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Walls Of Constantinople

Walls of Constantinople

The Walls of Constantinople surrounded the Roman and Byzantine city of Constantinople (today Istanbul in Turkey). The original walls of the city were built in the 8th century BC when Byzantium was founded by Greek colonists from Megara. At the time the city consisted of an acropolis and little more. The colony was relatively unimportant by the Roman period, but Septimius Severus built a new set of walls during his reign, bringing more land into the city. When Constantine moved the capital of the empire to Byzantium, which he renamed Constantinople, he greatly expanded the walls of the city, incorporating even more territory. In 412 the Roman emperor Theodosius II surrounded Constantinople with a wall that stretched 6,5 kilometers between the Sea of Marmara and the Golden Horn. Although named after Theodosius, they were actually constructed under the direction of Anthemius, Praetorian prefect of the Eastern Empire. The walls were built of stone and brick in two lines of defense which adjoined a ditch 20 meters wide and 10 meters deep. The inner wall had was 5 meters thick and 12 meters high. It was strengthened with 96 unapproachable towers 18-20 meters tall. The thickness of the external wall was 2 meters, and its height was 8.5 meters. The wall contained the Belgrad, Silivrikapı, Mevlevihane, Topkapı, Edirnekapı, Eğrikapı and Yedikule gates. Yedikule Gate was also known as the "Porta Aurea" or "Golden Gate", and was the most magnificent, consisting of three archways. As the state entrance into the capital, the Golden Gate was architecturally splendid, and was built of large square blocks of polished marble fitted together without cement, and flanked by two great towers of the same material. Upon the gates were placed sculpted elephants. The inner walls had massive square or hexagonal towers. The southern end of the walls, at the Sea of Marmara, was the location of the Marble Tower. There were ten gates, the four major ones being the Golden Gate at the southern end, the Selymbria Gate leading to the Forum of Constantine and Hagia Sophia, the Adrianople Gate connecting Constantinople's Mese (the main street) with the city of Adrianople and the Via Egnatia, and the Blachernae Gate in the north. In 439 the first sea walls were built. In 447 the wall was damaged by an earthquake, but was quickly restored in time to stop Attila's army. In the northwestern corner of the city, in the suburb of Blachernae, the Theodosian walls were relatively weaker, but were expanded by Leo I. The northern coast of the city, along the Golden Horn, also had a separate set of walls. These walls were almost inpenetrable, saving the city during sieges from the Bulgars, Arabs, and Rus', among others. The first attackers to break through the walls were the knights of the Fourth Crusade, who managed to scale the lower sea walls and also break the Wall of Leo in the northwestern Blachernae section of the city. The second and final time the walls were breached was during the Siege of Constantinople in 1453, by the Ottomans; however, they did not break through by force, but entered through the Kerkoporta Gate, which happened to be open, apparently accidentally but possibly through treachery. A large plaque today marks the spot where the Ottomans entered. Under the Ottomans, the Golden Gate, known to them as Yedikule ("the Seven Towers"), was used as a prison. Many parts of the walls are still standing today and are a testament to the extraordinary longevity of the empire. They have been damaged by recent earthquakes, but many sections have also been restored. The wall runs through the suburbs of modern Istanbul, with a belt of parkland flanking their course. The walls are pierced at intervals by modern roads leading westwards out of the city. Category:Byzantine Empire Category:Buildings and structures in Istanbul Constantinople

Roman Empire

:For other uses, see Roman Empire (disambiguation) The Roman Empire is the term conventionally used to describe the Ancient Roman polity in the centuries following its reorganization under the leadership of Octavian (better known as Caesar Augustus), until its radical reformation in what was later to be known as the Byzantine Empire. Roman Empire is also used as translation of the expression Imperium Romanum, probably the best known Latin expression where the word "imperium" is used in the meaning of a territory, the "Roman Empire", as that part of the world where Rome ruled. The expansion of this Roman territory beyond the borders of the initial city-state of Rome had started long before the state organisation turned into an Empire. One of the first historians to describe this expansion of the Roman territory was the Greek Polybius, writing in the Epoch of the Roman Republic. In the centuries before the autocracy of Augustus, Rome had already accumulated a collection of tribute-states beyond the Italian Peninsula, including former Mediterranean competitors Syracuse and Carthage. In the late Republic Augustus (then still "Octavian") added Egypt definitively to the Imperium Romanum. The remainder of this article treats the Roman Empire as Imperial state (see Roman Kingdom and Roman Republic for development of the territory in earlier times). Augustus' reforms turning the Roman state into an Empire survived mostly unchanged until the Diocletian reform at end of the 3rd century, which turned the empire into a tetrarchy. While the political form given by Diocletian was short-lived, it led to the division of the Empire into two halves. This allowed Roman rule to continue for two more centuries over the whole empire, although divided into the Eastern and the Western Roman Empire. The end of the Western Empire is traditionally set in 476, when Odovacar deposed the last Emperor and sent the Imperial insignia to Constantinople; henceforth he nominally ruled as dux on behalf of Constantinople. After another millennium, in 1453, the Eastern Empire, better known as the Byzantine Empire, fell to the Ottoman Turks. From Augustus to the Fall of the Western Empire Rome dominated the region of Western Eurasia, comprising over half its population. The Roman Empire's influence on government, law, military, and monumental architecture, as well as many other aspects of Western life remains inescapable. The Greeks adopted the Roman name in the Middle Ages and were known as Romans, a trend that survives until today in Greece, a result of their cultural position (see Names of the Greeks). Roman titles of power were adopted by successor states and other entities with imperial pretensions, including the Frankish kingdom, the Holy Roman Empire, the first and second Bulgarian empires, the Russian/Kiev dynasties, and the German Empire. See also Roman culture.
Historians' viewpoints on the evolution of Imperial Rome
Because the empire of Rome lasted for such a long period of time (31 BC–1453), there are certain alternative names used by historians to distinguish various semantic periods or eras. Such names include Byzantine Empire, Eastern Roman Empire and Western Roman Empire, which are used interchangeably throughout this article to mean the same as Roman Empire (or the Western or Eastern part thereof). For many years historians made a distinction between the Principate, the period from Augustus until the Crisis of the Third Century, and the Dominate, the period from Diocletian until the end of the Empire in the West. According to this theory, during the Principate (from the Latin word princeps, meaning "first citizen", the only title Augustus would permit himself) the realities of dictatorship were concealed behind Republican forms; while during the Dominate (from the word dominus, meaning "Master") imperial power showed its naked face, with golden crowns and ornate imperial ritual. More recently historians established that the situation was far more nuanced: certain historical forms continued until the Byzantine period, more than one thousand years after they were created, and displays of imperial majesty were common from the earliest days of the Empire.
Age of Augustus (31 BC–AD 14)

Political developments
Latin As a matter of convenience, the Roman Empire is held to have begun with the constitutional settlement following the Battle of Actium in 31 BC. In fact the Republican institutions at Rome had been destroyed over the preceding century and Rome had been in continuous crisis with periods of dictatorial rule since Sulla. The long, peaceful and consensual reign of Augustus greatly changed the view toward hereditary monarchy. Rome–the city that had not too long before assassinated its leader, Julius Caesar, when his ambitions seemed to threaten the republic–now placidly accepted one man rule. Augustus' reign was notable for several long-lasting achievements that would define the Empire:
- Creation of an hereditary office, which we refer to as Emperor of Rome.
- Fixation of the payscale. Duration of Roman military service marked the final step in the evolution of the Roman Army from a citizen army to a professional one.
- Creation of the Praetorian Guard, which would make and unmake emperors for centuries.
- Expansion to the natural borders of the Empire. The borders reached upon Augustus' death remained the limits of Empire, with minimal exceptions, for the next four hundred years.
- Development of trade links with regions as far as India and China.
- Creation of a civil service outside of the Senatorial structure, leading to a continuous weakening of Senatorial authority.
- Enactment of the lex Julia of 18 BC and the lex Papia Poppaea of AD 9, which rewarded childbearing and penalized celibacy.
- Promulgation of the cult of the Deified Julius Caesar throughout the Empire. This tradition of deifying the Emperor upon his death lasted until the time of Constantine, who was made both a Roman god and "the Thirteenth Apostle" upon his death.
Cultural developments
:Main article: Roman culture The Augustan period saw a tremendous outpouring of cultural achievement in the areas of poetry, history, sculpture and architecture. At the same time, a tremendous outpouring of energy in founding colonies and municipia, unrivalled in Rome before or after, succeeded in Romanizing extensive territories in the East, in Africa, in Hispania and Gaul, beyond those areas that were traditionally within the Roman sphere of influence.
Sources
The Age of Augustus is paradoxically far more poorly documented than the Late Republican period that preceded it. While Livy wrote his magisterial history during Augustus' reign and his work covered all of Roman history through 9 BC, only epitomes survive of his coverage of the Late Republican and Augustan periods. Our important primary sources for this period include the:
- Res Gestae Divi Augusti, Augustus' highly partisan autobiography,
- Historiae Romanae by Velleius Paterculus, a disorganized work which remains the best annals of the Augustan period, and
- Controversiae and Suasoriae of Seneca the Elder. Though primary accounts of this period are few, works of poetry, legislation and engineering from this period provide important insights into Roman life. Archeology, including maritime archeology, aerial surveys, epigraphic inscriptions on buildings, and Augustan coinage, has also provided valuable evidence about economic, social and military conditions. Secondary sources on the Augustan Age include Tacitus, Dio Cassius, Plutarch and Suetonius. Josephus' Jewish Antiquities is the important source for Judea in this period, which became a province during Augustus' reign.
Julio-Claudian dynasty: Augustus' heirs
Augustus, leaving no sons, was succeeded by his stepson Tiberius, the son of his wife Livia from her first marriage. Augustus was a scion of the gens Julia (the Julian family), one of the most ancient patrician clans of Rome, while Tiberius was a scion of the gens Claudia, only slightly less ancient than the Julians. Their three immediate successors were all descended both from the gens Claudia, through Tiberius' brother Nero Claudius Drusus, and from gens Julia, either through Julia Caesaris, Augustus' daughter from his first marriage (Caligula and Nero), or through Augustus' sister Octavia (Claudius). Historians thus refer to their dynasty as "Julio-Claudian".
Tiberius (14–37)
The early years of Tiberius' reign were peaceful and relatively benign. Tiberius secured the power of Rome and enriched her treasury. However, Tiberius' reign soon became characterized by paranoia and slander. In 19, he was popularly blamed for the death of his nephew, the popular Germanicus. In 23 his own son Drusus died. More and more, Tiberius retreated into himself. He began a series of treason trials and executions. He left power in the hands of the commander of the guard, Aelius Sejanus. Tiberius himself retired to live at his villa on the island of Capri in 26, leaving administration in the hands of Sejanus, who carried on the persecutions with relish. Sejanus also began to consolidate his own power; in 31 he was named co-consul with Tiberius and married Livilla, the emperor's niece. At this point he was hoist by his own petard: the Emperor's paranoia, which he had so ably exploited for his own gain, was turned against him. Sejanus was put to death, along with many of his cronies, the same year. The persecutions continued until Tiberius' death in 37.
Caligula (37–41)
At the time of Tiberius' death most of the people who might have succeeded him had been brutally murdered. The logical successor (and Tiberius' own choice) was his grandnephew, Germanicus' son Gaius (better known as Caligula). Caligula started out well, by putting an end to the persecutions and burning his uncle's records. Unfortunately, he quickly lapsed into illness. The Caligula that emerged in late 37 may have suffered from epilepsy, and was probably insane. He ordered his soldiers to invade Britain, but changed his mind at the last minute and had them pick sea shells on the northern end of France instead. It is believed he carried on incestuous relations with his sisters. He had ordered a statue of himself to be erected in the Temple at Jerusalem, which would have undoubtedly led to revolt had he not been dissuaded. In 41, Caligula was assassinated by the commander of the guard Cassius Chaerea. The only member left of the imperial family to take charge was another nephew of Tiberius', Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus, better known as the emperor Claudius.
Claudius (41–54)
Claudius had long been considered a weakling and a fool by the rest of his family. He was, however, neither paranoid like his uncle Tiberius, nor insane like his nephew Caligula, and was therefore able to administer the empire with reasonable ability. He improved the bureaucracy and streamlined the citizenship and senatorial rolls. He also proceeded with the conquest and colonization of Britain (in 43), and incorporated more Eastern provinces into the empire. In Italy, he constructed a winter port at Ostia, thereby providing a place for grain from other parts of the Empire to be brought in inclement weather. On the home front, Claudius was less successful. His wife Messalina cuckolded him; when he found out, he had her executed and married his niece, Agrippina the younger. She, along with several of his freedmen, held an inordinate amount of power over him, and very probably killed him in 54. Claudius was deified later that year. The death of Claudius paved the way for Agrippina's own son, the 16-year-old Lucius Domitius, or, as he was known by this time, Nero.
Nero (54–69)
Initially, Nero left the rule of Rome to his mother and his tutors, particularly Lucius Annaeus Seneca. However, as he grew older, his desire for power increased; he had his mother and tutors executed. During Nero's reign, there were a series of riots and rebellions throughout the Empire: in Britain, Armenia, Parthia, and Judaea. Nero's inability to manage the rebellions and his basic incompetence became evident quickly and in 68, even the Imperial guard renounced him. Nero is best remembered by the rumour that he played the lyre and sang during the Great Fire of Rome, and hence "fiddled while Rome burned" (though the fiddle had yet to be invented). Nero is also remembered for his immense rebuilding of Rome following the fires. Nero committed suicide, and the year 69 (known as the Year of the Four Emperors) was a year of civil war, with the emperors Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and Vespasian ruling in quick succession. By the end of the year, Vespasian was able to solidify his power as emperor of Rome.
Flavian Dynasty
The Flavians, although a relatively short lived dynasty, helped restore stability in an empire on its knees. Although there are criticism of all three, especially based on their more centralized style of rule, it was through the reforms and good rule of the three that helped create a stable empire that would last well into the 3rd Century. However, their backgrounds as a military dynasty led to further irrelevancy of the senate, and the move from princeps, or first citizen, to imperator, or emperor, was finalized during their reign.
Vespasian (69–79)
Vespasian was a remarkably successful Roman general who had been given rule over much of the eastern part of the Roman Empire. He had supported the imperial claims of Galba; however, on his death, Vespasian became a major contender for the throne. After the suicide of Otho, Vespasian was able to hijack Rome's winter grain supply in Egypt, placing him in a good position to defeat his remaining rival, Vitellius. On December 20, 69, some of Vespasian's partisans were able to occupy Rome. Vitellius was murdered by his own troops, and the next day, Vespasian was confirmed as Emperor by the Senate. At the age of 60 and battle hardened he was hardly a charismatic emperor, but he turned out to be an excellent ruler none the less. Although Vespasian was considered quite the autocrat by the senate, he mostly continued the weakening of that body that had been going since the reign of Tiberius. This was typified by his dating his accession to power from July 1, when his troops proclaimed him emperor, instead of December 21, when the Senate confirmed his appointment. Another example was his assumption of the censorship in 73, giving him power over who exactly made up the senate. He used that power to expel dissident senators. At the same time, he increased the number of senators from 200, at that low level due to the actions of Nero and the year of crisis that followed, to 1000, most of the new senators coming not from Rome but from Italy and the urban centers within the western provinces. Vespasian was able to liberate Rome from the financial burdens placed upon it by Nero's excesses and the civil wars. To do this, he not only increased taxes, but created new forms of taxation. Also, through his power as censor he was able to carefully examine the fiscal status of every city and province, many paying taxes based upon information and structures more than a century old. Through this sound fiscal policy, he was able to build up a surplus in the treasury and embark on public works projects. It was he who first commissioned the Roman Colosseum; he also built a forum whose centerpiece was a temple to Peace. In addition, he alloted sizable subsidies to the arts, creating a chair of rhetoric at Rome. Vespasian was also an effective emperor for the provinces in his decades of office, having posts all across the empire, both east and west. In the west he gave considerable favoritism to Spain in which he granted Latin rights to over three hundred towns and cities, promoting a new era of urbanization throughout the western (i.e. formerly barbarian) provinces. Through the additions he made to the Senate he allowed greater influence of the provinces in the Senate, helping to promote unity in the empire. He also extended the borders of the empire on every front, most of which was done to help strengthen the frontier defenses, one of Vespasian's main goals. The crisis of 69 had wrought havoc on the army. One of the most marked problems had been the support lent by provincial legions to men who supposedly represented the best will of their province. This was mostly caused by the placement of native auxiliary units in the areas they were recruited in, a practice Vespasian stopped. He mixed auxiliary units with men from other areas of the empire or moved the units away from where they were recruited to help stop this. Also, to further reduce the chances of another military coup he broke up the legions, and instead of placing them in singular concentrations broke them up along the border. Perhaps the most important military reform he undertook was the extension of legion recruitment from exclusively Italy to Gaul and Spain, in line with the Romanization of those areas.
Titus (79–81)
Titus, the eldest son of Vespasian, had been groomed to rule. He had served as an effective general under his father, helping to secure the east and eventually taking over the command of Roman armies in Syria and Palestine, quelling the significant Jewish revolt going on at the time. Throughout his father's reign he had been tailored for rule, sharing the consul for several years with his father and receiving the best tutelage. Although there was some trepidation when he took office due to his known dealings with some of the less respectable elements of Roman society, he quickly proved his merit, even recalling many exiled by his father as a show of good faith. However, his short reign was marked by disaster: in 79, Vesuvius erupted in Pompeii, and in 80, a fire decimated much of Rome. His generosity in rebuilding after these tragedies made him very popular. Titus was very proud of his work on the vast amphitheater begun by his father. He held the opening ceremonies in the still unfinished edifice during the year 80, celebrating with a lavish show that featured 100 gladiators and lasted 100 days. Titus died in 81, at the age of 41 of what is presumed to be illness; it was rumored that his brother Domitian murdered him in order to become his successor, although these claims have little merit. Whatever the case, he was greatly mourned and missed.
Domitian (81–96)
The Flavians all had rather poor relations with the senate due to their more autocratic style, however Domitian was the only one who truly created significant problems. His continuous control as consul and censor throughout his rule, the former his father sharing in much the same way of his Julio-Claudian forerunners, the latter having difficulty even obtaining, were unheard of. In addition, he often appeared in full military regalia as an imperator, an affront to the idea of what the Principate-era emperor's power was based upon, the emperor as the princeps. His reputation in the Senate aside, he kept the people of Rome happy through various measures, including donations to every resident of Rome, wild spectacles in the newly finished Colosseum, and continuing the public works projects of his father and brother. He also apparently had the good fiscal sense of his father, because although he spent lavishly his successors came to power with a well endowed treasury. However, during the end of his reign Domitian became extremely paranoid which probably had its initial roots in the treatment he received by his father: although given significant responsibility, he was never trusted with anything important without supervision. This flowered into the severe and perhaps pathological repercussions following the short lived rebellion in 89 of Antonius Saturninus, a governor and commander in Germany. Domitian's paranoia led to a large number of arrests, executions, and seizure of property (which might help explain his ability to spend so lavishly). Eventually it got to the point where even his closest advisers and family members lived in fear, leading them to his murder in 96 orchestrated by his enemies in the Senate, Stephanus (the steward of the deceased Julia Flavia), members of the Pretorian Guard and empress Domitia Longina.
The Adoptive Emperors

"Five Good Emperors" (96–180)
180 The next century came to be known as the period of the "Five Good Emperors", in which the succession was peaceful though not dynastic and the Empire was prosperous. The emperors of the period were Nerva (96–98), Trajan (98–117), Hadrian (117–138), Antoninus Pius (138–161) and Marcus Aurelius (161–180), each being adopted by his predecessor as his successor during the latter's lifetime. While their respective choices of successor were based upon the merits of the individual men they selected, many argue the real reason for the lasting success of the adoptive scheme of succession lay more with the fact that none of them had a natural heir. Under Trajan, the Empire's borders briefly achieved their maximum extension with provinces created in Mesopotamia in 117. From 166, Roman embassies to China, first sent under the reign of Antonius Pius and probably traveling on the southern sea route, are recorded in Chinese historical sources such as the Later Han History.
Commodus (180–192)
192 world map, indicating "Sinae" (China) at the extreme right, beyond the island of "Trapobane" (Sri Lanka, oversized) and the "Aurea Chersonesus" (South-East Asian peninsula).]] The period of the "five good emperors" was brought to an end by the reign of Commodus from 180 to 192. Commodus was the son of Marcus Aurelius, making him the first direct successor in a century, breaking the scheme of adoptive successors that had turned out so well. He was co-emperor with his father from 177. When he became sole emperor upon the death of his father in 180, it was at first seen as a hopeful sign by the people of the Roman Empire. Nevertheless, as generous and magnanimous as his father was, Commodus turned out to be just the opposite. Commodus is often thought to have been insane, and he was certainly given to excess. He began his reign by making an unfavorable peace treaty with the Marcomanni, who had been at war with Marcus Aurelius. Commodus also had a passion for gladiatorial combat, which he took so far as to take to the arena himself, dressed as a gladiator. In 190, a part of the city of Rome burned, and Commodus took the opportunity to "re-found" the city of Rome in his own honor, as Colonia Commodiana. The months of the calendar were all renamed in his honor, and the senate was renamed as the Commodian Fortunate Senate. The army became known as the Commodian Army. Commodus was strangled in his sleep in 192, a day before he planned to march into the Senate dressed as a gladiator to take office as a consul. Upon his death, the Senate passed damnatio memoriae on him and restored the proper name to the city of Rome and its institutions. The popular movies The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964) and Gladiator (2000) were loosely based on the career of the emperor Commodus, although they should not be taken as an accurate historical depictions of his life.
Severan dynasty (193–235)
The Severan dynasty includes the increasingly troubled reigns of Septimius Severus (193–211), Caracalla (211–217), Macrinus (217–218), Elagabalus (218–222), and Alexander Severus (222–235). The founder of the dynasty, Lucius Septimius Severus, belonged to a leading native family of Leptis Magna in Africa who allied himself with a prominent Syrian family by his marriage to Julia Domna. Their provincial background and cosmopolitan alliance, eventually giving rise to imperial rulers of Syrian background, Elagabalus and Alexander Severus, testifies to the broad political franchise and economic development of the Roman empire that had been achieved under the Antonines. A generally successful ruler, Septimius Severus cultivated the army's support with substantial remuneration in return for total loyalty to the emperor and substituted equestrian officers for senators in key administrative positions. In this way, he successfully broadened the power base of the imperial administration throughout the empire. Abolishing the regular standing jury courts of Republican times, Septimius Severus was likewise able to transfer additional power to the executive branch of the government, of which he was decidedly the chief representative. Septimius Severus' son, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus — nicknamed Caracalla — removed all legal and political distinction between Italians and provincials, enacting the Constitutio Antoniniana in 212 which extended full Roman citizenship to all free inhabitants of the empire. Caracalla was also responsible for erecting the famous Baths of Caracalla in Rome, their design serving as an architectural model for many subsequent monumental public buildings. Increasingly unstable and autocratic, Caracalla was assassinated by the praetorian prefect Macrinus in 217, who succeeded him briefly as the first emperor not of senatorial rank. The imperial court, however, was dominated by formidable women who arranged the succession of Elagabalus in 218, and Alexander Severus, the last of the dynasty, in 222. In the last phase of the Severan principate, the power of the Senate was somewhat revived and a number of fiscal reforms were enacted. Despite early successes against the Sassanian Empire in the East, Alexander Severus' increasing inability to control the army led eventually to its mutiny and his assassination in 235. The death of Alexander Severus ushered in a subsequent period of soldier-emperors and almost a half-century of civil war and strife.
Crisis of the 3rd Century (235–284)
The Crisis of the 3rd Century is a commonly applied name for the crumbling and near collapse of the Roman Empire between 235 and 284. During this period, Rome was ruled by more than 35 individuals, most of them prominent generals who assumed Imperial power over all or part of the empire, only to lose it by defeat in battle, murder, or death. After nearly 50 years of external invasion, internal civil wars and economic collapse, the Empire was on the verge of ending. A series of tough soldier-emperors saved the empire, but in the process fundamentally changed the Roman Empire. The transitions of this period mark the beginnings of Late Antiquity and the end of Classical Antiquity.
Tetrarchy (285–324)
324 sacked from a Byzantine palace in 1204, Treasury of St Mark's, Venice]] The transition from a single united empire to the later divided Western and Eastern empires was a gradual transformation. In July, 285, Diocletian defeated rival Emperor Carinus and briefly became sole emperor of the Roman Empire. Diocletian saw that the vast Roman Empire was ungovernable by a single emperor in the face of internal pressures and military threats on two fronts. He therefore split the Empire in half along a north-west axis just east of Italy, and created two equal Emperors to rule under the title of Augustus. Diocletian was Augustus of the eastern half, and gave his long time friend Maximian the title of Augustus in the western half. In 293 authority was further divided as each Augustus took a Caesar to aid him in administrative matters, and to provide a line of succession; Galerius became the junior emperor of Diocletian and Constantius Chlorus the junior emperor of Maximian. This constituted what is called the Tetrarchy (in Greek: the leadership of four) by modern scholars. The system allowed the peaceful succession of the Augusti as the Caesar in each half rose up to replace the Augustus and proclaimed a new Caesar. On May 1, 305 Diocletian and Maximian abdicated in favor of their Caesars. Galerius named the two new Caesars: his nephew Maximinus for himself and Flavius Valerius Severus for Constantius. The Tetrarchy would effectively collapse with the death of Constantius Chlorus on July 25 306. Constantius' troops in Eboracum immediately proclaimed his son Constantine an Augustus. In August, 306, Galerius promoted Severus to the position of Augustus. A revolt in Rome supported another claimant to the same title: Maxentius, son of Maximian, who was proclaimed Augustus on October 28, 306. His election was supported by the Praetorian Guard. This left the Empire with five rulers: four Augusti (Galerius, Constantine, Severus and Maxentius) and a Caesar (Maximinus). The year 307 saw the return of Maximian to the role of Augustus alongside his son Maxentius creating a total of six rulers of the Empire. Galerius and Severus campaigned against them in Italy. Severus was killed under command of Maxentius on September 16, 307. The two Augusti of Italy also managed to ally themselves with Constantine by having Constantine marry Fausta, the daughter of Maximian and sister of Maxentius. The end of 307 saw the Empire with four Augusti (Maximian, Galerius, Constantine and Maxentius) and a sole Caesar (Maximinus). The five were briefly joined by another Augustus in 308, Domitius Alexander, vicarius of the Roman province of Africa under Maxentius, proclaimed himself Augustus. Before long he was captured by Rufius Volusianus and Zenas. Alexander was executed in 311. The current situation of conflict between the various rivalrous Augusti was resolved in the Congress of Carnuntum with the participation of Diocletian, Maximian and Galerius. The final decisions were taken on November 11, 308:
- Galerius remained Augustus of the Eastern Roman Empire.
- Maximinus remained Caesar of the Eastern Roman Empire.
- Maximian was forced to abdicate.
- Maxentius was still not recognized, his rule remained illegitimate.
- Constantine received official recognition but was demoted to Caesar of the Western Roman Empire.
- Licinius replaced Maximian as Augustus of the Western Roman Empire. Problems however continued. Maximinus demanded to be promoted to Augustus. He proclaimed himself to be one on May 1 310; Constantine followed suit shortly after. Maximian similarly proclaimed himself an Augustus for a third and final time. He was killed by his son-in-law Constantine in July, 310. The end of the year again found the Empire with four legitimate Augusti (Galerius, Maximinus, Constantine and Licinius) and one illegitimate one (Maxentius). Galerius died in May 311 leaving Maximinus sole ruler of the Eastern Roman Empire. Meanwhile Maxentius declared a war on Constantine under the pretext of avenging his executed father. He was among the casualties of the Battle of Milvian Bridge on October 28 312. This left the Empire in the hands of the three remaining Augusti, Maximinus, Constantine and Licinius. Licinius allied himself with Constantine, cementing the alliance by marriage to his younger half-sister Constantia in March 313 and joining open conflict with Maximinus. In August 313 Maximinus met his death at Tarsus in Cilicia. The two remaining Augusti divided the Empire again in the pattern established by Diocletian, Constantine becoming Augustus of the Western Roman Empire and Licinius Augustus of the Eastern Roman Empire. This division lasted ten years until 324. A final war between the last two remaining Augusti ended with the deposition of Licinius and the elevation of Constantine to sole Emperor of the Roman Empire. Deciding that the empire needed a new capital, Constantine chose the site of Byzantium for the new city. He refounded it as Nova Roma, but it was popularly called Constantinople: Constantine's City.
Christian Empire (324–395)
395 The beginning of the Roman Empire as a Christian empire lies in 313, with the Edict of Milan. The edict was signed under the reigns of Constantine I and Licinius. The edict established tolerance for Christianity throughout the Empire, but did not yet make it the official state religion. After the Edict was proclaimed, however, the Christian Church rapidly became extremely influential amongst the ruling classes of the Empire, and the Bishops were established in positions of power and influence. Christianity became the single official religion of Rome under Theodosius I (r. 379–395). The emperor had a considerable degree of control over the church. While Christianity flourished, the Empire by no means became uniformly Christian; paganism remained significant. Theodosius massacred Thessalonica for rebelling against his new Christian policies condemning homosexuality, which was a common practice in both ancient Greece and Greece under Roman rule. Upon his return to Rome the Bishop Ambrose refused to let Theodosius enter the church until he made a public repentance. Theodosius did so, and from then on the church's powers grew. Eventually the church would gain enough power that it would outlast the empire in the west.
Late Antiquity in the West (395–476)
476.]] In popular history, the year 476 is generally accepted as the end of the Western Roman Empire. In that year, Odoacer disposed of his puppet Romulus Augustus (475–476), and for the first time did not bother to induct a successor, choosing instead to rule as a representative of the Eastern Emperor (although Julius Nepos, the emperor deposed by Romulus Augustulus, continued to rule Illyricum until his death in 480, at which point Odoacer annexed the remainder of the Western Empire to his Italian kingdom). The last Emperor who ruled from Rome, however, had been Theodosius, who removed the seat of power to Mediolanum (Milan). Edward Gibbon, in writing The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire knew not to end his narrative at 476. The great corpse continued to twitch, into the 6th century. On the other hand, in 409, with the Emperor of the West fled from Milan to Ravenna and all the provinces wavering in loyalties, the Goth Alaric I, in charge at Rome, came to terms with the senate, and with their consent set up a rival emperor and invested the prefect of the city, a Greek named Priscus Attalus, with the diadem and the purple robe. In the following year when the Goths rampaged in the City, local power was in the hands of the Bishop of Rome. The transfer of power to Christian pope and military dux had been effected: the Western Empire was effectively dead, though no contemporary knew it. The next seven decades played out as aftermath. Theodoric the Great as King of the Goths, couched his legitimacy in diplomatic terms as being the representative of the Emperor of the East. Consuls were appointed regularly through his reign: a formula for the consular appointment is provided in Cassiodorus' Book VI. The post of consul was last filled in the west by Theodoric's successor, Athalaric, until he died in 534. Ironically the Gothic War in Italy, which was meant as the reconquest of a lost province for the Emperor of the East and a re-establishment of the continuity of power, actually caused more damage and cut more ties of continuity with the Antique world than the attempts of Theodoric and his minister Cassiodorus to meld Roman and Gothic culture within a Roman form. In essence, the "fall" of the Roman Empire to a contemporary depended a great deal on where they were and their status in the world. On the great villas of the Italian Campagna, the seasons rolled on without a hitch. The local overseer may have been representing an Ostrogoth, then a Lombard duke, then a Christian bishop, but the rhythm of life and the horizons of the imagined world remained the same. Even in the decayed cities of Italy consuls were still elected. In Auvergne, at Clermont, the Gallo-Roman poet and diplomat Sidonius Apollinaris, bishop of Clermont, realized that the local "fall of Rome" came in 475, with the fall of the city to the Visigoth Euric. In the north of Gaul the Franks could not be taken for Roman, but in Hispania the last Arian Visigothic king Liuvigild considered himself the heir of Rome. In Alexandria, dreams of a "Christian Empire" with genuine continuity were shattered when a rampaging mob of Christians were encouraged to sack and destroy the Serapeum in 392. Hispania Baetica was still essentially Roman when the Moors came in 711, but in the northwest, the invasion of the Suevi broke the last frail links with Roman culture in 409. In Aquitania and Provence, cities like Arles were not abandoned, but Roman culture in Britain collapsed in waves of violence after the last legions evacuated: the final legionary probably left Britain in 409. In Athens the end came for some in 529, when the Emperor Justinian closed the Neoplatonic Academy and its remaining members fled east for protection under the rule of Sassanid king Khosrau I; for other Greeks it had come long before, in 396, when Christian monks led Alaric I to vandalize the site of the Eleusinian Mysteries.
From Roman to Byzantine in the East

Under Constantine (330–337) and his sons (337–361)
Constantinople would serve as the capital of Constantine the Great from May 11, 330 to his death on May 22 337. The Empire was parted again among his three surviving sons.The Western Roman Empire was divided among the eldest son Constantine II and the youngest son Constans. The Eastern Roman Empire along with Constantinople were the share of middle son Constantius II. Constantine II was killed in conflict with his youngest brother in 340. Constans was himself killed in conflict with army proclaimed Augustus Magnentius on January 18 350. Magnentius was at first opposed in the city of Rome by self-proclaimed Augustus Nepotianus, a paternal first cousin of Constans. Nepotianus was killed alongside his mother Eutropia. His other first cousin Constantia convinced Vetriano to proclaim himself Caesar in opposition to Magnentius. Vetriano served a brief term from March 1 to December 25 350. He was then forced to abdicate by the legitimate Augustus Constantius. The usurper Magnentius would continue to rule the Western Roman Empire till 353 while in conflict with Constantius. His eventual defeat and suicide left Constantius as sole Emperor. Constantius' rule would however be opposed again in 360. He had named his paternal half-cousin and brother-in-law Julian as his Caesar of the Western Roman Empire in 355. During the following five years, Julian had a series of victories against invading Germanic tribes, including the Alamanni. This allowed him to secure the Rhine frontier. His victorious Gallic troops thus ceased campaigning. Constantius send orders for the troops to be transferred to the east as reinforcements for his own currently unsuccessful campaign against Shapur II of Persia. This order led the Gallic troops to an insurrection. They proclaimed their commanding officer Julian to be an Augustus. Both Augusti were not ready to lead their troops to another Roman Civil War. Constantius' timely demise on November 3, 361 prevented this war from ever occurring.
Under Julian & Jovian (361–364)
Julian would serve as the sole Emperor for two years. He had received his baptism as a Christian years before, but apparently no longer considered himself one. His reign would see the ending of restriction and persecution of paganism introduced by his uncle and father-in-law Constantine the Great and his cousins and brothers-in-law Constantine II, Constans and Constantius II. He instead placed similar restrictions and unofficial persecution of Christianity. His edict of toleration in 362 ordered the reopening of pagan temples and the reinstitution of alienated temple properties, and, more problematically for the Christian Church, the recalling of previously exiled Christian bishops. Returning Orthodox and Arian bishops resumed their conflicts, thus further weakening the Church as a whole. Julian himself was not a traditional pagan. His personal beliefs were largely influenced by Neoplatonism and Theurgy; he reputedly believed he was the reincarnation of Alexander the Great. He produced works of philosophy arguing his beliefs. His brief renaissance of paganism would, however, end with his death. Julian eventually resumed the war against Shapur II of Persia. He received a mortal wound in battle and died on June 26, 363. He was considered a hero by pagan sources of his time and a villain by Christian ones. Later historians have treated him as a controversial figure. Julian died childless and with no designated successor. The officers of his army elected the rather obscure officer Jovian emperor. He is remembered for signing an unfavorable peace treaty with Persia and restoring the privileges of Christianity. He is considered a Christian himself, though little is known of his beliefs. Jovian himself died on February 17, 364.
Valentinian Dynasty (364–392)
The role of choosing a new Augustus fell again to army officers. On February 28, 364, Pannonian officer Valentinian I was elected Augustus in Nicaea, Bithynia. However, the army had been left leaderless twice in less than a year, and the officers demanded Valentinian to choose a co-ruler. On March 28 Valentinian chose his own younger brother Valens and the two new Augusti parted the Empire in the pattern established by Diocletian: Valentinian would administer the Western Roman Empire, while Valens took control over the Eastern Roman Empire. Valens' election would soon be disputed. Procopius, a Cilician maternal cousin of Julian, had been considered a likely heir to his cousin but was never designated as such. He had been in hiding since the election of Jovian. In 365, while Valentinian was at Paris and then at Reims to direct the operations of his generals against the Alamanni, Procopius managed to bribe two legions assigned to Constantinople and take control of the Eastern Roman capital. He was proclaimed Augustus on September 28 and soon extended his control to both Thrace and Bithynia. War between the two rival Eastern Roman Emperors continued until Procopius was defeated. Valens had him executed on May 27, 366. On August 4 367, a 3rd Augustus was proclaimed by the other two. His father Valentini

Constantinople

:This article details the history of Constantinople before the Turkish Conquest of 1453. For details on the city since 1453, see İstanbul. İstanbul Constantinople (Greek: Κωνσταντινούπολις) was the original and best known name of the modern city of İstanbul in Turkey in its role over more than a millennium as capital, first of the Eastern Roman Empire, subsequently of the Byzantine Empire. The last imperial designation reveals the city's even more ancient 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.

Names

The name of Constantinople is an honorific eponym referencing its founder, the Roman emperor Constantine the Great. Constantine established the Greek city of Byzantium as the second capital of the Roman Empire on May 11, AD 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 name for the city was Tsargrad. The word is an Old Church Slavonic translation of the Greek, presumably of Βασιλεως Πόλις, "the city of the emperor [king]": combining the Slavonic words tsar for "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, but is still used occasionally in Bulgarian. The Ottoman Turks called the city Stamboul or İstanbul, 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 İstanbul by the Republic of Turkey in 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: Βυζάντιον), after its founder.

Constantine's Foundation

Byzantium, 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 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

332 Constantinople was a Christian city, lying in the most Christianised part of the Empire. Justinian made the temples of Byzantium into ruins, 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 St 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 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 Milestone, 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 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

Walls of Theodosius, 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 and Basiliscus, who were elevated at Constantinople, were crowned and acclaimed at the Hebdomon. Theodosius I founded the church of John the Baptist to house a relic 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 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 greatest city of the Empire, and the greatest in 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 (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 (from the battle-cry of "Victory!" of those involved). "Nika" riots 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 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 Christmas Day of 537 AD in the presence of the Emperor, who exclaimed, "O Solomon, I have outdone thee!" 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 the Conqueror.

The City after Justinian

Justinian was succeeded in turn by Justin II, Tiberius II and 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 Avars came to threaten Constantinople from the west and simultaneously the Persians from the East, Heraclius, the exarch of Africa, 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. No sooner had he carried war into their own territories, however, and achieved an advantageous peace with Persia, than he was faced with the Arab expansion. Constantinople was besieged twice by the Arabs, once in a long blockade between 674 and 678, and once again in 717.

Importance of the City in its prime

Constantinople was historically important for a number of reasons. 717 Byzantium, later Constantinople, was one of the larger and richer urban centers in the Eastern Mediterranean during the Hellenic period and later during the 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, hence the name 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 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 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 and Jerusalem, 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

787, 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 12 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 Kingdom. 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, by Byzantine forces under Michael VIII Palaeologus in 1261. The Palaeologi founded a beautiful new imperial palace at Blachernae in the north-west of the city, the Great Palace subsequently falling into disuse.

The Ottomans

Blachernae (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 Ottaman Sultan at the time) let Orthodox Patriarchy to continue its affairs, having stated that they did not want to join the 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 by The Four Lads 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' EP Duck Stab!, released in 1978.
- Constantinople under Justinian is the scene of "A Flame in Byzantium" by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro released in 1987.

Notes

- Constantinople is derived from the Greek Κωνσταντινούπολη. Other names for the city:
- Turkish name: İstanbul.
- Modern Greek name: Κωνσταντινούπολη, older name: Κωνσταντινούπολις (Konstantinoupolis; see also List of traditional Greek place names)
- Roman name: Constantinopolis;
- Latin name: Constantinopolis, Nova Roma
- Arabic name: قسطنطينية (Kostantiniyya)
- Armenian name: Konstaninopolis / Gonstantinobolis
- Swedish viking name: Miklagård
- Ottoman Turkish name: Konstantiniyye.
- Slavonic name: Tsargrad (Царьград).
- Stamboul (used by British and other diplomatic corps in "The City")
- The Sublime Porte - the Ottoman Foreign Ministry, so-called for its gate-location within the Topkapi and often used as a synonym for "Constantinople" in diplomatic notes (the same way "Whitehall" would be used in the case of the British Foreign Office, or "No. 10 Downing" to refer to the PMO)
- 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).

External links

- [http://www.sephardicstudies.org/istanbul.html Info on the name change] from the Foundation for the Advancement of Sephardic Studies and Culture
- [http://www2.arch.uiuc.edu/research/rgouster Welcome to Constantinople], documenting the monuments of Byzantine Constantinople, compiled by Robert Ousterhout, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
- [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/BURLAT/3
- .html#1 Constantinople], from History of the Later Roman Empire, by J.B. Bury
- [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04301a.htm History of Constantinople] from the "New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia."
- [http://www.byzantium1200.com/ Byzantium 1200], A project aimed at creating computer reconstructions of the Byzantine Monuments located in Istanbul, Turkey as of year 1200 AD. Category:Byzantine Empire Category:Cities along the Silk Road Category:Holy cities Category:Ottoman Empire Category:Roman sites in Turkey Category:Roman colonies ko:콘스탄티노폴리스 ja:コンスタンティノポリス

Istanbul

Istanbul (Turkish: İstanbul) (a Turkish contraction of Greek εις την πολιν "into the city", the former Constantinople, Κωνσταντινούπολις) is the largest city in Turkey, and arguably the most important. It is located on the Bosphorus strait, and encompasses the natural harbor known as the Golden Horn (Turkish: Haliç), in the northwest of the country. It is officially located in both Europe and Asia, but is generally considered European, perhaps because its predecessor, Constantinople, was the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire. Its 2000 Census population is 8,803,468 (city proper) and 10,018,735 (metropolitan area), making it, by some counts, one of the largest cities, in Europe. Census bureau estimate of 7/20/2005 is 11,322,000 for the city proper. İstanbul is located at , and is the capital of İstanbul Province. Originally founded by Greek colonists as Byzantium taking its name from their leader Byzas from Megara, it was made into the eastern capital of the Roman Empire in AD 324, by the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great; Byzantium was renamed Nova Roma ("New Rome"), but this name failed to impress; and the city soon became known as Constantinople, "the City of Constantine". With the fall of Rome and the Western Roman Empire, Constantinople became the sole capital of what historians now call the Byzantine Empire. This empire was distinctly Greek in culture, and became the centre of Greek Orthodox Christianity after an earlier split with Rome, and was adorned with many impressive churches; including the once, world's-largest cathedral: Hagia Sophia. The seat of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, spiritual leader of the Greek Orthodox Church, was located in what is now Istanbul. After the Fall of Constantinople to the invading Turks, in 1453, Constantinople became part of the Ottoman Empire and soon, its capital. Before the conquest, Turks called the city İstanbul, but officially used the name Qusţanţaniyyeh (قسطنطنيه), which means "City of Constantine" in Arabic. Only on March 28, 1930, was the city officially renamed İstanbul. This often causes confusion among foreigners, as illustrated by the song "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" by The Four Lads. The Four Lads

Etymology

The Four Lads (March 2005)]] The name İstanbul comes from the Greek words eis tin Poli (pronounced IS TIN BOLI) and meaning "in the city" or "to the city", Constantinople being the largest city in the world (στήν Πόλι), from Classical Greek eis tên Polin (εις τήν Πόλι(ν)). The intermediate form Stamboul was commonly used by the Turks in the 19th century. Because of the custom of affixing an i before certain words that start with two consonants (as in "İzmir" from Smyrna: in a coincidence of s + m, the s turns to z in pronunciation as has been attested since early Byzantine times and in modern Greek usage), it was pronounced in Turkish İstambul. (The m in the middle is also the Turkish linguistic custom of changing the n before a p or b, as in çenber → çember, anbar → ambar, although rules like this are not always observed in proper nouns like İstanbul). Also in Greek an N before a P becomes an M, and the P after N becomes a B in pronunciation. Similar examples of modern Turkish town names derived from Greek are İzmit (from İznikmit which was Nicomedia and İznik (from Greek, Nicaea: "eis tin Nikaia" (pron. IS TIN NIKEA), becoming "ZNİK". Arab writers called the city Qusţanţini/--yye, but the Ottomans used several additional names, e.g. Pây-i taht, "the foot of the throne" (Persian); Asitane; and Islambol, "lots of Islam".

History

İznik Byzantium was the original name of the modern city of İstanbul. Byzantium was originally settled by Greek colonists from Megara in 667 BC and named after their king Byzas. The name "Byzantium" is a transliteration of the original Greek name Βυζάντιον; (Demotic Modern Greek spells this υζάντιο, pronounced IPA //). After siding with Pescennius Niger against the victorious Septimius Severus the city was besieged by Rome and suffered extensive damage in 196 AD. Byzantium was rebuilt by the Roman Emperor Septimius Severus and quickly regained its previous prosperity. The location of Byzantium attracted Constantine the Great who, in 330 AD, refounded it as Nova Roma or Constantinoupolis after himself (Constantinople,Greek: Konstantinoupolis or Κωνσταντινούπολη or Κωνσταντινούπολις) after a prophetic dream was said to have identified the location of the city. The name Nova Roma never came into common use. The Eastern Roman Empire which had its capital in Constantinople from then until 1453, has often been called the Byzantine Empire or Byzantium by modern scholars. The combination of imperialism and location would play an important role as the crossing point between two continents (Europe and Asia), and later a magnet for Africa and others as well, in terms of commerce, culture, diplomacy and strategy. At a strategic position, Constantinoupolis was able to control the route between Asia and Europe, as well as the passage from the Mediterranean Sea to the Efxinos Pontos (Black Sea). Constantinople was the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, also known as the Byzantine Empire. In Byzantine times the Greeks called Constantinople i Poli ("The City"), since it was the centre of the Greek world and for most of the Byzantine period the largest city in Europe. It was captured and sacked by the Fourth Crusade in 1204 and then re-captured by Nicaean forces under the command of Michael VIII Palaeologus in 1261. 1261 On May 29 1453 the city fell to the Ottoman Turks (See the Fall of Constantinople) and was part of the Ottoman Empire until its official dissolution on November 1 1922. The Ottoman Turks called the city Stamboul or İstanbul. During the Ottoman period the city went through a complete cultural change from an imperial Byzantine city to an Ottoman Islamic one. Hagia Sophia was converted to a Mosque as were several other churches in the city. Other Mosques were constructed around the city, each Sultan having built a grand Mosque to commemorate his reign. Amongst these Mosques, the most impressive are; Beyazit Mosque, Suleymaniye (The largest Mosque in İstanbul), Sultan Ahmed Mosque (The first Friday sermon or "Khutba" in this Mosque was read by the Jelveti Sufi Sheikh Aziz Mahmud Hudayi) and Fatih Mosque. The wives and mothers of the Sultans also contibuted to the construction of Mosques and several Mosques both on the European and Asian sides of the city have the name Valide Sultan Mosque to signify that they were constructed under the orders of the Sultans mother. Sufi orders which were so widespread in the Islamic world and who had many followers who had activly participated in the conquest of the city came to settle in the capital. During Ottoman times over 100 Tekkes were active in İstanbul alone. Many of these Tekkes survive to this day some in the form of Mosques while others as museums such as the Jerrahi Tekke in Fatih, the Sunbul Effendi and Ramazan Effendi Mosque and Turbes also in Fatih, the Galata Mevlevihane in Beyoglu, the Yahya Effendi Tekke in Besiktas and the Bektashi Tekke in Kadikoy which now serves Alevi Muslims as a Cem Evi. Cem Evi Cem Evi Cem Evi Cem Evi When the Republic of Turkey was founded in 1923, the capital was moved from Constantinople to Ankara. İstanbul became the official name in 1930. In the early years of the republic, İstanbul was overlooked in favour of the new capital Ankara, but during the 1950s-1960s İstanbul underwent great structural change. The city's once numerous and prosperous Greek community, remnants of the city's Greek origins, dwindled in the aftermath of the 1955 İstanbul Pogrom and most Greeks leaving their homes for Greece. In the 1960s the government of Adnan Menderes sought to develop the country as a whole and new roads and factories were constructed throughout the country. Wide modern road were built in İstanbul but some, unfortunately, were at the expense of historical buildings within the city. During the 1970s the population of Istanbul began to rapidly increase as people from Anatolia migrated to the city to find employment in the many new factories that were constructed on the outskirts of the city. This sudden sharp increase in the population caused a rapid rise in housing development (some of poor quality resulting in great death and injury during the frequent eathquakes that hit the city) and many previously outlying villages became engulfed into the greater metropolis of İstanbul. Many Turks who have lived in İstanbul for over 30 or more years can still recollect how areas such as large parts of Maltepe, Kartal, Pendik and others were green fields when they were young. Other areas such as Tuzla were nothing more than sleepy villages. A more complete history of İstanbul before 1453 can be found at the Constantinople article.

Places to visit

Constantinople was a cultural and ethnic melting pot. As a result, there are many historical Mosques, Churches, Synagogues and Palaces to visit in the city.

Buildings and monuments

Constantinople Constantinople] Constantinople]
- Arap Mosque
- Basilica Cistern
- Bulgarian St Stephen Church (also known as "Bulgarian Iron Church")
- Castle of Seven Towers
- Chora Church
- Dolmabahçe Palace
- Fatih Mosque
- Galata Tower
- Hagia Sophia (Ayasofya camii)
- Hippodrome of Constantinople
- Mosaic Museum
- Rumeli Hisari
- Sadberk Hanım Museum
- Sultanahmet Mosque or Blue Mosque
- Süleymaniye Mosque
- Topkapı Palace
- Maiden's Tower (Kiz Kulesi)

Markets, neighborhoods and places

- Bebek fish restaurants
- Beyoglu
- Golden Horn
- Istiklal Avenue
- Prince's Islands
- Taksim Square
- The Grand Bazaar, İstanbul
- The Spice Bazaar, İstanbul
- Eyup Sultan Cemetery The cross-continent European walking route E8 trail begins/ends here, running 4700km to Cork, Ireland.

Seismic risk

İstanbul is situated near the North Anatolian fault, an active fault which has been responsible for several deadly earthquakes in contemporary history. Studies show that there are high risks of a devastating earthquake near İstanbul in the coming decades.[http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/tt/1999/aug25/quake.html][http://archives.cnn.com/2000/NATURE/04/28/istanbul.quake.enn/] The difficulties of imposing suitable building rules is likely to result in a large number of collapses, especially in cheap masonry dwellings.[http://atlas.cc.itu.edu.tr/~barka/pubs/ist_haz/istanbul.html]

Education

İstanbul holds finest education institutes in Turkey, including a number of universities. Most of these universities are public, but recent years have seen an upsurge in private universities. Istanbul Technical University, Bosphorus University, University of Istanbul, University of Marmara, Yildiz Technical University are the known public universities of Istanbul. Sabanci University, Koc University, Bilgi University, Yeditepe University, Kadir Has University and University of Halic are some of the private universities located in this city.

Transportation

Main article: Public transport in İstanbul

Airports

- Atatürk International Airport (IST)
- Sabiha Gökçen International Airport (SAW)

Climate

Temperate-Continental People coming to İstanbul can expect long, hot and humid summers and cold, rainy and snowy winters. The total precipitation for İstanbul averages 870 mm per year. The humidity of the city is constantly high which makes the air feel much harsher than the actual temperatures. The average maximum temperatures during the winter months vary between 03C and 08C. Contrary to common belief, snowfall is common and can be heavy, and can fall between in November and April. The summer months -- June through September - bring average daytime temperatures of 28 C degrees or higher. Despite summer being the driest season, rain is common and monsoon-like floods occur during that season.

Districts

Sister cities

İstanbul has 26 sister cities (aka "twin towns"):
- Almaty, Republic of Kazakhstan
- Amman, Jordan
- Barcelona, Spain
- Busan, So

Walls of Constantinople

Roman Empire

Historians' viewpoints on the evolution of Imperial Rome

Age of Augustus (31 BC–AD 14)

Political developments

Cultural developments

Sources

Julio-Claudian dynasty: Augustus' heirs

Tiberius (14–37)

Caligula (37–41)

Claudius (41–54)

Nero (54–69)

Flavian Dynasty

Vespasian (69–79)

Titus (79–81)

Domitian (81–96)

The Adoptive Emperors

"Five Good Emperors" (96–180)

Commodus (180–192)

Severan dynasty (193–235)

Crisis of the 3rd Century (235–284)

Tetrarchy (285–324)

Christian Empire (324–395)

Late Antiquity in the West (395–476)

From Roman to Byzantine in the East

Under Constantine (330–337) and his sons (337–361)

Under Julian & Jovian (361–364)

Valentinian Dynasty (364–392)