions with regard to the place of
Constantine's birth. 1. Our English antiquarians were used
to dwell with rapture on the words of his panegyrist,
"Britannias illic oriendo nobiles fecisti." But this
celebrated passage may be referred with as much propriety to
the accession as to the nativity of Constantine. 2. Some of
the modern Greeks have ascribed the honour of his birth to
Drepanum, a town on the gulf of Nicomedia (Cellarius, tom.
ii. p. 1 74), which Constantine dignified with the name of
Helenopolis, and Justianian adorned with many splendid
buildings (Procop. de Edificiis, v. 2). It is indeed
probable enough that Helena's father kept an inn at
Drepanum, and that Constantius might lodge there when he
returned from a Persian embassy in the reign of Aurelian.
But in the wandering, life of a soldier, the place of his
marriage, and the places where his children are born, have
very little connection with each other. 3. The claim of
Naissus is supported by the anonymous writer, published at
the end of Ammianus, p. 710 [vol. ii. p. 295, ed. Bip.], and
who in general copied very good materials: and it is
confirmed by Julius Firmicus (de Astrologia, 1. i. c. 4),
who flourished under the reign of Constantine himself. Some
objections have been raised against the integrity of the
text and the application of the passage, of Firmicus; but
the former is established by the best MSS., and the latter
is very ably defended by Lipsius de Magnitudine Romana, 1.
iv. c. II, et Supplement.