Constantinople

1/22/2021 Constantinople - Wikipedia
Coordinates: 41°00′50″N 28°57′20″E
Constantinople
Constantinople (/ˌkɒnstæntɪˈnoʊpəl/[5] Greek:
Κωνσταντινούπολη) was the capital city of the Byzantine Empire Constantinople
(395–1204 and 1261–1453). Greek: Κωνσταντινούπολις
In 324, the ancient city of Byzantium was made the new capital
of the Roman Empire by Emperor Constantine the Great, after
whom it was renamed, and dedicated on 11 May 330.[6] From the
mid-5th century to the early 13th century, Constantinople was
the largest and wealthiest city in Europe.[7] The city became
famous for its architectural masterpieces, such as Hagia Sophia,
the cathedral of the Eastern Orthodox Church, which served as
the seat of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the sacred Imperial
Palace where the Emperors lived, the Galata Tower, the
Hippodrome, the Golden Gate of the Land Walls, and opulent
aristocratic palaces. The University of Constantinople was Map of Constantinople, corresponding to
founded in the fifth century and contained artistic and literary the modern-day Fatih district of İstanbul
treasures before it was sacked in 1204 and 1453,[8] including its Alternative name Byzantion (earlier
vast Imperial Library which contained the remnants of the Greek name), Nova
Library of Alexandria and had 100,000 volumes.[9] The city was Roma ("New
the home of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople and
Rome"),
guardian of Christendom's holiest relics such as the Crown of
thorns and the True Cross. Miklagard/Miklagarth
(Old Norse),
Constantinople was famed for its massive and complex defences. Tsarigrad (Slavic),
The Theodosian Walls consisted of a double wall lying about 2 Qustantiniya
kilometres (1.2 mi) to the west of the first wall and a moat with (Arabic),
palisades in front.[10] This formidable complex of defences was Basileuousa
one of the most sophisticated of Antiquity. The city was built ("Queen of Cities"),
intentionally to rival Rome, and it was claimed that several
Megalopolis ("the
elevations within its walls matched the 'seven hills' of Rome.
Great City"), Πόλις
Because it was located between the Golden Horn and the Sea of
Marmara the land area that needed defensive walls was reduced, ("the City"),
and this helped it to present an impregnable fortress enclosing Konstantiniyye
magnificent palaces, domes, and towers, the result of the (Ottoman Turkish),
prosperity it achieved from being the gateway between two İstanbul (Turkish)
continents (Europe and Asia) and two seas (the Mediterranean Location Istanbul, Turkey
and the Black Sea). Although besieged on numerous occasions by
various armies, the defences of Constantinople proved Region Marmara Region
impregnable for nearly nine hundred years. Coordinates 41°00′50″N
28°57′20″E
In 1204, however, the armies of the Fourth Crusade took and
devastated the city, and its inhabitants lived several decades Type Imperial city
under Latin rule. In 1261 the Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII Part of Roman Empire,
Palaiologos liberated the city, and after the restoration under the Byzantine Empire
Palaiologos dynasty, enjoyed a partial recovery. With the advent
Area 6 km2 (2.3 sq mi)
of the Ottoman Empire in 1299, the Byzantine Empire began to
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantinople 1/27
lose territories and the city began to lose population. By the early enclosed within
15th century, the Byzantine Empire was reduced to just Constantinian Walls
Constantinople and its environs, along with Morea in Greece, 14 km2 (5.4 sq mi)
making it an enclave inside the Ottoman Empire; after a 53-day enclosed within
siege the city eventually fell to the Ottomans, led by Sultan
Theodosian Walls
Mehmed II, on 29 May 1453,[11] whereafter it replaced Edirne
(Adrianople) as the new capital of the Ottoman Empire.[12] History
Builder Constantine the
Great
Contents Founded 11 May 330

Periods Late antiquity to
Names
Late Middle Ages
Before Constantinople
Names of Constantinople Cultures Roman • Byzantine
Modern names of the city
Timeline of Constantinople
History
Foundation of Byzantium Capital of the Byzantine Empire
395–1204 AD; 1261–1453 AD
324–337: The refoundation as Constantinople
337–529: Constantinople during the Barbarian Invasions 330 AD: Founding of
and the fall of the West Constantinople
527–565: Constantinople in the Age of Justinian
c. 404/05-413 AD: Construction
Survival, 565–717: Constantinople during the Byzantine of the Theodosian Walls
Dark Ages
717–1025: Constantinople during the Macedonian 474 AD: Great Fire of
Renaissance Constantinople [1]
Iconoclast controversy in Constantinople 532 AD: Nika Riots and Fire of
1025–1081: Constantinople after Basil II Constantinople
1081–1185: Constantinople under the Comneni 537 AD: Completion of the
1185–1261: Constantinople during the Imperial Exile Hagia Sophia by Justinian
1261–1453: Palaiologan Era and the Fall of I[2][3][4]
Constantinople 626 AD: First Siege of
1453–1922: Ottoman Kostantiniyye Constantinople
Culture 674–678 AD: First Arab Siege of
Women in literature Constantinople
Markets 717–718 AD: Great Siege of
Architecture Constantinople/Second Arab
Religion Siege of Constantinople
Education 1204 AD: Sack of
Media Constantinople
Popular culture
1261 AD: Liberation of
International status Constantinople
See also 1422 AD: First Ottoman Siege of
People from Constantinople Constantinople
Secular buildings and monuments 1453 AD: Fall of Constantinople
Churches, monasteries and mosques
Miscellaneous
References
Bibliography
External links
Aerial view of Byzantine Constantinople and the

Names Propontis (Sea of Marmara).
Before Constantinople
According to Pliny the Elder in his Natural History, the

first known name of a settlement on the site of
Constantinople was Lygos,[13] a settlement likely of
Thracian origin founded between the 13th and 11th
centuries BC.[14] The site, according to the founding myth
of the city, was abandoned by the time Greek settlers from
the city-state of Megara founded Byzantium (Ancient
Greek: Βυζάντιον, Byzántion) in around 657 BC,[15] across
from the town of Chalcedon on the Asiatic side of the
Bosphorus.
Hagia Sophia built in AD 537, during the reign of
The origins of the name of Byzantion, more commonly Justinian
known by the later Latin Byzantium, are not entirely clear,
though some suggest it is of Thraco-Illyrian origin.[16][17]
The founding myth of the city has it told that the settlement was named after the leader of the Megarian
colonists, Byzas. The later Byzantines of Constantinople themselves would maintain that the city was
named in honour of two men, Byzas and Antes, though this was more likely just a play on the word
Byzantion.[18]
The city was briefly renamed Augusta Antonina in the early 3rd century AD by the Emperor Septimius
Severus (193–211), who razed the city to the ground in 196 for supporting a rival contender in the civil
war and had it rebuilt in honour of his son Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (who succeeded him as Emperor),
popularly known as Caracalla.[18][19] The name appears to have been quickly forgotten and abandoned,
and the city reverted to Byzantium/Byzantion after either the assassination of Caracalla in 217 or, at the
latest, the fall of the Severan dynasty in 235.
Names of Constantinople
Byzantium took on the name of Kōnstantinoupolis ("city of Constantine", Constantinople) after its
refoundation under Roman emperor Constantine I, who transferred the capital of the Roman Empire to
Byzantium in 330 and designated his new capital officially as Nova Roma (Νέα Ῥώμη) 'New Rome'.
During this time, the city was also called 'Second Rome', 'Eastern Rome', and Roma
Constantinopolitana.[17] As the city became the sole remaining capital of the Roman Empire after the
fall of the West, and its wealth, population, and influence grew, the city also came to have a multitude of
nicknames.
As the largest and wealthiest city

in Europe during the 4th–13th
centuries and a centre of culture
and education of the
Mediterranean basin,
Constantinople came to be
known by prestigious titles such
as Basileuousa (Queen of Cities)
and Megalopolis (the Great
This huge keystone found in
City) and was, in colloquial
Çemberlitaş, Fatih might have
speech, commonly referred to as
belonged to a triumphal arch at the just Polis (ἡ Πόλις) 'the City' by
Forum of Constantine built by Constantinopolitans and
provincial Byzantines alike. [20]
Constantine I.
In the language of other peoples,

Constantinople was referred to just as reverently. The medieval
Vikings, who had contacts with the empire through their expansion
in eastern Europe (Varangians) used the Old Norse name The Column of Constantine, built by
Miklagarðr (from mikill 'big' and garðr 'city'), and later Miklagard Constantine I in 330 to
and Miklagarth.[18] In Arabic, the city was sometimes called commemorate the establishment of
Rūmiyyat al-Kubra (Great City of the Romans) and in Persian as Constantinople as the new capital of
Takht-e Rum (Throne of the Romans). the Roman Empire.
In East and South Slavic languages, including in medieval Russia,

Constantinople has been referred to as Tsargrad (Царьград) or Carigrad, 'City of the Caesar
(Emperor)', from the Slavonic words tsar ('Caesar' or 'King') and grad ('city'). This was presumably a
calque on a Greek phrase such as Βασιλέως Πόλις (Vasileos Polis), 'the city of the emperor [king]'.
Modern names of the city
The modern Turkish name for the city, İstanbul, derives from the Greek phrase eis tin polin (εἰς τὴν
πόλιν), meaning "(in)to the city".[18][21] This name was used in Turkish alongside Kostantiniyye, the
more formal adaptation of the original Constantinople, during the period of Ottoman rule, while western
languages mostly continued to refer to the city as Constantinople until the early 20th century. In 1928,
the Turkish alphabet was changed from Arabic script to Latin script. After that, as part of the 1920s
Turkification movement, Turkey started to urge other countries to use Turkish names for Turkish cities,
instead of other transliterations to Latin script that had been used in Ottoman times.[22][23][24][25] In
time the city came to be known as Istanbul and its variations in most world languages.
The name "Constantinople" is still used by members of the Eastern Orthodox Church in the title of one of
their most important leaders, the Orthodox patriarch based in the city, referred to as "His Most Divine
All-Holiness the Archbishop of Constantinople New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch." In Greece today,
the city is still called Konstantinoúpoli(s) (Κωνσταντινούπολις/Κωνσταντινούπολη) or simply just "the
City" (Η Πόλη).
History
Foundation of Byzantium
Constantinople was founded by

the Roman Emperor
Constantine I (272–337) in
324[6] on the site of an already-
existing city, Byzantium, which
was settled in the early days of
Greek colonial expansion, in
around 657 BC, by colonists of
the city-state of Megara. This is
the first major settlement that The four bronze horses that used to
would develop on the site of be in the Hippodrome of
later Constantinople, but the Constantinople, today in Venice
first known settlements was that
of Lygos, referred to in Pliny's
Natural Histories.[26] Apart from this, little is known about this
initial settlement. The site, according to the founding myth of the
Obelisk of Theodosius is the Ancient city, was abandoned by the time Greek settlers from the city-state of
Egyptian obelisk of Pharaoh Megara founded Byzantium(Βυζάντιον) in around 657 BC,[19] across
Thutmose III re-erected in the from the town of Chalcedon on the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus.
Hippodrome of Constantinople by
the Roman emperor Theodosius I in Hesychius of Miletus wrote that some "claim that people from
the 4th century AD. Megara, who derived their descent from Nisos, sailed to this place
under their leader Byzas, and invent the fable that his name was
attached to the city." Some versions of the founding myth say Byzas
was the son of a local nymph, while others say he was conceived by one of Zeus' daughters and Poseidon.
Hesychius also gives alternate versions of the city's founding legend, which he attributed to old poets and
writers:[27]
It is said that the first Argives, after having received this prophecy from Pythia,
Blessed are those who will inhabit that holy city,
a narrow strip of the Thracian shore at the mouth of the Pontos,
where two pups drink of the gray sea,
where fish and stag graze on the same pasture,
set up their dwellings at the place where the rivers Kydaros and Barbyses have their estuaries,
one flowing from the north, the other from the west, and merging with the sea at the altar of
the nymph called Semestre"
The city maintained independence as a city-state until it was annexed by Darius I in 512 BC into the
Persian Empire, who saw the site as the optimal location to construct a pontoon bridge crossing into
Europe as Byzantium was situated at the narrowest point in the Bosphorus strait. Persian rule lasted
until 478 BC when as part of the Greek counterattack to the Second Persian invasion of Greece, a Greek
army led by the Spartan general Pausanias captured the city which remained an independent, yet
subordinate, city under the Athenians, and later to the Spartans after 411 BC.[28] A farsighted treaty with
the emergent power of Rome in c. 150 BC which stipulated tribute in exchange for independent status
allowed it to enter Roman rule unscathed.[29] This treaty would pay dividends retrospectively as
Byzantium would maintain this independent status, and prosper under peace and stability in the Pax
Romana, for nearly three centuries until the late 2nd century AD.[30]
Byzantium was never a major influential city-state like that

of Athens, Corinth or Sparta, but the city enjoyed relative
peace and steady growth as a prosperous trading city lent by
its remarkable position. The site lay astride the land route
from Europe to Asia and the seaway from the Black Sea to
the Mediterranean, and had in the Golden Horn an
excellent and spacious harbour. Already then, in Greek and
early Roman times, Byzantium was famous for its strategic
geographic position that made it difficult to besiege and
capture, and its position at the crossroads of the Asiatic-
European trade route over land and as the gateway between
Pammakaristos Church, also known as the
the Mediterranean and Black Seas made it too valuable a
Church of Theotokos Pammakaristos (Greek:
settlement to abandon, as Emperor Septimius Severus later Θεοτόκος ἡ Παμμακάριστος, "All-Blessed
realized when he razed the city to the ground for supporting Mother of God"), is one of the most famous
Pescennius Niger's claimancy.[31] It was a move greatly Greek Orthodox Byzantine churches in
criticized by the contemporary consul and historian Cassius Istanbul
Dio who said that Severus had destroyed "a strong Roman
outpost and a base of operations against the barbarians
from Pontus and Asia".[32] He would later rebuild Byzantium towards the end of his reign, in which it
would be briefly renamed Augusta Antonina, fortifying it with a new city wall in his name, the Severan
Wall.
324–337: The refoundation as Constantinople
Constantine had altogether

more colourful plans. Having
restored the unity of the Empire,
and, being in the course of
major governmental reforms as
well as of sponsoring the
consolidation of the Christian
church, he was well aware that
Rome was an unsatisfactory
capital. Rome was too far from
the frontiers, and hence from
the armies and the imperial
courts, and it offered an Emperor Constantine I presents a
representation of the city of
undesirable playground for
Constantinople as tribute to an
disaffected politicians. Yet it had
enthroned Mary and Christ Child in
been the capital of the state for
A simple cross: example of this church mosaic. Hagia Sophia,
over a thousand years, and it c. 1000.
iconoclast art in the Hagia Irene
Church in Istanbul
might have seemed unthinkable
to suggest that the capital be
moved to a different location. Nevertheless, Constantine identified
the site of Byzantium as the right place: a place 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.
Constantinople was built over six years, and consecrated on 11 May

330.[6][33] Constantine divided the expanded city, like Rome, into 14
regions, and ornamented it with public works worthy of an imperial
metropolis.[34] Yet, at first, Constantine's new Rome did not have all
the dignities of old Rome. It possessed a proconsul, rather than an
urban prefect. It had no praetors, tribunes, or quaestors. Although it
did have senators, they held the title clarus, not clarissimus, like Another coin struck by Constantine I
those of Rome. It also lacked the panoply of other administrative in 330–333 to commemorate the
offices regulating the food supply, police, statues, temples, sewers, foundation of Constantinople and to
aqueducts, or other public works. The new programme of building also reaffirm Rome as the traditional
was carried out in great haste: columns, marbles, doors, and tiles centre of the Roman Empire.
were taken wholesale from the temples of the empire and moved to
the new city. In similar fashion, 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 the 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.[35] Coin struck by Constantine I to
commemorate the founding of
Constantine laid out a Constantinople.
new square at the
centre of old
Byzantium, naming it the Augustaeum. 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. Nearby was the vast Hippodrome for chariot-races,
seating over 80,000 spectators, and the famed Baths of
Zeuxippus. At the western entrance to the Augustaeum was
Hagia Irene is a Greek Eastern Orthodox the Milion, a vaulted monument from which distances were
Church located in the outer courtyard of measured across the Eastern Roman Empire.
Topkapı Palace in Istanbul. It is one of the few
churches in Istanbul that has not been From the Augustaeum led a great street, the Mese, lined
converted into a mosque 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 and a high column with a statue of
Constantine himself in the guise of Helios, crowned with a halo of seven rays and looking toward the
rising sun. From there, the Mese passed on and through the Forum Tauri and then the Forum Bovis, and
finally up the Seventh Hill (or Xerolophus) and through to the Golden Gate in the Constantinian Wall.
After the construction of the Theodosian Walls in the early 5th century, it was extended to the new
Golden Gate, reaching a total length of seven Roman miles.[36] After the construction of the Theodosian
Walls, Constantinople consisted of an area approximately the size of Old Rome within the Aurelian walls,
or some 1,400 ha.[37]
337–529: Constantinople during the Barbarian Invasions and the fall of the West
The importance of Constantinople increased, but it was gradual.

From the death of Constantine in 337 to the accession of Theodosius
I, emperors had been resident only in the years 337–338, 347–351,
358–361, 368–369. Its status as a capital was recognized by the
appointment of the first known Urban Prefect of the City Honoratus,
who held office from 11 December 359 until 361. The urban prefects
had concurrent jurisdiction over three provinces each in the adjacent
dioceses of Thrace (in which the city was located), Pontus and Asia
comparable to the 100-mile extraordinary jurisdiction of the prefect
of Rome. The emperor Valens, who hated the city and spent only one Theodosius I was the last Roman
year there, nevertheless built the Palace of Hebdomon on the shore emperor who ruled over an
of the Propontis near the Golden Gate, probably for use when undivided empire (detail from the
reviewing troops. All the emperors up to Zeno and Basiliscus were Obelisk at the Hippodrome of
crowned and acclaimed at the Hebdomon. Theodosius I founded the Constantinople).
Church of John the Baptist to house the skull of the saint (today
preserved at the Topkapı Palace), put up a memorial pillar to himself
in the Forum of Taurus, and turned the ruined temple of Aphrodite into a coach house for the Praetorian
Prefect; Arcadius built a new forum named after himself on the Mese, near the walls of Constantine.
After the shock of the Battle of Adrianople in 378, in which the emperor Valens with the flower of the
Roman armies was destroyed by the Visigoths within a few days' march, the city looked to its defences,
and in 413–414 Theodosius II built the 18-metre (60-foot)-tall triple-wall fortifications, which were not
to be breached until the coming of gunpowder. Theodosius also founded a University near the Forum of
Taurus, on 27 February 425.
Uldin, a prince of the Huns, appeared on the Danube about this time and advanced into Thrace, but he
was deserted by many of his followers, who joined with the Romans in driving their king back north of
the river. Subsequent to this, new walls were built to defend the city and the fleet on the Danube
improved.
After the barbarians overran the Western Roman Empire,

Constantinople became the indisputable capital city of the
Roman Empire. 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.
527–565: Constantinople in the Age of Justinian

Mosaics of the Great Palace of
Constantinople, now in Great Palace
The emperor Justinian I (527–565) was known for his successes
Mosaic Museum in Istanbul
in war, for his legal reforms and for his public works. It was
from Constantinople that his expedition for the reconquest of
the former Diocese of Africa set sail on or about 21 June 533.
Before their departure, the ship of the commander Belisarius was anchored in front of the Imperial
palace, and the Patriarch offered prayers for the success of the enterprise. After the victory, in 534, the
Temple treasure of Jerusalem, looted by the Romans in AD 70 and taken to Carthage by the Vandals
after their sack of Rome in 455, was brought to Constantinople and deposited for a time, perhaps in the
Church of St Polyeuctus, before being returned to Jerusalem in either the Church of the Resurrection or
the New Church.[39]
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
criticized the government, or clamoured for the removal of
unpopular ministers. In the time of Justinian, public order in
Constantinople became a critical political issue.
Throughout the late Roman and early Byzantine periods,

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
chariot-racing parties of the Blues and the Greens. The partisans of
the Blues and the Greens were said[40] to affect untrimmed facial
hair, head hair shaved at the front and grown long at the back, and Map of Constantinople (1422) by
wide-sleeved tunics tight at the wrist; and to form gangs to engage in Florentine cartographer Cristoforo
night-time muggings and street violence. At last these disorders took Buondelmonti[38] is the oldest
the form of a major rebellion of 532, known as the "Nika" riots (from surviving map of the city, and the
the battle-cry of "Conquer!" of those involved).[41] only one that predates the Turkish
conquest of the city in 1453.
Fires started by the Nika rioters consumed the Theodosian basilica
of Hagia Sophia (Holy
Wisdom), the city's
cathedral, which lay to
the north of the
Augustaeum and had
itself replaced the
Constantinian basilica
founded by Constantius
II to replace the first
Byzantine cathedral, The current Hagia Sophia was
Hagia Irene (Holy commissioned by Emperor Justinian
Peace). Justinian I after the previous one was
Aqueduct of Valens completed by Roman
Emperor Valens in the late 4th century AD.
commissioned destroyed in the Nika riots of 532. It
Anthemius of Tralles was converted into a mosque in
and Isidore of Miletus 1453 when the Ottoman Empire
to replace it with a new and incomparable Hagia Sophia. This was commenced and was a museum
the great cathedral of the city, whose dome was said to be held aloft from 1935 to 2020.
by God alone, and which was directly connected to the palace so that
the imperial family could attend services without passing through
the streets. The dedication took place on 26 December 537 in the presence of the emperor, who was later
reported to have exclaimed, "O Solomon, I have outdone thee!"[42] Hagia Sophia was served by 600
people including 80 priests, and cost 20,000 pounds of gold to build.[43]
Justinian also had Anthemius and Isidore demolish and replace the original Church of the Holy Apostles
and Hagia Irene built by Constantine with new churches under the same dedication. The Justinianic
Church of the Holy Apostles was designed in the form of an equal-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 11th 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. Justinian was also concerned with
other aspects of the city's built environment, legislating against the abuse of laws prohibiting building
within 100 feet (30 m) of the sea front, in order to protect the view.[44]
During Justinian I's reign, the city's population reached about 500,000 people.[45] However, the social
fabric of Constantinople was also damaged by the onset of the Plague of Justinian between 541–542 AD.
It killed perhaps 40% of the city's inhabitants.[46]
Survival, 565–717: Constantinople during the

Byzantine Dark Ages
In the early 7th century, the Avars and later the Bulgars
overwhelmed much of the Balkans, threatening Constantinople with
attack from the west. Simultaneously, the Persian Sassanids
overwhelmed the Prefecture of the East and penetrated deep into Restored section of the fortifications
Anatolia. Heraclius, son of the exarch of Africa, set sail for the city (Theodosian Walls) that protected
and assumed the throne. He found the military situation so dire that Constantinople during the medieval
he is said to have contemplated withdrawing the imperial capital to period.
Carthage, but relented after the people of Constantinople begged
him to stay. The citizens lost their right to free grain in 618 when
Heraclius realised that the city could no longer be supplied from Egypt as a result of the Persian wars:
the population fell substantially as a result.[47]
While the city withstood a siege by the Sassanids and Avars

in 626, Heraclius campaigned deep into Persian territory
and briefly restored the status quo in 628, when the
Persians surrendered all their conquests. However, further
sieges followed the Arab conquests, first from 674 to 678
and then in 717 to 718. The Theodosian Walls kept the city
impregnable from the land, while a newly discovered
incendiary substance known as Greek Fire allowed the
Byzantine navy to destroy the Arab fleets and keep the city
supplied. In the second siege, the second ruler of Bulgaria,
Chora Church medieval Byzantine Greek
Orthodox church preserved as the Chora
Khan Tervel, rendered decisive help. He was called Saviour
Museum in the Edirnekapı neighborhood of of Europe.[48]
Istanbul.
717–1025: Constantinople during the

Macedonian Renaissance
In the 730s Leo III carried out extensive repairs of the Theodosian walls, which had been damaged by
frequent and violent attacks; this work was financed by a special tax on all the subjects of the Empire.[49]
Theodora, widow of the Emperor Theophilus (died 842), acted as regent during the minority of her son
Michael III, who was said to have been introduced to dissolute habits by her brother Bardas. When
Michael assumed power in 856, he became known for excessive drunkenness, appeared in the
hippodrome as a charioteer and burlesqued the religious processions of the clergy. He removed
Theodora from the Great Palace to the Carian Palace and later to the monastery of Gastria, but, after the
death of Bardas, she was released to live in the palace of St Mamas; she also had a rural residence at the
Anthemian Palace, where Michael was assassinated in 867.[50]
In 860, an attack was made on the city by a new principality set up a

few years earlier at Kyiv by Askold and Dir, two Varangian chiefs:
Two hundred small vessels passed through the Bosporus and
plundered the monasteries and other properties on the suburban
Prince's Islands. Oryphas, the admiral of the Byzantine fleet, alerted
the emperor Michael, who promptly put the invaders to flight; but
the suddenness and savagery of the onslaught made a deep
impression on the citizens.[51]
Emperor Leo VI (886–912) adoring
In 980, the emperor Basil II received an unusual gift from Prince
Jesus Christ. Mosaic above the
Vladimir of Kyiv: 6,000 Varangian warriors, which Basil formed into
Imperial Gate in the Hagia Sophia.
a new bodyguard known as the Varangian Guard. They were known
for their ferocity, honour, and loyalty. It is said that, in 1038, they
were dispersed in winter quarters in the Thracesian Theme when
one of their number attempted to violate a countrywoman, but in the struggle she seized his sword and
killed him; instead of taking revenge, however, his comrades applauded her conduct, compensated her
with all his possessions, and exposed his body without burial as if he had committed suicide.[52]
However, following the death of an Emperor, they became known also for plunder in the Imperial
palaces.[53] Later in the 11th Century the Varangian Guard became dominated by Anglo-Saxons who
preferred this way of life to subjugation by the new Norman kings of England.[54]
The Book of the Eparch, which dates to the 10th century, gives a
detailed picture of the city's commercial life and its organization
at that time. The corporations in which the tradesmen of
Constantinople were organised were supervised by the Eparch,
who regulated such matters as production, prices, import, and
export. Each guild had its own monopoly, and tradesmen might
not belong to more than one. It is an impressive testament to the
strength of tradition how little these arrangements had changed
since the office, then known by the Latin version of its title, had
been set up in 330 to mirror the urban prefecture of Rome.[55]
In the 9th and 10th centuries, Constantinople had a population

of between 500,000 and 800,000.[56]
Iconoclast controversy in One of the most famous of the surviving

Constantinople Byzantine mosaics of the Hagia Sophia in
Constantinople – the image of Christ
In the 8th and 9th Pantocrator on the walls of the upper
centuries, the iconoclast southern gallery, Christ being flanked by
movement caused serious the Virgin Mary and John the Baptist;
political unrest throughout circa 1261
the Empire. The emperor
Mosaic of Jesus in Pammakaristos
Leo III issued a decree in
Church, Istanbul.
726 against images, and ordered the destruction of a statue of Christ
over one of the doors of the Chalke, an act that was fiercely resisted
by the citizens.[57] Constantine V convoked a church council in 754,
which condemned the worship of images, after which many treasures were broken, burned, or painted
over with depictions of trees, birds or animals: One source refers to the church of the Holy Virgin at
Blachernae as having been transformed into a "fruit store and aviary".[58] Following the death of her 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 iconoclast controversy returned in the early 9th century, only to be resolved once more in 843
during the regency of Empress Theodora, who restored the icons. These controversies contributed to the
deterioration of relations between the Western and the Eastern Churches.
1025–1081: Constantinople after Basil II
In the late 11th century catastrophe struck with the unexpected and
calamitous defeat of the imperial armies at the Battle of Manzikert in
Armenia in 1071. The Emperor Romanus Diogenes was captured.
The peace terms demanded by Alp Arslan, sultan of the Seljuk
Turks, were not excessive, and Romanus accepted them. On his
release, however, Romanus found that enemies had placed their own
candidate on the throne in his absence; he surrendered to them and
suffered death by torture, and the new ruler, Michael VII Ducas,
refused to honour the treaty. In response, the Turks began to move
into Anatolia in 1073. The collapse of the old defensive system meant
that they met no opposition, and the empire's resources were
distracted and squandered in a series of civil wars. Thousands of
Turkoman tribesmen crossed the unguarded frontier and moved
into Anatolia. By 1080, a huge area had been lost to the Empire, and
the Turks were within striking distance of Constantinople.
1081–1185: Constantinople under the Comneni
Under the Comnenian dynasty

(1081–1185), Byzantium staged
a remarkable recovery. In 1090–
91, the nomadic Pechenegs
reached the walls of
A fragment of the Milion (Greek: Constantinople, where Emperor The Byzantine Empire under
Μίλ(λ)ιον), a mile-marker monument Alexius I with the aid of the Manuel I, c. 1180.
Kipchaks annihilated their
army.[59] In response to a call
for aid from Alexius, the First Crusade assembled at Constantinople in 1096, but declining to put itself
under Byzantine command set out for Jerusalem on its own account.[60] John II built the monastery of
the Pantocrator (Almighty) with a hospital for the poor of 50 beds.[61]
With the restoration of firm central government, the empire became fabulously wealthy. The population
was rising (estimates for Constantinople in the 12th century vary from some 100,000 to 500,000), and
towns and cities across the realm flourished. Meanwhile, the volume of money in circulation
dramatically increased. This was reflected in Constantinople by the construction of the Blachernae
palace, the creation of brilliant new works of art, and general prosperity at this time: an increase in trade,
made possible by the growth of the Italian city-states, may have helped the growth of the economy. It is
certain that the Venetians and others were active traders in Constantinople, making a living out of
shipping goods between the Crusader Kingdoms of Outremer and the West, while also trading
extensively with Byzantium and Egypt. The Venetians had factories on the north side of the Golden
Horn, and large numbers of westerners were present in the city

throughout the 12th century. Toward the end of Manuel I
Komnenos's reign, the number of foreigners in the city reached
about 60,000–80,000 people out of a total population of about
400,000 people.[62] In 1171, Constantinople also contained a small
community of 2,500 Jews.[63] In 1182, most Latin (Western
European) inhabitants of Constantinople were massacred.[64]
In artistic terms, the 12th century was a very productive period. 12th century mosaic from the upper
There was a revival in the mosaic art, for example: Mosaics became gallery of the Hagia Sophia,
more realistic and vivid, with an increased emphasis on depicting Constantinople. Emperor John II
three-dimensional forms. There was an increased demand for art, (1118–1143) is shown on the left,
with more people having access to the necessary wealth to with the Virgin Mary and infant
commission and pay for such work. According to N.H. Baynes Jesus in the centre, and John's
consort Empress Irene on the right.
(Byzantium, An Introduction to East Roman Civilization):
With its love of luxury and passion for colour, the art of
this age delighted in the production of masterpieces that
spread the fame of Byzantium throughout the whole of
the Christian world. Beautiful silks from the workshops
of Constantinople also portrayed in dazzling colour
animals – lions, elephants, eagles, and griffins –
confronting each other, or represented Emperors
gorgeously arrayed on horseback or engaged in the chase.
From the tenth to the twelfth century Byzantium was the

main source of inspiration for the West. By their style,
arrangement, and iconography the mosaics of St. Mark's
at Venice and of the cathedral at Torcello clearly reveal
their Byzantine origin. Similarly those of the Palatine
Chapel, the Martorana at Palermo, and the cathedral of
Cefalù, together with the vast decoration of the cathedral
at Monreale, demonstrate the influence of Byzantium on
the Norman Court of Sicily in the twelfth century.
Hispano-Moorish art was unquestionably derived from
the Byzantine. Romanesque art owes much to the East,
from which it borrowed not only its decorative forms but
the plan of some of its buildings, as is proved, for
instance, by the domed churches of south-western
France. Princes of Kyiv, Venetian doges, abbots of Monte
Cassino, merchants of Amalfi, and the kings of Sicily all
looked to Byzantium for artists or works of art. Such was
the influence of Byzantine art in the twelfth century, that
Russia, Venice, southern Italy and Sicily all virtually
became provincial centres dedicated to its production."
1185–1261: Constantinople during the Imperial Exile
On 25 July 1197,
Constantinople was
struck by a severe fire
which burned the Latin
Quarter and the area
around the Gate of the
Droungarios (Turkish:
Odun Kapısı) on the
Golden Horn.[65][66]
Nevertheless, the
destruction wrought by The Entry of the Crusaders into
Pammakaristos Church mosaic of Saint
Anthony, the desert Father
the 1197 fire paled in Constantinople, by Eugène
comparison with that Delacroix, 1840.
brought by the
Crusaders. In the course of a plot between Philip of Swabia, Boniface
of Montferrat and the Doge of Venice, the Fourth Crusade was,
despite papal excommunication, diverted in 1203 against
Constantinople, ostensibly promoting the claims of Alexius, son of
the deposed emperor Isaac. The reigning emperor Alexius III had
made no preparation. The Crusaders occupied Galata, broke the
defensive chain protecting the Golden Horn, and entered the
harbour, where on 27 July they breached the sea walls: Alexius III
fled. But the new Alexius IV found the Treasury inadequate, and was
unable to make good the rewards he had promised to his western The Latin Empire, Empire of Nicaea,
allies. Tension between the citizens and the Latin soldiers increased. Empire of Trebizond, and the
In January 1204, the protovestiarius Alexius Murzuphlus provoked Despotate of Epirus. The borders
a riot, it is presumed, to intimidate Alexius IV, but whose only result are very uncertain.
was the destruction of the great statue of Athena Promachos, the
work of Phidias, which stood in the principal forum facing west.
In February 1204, the people rose again: Alexius IV was imprisoned and executed, and Murzuphlus took
the purple as Alexius V. He made some attempt to repair the walls and organise the citizenry, but there
had been no opportunity to bring in troops from the provinces and the guards were demoralised by the
revolution. An attack by the Crusaders on 6 April failed, but a second from the Golden Horn on 12 April
succeeded, and the invaders poured in. Alexius V fled. The Senate met in Hagia Sophia and offered the
crown to Theodore Lascaris, who had married into the Angelid family, but it was too late. He came out
with the Patriarch to the Golden Milestone before the Great Palace and addressed the Varangian Guard.
Then the two of them slipped away with many of the nobility and embarked for Asia. By the next day the
Doge and the leading Franks were installed in the Great Palace, and the city was given over to pillage for
three days.
Sir Steven Runciman, historian of the Crusades, wrote that the sack of Constantinople is "unparalleled in
history".
For nine centuries, [...] the great city had been the capital of Christian civilisation. It was
filled with works of art that had survived from ancient Greece and with the masterpieces of its
own exquisite craftsmen. The Venetians [...] seized treasures and carried them off to adorn
[...] their town. But the Frenchmen and Flemings were filled with a lust for destruction. They
rushed in a howling mob down the streets and through the houses, snatching up everything
that glittered and destroying whatever they could not carry, pausing only to murder or to
rape, or to break open the wine-cellars [...] . Neither monasteries nor churches nor libraries
were spared. In Hagia Sophia itself, drunken soldiers could be seen tearing down the silken
hangings and pulling the great silver iconostasis to pieces, while sacred books and icons were
trampled under foot. While they drank merrily from the altar-vessels a prostitute set herself
on the Patriarch's throne and began to sing a ribald French song. Nuns were ravished in their
convents. Palaces and hovels alike were entered and wrecked. Wounded women and children
lay dying in the streets. For three days the ghastly scenes [...] continued, till the huge and
beautiful city was a shambles. [...] When [...] order was restored, [...] citizens were tortured to
make them reveal the goods that they had contrived to hide.[67]
For the next half-century, Constantinople was the seat of the Latin Empire. Under the rulers of the Latin
Empire, the city declined, both in population and the condition of its buildings. Alice-Mary Talbot cites
an estimated population for Constantinople of 400,000 inhabitants; after the destruction wrought by the
Crusaders on the city, about one third were homeless, and numerous courtiers, nobility, and higher
clergy, followed various leading personages into exile. "As a result Constantinople became seriously
depopulated," Talbot concludes.[68]
The Latins took over at least 20 churches and 13

monasteries, most prominently the Hagia Sophia, which
became the cathedral of the Latin Patriarch of
Constantinople. It is to these that E.H. Swift attributed the
construction of a series of flying buttresses to shore up the
walls of the church, which had been weakened over the
centuries by earthquake tremors.[69] However, this act of
maintenance is an exception: for the most part, the Latin
occupiers were too few to maintain all of the buildings,
either secular and sacred, and many became targets for
vandalism or dismantling. Bronze and lead were removed
Dome of the Pammakaristos Church, Istanbul
from the roofs of abandoned buildings and melted down
and sold to provide money to the chronically under-funded
Empire for defense and to support the court; Deno John
Geanokoplos writes that "it may well be that a division is suggested here: Latin laymen stripped secular
buildings, ecclesiastics, the churches."[70] Buildings were not the only targets of officials looking to raise
funds for the impoverished Latin Empire: the monumental sculptures which adorned the Hippodrome
and fora of the city were pulled down and melted for coinage. "Among the masterpieces destroyed, writes
Talbot, "were a Herakles attributed to the fourth-century B.C. sculptor Lysippos, and monumental
figures of Hera, Paris, and Helen."[71]
The Nicaean emperor John III Vatatzes reportedly saved several churches from being dismantled for
their valuable building materials; by sending money to the Latins "to buy them off" (exonesamenos), he
prevented the destruction of several churches.[72] According to Talbot, these included the churches of
Blachernae, Rouphinianai, and St. Michael at Anaplous. He also granted funds for the restoration of the
Church of the Holy Apostles, which had been seriously damaged in an earthquake.[71]
The Byzantine nobility scattered, many going to Nicaea, where Theodore Lascaris set up an imperial
court, or to Epirus, where Theodore Angelus did the same; others fled to Trebizond, where one of the
Comneni had already with Georgian support established an independent seat of empire.[73] Nicaea and
Epirus both vied for the imperial title, and tried to recover Constantinople. In 1261, Constantinople was
captured from its last Latin ruler, Baldwin II, by the forces of the Nicaean emperor Michael VIII
Palaiologos.
1261–1453: Palaiologan Era and the Fall of

Constantinople
Although Constantinople was retaken by Michael VIII Palaiologos,

the Empire had lost many of its key economic resources, and
struggled to survive. The palace of Blachernae in the north-west of
the city became the main Imperial residence, with the old Great
Palace on the shores of the Bosporus going into decline. When
Michael VIII captured the city, its population was 35,000 people,
but, by the end of his reign, he had succeeded in increasing the
population to about 70,000 people.[74] The Emperor achieved this
by summoning former residents who had fled the city when the
crusaders captured it, and by relocating Greeks from the recently
reconquered Peloponnese to the capital.[75] Military defeats, civil
wars, earthquakes and natural disasters were joined by the Black
Death, which in 1347 spread to Constantinople exacerbated the
people's sense that they were doomed by God.[76][77] In 1453, when
the Ottoman Turks captured the city, it contained approximately The final siege of Constantinople,
50,000 people.[78] contemporary 15th-century French
miniature.
Constantinople was conquered by the Ottoman Empire on 29 May
1453.[79] The Ottomans were commanded by 21-year-old Ottoman
Sultan Mehmed II. The conquest of Constantinople followed a
seven-week siege which had begun on 6 April 1453.
1453–1922: Ottoman Kostantiniyye
The Christian Orthodox city of Constantinople was now under

Ottoman control. When Mehmed II finally entered Constantinople
through the Gate of Charisius (today known as Edirnekapı or
Adrianople Gate), he immediately rode his horse to the Hagia
Sophia, where after the doors were axed down, the thousands of
citizens hiding within the sanctuary were raped and enslaved, often
with slavers fighting each other to the death over particularly
beautiful and valuable slave girls.[80] Moreover, symbols of
Christianity were everywhere vandalized or destroyed, including the
crucifix of Hagia Sophia which was paraded through the sultan's
camps.[81] Afterwards he ordered his soldiers to stop hacking at the Mehmed the Conqueror enters
city's valuable marbles and 'be satisfied with the booty and captives; Constantinople, painting by Fausto
as for all the buildings, they belonged to him'.[82] He ordered that an Zonaro.
imam meet him there in order to chant the adhan thus transforming
the Orthodox cathedral into a Muslim mosque,[82][83] solidifying
Islamic rule in Constantinople.
Mehmed's main concern with Constantinople had to do with solidifying control over the city and
rebuilding its defenses. After 45,000 captives were marched from the city, building projects were
commenced immediately after the conquest, which included the repair of the walls, construction of the
citadel, and building a new palace.[84] Mehmed issued orders across his empire that Muslims,
Christians, and Jews should resettle the city, with Christans and Jews are required to pay jizya and
muslims pay Zakat; he demanded that five thousand households needed to be transferred to
Constantinople by September.[84] From all over the Islamic empire,

prisoners of war and deported people were sent to the city: these
people were called "Sürgün" in Turkish (Greek: σουργούνιδες).[11]
Two centuries later, Ottoman traveler Evliya Çelebi gave a list of
groups introduced into the city with their respective origins. Even
today, many quarters of Istanbul, such as Aksaray, Çarşamba, bear
the names of the places of origin of their inhabitants.[11] However,
many people escaped again from the city, and there were several
outbreaks of plague, so that in 1459 Mehmed allowed the deported
Greeks to come back to the city.[11]
Culture
Constantinople was the largest
and richest urban center in the
Eastern Mediterranean Sea
during the late Eastern Roman
Galata Tower, the Romanesque Empire, mostly as a result of its
style tower was built as Christea strategic position commanding
Turris (Tower of Christ) in 1348 the trade routes between the
during an expansion of the Genoese Aegean Sea and the Black Sea. It
colony in Constantinople would remain the capital of the Eagle and Snake, 6th century
eastern, Greek-speaking empire mosaic flooring Constantinople,
for over a thousand years. At its Grand Imperial Palace.
peak, roughly corresponding to
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, in particular the Hagia Sophia, or the Church of
Holy Wisdom. According to Russian 14th-century traveler Stephen
of Novgorod: "As for Hagia Sophia, the human mind can neither tell
it nor make description of it."
It was especially important for preserving in its libraries

manuscripts of Greek and Latin authors throughout a period when
instability and disorder caused their mass-destruction in western
Europe and north Africa: On the city's fall, thousands of these were
Constantinople apple quinces brought by refugees to Italy, and played a key part in stimulating the
Renaissance, and the transition to the modern world. The
cumulative influence of the city on the west, over the many centuries
of its existence, is incalculable. In terms of technology, art and culture, as well as sheer size,
Constantinople was without parallel anywhere in Europe for a thousand years.
Women in literature
Constantinople was home to the first known Western Armenian journal published and edited by a
woman (Elpis Kesaratsian). Entering circulation in 1862, Kit'arr or Guitar stayed in print for only seven
months. Female writers who openly expressed their desires were viewed as immodest, but this changed
slowly as journals began to publish more "women's sections". In the 1880s, Matteos Mamurian invited
Srpouhi Dussap to submit essays for Arevelian Mamal. According to Zaruhi Galemkearian's
autobiography, she was told to write about women's place in the family and home after she published
two volumes of poetry in the 1890s. By 1900, several Armenian journals had started to include works by
female contributors including the Constantinople-based Tsaghik.[85]
Markets
Even before Constantinople was founded, the markets of Byzantion were mentioned first by Xenophon
and then by Theopompus who wrote that Byzantians "spent their time at the market and the harbour".
In Justinian's age the Mese street running across the city from east to west was a daily market. Procopius
claimed "more than 500 prostitutes" did business along the market street. Ibn Batutta who traveled to
the city in 1325 wrote of the bazaars "Astanbul" in which the "majority of the artisans and salespeople in
them are women".[86]
Architecture
The Byzantine Empire used Roman and Greek architectural models

and styles to create its own unique type of architecture. The
influence of Byzantine architecture and art can be seen in the copies
taken from it throughout Europe. Particular examples include St
Mark's Basilica in Venice,[87] the basilicas 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 were much imitated (for
Columns of the Hagia Sophia,
example, see Caernarfon Castle) and its urban infrastructure was
currently a Mosque
moreover a marvel throughout the Middle Ages, keeping alive the
art, skill and technical expertise of the Roman Empire. In the
Ottoman period Islamic architecture and symbolism were used.
Great bathhouses were built in Byzantine centers such as Constantinople and Antioch.[88]
Religion
Constantine's foundation gave prestige to the Bishop of Constantinople, who eventually came to be
known as the Ecumenical Patriarch, and made it a prime center of Christianity alongside Rome. This
contributed to cultural and theological differences between Eastern and Western Christianity eventually
leading to the Great Schism that divided Western Catholicism from Eastern Orthodoxy from 1054
onwards. Constantinople is also of great religious importance to Islam, as the conquest of
Constantinople is one of the signs of the End time in Islam.
Education
In 1909, in Constantinople there were 626 primary schools and 12 secondary schools. Of the primary
schools 561 were of the lower grade and 65 were of the higher grade; of the latter, 34 were public and 31
were private. There was one secondary college and eleven secondary preparatory schools.[89]
Media
In the past the Bulgarian newspapers in the late Ottoman period were Makedoniya, Napredŭk, and
Pravo.[90]
Popular culture
Constantinople appears as a city of wondrous majesty, beauty,
remoteness, and nostalgia in William Butler Yeats' 1928 poem
"Sailing to Byzantium."
Constantinople, as seen under the Byzantine emperor
Theodosius II, makes several on-screen appearances in the
2001 TV miniseries Attila as the capital of the Eastern Roman
Empire.
Finnish author Mika Waltari wrote one of his most-acclaimed
historical novels, Johannes Angelos (published in English by
name "The Dark Angel") on the fall of Constantinople.
Robert Graves, author of I, Claudius, also wrote Count
Belisarius, a historical novel about Belisarius. Graves set much
of the novel in the Constantinople of Justinian I.
Constantinople provides the setting of much of the action in
Umberto Eco's 2000 novel Baudolino.
The name Constantinople was made easy to spell thanks to a
novelty song, "C-O-N-S-T-A-N-T-I-N-O-P-L-E," written by Harry
Carlton and performed by Paul Whiteman and his Orchestra, in
the 1920s.
Constantinople's change of name was the theme for a song Page depicting Constantinople in
made famous by The Four Lads and later covered by They Might the Nuremberg Chronicle published
Be Giants and many others, titled "Istanbul (Not in 1493, forty years after the city's
Constantinople)." fall to the Muslims.
"Constantinople" was one of the "big words" the Father knows

toward the end of Dr. Seuss's book, Hop on Pop. (The other was
Timbuktu.)
"Constantinople" was also the title of the opening edit of The Residents' EP Duck Stab!, released in
1978.
Queen's Roger Meddows Taylor included the track "Interlude in Constantinople" on Side 2 of his
debut album Fun in Space.
A Montreal-based folk/classical/fusion band calls itself "Constantinople."
Constantinople under Justinian is the scene of the book A Flame in Byzantium (ISBN 0-312-93026-
7) by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, released in 1987.
"Constantinople" is the title of a song by The Decemberists.
Stephen Lawhead's novel Byzantium (1996) is set in 9th-century Constantinople.
Folk Metal band Turisas makes multiple references to Constantinople in their song "Miklagard
Overture," referring to it as "Konstantinopolis," "Tsargrad," and "Miklagard."
Constantinople makes an appearance in the MMORPG game Silkroad as a major capital, along with
a major Chinese capital.
Constantinople makes an appearance in the "Rome Total War" expansion "Barbarian Invasion"
belonging to the Eastern Roman Empire. It would reappear in the same role for the spiritual sequel,
Total War: Attila.
Constantinople also makes an appearance in "Medieval Total War." It is a starting province and city
of the Byzantines.
Constantinople makes an appearance in the game "Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings" in the fifth
scenario of the Barbarossa campaign and again in the third scenario of the Attila the Hun campaign
in the expansion pack "Age of Empires II: The Conquerors Expansion."
Constantinople is the main setting of the game "Assassin's Creed: Revelations," the fourth major title
in the best-selling "Assassin's Creed" series.[91]
Constantinople is also a setting of the Vampire: The Dark Ages role playing game by White Wolf.[92]
Constantinople is one of the territories featured in the Board Game Diplomacy. It is one of the default
territories of Turkey.
Constantinople appears in "Europa Universalis IV" and in "Crusader Kings II" as the capital of the
Byzantine Empire, which is featured in both games.
Constantinople appears as the capital of the Byzantine civilization in several installments of the video
game series "Civilization".
Constantinople is where Orlando, from Virginia Woolf's Orlando, turns into a woman.
International status
The city provided a defence for the eastern provinces of the old
Roman Empire against the barbarian invasions of the 5th century.
The 18-meter-tall walls built by Theodosius II were, in essence,
impregnable to the barbarians coming from south of the Danube
river, who found easier targets to the west rather than the richer
provinces to the east in Asia. From the 5th century, the city was also
protected by the Anastasian Wall, a 60-kilometer chain of walls
across the Thracian peninsula. Many scholars argue that these
sophisticated fortifications allowed the east to develop relatively
unmolested while Ancient Rome and the west collapsed.[93]
Constantinople's fame was such that it was described even in

contemporary Chinese histories, the Old and New Book of Tang,
which mentioned its massive walls and gates as well as a purported Constantinople's monumental
clepsydra mounted with a golden statue of a man.[94][95][96] The center.
Chinese histories even related how the city had been besieged in the
7th century by Muawiyah I and how he exacted tribute in a peace
settlement.[95][97]
See also
People from Constantinople

List of people from Constantinople
Secular buildings and monuments

Augustaion
Column of Justinian
Basilica Cistern
Column of Marcian
Bucoleon Palace
Horses of Saint Mark
Obelisk of Theodosius
Serpent Column
Walled Obelisk
Palace of Lausus
Cistern of Philoxenos
Palace of the Porphyrogenitus
Prison of Anemas
Valens Aqueduct
Churches, monasteries and mosques

Atik Mustafa Pasha Mosque
Bodrum Mosque
Chora Church
Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus
Church of the Holy Apostles
Church of St. Polyeuctus
Eski Imaret Mosque
Fenari Isa Mosque
Gül Mosque
Hagia Irene
Hirami Ahmet Pasha Mosque
Kalenderhane Mosque
Koca Mustafa Pasha Mosque
Nea Ekklesia
Pammakaristos Church
Stoudios Monastery
Toklu Dede Mosque
Vefa Kilise Mosque
Zeyrek Mosque
Unnamed Mosque established during Byzantine times for visiting Muslim
dignitaries.[98][99][100][101][102]
Miscellaneous
Ahmed Bican Yazıcıoğlu
Byzantine calendar
Byzantine silk
Eparch of Constantinople (List of eparchs)
Sieges of Constantinople
Third Rome
Timeline of Istanbul history
References
1. Croke, Brian (2001). Count Marcellinus and His Chronicle, p. 103. University Press, Oxford.
ISBN 0198150016.
2. Müller-Wiener (1977), p. 86.
3. "The Chronicle of John Malalas", Bk 18.86 Translated by E. Jeffreys, M. Jeffreys, and R. Scott.
Australian Association of Byzantine Studies, 1986 vol 4.
4. "The Chronicle of Theophones Confessor: Byzantine and Near Eastern History AD 284-813".
Translated with commentary by Cyril Mango and Roger Scott. AM 6030 pg 316, with this note:
Theophanes' precise date should be accepted.
5. Roach, Peter (2011). Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary (18th ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-15253-2.
6. Mango, Cyril (1991). "Constantinople". In Kazhdan, Alexander (ed.). The Oxford Dictionary of
Byzantium. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 508–512. ISBN 0-19-504652-8.
7. Pounds, Norman John Greville. An Historical Geography of Europe, 1500–1840, p. 124. CUP
Archive, 1979. ISBN 0-521-22379-2.
8. Janin (1964), passim
9. "Preserving The Intellectual Heritage – Preface" (http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/bellagio/bellag1.htm
l).
10. Treadgold, Warren (1997). A History of Byzantine State and Society (https://archive.org/details/histor
ybyzantine00trea_749). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. p. 89 (https://archive.org/details/hist
orybyzantine00trea_749/page/n107).
11. Müller-Wiener (1977), p. 28
12. Rosenberg, Matt. "Largest cities through history." About.com.
13. Pliny the Elder, book IV, chapter XI (http://www.masseiana.org/pliny.htm#BOOK%20IV) Archived (htt
ps://web.archive.org/web/20170101063545/http://www.masseiana.org/pliny.htm) 2017-01-01 at the
Wayback Machine. Quote: "On leaving the Dardanelles we come to the Bay of Casthenes, ... and the
promontory of the Golden Horn, on which is the town of Byzantium, a free state, formerly called
Lygos; it is 711 miles from Durazzo,..."
14. Vailhé, S. (1908). "Constantinople" (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04301a.htm). Catholic
Encyclopedia. 4. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved 2007-09-12.
15. Room, Adrian (2006). Placenames of the World: Origins and Meanings of the Names for 6,600
Countries, Cities, Territories, Natural Features, and Historic Sites (2nd ed.). Jefferson, N.C.:
McFarland & Company. p. 177. ISBN 978-0-7864-2248-7.
16. Janin, Raymond (1964). Constantinople byzantine. Paris: Institut Français d'Études Byzantines. p.
10f.
17. Georgacas, Demetrius John (1947). "The Names of Constantinople". Transactions and Proceedings
of the American Philological Association (The Johns Hopkins University Press) 78: 347–67.
doi:10.2307/283503 (https://doi.org/10.2307%2F283503). JSTOR 283503 (https://www.jstor.org/stabl
e/283503).
18. Harris, Jonathan (2009). Constantinople: Capital of Byzantium. Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 978-
082-643-086-1.
19. Necdet Sakaoğlu (1993/94a): "İstanbul'un adları" ["The names of Istanbul"]. In: 'Dünden bugüne
İstanbul ansiklopedisi', ed. Türkiye Kültür Bakanlığı, Istanbul.
20. Harris, 2007, p. 5
21. Harper, Douglas. "Istanbul" (https://www.etymonline.com/?term=Istanbul). Online Etymology
Dictionary.
22. Stanford and Ezel Shaw (1977): History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press. Vol II, p. 386; Robinson (1965), The First Turkish Republic, p. 298
23. Tom Burham, The Dictionary of Misinformation, Ballantine, 1977.
24. Room, Adrian, (1993), Place Name changes 1900–1991, Metuchen, N.J., & London:The Scarecrow
Press, Inc., ISBN 0-8108-2600-3 pp. 46, 86.
25. Britannica, Istanbul (http://concise.britannica.com/ebc/article-9368294/Istanbul).
26. Pliny, IV, xi
27. Patria of Constantinople
28. Thucydides, I, 94
29. Harris, 2007, pp. 24–25
30. Harris, 2007, p. 45
31. Harris, 2007, pp. 44–45
32. Cassius Dio, ix, p. 195
33. Commemorative coins that were issued during the 330s already refer to the city as Constantinopolis
(see, e.g., Michael Grant, The climax of Rome (London 1968), p. 133), or "Constantine's City".
According to the Reallexikon für Antike und Christentum, vol. 164 (Stuttgart 2005), column 442, there
is no evidence for the tradition that Constantine officially dubbed the city "New Rome" (Nova Roma).
It is possible that the Emperor called the city "Second Rome" (Δευτέρα Ῥώμη, Deutera Rhōmē) by
official decree, as reported by the 5th-century church historian Socrates of Constantinople: See
Names of Constantinople.
34. A description can be found in the Notitia urbis Constantinopolitanae.
35. Socrates II.13, cited by J B Bury, History of the Later Roman Empire, p. 74.
36. J B Bury, History of the Later Roman Empire, p. 75. et seqq.
37. Bogdanović 2016, pp. 100.
38. Liber insularum Archipelagi, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris.
39. Margaret Barker, Times Literary Supplement 4 May 2007, p. 26.
40. Procopius' Secret History: see P Neville-Ure, Justinian and his Age, 1951.
41. James Grout: "The Nika Riot" (http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/circusma
ximus/nika.html), part of the Encyclopædia Romana
42. 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).
43. Madden, Thomas F. (2004). Crusades: The Illustrated History. University of Michigan Press. p. 114.
ISBN 9780472114634.
44. Justinian, Novellae 63 and 165.
45. Early Medieval and Byzantine Civilization: Constantine to Crusades (http://www.tulane.edu/~august/
H303/handouts/Population.htm) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20150826083011/http://www.t
ulane.edu/~august/H303/handouts/Population.htm) August 26, 2015, at the Wayback Machine, Dr.
Kenneth W. Harl.
46. Past pandemics that ravaged Europe (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4381924.stm), BBC News,
November 7, 2005.
47. Possibly from the largest city in the world with 500,000 inhabitants to just 40,000–70,000: The
Inheritance of Rome, Chris Wickham, Penguin Books Ltd. 2009, ISBN 978-0-670-02098-0 (p. 260)
48. "Exposition, Dedicated to Khan Tervel" (https://web.archive.org/web/20160507131353/http://www.pro
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ata.bg/?p=62&c=1&id=51493&l=2) on 2016-05-07. Retrieved 2014-08-28.
49. Vasiliev 1952, p. 251.
50. George Finlay, History of the Byzantine Empire, Dent, London, 1906, pp. 156–161.
51. Finlay, 1906, pp. 174–175.

52. Finlay, 1906, p. 379.
53. Enoksen, Lars Magnar. (1998). Runor : historia, tydning, tolkning. Historiska Media, Falun. ISBN 91-
88930-32-7 p. 135.
54. J M Hussey, The Byzantine World, Hutchinson, London, 1967, p. 92.
55. Vasiliev 1952, pp. 343–344.
56. Silk Road Seattle – Constantinople (http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/cities/turkey/istanbul/istanb
ul.html), Daniel C. Waugh.
57. The officer given the task was killed by the crowd, and in the end the image was removed rather than
destroyed: It was to be restored by Irene and removed again by Leo V: Finlay 1906, p. 111.
58. Vasiliev 1952, p. 261.
59. "The Pechenegs" (https://web.archive.org/web/20050829210704/http://www.geocities.com/egfroth1/
Pechenegs). Archived from the original (http://www.geocities.com/egfroth1/Pechenegs) on 2005-08-
29. Retrieved 2009-10-27., Steven Lowe and Dmitriy V. Ryaboy.
60. There is an excellent source for these events: the writer and historian Anna Comnena in her work
The Alexiad.
61. Vasiliev 1952, p. 472.
62. J. Phillips, The Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople, 144.
63. J. Phillips, The Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople, 155.
64. The Cambridge Illustrated History of the Middle Ages: 950–1250 (https://archive.org/details/cambridg
eillustr00robe). Cambridge University Press. 1986. pp. 506 (https://archive.org/details/cambridgeillust
r00robe/page/506)–508. ISBN 978-0-521-26645-1. Retrieved 2016-02-19.
65. Stilbes, Constantine; Johannes M. Diethart; Wolfram Hörandner (2005). Constantinus Stilbes
Poemata. Walter de Gruyter. pp. 16 line 184. ISBN 978-3-598-71235-7.
66. Diethart and Hörandner (2005). p. 24, line 387
67. Steven Runciman, A History of the Crusades, Cambridge 1966 [1954], vol 3, p. 123.
68. Talbot, "The Restoration of Constantinople under Michael VIII"
(https://www.jstor.org/stable/1291680), Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 47 (1993), p. 246
69. Talbot, "Restoration of Constantinople", p. 247
70. Geanakoplos, Emperor Michael Palaeologus and the West (Harvard University Press, 1959), p. 124
n. 26
71. Talbot, "Restoration of Constantinople", p. 248
72. Geanakoplos, Emperor Michael, p. 124
73. Hussey 1967, p. 70.
74. T. Madden, Crusades: The Illustrated History, 113.
75. Norwich, John Julius (1996). Byzantium: The Decline and Fall. Penguin Books. p. 217.
ISBN 9780140114492.
76. https://www.infezmed.it/media/journal/Vol_19_3_2011_10.pdf
77. "The Black Death" (https://web.archive.org/web/20080625094232/http://www.channel4.com/history/
microsites/H/history/a-b/blackdeath.html). Archived from the original on 2008-06-25. Retrieved
2008-11-03., Channel 4 – History.
78. Nicolle, David (2005). Constantinople 1453: The end of Byzantium. Praeger. p. 32.
ISBN 9780275988562.
79. "fall of Constantinople | Facts, Summary, & Significance" (https://www.britannica.com/event/Fall-of-C
onstantinople-1453). Encyclopedia Britannica.
80. Ibrahim, Raymond. Sword and Scimitar. Da Capo Press, New York, ISBN 978-0-306-82555-2. p.
244.
81. Ibrahim, Raymond. Sword and Scimitar. Da Capo Press, New York, ISBN 978-0-306-82555-2. p.
245.
82. Mansel, Philip. Constantinople: City of the World's Desire. Penguin History Travel, ISBN 0-14-
026246-6. p. 1.
83. Lewis, Bernard. Istanbul and the Civilization of the Ottoman Empire. 1, University of Oklahoma
Press, 1963. p. 6
84. Inalcik, Halil. "The Policy of Mehmed II toward the Greek Population of Istanbul and the Byzantine
Buildings of the City." Dumbarton Oaks Papers 23, (1969): 229–249. p. 236
85. Rowe, Victoria (2003). A History of Armenian Women's Writing, 1880–1922 (https://books.google.co
m/books?id=mOvE4Ec-_oEC&pg=PA132). Cambridge Scholars Press. ISBN 978-1-904303-23-7.
86. Dalby, Andrew. Tastes of Byzantium: The Cuisine of a Legendary Empire. I.B. Tauris. pp. 61–63.
87. "San Marco Basilica | cathedral, Venice, Italy" (https://www.britannica.com/topic/San-Marco-Basilica).
Encyclopedia Britannica.
88. Kazhdan, Alexander, ed. (1991), Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, Oxford University Press,
ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6
89. "Report of the Commissioner of Education for the Year Ended June 30, 1912." Whole Number 525.
Volume 1. Washington Government Printing Office, 1913. In: Congressional Edition, Volume 6410.
U.S. Government Printing Office, 1913. p. 570 (https://books.google.com/books?id=ONlGAQAAIAAJ
&pg=PA570).
90. Strauss, Johann. "Twenty Years in the Ottoman capital: the memoirs of Dr. Hristo Tanev Stambolski
of Kazanlik (1843–1932) from an Ottoman point of view." In: Herzog, Christoph and Richard
Wittmann (editors). Istanbul – Kushta – Constantinople: Narratives of Identity in the Ottoman Capital,
1830–1930. Routledge, 10 October 2018. ISBN 1351805223, 9781351805223. p. 267.
91. "Game Informer 218 details (Assassin's Creed, Rayman Origins)" (http://www.neogaf.com/forum/sho
wthread.php?t=429488). NeoGAF.
92. Constantinople by Night by p. Boulle, J. Mosqueria-Asheim and L. Soulban, 1997 White Wolf
Publishing, Inc.
93. "Constantinople" (http://www.civilization.org.uk/decline-and-fall/constantine/constantinople).
Barbarism and Civilization. Retrieved 2018-04-09.
94. Ball (2016), pp. 152–153; see also endnote No. 114.
95. Hirth (2000) [1885], East Asian History Sourcebook (http://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/halsall/eastasi
a/romchin1.asp). Retrieved 24 September 2016.
96. Yule (1915), 46–48; see also footnote No. 1 on p. 49.
97. Yule (1915), 46–49; see footnote No. 1 on p. 49 for discussion about the Byzantine diplomat sent to
Damascus who was named in Chinese sources.
98. Islamic Ritual Preaching (Khutbas) in a Contested Arena: Shi'is and Sunnis, Fatimids and Abbasids
(http://estudiosmedievales.revistas.csic.es/index.php/estudiosmedievales/article/viewFile/388/395)
Paul E. Walker. University of Chicago. Anuario de Estuddios Medievales (2012)
99. "AZIZ (365-386/975-996), 15TH Iman – Ismaili.net – Heritage F.I.E.L.D." (http://ismaili.net/heritage/n
ode/10232)
00. "Μεγάλη διαδικτυακή εγκυκλοπαίδεια της Κωνσταντινούπολης" (https://web.archive.org/web/2015120
5102846/http://constantinople.ehw.gr/Forms/fLemmaBodyExtended.aspx?lemmaID=11800).
Archived from the original (http://constantinople.ehw.gr/Forms/fLemmaBodyExtended.aspx?lemmaID
=11800) on 2015-12-05.
01. Borrut, Antoine (2011). Entre mémoire et pouvoir: L'espace syrien sous les derniers Omeyyades et
les premiers Abbassides (https://books.google.com/books?id=JeA-08EUCOEC&q=Entre+m%C3%A
9moire+et+pouvoir&pg=PA235) (in French). Brill. p. 235. ISBN 9789004185616.
02. Jeffreys, Elizabeth; Haarer, Fiona K., eds. (2006). Proceedings of the 21st International Congress of
Byzantine Studies: London, 21–26 August, 2006, Volume 1 (https://books.google.com/books?id=uV
QOZWilJrgC&pg=PA3). Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 36. ISBN 9780754657408.
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4742-5465-6. online review (https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=53285)
Harris, Jonathan. Byzantium and the Crusades. Bloomsbury, 2nd edition, 2014. ISBN 978-1-78093-
767-0.
Herrin, Judith (2008). Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire (https://archive.org/detail
s/byzantiumsurpris0000herr). Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-13151-1.
Hirth, Friedrich (2000) [1885]. Jerome S. Arkenberg (ed.). "East Asian History Sourcebook: Chinese
Accounts of Rome, Byzantium and the Middle East, c. 91 B.C.E. – 1643 C.E." (http://www.fordham.e
du/halsall/eastasia/romchin1.html) Fordham.edu. Fordham University. Retrieved 2016-09-10.
Ibrahim, Raymond (2018). Sword and Scimitar, 1st edition. New York, ISBN 978-0-306-82555-2.
Janin, Raymond (1964). Constantinople Byzantine (in French) (2 ed.). Paris: Institut Français
d'Etudes Byzantines.
Korolija Fontana-Giusti, Gordana 'The Urban Language of Early Constantinople: The Changing
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David W. Kim (eds), London: Continuum, pp 164–202. ISBN 978-1-4411-3908-5.
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Bogdanović, Jelena (2016). The Relational Spiritual Geopolitics of Constantinople, the Capital of the
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External links
Constantinople
(http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/BURLAT/3*.html#1), from History of
the Later Roman Empire, by J.B. Bury
History of Constantinople (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04301a.htm) from the "New Advent
Catholic Encyclopedia."
Monuments of Byzantium (https://web.archive.org/web/20060218051306/http://www.pallasweb.com/
pantokrator/) – Pantokrator Monastery of Constantinople
Constantinoupolis on the web (http://www.ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/greek-resources-constanti
nople.asp) Select internet resources on the history and culture
Info on the name change (http://www.sephardicstudies.org/istanbul.html) from the Foundation for the
Advancement of Sephardic Studies and Culture
Welcome to Constantinople (https://web.archive.org/web/20060915170436/http://www2.arch.uiuc.ed
u/research/rgouster/) at the Wayback Machine (archived September 15, 2006), documenting the
monuments of Byzantine Constantinople
Byzantium 1200 (http://www.byzantium1200.com/), a project aimed at creating computer
reconstructions of the Byzantine monuments located in Istanbul in 1200 AD.
Constantine and Constantinople (http://www.civilization.org.uk/decline-and-fall/constantine/constantin
ople) How and why Constantinople was founded
Hagia Sophia Mosaics (http://www.pallasweb.com/deesis/) The Deesis and other Mosaics of Hagia
Sophia in Constantinople
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1/22/2021 Constantinople - Wikipedia

Coordinates: 41°00′50″N 28°57′20″E

Contents Founded 11 May 330

Aerial view of Byzantine Constantinople and the

According to Pliny the Elder in his Natural History, the

As the largest and wealthiest city

In the language of other peoples,

In East and South Slavic languages, including in medieval Russia,

Modern names of the city

Constantinople was founded by

Byzantium was never a major influential city-state like that

324–337: The refoundation as Constantinople

Constantine had altogether

Constantinople was built over six years, and consecrated on 11 May

The importance of Constantinople increased, but it was gradual.

After the barbarians overran the Western Roman Empire,

527–565: Constantinople in the Age of Justinian

Chariot-racing had been important in Rome for centuries. In

Throughout the late Roman and early Byzantine periods,

Survival, 565–717: Constantinople during the

While the city withstood a siege by the Sassanids and Avars

717–1025: Constantinople during the

In 860, an attack was made on the city by a new principality set up a

In the 9th and 10th centuries, Constantinople had a population

Iconoclast controversy in One of the most famous of the surviving

1025–1081: Constantinople after Basil II

1081–1185: Constantinople under the Comneni

Under the Comnenian dynasty

Horn, and large numbers of westerners were present in the city

From the tenth to the twelfth century Byzantium was the

1185–1261: Constantinople during the Imperial Exile

The Latins took over at least 20 churches and 13

1261–1453: Palaiologan Era and the Fall of

Although Constantinople was retaken by Michael VIII Palaiologos,

1453–1922: Ottoman Kostantiniyye

The Christian Orthodox city of Constantinople was now under

Constantinople by September.[84] From all over the Islamic empire,

It was especially important for preserving in its libraries

The Byzantine Empire used Roman and Greek architectural models

"Constantinople" was one of the "big words" the Father knows

Constantinople's fame was such that it was described even in

People from Constantinople

Secular buildings and monuments

Churches, monasteries and mosques

51. Finlay, 1906, pp. 174–175.

Müller-Wiener, Wolfgang (1977). Bildlexikon zur Topographie Istanbuls: Byzantion, Konstantinupolis,

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Constantinople&oldid=1001519863"

This page was last edited on 20 January 2021, at 01:44 (UTC).

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