“On 11 December 361 I entered Constantinople as Roman Emperor. Snow fell at slow intervals and the great flakes turned like feathers in air so still that the day was almost warm. The sky was low and the color of tarnished silver. There was no color that day in nature, only in man, but what color! It was a day of splendor. . . .

    Quite alone, I passed through the gate and took possession of the City of Constantine.

    Trumpets sounded. The people cheered. I was particularly struck by the brightness of the clothes they wore. I don’t know whether it was the white setting which made the reds and greens, the yellows and blues almost unbearably vivid, or the fact that I had been away too long in northern countries where all colors are as muted and as dim as the forests in which the people live.”