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Constantinople

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:''This article details the history of Constantinople before the fall of Constantinople Turkish Conquest of 1453. For details on the city since 1453, see Ä°stanbul.'' Image:Constantinople.png thumb|right|300px|Map of Constantinople. More [http://www.unc.edu/awmc/downloads/connorConstLblMed.jpg detailed map]. '''Constantinople'''{{fn|1}} was the name of the modern city of Ä°stanbul, Turkey over the centuries that it served as the second capital of the unified Roman Empire, and after its division into East and West, of the Eastern Roman Empire, also known as the Byzantine Empire (from the city's ancient Greek (language) Greek name, Byzantium). Constantinople was located strategically between the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmara at the point where Europe met Asia, and was highly significant as the successor to ancient Rome and the largest and wealthiest city in Europe throughout the Middle Ages, known as the "Queen of Cities".

Names
The name of Constantinople is an honorific eponym referencing its founder, the Roman emperor Constantine I (emperor) Constantine I. Constantine established the Greek city of Byzantium as the second capital of the Roman Empire on May 11, 330, naming the city ''Nova Roma'' (New Rome). That particular name, however, enjoyed little common use, and it was as the 'City of Constantine' (Constantinopolis) that it lived through the subsequent centuries. A historical Slavic languages East and South Slavic name for the city was Tsargrad. The word is an Old Church Slavonic language Old Church Slavonic translation of the Greek language Greek, presumably of Î’Î±ÏƒÎ¹Î»ÎÏ‰Ï‚ Î ÏŒÎ»Î¹Ï‚ ("Basileus Polis"), "the city of the emperor [king]": combining the Slavonic words ''tsar'' for "Caesar (title) Caesar" and ''grad'' for "city", it stood for "the City of the Emperor [Caesar]". As fashions have changed the term has faded, and the word ''Tsargrad'' is now an archaic term in Russian language Russian, but is still used occasionally in Bulgarian language Bulgarian and Serbian language Serbian as "Carigrad/Tsarigrad" (Cyrillic: ''Ð¦Ð°Ñ€Ð¸Ð³Ñ€Ð°Ð´''). The Ottoman Turks called the city Stamboul or Ä°stanbul, adopting a usage in Greek "eis tin Poli" (to or at the City). But they still used "Konstantiniyye" ("Constantine's City", or Constantinople) as the official name. When the Republic of Turkey was founded in 1923, the capital was moved to Ankara. Constantinople was officially renamed Ä°stanbul by the Republic of Turkey on March 28, 1930.

Byzantium
Constantine's foundation of New Rome on this site reflected its strategic and commercial importance from the earliest times, lying as it does astride both the land route from Europe to Asia and the seaway from the Black or Euxine Sea to the Mediterranean, whilst also being possessed of an excellent and spacious harbour in the Golden Horn. No doubt for these reasons, a city was first founded on the site in the early days of Greek colonial expansion, when in 667 BC the legendary Byzas established it with a group of citizens from the town of Megara. This city was named Byzantium (Greek: ''Î’Ï…Î¶Î¬Î½Ï„Î¹Î¿Î½''), after its founder.

Constantine's Foundation
Image:Byzantinischer Mosaizist um 1000 002.jpg thumb|250px|Emperor [[Constantine the Great with a model of the city Constantinople ( the church Hagia Sophia, ca. 1000)]] Constantine had altogether more ambitious plans. Having restored the unity of the empire, now overseeing the progress of major governmental reforms and sponsoring the consolidation of the Christian church, Constantine was well aware that Rome had become an unsatisfactory capital for several reasons. Located in central Italy, Rome lay too far from the eastern imperial frontiers, and hence also from the Roman legion legions and the Imperial courts. Moreover, Rome offered an undesirable playground for disaffected politicians; it also suffered regularly from flooding and from malaria. It seemed impossible to many that the capital could be moved. Nevertheless, Constantine identified the site of Byzantium as the correct place: a city where an emperor could sit, readily defended, with easy access to the Danube or the Euphrates frontiers, his court supplied from the rich gardens and sophisticated workshops of Roman Asia, his treasuries filled by the wealthiest provinces of the empire. Constantine laid out the expanded city, dividing it into 14 regions, and ornamenting it with great public works worthy of a great imperial city. Yet initially Constantinople did not have all the dignities of Rome, possessing a proconsul, rather than a prefect of the city. Furthermore, it had no praetors, tribunes or quaestors. Although Constantinople did have senators, they held the title ''clarus'', not ''clarissimus'', like those of Rome. Nor did it have the panoply of other administrative offices regulating the food-supply, the police, the statues, the temples, the sewers, the aqueducts and other public works. The new program of building was carried out in great haste: columns, marbles, doors and tiles were taken wholesale from the temples of the empire and removed to the new city. By the same token, however, many of the greatest works of Greek and Roman art were soon to be seen in its squares and streets. The emperor stimulated private building by promising householders gifts of land from the imperial estates in Asiana and Pontica, and on 18 May 332 he announced that, as in Rome, free distributions of food would be made to citizens. At the time the amount is said to have been 80,000 rations a day, doled out from 117 distribution points around the city.

Public buildings
image:Constantinople_medieval.jpg right|250px|thumb|Medieval Constantinople Constantinople was a Greeks Greek Orthodox Christian city, lying in the most Christianised part of the Empire. Justinian ordered the Pagan temples of Byzantium to be deconstructed, and erected the splendid Church of the Holy Wisdom, Sancta Sophia (also known as Hagia Sophia in Greek), as the centrepiece of his Christian capital. He oversaw also the building of the Church of the Holy Apostles, and that of Hagia Irene. Constantine laid out anew the square at the centre of old Byzantium, naming it the Augusteum in honour of his mother, Helena. Sancta Sophia lay on the north side of the Augusteum. The new senate-house (or Curia) was housed in a basilica on the east side. On the south side of the great square was erected the Great Palace of Constantinople Great Palace of the emperor with its imposing entrance, the Chalke, and its ceremonial suite known as the Palace of Daphne. Located immediately nearby was the vast Hippodrome for chariot-races, seating over 80,000 spectators, and the Baths of Zeuxippus (both originally built in the time of Severus). At the entrance at the western end of the Augusteum was the Milion, a vaulted monument from which distances were measured across the Eastern Empire. From the Augusteum a great street, the Mese, led, lined with colonnades. As it descended the First Hill of the city and climbed the Second Hill, it passed on the left the Praetorium or law-court. Then it passed through the oval Forum of Constantine where there was a second senate-house, then on and through the Forum of Taurus and then the Forum of Bous, and finally up the Sixth Hill and through to the Golden Gate on the Propontis. The Mese would be seven Roman miles long to the Golden Gate of the Walls of Constantinople Walls of Theodosius. Constantine erected a high column in the centre of the Forum, on the Second Hill, with a statue of himself at the top, crowned with a halo of seven rays and looking towards the rising sun.

Constantinople in the Divided Empire
Image:theodosius.jpg thumb|Emperor [[Theodosius I with a halo, on a contemporary silver plate (Royal Academy of History, Madrid)]] The first known Prefect of the City of Constantinople was Honoratus, who took office on 11 December 359 and held it until 361. The emperor Valens built the Palace of Hebdomon on the shore of the Propontis near the Golden Gate, probably for use when reviewing troops. All the emperors, up to Zeno (emperor) Zeno and Basiliscus, who were elevated at Constantinople, were crowned and acclaimed at the Hebdomon. Theodosius I founded the Studion church of John the Baptist to house the skull of the saint, put up a memorial pillar to himself in the Forum of Taurus, and turned the ruined temple of Aphrodite into a coachhouse for the Praetorian Prefect; Arcadius built a new forum named after himself on the Mese, near the walls of Constantine. Gradually the importance of the city increased. Following the shock of the Battle of Adrianople in 376, when the emperor Valens with the flower of the Roman armies was destroyed by the Goths within a few days' march of the city, Constantinople looked to its defences, and Theodosius II built in 413-414 the 60-foot tall walls which were never to be breached until the coming of gunpowder. Theodosius also founded a University of Constantinople University at the Capitolium near the Forum of Taurus, on 27 February 425. In the 5th century, when the barbarians overran the Western Empire, its emperors retreated to Ravenna before it collapsed altogether. Thereafter, Constantinople became in truth the largest city of the Empire and of the world. Emperors were no longer peripatetic between various court capitals and palaces. They remained in their palace in the Great City, and sent generals to command their armies. The wealth of the Eastern Mediterranean and Western Asia flowed into Constantinople.

The City under Justinian
The emperor Justinian I Justinian (527-565) was known for his successes in war, for his legal reforms and for his public works. It was from Constantinople that his expedition for the reconquest of Africa set sail on or about 21 June 533. Before their departure the ship of the commander, Belisarius, anchored in front of the Imperial palace, and the Patriarch offered prayers for the success of the enterprise. Chariot-racing had been important in Rome for centuries. In Constantinople, the hippodrome became over time increasingly a place of political significance. It was where (as a shadow of the popular elections of old Rome) the people by acclamation showed their approval of a new emperor; and also where they openly criticised the government, or clamoured for the removal of unpopular ministers. In the time of Justinian, public order in Constantinople became a critical political issue. The entire late Roman and early Byzantine period was one where Christianity was resolving fundamental questions of identity, and the dispute between the orthodox and the monophysites became the cause of serious disorder, expressed through allegiance to the horse-racing parties of the Blues and the Greens, and in the form of a major rebellion in the capital of 532 AD, known as the Nika riots "Nika" riots (from the battle-cry of "Victory!" of those involved). Fires started by the Nika rioters consumed the basilica of St Sophia, the city's principal church. Justinian commissioned Anthemius of Tralles and Isidore of Miletus to replace it with the incomparable Hagia Sophia St Sophia, the great cathedral of the Orthodox Church, whose dome was said to be held aloft by God alone, and which was directly connected to the palace so that the imperial family could attend services without passing through the streets (St Sophia was converted into a mosque after the Ottoman conquest of the city, and is now a museum). The dedication took place on December 26th, of 537 AD in the presence of the Emperor, who exclaimed, "O Solomon, I have outdone thee!"{{fn|2}} Justinian also had Anthemius and Isidore demolish and replace the original Church of the Holy Apostles, built by Constantine, with a new church under the same dedication. This was designed in the form of an equally-armed cross with five domes, and ornamented with beautiful mosaics. This church was to remain the burial place of the emperors from Constantine himself until the eleventh century. When the city fell to the Turks in 1453, the church was demolished to make room for the tomb of Mehmet II Mehmet II the Conqueror.

The City after Justinian
Justinian was succeeded in turn by Justin II, Tiberius II Constantine Tiberius II and Maurice (emperor) Maurice, able emperors who had to deal with a deteriorating military situation, especially on the eastern frontier. Subsequently there was a period of near-anarchy, which was exploited by the enemies of the Empire. After the Eurasian Avars Avars came to threaten Constantinople from the west and simultaneously the Persians from the East, Heraclius, the exarch of Africa, later to Hellenize Constantinople and the Eastern Empire by replacing Latin with Greek as its language of government, set sail for the city and assumed the purple. He found the situation so dire that at first he contemplated moving the imperial capital to Carthage, but with military genius he succeeded in expelling the invaders. Constantinople was besieged twice by the Arabs, once in a long blockade between 674 and 678, and Second Arab siege of Constantinople once again in 717.

Importance of the City in its prime
Constantinople was historically important for a number of reasons. image:Byzantine_eagle2.jpg left|250px|thumb|Eagle and Snake, 6th century AD Mosaic Flooring ÂCostantinople, [[Great Palace of Constantinople|Grand Imperial Palace]] Constantinople was one of the larger and richer urban centers in the Eastern Mediterranean during the late Roman Empire, mostly due to its strategic position commanding the trade routes between the Aegean and the Black Sea. During the Fourth Century AD the Emperor Constantine relocated his eastern capital to Byzantium, which was renamed Constantinople (Constantine's City), in an attempt to reinvigorate the Empire. It would remain the capital of the eastern, Greek speaking empire, short several interregnums, for over a thousand years. As the capital of the Byzantine Empire Eastern Roman Empire (now commonly known as the ''Byzantine Empire''), the Greeks called Constantinople simply "the City", while throughout Europe it was known as the "Queen of Cities." In its heyday, roughly corresponding to what is now known as the Middle Ages, it was the richest and largest European city, exerting a powerful cultural pull and dominating economic life in the Mediterranean. Visitors and merchants were especially struck by the beautiful monasteries and churches of the city, particularly the Hagia Sophia, or the Church of Holy Wisdom. A Russian 14th-century traveller, Stephen of Novgorod, wrote, "As for St Sofia, the human mind can neither tell it nor make description of it". The influence of Byzantine architecture and art can be seen in its extensive copying throughout Europe, particular examples include St. Mark's in Venice, the basilica of Ravenna and many churches throughout the Slavic East. Also, alone in Europe until the 13th century Italian florin, the Empire continued to produce sound gold coinage, the Solidus (coin) solidus of Diocletian becoming the bezant prized throughout the Middle Ages. Its city walls (the Theodosian Walls) and urban infrastructure was moreover a marvel throughout the Middle Ages, keeping a memory alive of the skill and technical expertise of the Roman Empire. The city, also provided a defence for the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire against the invasions of the 5th century, for Europe against the Arabs, and for European Christendom against Islam. Constantine assured the position of the Bishop or Patriarch of Constantinople as pre-eminent in the Eastern Empire. This action placed Constantinople at the religious heart of Orthodoxy. The Patriarch of Constantinople is still considered first among equals in the Orthodox Church along with the Patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, Moscow and the later Slavic Patriarchs. This position is largely ceremonial but still carries emotional weight.

The Isaurians
In the eighth and ninth centuries the iconoclast movement caused serious political unrest throughout the Empire. The emperor Leo III issued a decree in 726 against images, and ordered the destruction of a statue of Christ over one of the doors of the Chalke, an act which was fiercely resisted by the citizens. Constantine V convoked a church council in 754 which condemned the worship of images, after which many treasures were broken, burned, or painted over. Following the death of his son Leo IV in 780, the empress Irene restored the veneration of images through the agency of the Second Council of Nicaea in 787.

The Comneni and Palaeologi
Image:DelacroixConstantinople.JPG thumb|300px|''The Entry of the [[Crusaders into Constantinople'', by EugÃ¨ne Delacroix, 1840.]] Following the catastrophic defeat in 1071 of the emperor Romanus IV Diogenes by the Seljuk Turks at Manzikert in Armenia, his successor Michael VII pleaded for assistance from the West. In due course this was to lead to the First Crusade, which assembled at Constantinople in 1096 in the reign of Alexius I Comnenus, and moved on towards Jerusalem. Much of this is documented by the writer and historian Anna Comnena in her work The Alexiad. The Crusades were, however, to lead in time to the disastrous capture and sack of Constantinople by soldiers of the Fourth Crusade on April 13 1204. For the subsequent half-century or more, Constantinople remained the centre of the Roman Catholic crusader state, set up after the city's capture under Baldwin IX, and which became known as the Latin Empire. During this time, the Byzantine emperors made their capital at nearby Nicaea, which acted as the capital of the temporary, short-lived Empire of Nicaea and a refuge for refugees from the sacked city of Constantinople. From this base, Constantinople was eventually recaptured from its last Latin ruler, Baldwin II of Constantinople Baldwin II, by Nicaean Empire Byzantine forces under Michael VIII Palaeologus in 1261. After the reconquest by the Palaeologi, the imperial palace of Blachernae in the north-west of the city became the main imperial residence, the old Great Palace upon the shores of the Bosporus going into decline.

The Ottomans
Image:Siege of Constantinople.jpg right|thumb|300px|The [[1453 Siege of Constantinople (painted 1499)]] Constantinople and the Empire finally fell to the Ottoman Empire on Tuesday May 29, 1453, during the reign of Constantine XI Paleologus (''see Fall of Constantinople''). Although the Turks overthrew the Byzantines, Fatih Sultan Mehmed the Second (the Ottoman Sultan at the time) styled himself as the next Roman Emperor ("Kayser-i-Rum") and let the Orthodox Patriarchy continue to conduct their own affairs, having stated that they did not want to join the Roman Catholic Church Vatican.

Constantinople in popular culture
*Constantinople appears as a dusty faded capital, shorn of its glories, in William Butler Yeats' 1926 poem Sailing to Byzantium. *Constantinople's change of name was the theme for a song made famous by The Four Lads and later covered by They Might Be Giants entitled Istanbul (Not Constantinople) [http://www.lyricsdepot.com/they-might-be-giants/istanbul-not-constantinople.html]. "Constantinople" was also the title of the opening track of The Residents' Extended play EP ''Duck Stab/Buster & Glen Duck Stab!'', released in 1978. * Constantinople under Justinian is the scene of "A Flame in Byzantium" by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro released in 1987.

Further reading
*Jonathan Phillips, ''The Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople'', Pimlico, 2005. ISBN 1844130800 *Steven Runciman, ''The Fall of Constantinople, 1453'', Cambridge University Press, 1990. ISBN 0521398320 *Philip Mansel, ''Constantinople: City of the World's Desire, 1453-1924'', St. Martin's Griffin, 1998 ISBN 0312187084 *John Julius Norwich, ''Byzantium: The Early Centuries'', Knopf, 1989. ISBN 0394537785 *John Julius Norwich, ''Byzantium: The Apogee'', Knopf, 1992. ISBN 0394537793 *John Julius Norwich, ''Byzantium: The Decline and Fall'', Knopf 1995. ISBN 0679416501

Notes
*{{fnb|1}}'''Constantinople''' is derived from the Greek ÎšÏ‰Î½ÏƒÏ„Î±Î½Ï„Î¹Î½Î¿Ï?Ï€Î¿Î»Î·. Other names for the city: **Turkish language Turkish name: Ä°stanbul. **Medieval Greek Byzantine Greek name: ÎšÏ‰Î½ÏƒÏ„Î±Î½Ï„Î¹Î½Î¿Ï?Ï€Î¿Î»Î·, Koine Greek name: ÎšÏ‰Î½ÏƒÏ„Î±Î½Ï„Î¹Î½Î¿Ï?Ï€Î¿Î»Î¹Ï‚ (Konstantinoupolis; see also List of traditional Greek place names) **Ancient Rome Roman name: CONSTANTINVPOLIS; **Azeri Latin name: Konstantinopolis **Latin name: Constantinopolis, Nova Roma **Arabic language Arabic name: Ù‚Ø³Ø·Ù†Ø·ÙŠÙ†ÙŠØ© (''Kostantiniyya'') **Armenian language Armenian name: Konstaninopolis / Gonstantinobolis **Scandinavian languages Scandinavian Varangian name: MiklagÃ¥rd, from Old Norse MiklagarÃ° (''mikill'' + ''garÃ°'' = "big city" or "grand city"). **The Angles and Saxons called the city "Micklegard," meaning "Great Fortress." **Jews often called it "Costa," a shortening of its official name. **Ottoman Turkish language Ottoman Turkish name: Konstantiniye. **Church Slavonic language Slavonic name: Tsargrad (Ð¦Ð°Ñ€ÑŒÐ³Ñ€Ð°Ð´). **Stamboul (used by British and other diplomatic corps in "The City") **The'' Sublime Porte'' â€” the Ottoman Foreign Ministry, so-called for its gate-location within the Topkapi and often used as a synonym for "Constantinople" in European diplomatic notes (the same way ''Whitehall'' would be used in the case of the Foreign Office of thew United Kingdom British Foreign Office, or ''No. 10 Downing Street'' to refer to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Prime Minister's Office) *{{fnb|2}} Source for quote: Scriptores originum Constantinopolitanarum, ed T Preger I 105 (see A A Vasiliev, History of the Byzantine Empire, 1952, vol I p 188).

See also
* Ä°stanbul * Patriarch of Constantinople * Golden Horn * Hagia Sophia * Bucoleon * Hippodrome of Constantinople * University of Constantinople * the Bosporus

External links

- Info on the name change from the Foundation for the Advancement of Sephardic Studies and Culture
- Welcome to Constantinople, documenting the monuments of Byzantine Constantinople, compiled by Robert Ousterhout, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
- Constantinople, from ''History of the Later Roman Empire'', by J.B. Bury
- History of Constantinople from the "New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia."
- Byzantium 1200, A project aimed at creating computer reconstructions of the Byzantine Monuments located in Istanbul, Turkey as of year 1200 AD. Category:Archaeological sites in Turkey Category:Byzantine Empire Category:Cities along the Silk Road Category:Holy cities Category:Ottoman Empire Category:Roman sites in Turkey Category:Roman colonies Category:Greek culture Category:Hellenistic colonies Category:History of Turkey Category:Greek sites in Turkey Category:Megarian colonies ar:Ø§Ù„Ù‚Ø³Ø·Ù†Ø·ÙŠÙ†ÙŠØ© ca:Constantinoble cs:Konstantinopol cy:Caergystennin da:Konstantinopel de:Konstantinopel et:Konstantinoopol el:ÎšÏ‰Î½ÏƒÏ„Î±Î½Ï„Î¹Î½Î¿Ï?Ï€Î¿Î»Î· es:Constantinopla eo:Konstantinopolo fa:Ú©Ù†Ø³ØªØ§Ù†ØªÛŒÙ†ÙˆÙ¾ÙˆÙ„ fr:Constantinople he:×§×•× ×¡×˜× ×˜×™× ×•×¤×•×œ ka:áƒ™áƒ?áƒœáƒ¡áƒ¢áƒ?áƒœáƒ¢áƒ˜áƒœáƒ”áƒžáƒ?áƒšáƒ˜ ko:ì½˜ìŠ¤íƒ„í‹°ë…¸í?´ë¦¬ìŠ¤ io:Konstantinopolo id:Konstantinopel it:Costantinopoli la:Constantinopolis hu:KonstantinÃ¡poly nl:Constantinopel ja:ã‚³ãƒ³ã‚¹ã‚¿ãƒ³ãƒ†ã‚£ãƒŽãƒ?ãƒªã‚¹ no:Konstantinopel nn:Konstantinopel pl:Konstantynopol pt:Constantinopla ro:Constantinopol ru:ÐšÐ¾Ð½Ñ?Ñ‚Ð°Ð½Ñ‚Ð¸Ð½Ð¾Ð¿Ð¾Ð»ÑŒ sr:ÐšÐ¾Ð½Ñ?Ñ‚Ð°Ð½Ñ‚Ð¸Ð½Ð¾Ð¿Ð¾Ñ™ sv:Konstantinopel tr:Konstantinopolis uk:ÐšÐ¾Ð½Ñ?Ñ‚Ð°Ð½Ñ‚Ð¸Ð½Ð¾Ð¿Ð¾Ð»ÑŒ zh:å?›å£«å?¦ä¸?å ¡

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