Where is byzantine constantinople

It is a matter of debate when the Roman Empire officially ended and transformed into the Byzantine Empire. Most scholars accept that it did not happen at one time, but that it was a slow process; thus, late Roman history overlaps with early Byzantine history. He was responsible for several major changes that would help create a Byzantine culture distinct from the Roman past.

As emperor, Constantine enacted many administrative, financial, social, and military reforms to strengthen the empire. The government was restructured and civil and military authority separated. A new gold coin, the solidus , was introduced to combat inflation.

It would become the standard for Byzantine and European currencies for more than a thousand years. As the first Roman emperor to claim conversion to Christianity, Constantine played an influential role in the development of Christianity as the religion of the empire. In military matters, the Roman army was reorganized to consist of mobile field units and garrison soldiers capable of countering internal threats and barbarian invasions.

Constantine pursued successful campaigns against the tribes on the Roman frontiers—the Franks, the Alamanni, the Goths, and the Sarmatians—, and even resettled territories abandoned by his predecessors during the turmoil of the previous century. The age of Constantine marked a distinct epoch in the history of the Roman Empire.

It would later become the capital of the empire for over one thousand years; for this reason the later Eastern Empire would come to be known as the Byzantine Empire. His reputation flourished during the lifetime of his children, and for centuries after his reign. The medieval church upheld him as a paragon of virtue, while secular rulers invoked him as a prototype, a point of reference, and the symbol of imperial legitimacy and identity.

Constantine the Great: Byzantine Emperor Constantine the Great presents a representation of the city of Constantinople as tribute to an enthroned Mary and Christ Child in this church mosaic.

St Sophia, c. Constantine moved the seat of the empire, and introduced important changes into its civil and religious constitution. In , he founded Constantinople as a second Rome on the site of Byzantium, which was well-positioned astride the trade routes between east and west; it was a superb base from which to guard the Danube river, and was reasonably close to the eastern frontiers.

Constantine also began the building of the great fortified walls, which were expanded and rebuilt in subsequent ages.

Constantine built upon the administrative reforms introduced by Diocletian. He stabilized the coinage the gold solidus that he introduced became a highly prized and stable currency , and made changes to the structure of the army. Under Constantine, the empire had recovered much of its military strength and enjoyed a period of stability and prosperity. He also reconquered southern parts of Dacia, after defeating the Visigoths in , and he was planning a campaign against Sassanid Persia as well.

To divide administrative responsibilities, Constantine replaced the single praetorian prefect, who had traditionally exercised both military and civil functions, with regional prefects enjoying civil authority alone. In the course of the 4th century, four great sections emerged from these Constantinian beginnings, and the practice of separating civil from military authority persisted until the 7th century. Constantine was the first emperor to stop Christian persecutions and to legalize Christianity, as well as all other religions and cults in the Roman Empire.

The edict stated that Christians should be allowed to follow the faith without oppression. This removed penalties for professing Christianity, under which many had been martyred previously, and returned confiscated Church property.

The edict protected from religious persecution not only Christians but all religions, allowing anyone to worship whichever deity they chose. Scholars debate whether Constantine adopted Christianity in his youth from his mother, St. Helena,, or whether he adopted it gradually over the course of his life. According to Christian writers, Constantine was over 40 when he finally declared himself a Christian, writing to Christians to make clear that he believed he owed his successes to the protection of the Christian High God alone.

Throughout his rule, Constantine supported the Church financially, built basilicas, granted privileges to clergy e. The reign of Constantine established a precedent for the position of the emperor as having great influence and ultimate regulatory authority within the religious discussions involving the early Christian councils of that time most notably, the dispute over Arianism, and the nature of God.

Constantine himself disliked the risks to societal stability that religious disputes and controversies brought with them, preferring where possible to establish an orthodoxy.

One way in which Constantine used his influence over the early Church councils was to seek to establish a consensus over the oft debated and argued issue over the nature of God. In , he summoned the Council of Nicaea, effectively the first Ecumenical Council.

The Council of Nicaea is most known for its dealing with Arianism and for instituting the Nicene Creed, which is still used today by Christians. After Constantine, few emperors ruled the entire Roman Empire. It was too big and was under attack from too many directions. While the Western Empire was overrun by Germanic barbarians its lands in Italy were conquered by the Ostrogoths, Spain was conquered by the Visigoths, North Africa was conquered by the Vandals, and Gaul was conquered by the Franks , the Eastern Empire thrived.

Byzantine authorities arrested members of the factions and sentenced them to be executed. From History of the Wars, I, xxiv, translated by H. Dewing, Macmillan, through Fordham University Website. Justinian had to call in troops to put down the rioters, but he took advantage of the situation to build something grand.

The dome is feet 33 meters in diameter and its crown rises some feet 55 meters above the pavement. In addition to building an incredible cathedral, Justinian oversaw a major territorial expansion of the empire, winning back territory in North Africa, Italy including Rome , and parts of Western Europe.

The spread and impact of the plague may have been aided by a food shortage brought about by cooler weather conditions. It has also been suggested that a volcanic eruption in El Salvador contributed to the cooler weather. In the west, much of the territory that Justinian had captured was lost. This put the empire in a bad spot. These difficult times perhaps contributed to iconoclasms that occurred in the eighth and ninth centuries A.

During these periods, much Byzantine religious artwork was destroyed in fear that they were heretical. Nevertheless, he 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.

Constantine divided the expanded city, like Rome, into 14 regions, and ornamented it with public works worthy of an imperial metropolis. 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. The city was a bastion of resistance against Arab expansion; the history of European civilization might have been dramatically different had the Arab sieges of Constantinople in , and in , succeeded.

Ironically, the most destructive siege of Constantinople came in , when Christian knights of the Fourth Crusade sacked Constantinople and partitioned Byzantium. The nearby suburb of Galata, once a region of the city, became an important trading colony of Genoa. References List Incomplete. Byzantine Architecture by Cyril Mango. Master Builders of Byzantium by Robert Ousterhout. Brickstamps of Constantinople by Jonathan Bardill.