Contact:  Rick Peterson, Manager of News Services, 920/832-6590
For Immediate Release
May 3, 2000

Lawrence University Marks Historic Founding of Constantinople with Panel
Discussion, Ancient Coin Exhibition  


     APPLETON, WIS. -- On May 11 in the year 330 A.D., the Roman emperor
Constantine dedicated a new city on the Bosphorus -- Constantinople.
Hailed as "New Rome," it quickly became a leading political, cultural
and religious center and thrived long after the fall of Rome.
     In honor of the 1,670th anniversary of the founding of
Constantinople, Lawrence University marks the historic occasion this May
11 by examining the impact the new city and the new religion --
Christianity -- endorsed by Constantine had on the art, philosophy and
history of western civilization with a five-member panel discussion.  
     The forum, "A New Rome, A New Era: Constantine the Great and his
Legacy," will be held Thursday, May 11 at 4:30 p.m. in the Wriston Art
Center auditorium.  Panel participants include Karen Carr, associate
professor of religious studies; J. Michael Hittle, David G. Ormsby
Professor of History and Political Economy; Randall McNeill, assistant
professor of classics; and art historian Timothy Riley.  Daniel Taylor,
Hiram A. Jones Professor of Classics, will serve as moderator.    
     In addition to the panel discussion, an extraordinarily rare silver
medallion of Constantine the Great, specially minted in 330 for the
dedication of Constantinople, will be on public display in the Quirk
Print Gallery of the Wriston Art Center. 
     The medallion, a recent gift to Lawrence, is a part of the
college's Ottilia Buerger Collection of Ancient Coins and will be
exhibited with several other fourth-century gold and silver coins.
     Additional information about Lawence's ancient coin collection can
be found at www.lawrence.edu/dept/art/buerger/.