Together with the challenge of the weather, there was always the possibility of invasion. He understood the infrastructure of the city was declining; its economy was stagnant and the only source of income was becoming scarce. His grandson, Theodosius II (408 – 450 CE) rebuilt Hagia Sophia after it burned, established a university, and, fearing a barbarian threat, expanded the city’s walls in 413 CE; the new walls would be forty feet high and sixteen feet thick. For three days the city was abandoned to pillage and massacre, after which order was restored by the sultan. Constantinople was reborn as Istanbul, and as the capital of the Ottoman Empire, its fortunes were reversed. One of his greatest-considered works was the renovation and development of the hippodrome. Constantine ruled over both parts of the empire … Diocletian chose to rule the east. In 337 CE Constantine died, leaving his successors and the empire in turmoil. Valen’s successor was Theodosius the Great (379 – 395 CE). He built a new cistern, a new palace, and a new Hagia Sophia and Hagia Irene, both destroyed during the Nika Revolt of 532 CE. Although he had been tempted to build his capital on the site of ancient Troy, Constantine decided it was best to locate his new city at the site of old Byzantium, claiming it to be a New Rome (Nova Roma). All were unsuccessful. A number of weak emperors followed Theodosius II until Justinian (527 – 565 CE) --the creator of the Justinian Code-- came to power. The Ottoman Empire had begun as a small Turkish emirate founded by Osman in Eskishehir (western Asia Minor) in the late 13th century CE, but by the early 14th century CE, it had already expanded into Thrace. Within three weeks of his victory, the foundation rites of New Rome were performed, and the much-enlarged city was officially inaugurated on May 11, 330. Retrieved from https://www.ancient.eu/Constantinople/. St. John Chrysostom, writing at the end of that century, said many nobles had 10 to 20 houses and owned 1 to 2,000 slaves. The economy of the empire would never completely recover. For the next two centuries the shrunken Byzantine Empire, threatened both from the West and by the rising power of the Ottoman Turks in Asia Minor, led a precarious existence. The intersection of the two streets was marked by a four-way arch, the tetraphylon. The ambitious ruler defeated his rival, Maxentius, for power at the Battle of Milvian Bridge and became sole emperor of the west in 312 CE. Over ten thousand workers would take almost six years to build it. The final assault was made on May 29, and, in spite of the desperate resistance of the inhabitants aided by the Genoese, the city fell. In 532 a large part of the city was burned and many of the population killed in the course of the repression of the Nika Insurrection, an uprising of the Hippodrome factions. It was comparable to napalm, and water was useless against it as it would only help to spread the flames. In addition to other attractions of the capital, free bread and citizenship were bestowed on those settlers who would fill the empty reaches beyond the old walls. Although initially choosing to flee the city, Justinian was convinced by his wife, to stay and fight: thirty thousand would die as a result. Around … The religion was Christian, the organization Roman, and the language and outlook Greek. His successor, Julian the Apostate, a student of Greek and Roman philosophy and culture (and the first emperor born in Constantinople), would become the last pagan emperor. Constantinople was to become one of the great world capitals, a font of imperial and religious power, a city of vast wealth and beauty, and the chief city of the Western world. Afterwards Justinian was reported to say, “Solomon, I have surpassed thee.” Near the height of his reign, Justinian’s city suffered an epidemic in 541 CE --the Black Death-- where over one hundred thousand of the city’s residents would die. In 381 it became the seat of a patriarch who was second only to the bishop of Rome; the patriarch of Constantinople is still the nominal head of the Orthodox church. With their capital at Adrianople, further captures included Thessaloniki and Serbia. )Constantinople became the center of Orthodox Christianity after the Great Schism of 1054. This attempt failed, only to be repeated 30 years later. The concept of the divine right of kings, rulers who were defenders of the faith—as opposed to the king as divine himself—was evolved there. ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of the head of a colossal statue of the Roman emperor Constantine I, after whom the city of Constantinople takes its name, on display in the Capitoline Museums in Rome. Constantinople (Greek: Κωνσταντινούπολις, Konstantinoúpolis, or Πόλις, Polis) was the capital of the Roman Empire (330-395), the Byzantine/East Roman Empire (395-1204 and 1261-1453), the Latin Empire (1204-1261), and the Ottoman Empire (1453-1922). While his son Constantine V was equally successful, his grandson Leo IV, initially a moderate iconoclast, died shortly after assuming power, leaving the incompetent Constantine VI and his mother and regent Irene in power. At the next games following the executions, the Blues and Greens, as well as … Ancient History Encyclopedia. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms. Last modified April 09, 2013. It was an act of vast historical portent. Was established as New Rome by Constantine the Great in the 4th century A.D. (The Byzantine Empire was actually the Greek-speaking Eastern half of the Ancient Roman Empire, which offically fell in 476 A.D., with the deposition of Romulus Augustus. Although he kept some remnants of the old city, New Rome --four times the size of Byzantium-- was said to have been inspired by the Christian God, yet remained classical in every sense. - Kelly Wall, All about Hagia Sophia and Byzantine Heritage, Count Baldwin of Flanders is made the first Latin Emperor of, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. Forty days later Justinian began the construction of a new church; a new Hagia Sophia. In 1396 CE, at Nikopolis on the Danube, an Ottoman army defeated a Crusader army. Though Istanbul may have been inhabited as early as 3000 BCE, it was not a city until … It moved from Rome in the 4th-5th centuries of the Common Era (C.E.). Constantinople was a formidable city: it encompassed a perimeter of twelve miles, eight of which were ringed by the sea, and boasted a massive defensive wall, built a thousand years earlier. It was named after Byzantium, which Emperor Constantine I rebuilt (A.D. 330) as Constantinople and made the capital of the entire Roman Empire. The Turks had not only overwhelming numerical superiority but also cannon that breached the ancient walls. Religion took on new meaning in the empire. The main gate of the imperial palace, the Senate house, public baths, and many residential houses and palaces were all destroyed. Constantinople existed on the site of an ancient Greek settlement. Many armies, including numerous Islamic hordes, had tried to take the impregnable city and failed. New Rome would boast temples to pagan deities (he had kept the old acropolis) and several Christian churches; Hagia Irene was one of the first churches commissioned by Constantine. These new walls of the early 5th century, built in the reign of Theodosius II, are those that stand today. By this time the city boasted over three hundred thousand residents. Web. This is precisely why the ancient city of Rome took on the designation of “Old Rome,” while Constantinople took on the designation of “New Rome.” Both were still Rome. The period of Latin rule (1204 to 1261) was the most disastrous in the history of Constantinople. Constantine was unsure where to locate his new capital. Capital of the Byzantine Empire. Constantinople; Third Council of Constantinople. Ethereum Constantinople represents a solid step forward for the ecosystem. The gold solidus of Constantine retained its value and served as a monetary standard for more than a thousand years. The Eastern and Western wings of the church drew further apart, and after centuries of doctrinal disagreement between Rome and Constantinople a schism occurred in the 11th century. Binbirderek Cistern, Constantinopleby marcus_jb1973 (CC BY-NC-ND). Supposedly laid out by Constantine himself, there were wide avenues lined with statues of Alexander the Great, Caesar, Augustus, Diocletian, and of course, Constantine dressed in the garb of Apollo with a scepter in one hand and a globe in the other. At the beginning of this reign the population is estimated to have been about 500,000. The Crusading knights installed one of themselves, Baldwin of Flanders, as emperor, and the Venetians—prime instigators of the Crusade—took control of the church. It's a church. In 1203 the armies of the Fourth Crusade, deflected from their objective in the Holy Land, appeared before Constantinople—ostensibly to restore the legitimate Byzantine emperor, Isaac II. Young Constantine rose to power in the west when his father, Constantius, died. It quickly became the largest city in the empire. Doors were often made of ivory, floors were of mosaic or were covered in costly rugs, and beds and couches were overlaid with precious metals. A common practice prior to the formation of the modern Republic of Turkey. Books Constantinople definition: 1. the former name for Istanbul, a city that was the capital of Turkey until 1923: 2. the former…. Emperor Diocletian who ruled the Roman Empire from 284 to 305 CE believed that the empire was too big for one person to rule and divided it into a tetrarchy (rule of four) with an emperor (augustus) and a co-emperor (caesar) in both the east and west. It lays the groundwork for a lot of great future improvements as well. Being surrounded by water also helps trade, and the harbor here is constantly filled with ships. Qosṭanṭanīye, Ottoman Turkish: قسطنطينيه, translit. Although he attempted to erase all aspects of Christianity in the empire, he failed. These Italian groups soon obtained a stranglehold over the city’s foreign trade—a monopoly that was finally broken by a massacre of Italians. After Valens embarrassing defeat, the Visigoths believed Constantinople to be vulnerable and attempted to scale the walls of the city but ultimately failed. Diocletian chose to rule the east. Even Justinian wasn’t immune, although he survived. It is from King Byzas that the city received its former name "Byzantium". Constantinople [ (kon-stan-tuh- noh-puhl) ] A city founded by the Roman emperor Constantine the Great as capital of the eastern part of the Roman Empire. Numerous educational institutions recommend us, including Oxford University and Michigan State University and University of Missouri. Constantius II enlarged the governmental bureaucracy, adding quaestors, praetors, and even tribunes. Constantinople was also an ecclesiastical centre. Constantinople would become the capital of the Roman Empire and a bastion for Christianity for many centuries. Upon his death fighting the Persians in 363 CE, the empire was split between two brothers, Valentinian I (who died in 375 CE) and Valens. By the end of the 4th century, Constantine’s walls had become too confining for the wealthy and populous metropolis. Although some historians disagree (claiming Constantine laid the foundation), he is credited with building the first of three Hagia Sophias, the Church of Holy Wisdom, in 360 CE. While the old amphitheater was abandoned (the Christians disliked gladiatorial contests), the hippodrome was enlarged for chariot races. While the Latins divided the rest of the realm among themselves, the Byzantines entrenched themselves across the Bosporus at Nicaea (now İznik) and at Epirus (now northwestern Greece). On April 13, 1204, however, the Crusaders burst into the city to sack it. 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