Constantinople

Map of Constantinople

Map showing the relief of Constantinople and its walls during the Byzantine period

Map of the center of Constantinople

Constantinople ( Latin : Greek : / Armenian : ) is the ancient and current history of the city of Istanbul in Turkey (May 11 330-1930). Its original name, Byzantium (in Greek : Byzantium, either from the term Greek Buzo meaning "narrow" in reference to the Bosphorus , is the word Thracian designating the "shore"), is widely used in history.

The inhabitants of Byzantium and the are those of Constantinople (in Latin which means "the people of Constantinople is one of the longest words in this language). francization of which, Greek , means This name was given in honor of the Roman Emperor Constantine ^I , who chose to make the capital of the Empire from 330 on May 11 as the "New Rome". The Souda provides for the entry "Constantinople" (, 2287):

Founded by Emperor Constantine in 330, Constantinople was the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire , which historians will call later Byzantine Empire. It is the residence of the emperor and the seat of government.

"Constantinople far surpasses all other cities that surpasses Rome, and in second place behind Rome seems far more valuable than being appointed first of all others. Three hundred and sixty years have passed since ancient Rome to the reign of Augustus Caesar, and the rest of his life was already in sight when Constantine ^I's son Constant grabbed the scepter and founded a new Rome. "

In 1930 , Constantinople was renamed Istanbul.

From the foundation at the time of Justinian

Constantinople was built on a natural defensive site which makes it virtually impregnable while Rome , more vulnerable, is constantly under the threat of barbarian Germans . Work began immediately and 11 May 330, the new capital, conceived as a "new Rome", is inaugurated. Constantine ^I built it on the model of Rome's seven hills, fourteen urban areas, a capitol , a forum , a Senate, a racetrack, shops, aqueducts, cisterns, running water and all at -the sewer ... At first, it allows the introduction of pagan temples but soon the town became almost exclusively Christian and has only Christian religious buildings.

In recent decades, Constantinople became one of the largest metropolises of the Roman East, thanks to its political role and its economic activities imperial and financial incentives. In 332, Constantine provides free supplies of wheat of the people of the new capital. In 334 architects and craftsmen in the building of the city are exempt from certain charges, those who build houses are entitled to free breads. The landowners of Asia Minor are required to build a house in the city . On the death of Constantine ^I, certain contemporaries think that the city is a whim of its founder and that it will no longer play any role after the death of the Emperor .

From Constantine ^I, the city has 100,000 inhabitants and stretches over 7 km. It reached 200 000 inhabitants in the late ^fourth century . Constantinople, situated outside the areas of conflict, saw its population increase. The number of its inhabitants is discussed: 800 000 inhabitants during the ^fifth century for Bertrand Lancon , 4 to 500 000 for A. Ducey, M. Kaplan and B. Martin . The beautification of the city is the main site of the emperors from Constantine ^I. The latter are built, the Imperial Palace , the Hippodrome , the new name given to the Roman circus, the Church of Holy Wisdom (Hagia Sophia) . Then the city grew westward. The chamber enclosing 700 hectares of origin no longer sufficient, Theodosius II surrounds new walls between 412 and 414, bearing the city's area to 1,450 hectares . On 27 January 447 , an earthquake destroyed much of the Theodosian wall and causes a major famine. This weakness of the Eastern Roman Empire allows the Western Roman Empire to be temporarily saved by the ambitions of Attila. The Council of Chalcedon in 451, in its twenty-eighth canon, gives the city of Constantinople the title of "New Rome" , which makes its bishop, the patriarch of Constantinople , the second character of the Church. This further contributes to give the city its independence from the capital of the Byzantine Empire.

During the Byzantine period

In 673, the fleet of Caliph of Damascus besieged the city but had to withdraw before the Byzantine resistance. The Byzantine fleet, very organized and heir of ancient naval tactics, was very famous at that time: the Byzantines are considered the inventors of the stern rudder (transmitted in the West by Varangians via the Baltic Sea ) and the Greek fire (mixture pitch and flammable powder that were projected on enemy ships).

Constantinople and its empire had five centuries of prosperity through trade (Asia-Europe was the western terminus of the Silk Road and resisted invasions moultes ( Avars , Slavs , Arabs , Vikings , etc..) until 1204 when the Fourth Crusade was diverted to Constantinople by the Venetians, taken by treachery. There was this occasion the famous sack of Constantinople. The "beginning of the end" to the Greco-Roman and Christian Orthodox of the Empire, came therefore not Muslims, but Western. The city and the empire finally lost their commercial resources for the benefit of the Venetians and Genoese, and the empire split into three states: the Despotate of Epirus, the Empire of Nicaea and the Empire of Trebizond.

Constantinople became the capital of the Latin Empire of Constantinople , founded by the Crusaders until 1261, when the forces of the Empire of Nicaea led by Michael VIII Palaeologus retook the city. But the city, emptied of all its wealth, its people and three quarters in ruins, is struggling to rebuild. The Emperors are increasingly indebted vis--vis the Genoese and Venetians they concede enormous privileges. In 1355 the Turkish Ottomans , who have already captured the whole of Asia Minor , seized in Europe and spend forty years in the Balkan Peninsula, Constantinople was surrounded and the Empire is reduced to its capital, Trebizond , in Mistra and some islands of the Aegean.

On 29 May 1453 , Constantinople was taken by the forces Ottoman led by Mehmet II. The last Roman Emperor Constantine XI Palaeologus died on the ramparts defending his city.
The fall of Constantinople ends an empire that lasted 1000 years, who had seen Rome and collapse, which is very rarely happened in history, who had survived two eras (ancient and medieval). Its fall marked for the East end of civilization as Hieronymus Wolf nicknamed hundred years later Byzantine, but for the West, who inherited through Italy this civilization, was the advent of Renaissance.

The capital of the Ottoman Empire

Repopulate the Ottomans Turks. The Rumi (Turkish form of the word Rome by which the Byzantines called themselves themselves), are grouped in the " Milliyet Rum "(the community of Orthodox Christians, in obedience to the Orthodox patriarch ) in the northern district (the Phanar , hence their nickname Phanariotes ). The sultans in turn develop and beautify the city: they restore tanks and baths (baths Greco-Roman since we call Turkish baths). The city becomes one of world cities, with a standard of living and hygiene than the European average.

At the founding of the Republic of Turkey , in 1923 the capital was moved to Ankara. But Constantinople (renamed Istanbul in 1928) continued to grow, a huge bridge was built over the Bosphorus, then another, and it is now a city comparable to New York with the same problems of overcrowding, prices, transport and pollution. Of nearly 10 million inhabitants for the whole urban area, now straddling Europe and Asia, it remains less than 3000 Roumis origin, whose patriarch of Constantinople , the last memory of the Empire.

Name Change

Byzantium named in antiquity, it was renamed Constantinople when it became the second capital of the Roman Empire under Constantine (330). Until 1930, the town was officially called "Constantinople" and " Istanbul "meant only the Old City (the historic peninsula). The name was extended to the entire city under the modern form of " Istanbul "as a result of the reform of language and writing Turkish by Ataturk in 1928 (the Revolution signs ). The term " Sublime Porte was referring to the door of the grand vizier of the Topkapi Palace and was used as a synonym for the Ottoman government.

The city monuments

Monuments and buildings from the Byzantine period and previous

Hagia Sophia (Constantinople)

Constantine gave the city many buildings, mostly for administrative needs and policies of the new capital.

• The Grand Palace , the Imperial Palace, official residence of the emperors until 1204.
• Auguston: central city, between Saint Sophia and all the sacred Imperial Palace
• Senate in white marble with a dome
• Hippodrome : inaugurated by Constantine in 330, he could accommodate 30 to 50 000 spectators. It attracted a lot at parties, anniversaries, victories of the emperor. It attended chariot races, the circus games , demonstrations of animals. The racecourse communicated directly with the Imperial Palace in the imperial box, where the emperor attended performances surrounded by senators and dignitaries of his court. The spina was decorated with decorative monuments, including the serpentine column removed the bronze shrine of Delphi and the Obelisk of Theodosius (obelisk of Thutmose III , from Karnak ). You could also see, capping perhaps the imperial box, four bronze horses , which were removed during the sack of the city in 1204, and placed on the Basilica San Marco in Venice. It was the scene of one of the bloodiest episodes in the history of the city in January 532, the Nika sedition shakes the throne of Justinian. Belisarius , his best general, suppresses the revolt by massacring 30,000 people in the racecourse.

• The Mese : avenue lined with porticoes with shops at the bottom; forum.
• Aristocratic palaces in the center near the racecourse ( Lausos palace , palace of Antiochus , later partially transformed into a church of St. Euphemia ), others later, isolated and closed to the outside with gardens and Bathroom Blachernae Palace , Palace Bucoleon ;
• Aqueduct ( Aqueduct of Valens ) and tanks monumental as the Basilica Cistern (Yerebatan Saraya) , the cistern of Aspar , and that of Philoxenos (Binbirdirek) ;
• Churches: St. Sophia , the Church of the Holy Apostles , St. Saviour in Chora ;
• The walls of Theodosius and the wall of Constantine (city walls);
• Golden Gate
• Of forums

Monuments of Ottoman period

See Istanbul

Personalities

• Acacius (Akakios) , patriarch of Constantinople ( 471 - 489 )
• Abdul Hamid I ( 1725 -1 789), Ottoman sultan ( one thousand seven hundred and seventy-four - 1789 )
• Abdul Hamid II ( in 1842 - 1918 ), Ottoman sultan ( 1 876 - one thousand nine hundred and nine )

Notes

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