{{Short description|Capital of the Eastern Roman Empire}}
{{Redirect several|Constantinople}}
{{About|the Byzantine period of the city|the Ottoman and modern city|Istanbul}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2023}}
{{Infobox historic site
| name = Constantinople
| native_names = {{native name|grc|Κωνσταντινούπολις}}
{{native name|la|Constantinopolis}}
| image = Byzantine Constantinople-en.png
| alt =
| caption = Map of Constantinople in the Byzantine period, corresponding to the modern-day [[Fatih]] and [[Beyoğlu]] districts of [[Istanbul]]
| pushpin_map = Istanbul#Turkey Marmara#Turkey
| pushpin_alt = A map of Byzantine Istanbul
| image_map_size = 275
| pushpin_caption =
| coordinates = {{Coord|41|00|45|N|28|58|48|E|type:city_region:TR|display=inline,title}}
| location = [[Fatih]] and [[Beyoğlu]], Istanbul, Turkey
| region = [[Marmara Region]]
| type = Imperial city
| part_of = {{unbulleted list|[[Roman Empire]]|[[Byzantine Empire]]|[[Latin Empire]]}}
| length =
| width =
| area = {{cvt|6|km2}} enclosed within Constantinian Walls
{{cvt|14|km2}} enclosed within Theodosian Walls
| height =
| builder = [[Constantine the Great]]
| material =
| built = 11 May 330
| abandoned =
| epochs = [[Late antiquity]] to 15th century
| cultures = {{unbulleted list| [[Greek culture|Greek]]|[[Culture of ancient Rome|Latin]]|[[Byzantine Empire#Society|Byzantine]]}}
| events = [[List of sieges of Constantinople|Sieges of Constantinople]], including fall of the city ([[Sack of Constantinople|1204]] and [[Fall of Constantinople|1453]])
| occupants =
| designation1 = WHS
| designation1_offname = [[Historic Areas of Istanbul]]
| designation1_type = Cultural
| designation1_criteria = (i), (ii), (iii), (iv)
| designation1_date = 1985 (9th [[World Heritage Committee|session]])
| designation1_number = [https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/356 356bis]
| designation1_free1name = Extension
| designation1_free1value = 2017
| designation1_free2name = Area
| designation1_free2value = 765.5 ha
| designation1_free3name = UNESCO region
| designation1_free3value = [[Lists of World Heritage Sites#Europe|Europe and North America]]
}}
[[File: Bizansist touchup.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Aerial view of Byzantine Constantinople and the Propontis (Sea of Marmara)]]
{{Timeline of Constantinople}}
'''Constantinople''',{{efn|{{Bulleted list|{{IPAc-en|lang|ˌ|k|ɒ|n|s|t|æ|n|t|ᵻ|ˈ|n|oʊ|p|əl}} {{Respell|KON|stan|tin|OH|pəl}}[{{Cite book |last=Roach |first=Peter |title=Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-521-15253-2 |edition=18th |location=Cambridge}}] |{{Langx|grc-x-koine|Κωνστᾰντῑνούπολῐς|Kōnstăntīnoúpolĭs}}, {{IPA|grc-x-medieval|konstandiˈnupolis|link=yes}}|{{langx|la|Cōnstantīnopolis}}, {{IPA|la|kõːstantiːˈnɔpɔlɪs|pron}}}}}} was the capital of the [[Roman Empire|Roman]] and [[Byzantine Empire]] from 330 until its takeover by the [[Ottoman Empire]] in 1453. After this, it was changed to [[Istanbul]]. It was located on a peninsula at the southeastern tip of [[Thrace]] in [[Europe]]; with the [[Bosporus]] strait and the ancient cities of [[Chalcedon]] and [[Chrysopolis (Bithynia)|Chrysopolis]] in [[Bithynia]], [[Anatolia]] (Asia Minor) to the east; the [[Golden Horn]] and the citadel of [[Galata]] ([[Pera (Beyoğlu)|Pera]]) to the north; the [[Sea of Marmara]] to the south; and the [[Princes' Islands]] to the southeast.
Constantinople was founded on the site of the existing city of [[Byzantium]] in 324, during the reign of [[Constantine the Great]], initially as [[New Rome]]. In 330 it became the new capital of the Roman Empire, and continued in that role after the empire was divided in an Eastern and Western half and after the [[Western Roman Empire]] ended in the 5th century. The ascendancy of Constantinople marks the empire's "Byzantine" era.
From the mid-5th century to the early 13th century, Constantinople was the largest and wealthiest city in Europe.[Pounds, Norman John Greville. ''An Historical Geography of Europe, 1500–1840'', p. 124. CUP Archive, 1979. {{ISBN|0-521-22379-2}}.] 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 of Constantinople|Ecumenical Patriarchate]]; the [[Great Palace of Constantinople|Imperial Palace]] of the emperors; the [[Hippodrome of Constantinople|Hippodrome]]; the [[Golden Gate (Constantinople)|Golden Gate]] of the Land Walls; and opulent aristocratic palaces. The [[University of Constantinople]] was founded in the 5th century and included a vast [[Imperial Library of Constantinople|Imperial Library]], which contained more than 100,000 volumes.[{{Cite web |title=Preserving The Intellectual Heritage--Preface|url=https://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/bellagio/bellag1/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171020090658/https://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/bellagio/bellag1.html |archive-date=2017-10-20 |access-date=2021-06-09 |website=CLIR}}]
Constantinople was famous for its massive and complex fortifications, which ranked among the most sophisticated defensive architecture of [[Classical antiquity|antiquity]]; the [[Theodosian Walls]] consisted of a double wall lying about {{convert|2|km||abbr=out}} to the west of the first wall and a moat with palisades in front.[{{Cite book |last=Treadgold |first=Warren |url=https://archive.org/details/historybyzantine00trea_749 |title=A History of Byzantine State and Society |publisher=Stanford University Press |year=1997 |location=Stanford, CA |page=[https://archive.org/details/historybyzantine00trea_749/page/n107 89] |url-access=limited}}] Constantinople's location between the [[Golden Horn]] and the [[Sea of Marmara]] reduced the land area that required defensive walls. The city was constructed intentionally to rival [[Ancient Rome|Rome]], and it was claimed that several elevations within its walls matched Rome's seven hills.[[[John Julius Norwich]] writes: "To identity them all needs a good deal more credulity and imagination than is required for their Roman counterparts." ''Byzantium: The Early Centuries'' (1989), Guildhall Publishing, p. 76n] The impenetrable defenses enclosed magnificent palaces, domes, and towers, the result of the prosperity Constantinople achieved as the gateway between two continents (Europe and Asia) and two seas (the Mediterranean and the Black Sea). Although besieged on numerous occasions by various armies, the defenses of Constantinople proved impenetrable for nearly nine hundred years.
In 1204, during the [[Fourth Crusade]], the city was sacked by the Latin Crusaders and became the capital of the short-lived [[Latin Empire]] (1204–1261). The Byzantine [[Empire of Nicaea]] recaptured the city in 1261. Under the following [[Palaiologan dynasty]] it enjoyed a partial recovery. With the advent of the Ottoman Empire in 1299, the empire's territories dwindled, and the city began to lose population. By the early 15th century, the empire was reduced to just Constantinople and its environs, along with the territories of the despotate of [[Morea]], in [[Peloponnese]], Greece, making it an enclave inside the Ottoman Empire. The city was finally [[Fall of Constantinople|besieged and conquered]] by the Ottoman Empire in 1453. Now known internationally under its modern Turkish name Istanbul, it has become the [[List of European cities by population within city limits|most populous city in Europe]], with a population of more than 16 million residents,[{{Cite web |title=Istanbul, Turkey Metro Area Population (1950-2025) {{!}} MacroTrends |url=https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/cities/22691/istanbul/population |access-date=2025-10-09 |website=www.macrotrends.net}}] and the economic and financial centre of Turkey, straddling the [[Bosporus]] strait and lying in both Europe and Asia.
== Names ==
{{main|Names of Istanbul}}
Before Constantine I, the city was known as ''Byzantium'' (Greek ''Byzantion''), the name associated with its original foundation as a Greek colony in the 7th century BC. It was briefly renamed ''Augusta Antonina'' in the early 3rd century AD by the Emperor [[Septimius Severus]] (193–211), who had razed it to the ground during the [[Year of the Five Emperors|civil war]] of 196 AD, and then had it rebuilt in honour of his son Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, the future Emperor [[Caracalla]].{{sfn|Harris|2017|page=43}}[Necdet Sakaoğlu (1993/94a): "İstanbul'un adları" ["The names of Istanbul"]. In: 'Dünden bugüne İstanbul ansiklopedisi', ed. Türkiye Kültür Bakanlığı, Istanbul.] The name appears to have been quickly forgotten and abandoned, and the city reverted to Byzantium after either the assassination of Caracalla in 217 or, at the latest, the fall of the [[Severan dynasty]] in 235.
[[File:Column of Constantine.jpg|thumb|upright|left|The [[Column of Constantine]], built by [[Constantine I]] in 330 to commemorate the establishment of Constantinople as the [[New Rome|new capital]] of the [[Roman Empire]]]]
When Constantine transferred the capital of the empire to his newly refounded city in 330, he initially designated it "New Rome" ({{lang|la|Nova Roma}}, {{lang|grc|Νέα Ῥώμη}}). During this time, it was also called 'Second Rome', 'Eastern Rome', and {{lang|la|Roma Constantinopolitana}} ('Constantinopolitan Rome').[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}}. {{JSTOR|283503}}.] However, it soon became more widely known as Constantinople ({{langx|el|Κωνσταντινούπολις|translit=Kōnstantinoupolis|lit=city of Constantine}}) in honour of its founder.
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 by-names, such as ''Basileuousa'' (Queen of Cities) and ''Megalopolis'' (the Great City). In colloquial speech, it was commonly referred to as just ''i Polis'' ({{lang|grc|ἡ Πόλις}}) 'the City' by Constantinopolitans and provincial Byzantines alike.[Harris, 2007, p. 5]
This designation was also the source of what was to become the city's modern Turkish name, ''Istanbul''. It is derived from the Greek phrase ''eis tin Polin'' ({{lang|grc|εἰς τὴν Πόλιν}}, or in its spoken form in Medieval Greek: ''stin Poli(n)'' {{lang|grc-x-medieval|στην Πόλι(ν)}}, both meaning 'in the City'.[{{cite journal|last1=Stachowski|first1=Marek|last2=Woodhouse|first2=Robert|title=The Etymology of İstanbul: Making Optimal Use of the Evidence|journal=[[Studia Etymologica Cracoviensia]]|volume=20|pages=221–245|year=2015|doi=10.4467/20843836SE.15.015.2801|doi-access=free}}] Variants of this name are first attested in languages such as [[Armenian language|Armenian]] and [[Arabic language|Arabic]] from the 10th century, before the name was adopted also by the [[Ottoman Turks]].
During the Ottoman era, the city was referred to either as ''Istanbul'' or, in more elevated registers, as ''Kostantiniyye'' ({{lang|ota|قسطنطينيه}}), originally an Arabic calque of "Constantinople" meaning "city of Constantine". At some times during the Ottoman era, an adaptation of "Istanbul" as "Islambol" (meaning "full of Islam") was also common.[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][Tom Burham, ''The Dictionary of Misinformation'', Ballantine, 1977.][Room, Adrian, (1993), ''Place Name changes 1900–1991'', Metuchen, N.J., & London:The Scarecrow Press, Inc., {{ISBN|0-8108-2600-3}} pp. 46, 86.][[http://concise.britannica.com/ebc/article-9368294/Istanbul Britannica, Istanbul] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071218080707/http://concise.britannica.com/ebc/article-9368294/Istanbul |date=2007-12-18 }}.]
==History==
{{main|History of Constantinople|History of Istanbul}}
[[File:Horses_of_Basilica_San_Marco.jpg|thumb|The four bronze horses that were once in the [[Hippodrome of Constantinople]] are today put on display in [[Venice]].]]
=== Foundation of Byzantium ===
{{Main|Byzantium}}
Constantinople was founded by the Roman emperor [[Constantine I]] (272–337) in 324[{{ODB |title=Constantinople |last=Mango |first=Cyril |author link=Cyril Mango |pages=508–512}}] on the site of an already-existing city, [[Byzantium]], which was settled in the early days of [[Greek colonies|Greek colonial expansion]], around 657 BC, by colonists of the city-state of [[Megara]]. This is the first major settlement that would develop on the site of later Constantinople, but the first known settlement was that of ''Lygos'', referred to in Pliny's Natural Histories.[Pliny, IV, xi] Apart from this, little is known about this initial settlement. 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 ({{langx|grc|Βυζάντιον|Byzántion}}) in around 657 BC,[''[[Patria of Constantinople]]'']
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 [[Achaemenid Empire|Persian Empire]], as he considered the site the optimal location to construct a [[pontoon bridge]] crossing into Europe, given that 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 (general)|Pausanias]] captured the city, which remained an independent, yet subordinate, city under the Athenians, and later to the Spartans after 411 BC.[Thucydides, I, 94] A farsighted treaty with the emergent power of Rome in {{circa|150 BC}}, which stipulated tribute in exchange for independent status allowed it to enter Roman rule unscathed.[Harris, 2007, pp. 24–25] 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.[Harris, 2007, p. 45]
Byzantium was never a major influential city-state like [[Athens]], [[Ancient Corinth|Corinth]], or [[Sparta]]; however, on the other hand, the city enjoyed relative peace and steady growth as a prosperous trading city due to its fortunate location. The site lay astride the land route from [[Europe]] to [[Asia]] and the [[Turkish Straits|seaway]] from the [[Black Sea]] to the [[Mediterranean]], and had in the [[Golden Horn]] an excellent and spacious harbor. Already then, in Greek and early Roman times, Byzantium was famous for the 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 the Mediterranean and Black Seas made it too valuable a settlement to abandon, as Emperor [[Septimius Severus]] later realized when he razed the city to the ground for supporting [[Pescennius Niger]]'s [[Year of the Five Emperors|claimancy]].[Harris, 2007, pp. 44–45] It was a move greatly criticized by the contemporary consul and historian [[Cassius Dio]], who stated that Severus had destroyed "a strong Roman outpost and a base of operations against the barbarians from Pontus and Asia."[Cassius Dio, ix, p. 195] 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 ===
[[File:Irenekirken.jpg|thumb|upright|left|A simple cross: an example of iconoclast art in the [[Hagia Irene]] Church in Istanbul, which was secularized and today serves as a museum and concert hall.]]
[[File:Constantine I Hagia Sophia.jpg|right|thumb|Emperor [[Constantine I]] presents a representation of the city of Constantinople as tribute to an enthroned Mary and Christ Child in this church mosaic. [[Hagia Sophia]], {{circa|1000}}.]]
Constantine had altogether more colorful plans. Having restored the unity of the Empire and, being in the course of major governmental reforms as well as of [[Constantine I and Christianity|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 undesirable playground for disaffected politicians. Yet it had been the capital of the state for over a thousand years, and it 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.[{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Constantinople |encyclopedia=World History Encyclopedia |url=https://www.worldhistory.org/Constantinople/ |last=Wasson |first=D. L. |date=9 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210628145601/https://www.worldhistory.org/Constantinople/ |archive-date=2021-06-28}}]
Constantinople was built over six years and ceremonially consecrated on 11 May 330.[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" ({{langx|grc|Δευτέρα Ῥώμη|Deutera Rhōmē|label=none}}) by official decree, as reported by the 5th-century church historian [[Socrates of Constantinople]]: See [[Names of Constantinople]].] Constantine divided the expanded city, like Rome, into 14 regions, and ornamented it with public works worthy of an imperial metropolis.[A description can be found in the [[Notitia urbis Constantinopolitanae]].] 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 those of Rome. It also lacked the panoply of other administrative offices regulating the food supply, police, statues, temples, sewers, aqueducts, or other public works. The new program of building was carried out in great haste: columns, marbles, doors, and tiles were taken wholesale from the temples of the empire and moved to the new city. In a 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 [[Diocese of Asia|Asiana]] and [[Diocese of Pontus|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.[Socrates II.13, cited by J B Bury, History of the Later Roman Empire, p. 74.]
[[File:Istanbul_Hagia_Irene_IMG_8067_1920.jpg|thumb|[[Hagia Irene]] is a Greek [[Eastern Orthodox Church]] located in the outer courtyard of [[Topkapı Palace]] in Istanbul. It is one of the few churches in [[Istanbul]] that has not been converted into a mosque.]]
Constantine laid out a new square at the center of old Byzantium, naming it the [[Augustaion]] (Greek: 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 Constantinople|Great Palace]] of the Emperor with its imposing entrance, the [[Chalke]], and its ceremonial suite known as the [[Daphne Palace|Palace of Daphne]]. Nearby was the vast [[Hippodrome of Constantinople|Hippodrome]] for [[Chariot racing|chariot races]], seating over 80,000 spectators, and the famed [[Baths of Zeuxippus]]. At the western entrance to the Augustaion was the [[Milion]], a vaulted monument from which distances were measured across the Eastern Roman Empire.
From the Augustaion led a great street, the [[Mese (Constantinople)|Mese]], lined with colonnades. As it descended the First Hill of the city and climbed the Second Hill, it passed on the left the [[Praetorium]] or law-court. Then it passed through the oval [[Forum of Constantine]], where there was a second Senate-house and a [[Column of Constantine|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 [[Wall of Constantine (Constantinople)|Constantinian Wall]]. After the construction of the [[Theodosian Walls]] in the early 5th century, it was extended to the new [[Golden Gate (Constantinople)|Golden Gate]], reaching a total length of seven [[Roman mile]]s.[J B Bury, History of the Later Roman Empire, p. 75. ''et seqq''.] 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.{{sfn|Bogdanović|2016|pp=100}}
File:Urbs Roma, commemorative coin of Constantinople.jpg|alt=Commemorative Ancient Coin of Constantinople|Another coin struck by Constantine I in 330–333 to commemorate the foundation of Constantinople and to also reaffirm Rome as the traditional center of the Roman Empire
File:Constantinopolis coin.jpg|[[Coin]] struck by Constantine I to commemorate the founding of Constantinople.
=== 337–529: Constantinople during the Barbarian Invasions and the fall of the West ===
{{see also|Palace of Lausus}}
[[File:Istambul_cokol1RB.JPG|thumb|left|[[Theodosius I]] was the last [[Roman emperor]] who ruled over an undivided empire (detail from the Obelisk at the [[Hippodrome of Constantinople]]).]]
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 year there, nevertheless built the Palace of [[Hebdomon]] on the shore of the [[Sea of Marmara|Propontis]] near the [[Golden Gate (Constantinople)|Golden Gate]], probably for use when reviewing troops. All the emperors up to [[Zeno (emperor)|Zeno]] and [[Basiliscus]] were crowned and acclaimed at the Hebdomon. Theodosius I founded the [[Studion|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 prefecture of the East|Praetorian Prefect]]; [[Arcadius]] constructed a new forum named after himself on the Mese, near the walls of Constantine.
[[File:Bozdoģan_Kemeri_-_panoramio.jpg|thumb|[[Aqueduct of Valens]], completed by Roman emperor Valens in the late 4th century AD]]
After the shock of the [[Battle of Adrianople]] in 378, in which Valens and the flower of the Roman armies were 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 [[Walls of Constantinople|triple-wall fortifications]], which were not to be breached until the coming of gunpowder. Theodosius also founded a [[University of Constantinople|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. Subsequently, several new walls were erected to defend the city, and the fleet on the Danube was improved.
After the [[barbarian]]s 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 ===
[[File:Map of Constantinople, Buondelmonti.jpg|thumb|left|The map of Constantinople (1422) by Florentine cartographer [[Cristoforo Buondelmonti]][''Liber insularum Archipelagi'', [[Bibliothèque nationale de France]], Paris.] is the oldest surviving map of the city, and the only one that predates the Turkish conquest of it in 1453.]]
The Emperor [[Justinian I]] (527–565) was greatly respected for his successes in war, for his legal reforms and for his public works. It was from Constantinople that his expedition for the reconquest of 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 [[Herod's Temple|Temple treasure of Jerusalem]], looted by the Romans in [[Siege of Jerusalem (70)|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 Christianity|Jerusalem]] in either the [[Church of the Holy Sepulchre|Church of the Resurrection]] or the New Church.[Margaret Barker, Times Literary Supplement 4 May 2007, p. 26.]
Chariot racing had had significant importance in Rome for many 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 clamored for the removal of unpopular ministers. It played a crucial role during the riots and in times of political unrest. The Hippodrome provided a space for a crowd to be responded to positively or where the acclamations of a crowd were subverted, resorting to the riots that would ensue in the coming years.[Greatrex, Geoffrey. “The Nika Riot: A Reappraisal.” ''The Journal of Hellenic Studies'', vol. 117, 1997, pp. 60–86. {{doi|10.2307/632550}}. Accessed 9 Nov. 2023.] In the time of Justinian's reign, 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 [[Chalcedonians]] and the [[non-Chalcedonians]] 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[Procopius' '' Secret History'': see P Neville-Ure, Justinian and his Age, 1951.] to affect untrimmed facial hair, head hair shaved at the front and grown long at the back, and wide-sleeved tunics tight at the wrist; and to form gangs to engage in night-time muggings and street violence. At last, these disorders took the form of a major rebellion of 532, known as the [[Nika riots|"Nika" riots]] (from the battle-cry of "Conquer!" of those involved).[James Grout: [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/circusmaximus/nika.html "The Nika Riot"], part of the ''Encyclopædia Romana''] The [[Nika Riots]] began in the Hippodrome and finished there with the onslaught of over 30,000 people, according to Procopius, those in the blue and green factions, innocent and guilty. This came full circle in the relationship within the Hippodrome between the power and the people during the time of Justinian.[{{Cite web |last=Calian |first=Florin George |date=2021-03-25 |title=Opinion {{!}} The Hagia Sophia and Turkey's Neo-Ottomanism |url=https://armenianweekly.com/2021/03/24/the-hagia-sophia-and-turkeys-neo-ottomanism/ |access-date=2024-01-07 |website=The Armenian Weekly |language=en-US}}] The dedication took place on 26 December 537 in the presence of the emperor, who was later reported to have exclaimed, "O [[Solomon's Temple|Solomon]], I have outdone thee!"[Source for quote: ''Scriptores originum Constantinopolitanarum'', ed T Preger I 105 (see [[Alexander Vasiliev (historian)|A. A. Vasiliev]], ''History of the Byzantine Empire'', 1952, vol I, p. 188).] Hagia Sophia was served by 600 people, including 80 priests, and cost 20,000 pounds of gold to build.[{{Cite book |last=Madden |first=Thomas F. |title=Crusades: The Illustrated History |date=2004 |publisher=University of Michigan Press |isbn=9780472114634 |page=114}}]
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 Sultan [[Mehmed 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 {{cvt|100|ft|m}} of the sea front, in order to protect the view.[Justinian, ''Novellae'' 63 and 165.]
During Justinian I's reign, the city's population reached approximately 500,000 people, with some scholars suggesting it could have been higher.[[http://www.tulane.edu/~august/H303/handouts/Population.htm Early Medieval and Byzantine Civilization: Constantine to Crusades] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150826083011/http://www.tulane.edu/~august/H303/handouts/Population.htm |date=August 26, 2015 }}, Kenneth W. Harl.][Chandler, 3000 Years of Urban Growth, 1974, pp.304-305][{{Cite web |title=THE POPULATION OF CONSTANTINOPLE IN THE BYZANTINE PERIOD {{!}} History of Istanbul |url=https://istanbultarihi.ist/460-the-population-of-constantinople-in-the-byzantine-period |access-date=2026-07-14 |website=istanbultarihi.ist}}][Peter Charanis, "Observations on the Demography of the Byzantine Empire," in Studies on the Demography of the Byzantine Empire: Collected Studies, pp. 448-450
(Note: Both Charanis and Ernst Stein suggest that the population of Constantinople was closer to 600,000 under Justinian)] However, the social fabric of Constantinople was also damaged by the onset of the [[Plague of Justinian]] between 541 and 542 AD. It resulted in the death of up to 20% to 40% of the city's inhabitants, though revisionist historians suggest that the number of deaths was lower.[[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4381924.stm Past pandemics that ravaged Europe] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171007210210/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4381924.stm |date=2017-10-07 }}, [[BBC News]], November 7, 2005.][Hancock, Spices, Scents and Silk, 2021, p.132][Mordechai, Lee; Eisenberg, Merle (August 1, 2019). "Rejecting Catastrophe: The Case of the Justinianic Plague".] Lasting two months, the plague is noted to have caused widespread civil disruption, including the inability of the population to bury the dead and attend relatives' funerals.[{{Cite book |last=Malalas |first=John |title=The Chronicle of John Malalas |date=1 January 1986 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-34460-0 |location=Leiden |publication-date=1 January 1986 |pages=286–287 |language=English}}]
=== Survival, 565–717: Constantinople during the Byzantine Dark Ages ===
[[File:Walls of Constantinople.JPG|thumb|left|Restored section of the fortifications ([[Theodosian Walls]]) that protected Constantinople during the [[medieval period]]]]
In the early 7th century, the [[Avars (Carpathians)|Avars]] and later the [[Bulgars]] overwhelmed much of the [[Balkans]], threatening Constantinople with attack from the west. Simultaneously, the [[Persia]]n [[Sassanid]]s overwhelmed the Prefecture of the East, penetrating deep into [[Anatolia]]. [[Heraclius]], son of the [[exarch]] of Africa, set sail for the city and assumed the throne. He found the military situation so dire that he is said to have contemplated withdrawing the imperial capital to Carthage, but relented after the people of Constantinople begged him to stay. The citizens lost their right to free grain in 618 when Heraclius realized that the city could no longer be supplied from Egypt as a result of the Persian wars: the population fell substantially as a result.[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)]
[[File:Chora_Church_Constantinople_2007_panorama_002.jpg|thumb|[[Chora Church]], a medieval Byzantine Greek Orthodox church in Istanbul's [[Edirnekapı, Fatih|Edirnekapı]] quarter, was converted into Kariye Mosque in 1500 and again in 2024, after serving as the Chora Museum from 1945 to 2020.]]
While the city withstood a [[Siege of Constantinople (626)|siege]] by the Sassanids and Avars in 626, Heraclius campaigned deep into Persian territory. Eventually, he managed to briefly restore the status quo in 628, when the Persians surrendered all their conquests. However, the Byzantine Empire was soon threatened by a new adversary, as it became one of the primary targets of Arab invaders, who expanded their empire across the vast majority of the [[Middle East]] and [[North Africa]], through a series of conquest campaigns, historically known as the [[Early Muslim conquests]]. Constantinople was besieged by the invading armies of the Arab [[Umayyad Caliphate]] firstly from [[Siege of Constantinople (674–678)|674 to 678]], and secondly from [[Siege of Constantinople (717–718)|717 to 718]]. The [[Theodosian Walls]] kept the city impenetrable 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]], [[Tervel of Bulgaria|Khan Tervel]], rendered decisive help. He was called the ''Saviour of Europe''.[{{Cite web |title=Exposition, Dedicated to Khan Tervel |url=http://www.programata.bg/?p=62&c=1&id=51493&l=2 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160507131353/http://www.programata.bg/?p=62&c=1&id=51493&l=2 |archive-date=2016-05-07 |access-date=2014-08-28 |website=Programata}}]
=== 717–1025: Constantinople during the Macedonian Renaissance ===
[[File:Imperial Gate mosaic in Hagia Sophia.jpg|thumb|[[Emperor Leo VI]] (886–912) adoring [[Jesus Christ]]. [[Mosaic]] above the Imperial Gate in the [[Hagia Sophia]].]]
In the 730s [[Leo III the Isaurian|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.[Vasiliev 1952, p. 251.]
Theodora, widow of the Emperor [[Theophilos (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 [[Sancaktar Hayrettin Mosque|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.[George Finlay, History of the Byzantine Empire, Dent, London, 1906, pp. 156–161.]
In 860, an [[Rus'–Byzantine War (860)|attack]] was made on the city by a new principality set up a few years earlier at [[Kyiv|Kiev]] 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 [[Princes' Islands]]. [[Niketas Oryphas|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.[Finlay, 1906, pp. 174–175.]
In 980, the emperor [[Basil II]] received an unusual gift from Prince [[Vladimir I of Kiev|Vladimir]] of Kiev: 6,000 [[Varangian]] warriors, which Basil formed into a new bodyguard known as the [[Varangian Guard]]. They were known for their ferocity, honour, and loyalty. However, following the death of an Emperor, they became known also for plunder in the Imperial palaces.[Enoksen, Lars Magnar. (1998). ''Runor : historia, tydning, tolkning''. Historiska Media, Falun. {{ISBN|91-88930-32-7}} p. 135.] Later in the 11th century the Varangian Guard became dominated by [[Anglo-Saxons]] who preferred this way of life to subjugation by the [[Norman conquest of England|new Norman kings of England]].[J M Hussey, The Byzantine World, Hutchinson, London, 1967, p. 92.]
[[File:Christ_Pantocrator_mosaic_from_Hagia_Sophia_2744_x_2900_pixels_3.1_MB.jpg|thumb|One of the most famous of the surviving Byzantine mosaics of the [[Hagia Sophia]] in Constantinople – the image of Christ Pantocrator on the walls of the upper southern gallery, Christ being flanked by the Virgin Mary and John the Baptist, {{Circa|1261}}[{{Cite book |last=Freeman |first=Evan |url=https://pressbooks.pub/smarthistoryguidetobyzantineart/chapter/late-byzantine-naturalism-hagia-sophias-deesis-mosaic/ |title=Smarthistory Guide to Byzantine Art |date=2021 |chapter=Hagia Sophia's Deesis Mosaic}}]]]
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.[Vasiliev 1952, pp. 343–344.]
In the 9th and 10th centuries, Constantinople had a population of between 500,000 and 800,000.[[http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/cities/turkey/istanbul/istanbul.html Silk Road Seattle – Constantinople] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060917215153/http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/cities/turkey/istanbul/istanbul.html |date=2006-09-17 }}, Daniel C. Waugh.]
[[File:Pammakaristos Church Main Dome mosaic Christ Pantocrator in 2010 01 9607.jpg|thumb|left|Mosaic of Jesus in [[Pammakaristos Church]], Istanbul]]
==== Iconoclast controversy in Constantinople ====
In the 8th and 9th centuries, the [[Byzantine Iconoclasm|iconoclast]] movement caused serious political unrest throughout the Empire. The emperor [[Leo III the Isaurian|Leo III]] issued a decree in 726 against images, and ordered the destruction of a statue of Christ over one of the doors of the Chalke, an act that was fiercely resisted by the citizens.[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 (empress)|Irene]] and removed again by [[Leo V the Armenian|Leo V]]: Finlay 1906, p. 111.] [[Constantine V]] convoked a [[Council of Hieria|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 St. Mary of Blachernae (Istanbul)|church of the Holy Virgin]] at [[Blachernae]] as having been transformed into a "fruit store and aviary".[Vasiliev 1952, p. 261.] Following the death of her husband [[Leo IV the Khazar|Leo IV]] in 780, the empress [[Irene (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 (9th century)|Theodora]], who restored the icons. These controversies contributed to the deterioration of relations between the [[Roman Catholic|Western]] and the [[Eastern Orthodox Church|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 [[Romanos IV|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 [[Turkmen people|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 Komneni ===
[[File:Byzantium@1180.jpg|thumb|The [[Byzantine Empire]] under [[Manuel I Komnenos|Manuel I]], {{circa|1180}}]]
Under the Komnenian dynasty (1081–1185), Byzantium staged a remarkable recovery. In 1090–91, the nomadic [[Pechenegs]] reached the walls of Constantinople, where Emperor Alexius I with the aid of the [[Kipchaks]] annihilated their army.[{{Cite web |title=The Pechenegs |url=http://www.geocities.com/egfroth1/Pechenegs |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050829210704/http://www.geocities.com/egfroth1/Pechenegs |archive-date=2005-08-29 |access-date=2009-10-27}}, Steven Lowe and Dmitriy V. Ryaboy.] In response to a call for aid from [[Alexios I Komnenos|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.[There is a source for these events: the writer and historian [[Anna Komnene|Anna Comnena]] in her work [[The Alexiad]].] [[John II Komnenos|John II]] built the monastery of the Pantocrator (Almighty) with a hospital for the poor of 50 beds.[Vasiliev 1952, p. 472.]
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 [[Venice|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.[J. Phillips, ''The Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople'', 144.] In 1171, Constantinople also contained a small community of 2,500 Jews.[J. Phillips, ''The Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople'', 155.] In 1182, most Latin (Western European) inhabitants of Constantinople [[Massacre of the Latins|were massacred]].[{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/cambridgeillustr00robe |title=The Cambridge Illustrated History of the Middle Ages: 950–1250 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1986 |isbn=978-0-521-26645-1 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/cambridgeillustr00robe/page/506 506]–508 |access-date=2016-02-19 |url-access=registration}}]
In artistic terms, the 12th century was a very productive period. There was a revival in the [[mosaic]] art, for example: Mosaics became more realistic and vivid, with an increased emphasis on depicting three-dimensional forms. There was an increased demand for art, with more people having access to the necessary wealth to commission and pay for such work.
File:Istanbul 2009 Comnenus Mosaics.JPG|12th-century [[mosaic]] from the upper gallery of the [[Hagia Sophia]], Constantinople. Emperor [[John II Komnenos|John II]] (1118–1143) is shown on the left, with the [[Mary, Mother of Jesus|Virgin Mary]] and infant [[Jesus]] in the centre, and John's consort [[Piroska of Hungary|Empress Irene]] on the right.[{{Cite book |last=Freeman |first=Evan |url=https://pressbooks.pub/smarthistoryguidetobyzantineart/chapter/middle-byzantine-mosaics-in-hagia-sophia/ |title=Smarthistory Guide to Byzantine Art |date=2021 |chapter=Middle Byzantine Mosaics in Hagia Sophia}}]
File:Pammakaristos Church Exterior South side in 2010 21 9625.jpg|[[Pammakaristos Church]], also known as the Church of Theotokos Pammakaristos (Greek: Θεοτόκος ἡ Παμμακάριστος, "All-Blessed Mother of God"), is one of the most famous Greek Orthodox Byzantine churches in [[Istanbul]].
=== 1185–1261: Constantinople during the Imperial Exile ===
[[File:Pammakaristos Church Mosaic of St. Anthony the Great in 2010 30 9593.jpg|thumb|[[Pammakaristos Church]] mosaic of Saint Anthony, the desert Father]]
[[File:Eugène Delacroix - Prise de Constantinople par les croisés (12 avril 1204).jpg|thumb|right|''[[Entry of the Crusaders in Constantinople|The Entry of the Crusaders into Constantinople]]'', by [[Eugène Delacroix]], 1840]]
[[File:Byzantium1204.png|thumb|The [[Latin Empire]], [[Empire of Nicaea]], [[Empire of Trebizond]], and the [[Despotate of Epirus]]. The borders are very uncertain.]]
On 25 July 1197, Constantinople was struck by a [[Constantine Stilbes#Works|severe fire]] which burned the Latin Quarter and the area around the Gate of the Droungarios ({{langx|tr|Odun Kapısı}}) on the Golden Horn.[{{Cite book |last1=Stilbes |first1=Constantine |title=Constantinus Stilbes Poemata |last2=Johannes M. Diethart |last3=Wolfram Hörandner |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |year=2005 |isbn=978-3-598-71235-7 |pages=16 line 184}}][Diethart and Hörandner (2005). p. 24, line 387] Nevertheless, the destruction wrought by the 1197 fire paled in comparison with that brought by the Crusaders. In the course of a plot between [[Philip of Swabia]], [[Boniface I of Montferrat|Boniface of Montferrat]] and the [[Enrico Dandolo|Doge of Venice]], the [[Fourth Crusade]] was, despite papal excommunication, diverted in 1203 against Constantinople, ostensibly promoting the claims of [[Alexios IV Angelos]] brother-in-law of Philip, son of the deposed emperor [[Isaac II Angelos]]. The reigning emperor [[Alexios III Angelos]] had made no preparation. The Crusaders occupied [[Galata]], broke the [[boom (navigational barrier)|defensive chain]] protecting the [[Golden Horn]], and entered the harbour, where on 27 July they breached the sea walls: Alexios III fled. But the new Alexios IV Angelos found the Treasury inadequate, and was unable to make good the rewards he had promised to his western allies. Tension between the citizens and the Latin soldiers increased. In January 1204, the ''[[protovestiarius]]'' [[Alexios V Doukas|Alexios Murzuphlos]] provoked a riot, it is presumed, to intimidate Alexios IV, but whose only result 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: Alexios IV was imprisoned and executed, and Murzuphlos took the purple as [[Alexios V Doukas]]. 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. Alexios V fled. The Senate met in [[Hagia Sophia]] and offered the crown to [[Theodore I Laskaris|Theodore Lascaris]], who had married into the [[Angelos dynasty]], but it was too late. He came out with the Patriarch to the [[Milion|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".
{{blockquote|For nine centuries, [...] the great city had been the capital of Christian civilization. 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.[Steven Runciman, ''A History of the Crusades'', Cambridge 1966 [1954], vol 3, p. 123.]}}
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.[[[Alice-Mary Talbot|Talbot, Alice-Mary]], [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1291680 "The Restoration of Constantinople under Michael VIII"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201127131710/https://www.jstor.org/stable/1291680 |date=2020-11-27 }}, ''Dumbarton Oaks Papers'', '''47''' (1993), p. 246]
[[File:Fethiye_Museum_9620.jpg|thumb|left|Dome of the [[Pammakaristos Church]], Istanbul]]
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.[Talbot, "Restoration of Constantinople", p. 247] 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 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."[Geanakoplos, ''Emperor Michael Palaeologus and the West'' (Harvard University Press, 1959), p. 124 n. 26] 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."[Talbot, "Restoration of Constantinople", p. 248]
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.[Geanakoplos, ''Emperor Michael'', p. 124] 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.[Hussey 1967, p. 70.] Nicaea and Epirus both vied for the imperial title, and tried to recover Constantinople. In 1261, Constantinople was [[Reconquest of Constantinople|captured]] from its last Latin ruler, [[Baldwin II of Constantinople|Baldwin II]], by the forces of the [[Nicaean Empire|Nicaean emperor]] [[Michael VIII Palaiologos]] under the command of Caesar [[Alexios Strategopoulos]].
=== 1261–1453: Palaiologan Era and the Fall of Constantinople ===
{{See also|Byzantine Empire under the Palaiologos dynasty|Fall of Constantinople}}
[[File:Le siège de Constantinople (1453) by Jean Le Tavernier after 1455.jpg|thumb|upright|The final [[Fall of Constantinople|siege of Constantinople]], contemporary 15th-century French miniature]]
[[File:Zonaro GatesofConst.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Mehmed the Conqueror]] enters Constantinople. Painting by [[Fausto Zonaro]].]]
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.[T. Madden, ''Crusades: The Illustrated History'', 113.] 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.[{{Cite book |last=Norwich |first=John Julius |title=Byzantium: The Decline and Fall |date=1996 |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=9780140114492 |page=217}}] 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.[{{Cite journal |last1=Tsiamis1 |first1=Costas |last2=Poulakou-Rebelakou |first2=Effie |last3=Tsakris |first3=Athanassios |last4=Petridou |first4=Eleni |title=Epidemic waves of the Black Death in the Byzantine Empire (1347–1453 AD) |url=https://www.infezmed.it/media/journal/Vol_19_3_2011_10.pdf |url-status=live |journal=Le Infezioni in Medicina |issue=3 |pages=193–201 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201019170744/https://www.infezmed.it/media/journal/Vol_19_3_2011_10.pdf |archive-date=2020-10-19 |access-date=2020-10-18}}][{{Cite web |title=The Black Death |url=http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/H/history/a-b/blackdeath.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080625094232/http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/H/history/a-b/blackdeath.html |archive-date=2008-06-25 |access-date=2008-11-03}}, Channel 4 – History.]
Castilian traveler and writer [[Ruy González de Clavijo]], who saw Constantinople in 1403, wrote that the area within the city walls included small neighborhoods separated by orchards and fields. The ruins of palaces and churches could be seen everywhere. The aqueducts and the most densely inhabited neighborhoods were along the coast of the Marmara Sea and Golden Horn. Only the coastal areas, in particular the commercial areas facing the Golden Horn, had a dense population. Although the Genoese colony in Galata was small, it was overcrowded and had magnificent mansions.[{{cite web |title=History of Istanbul |url=https://istanbultarihi.ist/460-the-population-of-constantinople-in-the-byzantine-period |website=istanbultarihi.ist |access-date=28 November 2023}}]
By May 1453, the city no longer possessed the treasure troves of Aladdin that the Ottoman troops longingly imagined as they stared up at the walls. [[Gennadios Scholarios]], Patriarch of Constantinople from 1454 to 1464, was saying that the capital of the Empire, that was once the "city of wisdom", became "the city of ruins".[{{cite book |last1=Crowley |first1=Roger |title=Constantinople |date=18 April 2013 |publisher=Faber & Faber |isbn=978-0-571-29820-4 |pages=187–203 |edition=Main |url=https://archive.org/details/constantinople-the-last-great-siege-1453-roger-crowley/page/n25/mode/2up |access-date=29 November 2023 |language=English}}]
When the [[Ottoman Turks]] [[Fall of Constantinople|captured the city]] (1453) it contained approximately 50,000 people.[{{Cite book |last=Nicolle |first=David |title=Constantinople 1453: The end of Byzantium |date=2005 |publisher=Praeger |isbn=9780275988562 |page=32}}] Tedaldi of Florence estimated the population at 30,000 to 36,000, while in Chronica Vicentina, the Italian Andrei di Arnaldo estimated it at 50,000. The plague epidemic of 1435 must have caused the population to drop.[{{cite book |last1=Crowley |first1=Roger |title=Constantinople |date=18 April 2013 |publisher=Faber & Faber |isbn=978-0-571-29820-4 |pages=95–110 |edition=Main |url=https://archive.org/details/constantinople-the-last-great-siege-1453-roger-crowley/page/n25/mode/2up |access-date=29 November 2023 |language=English}}]
Constantinople was conquered by the [[Ottoman Empire]] on 29 May 1453.[{{Cite web |title=fall of Constantinople | Facts, Summary, & Significance |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Fall-of-Constantinople-1453 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200819143934/https://www.britannica.com/event/Fall-of-Constantinople-1453 |archive-date=2020-08-19 |access-date=2018-10-15 |website=Encyclopedia Britannica}}] Mehmed II intended to complete his father's mission and conquer Constantinople for the Ottomans. In 1452 he reached peace treaties with Hungary and Venice. He also began the construction of the Boğazkesen (later called the Rumelihisarı), a fortress at the narrowest point of the Bosphorus Strait, in order to restrict passage between the Black and Mediterranean seas. Mehmed then tasked the Hungarian gunsmith Urban with both arming Rumelihisarı and building a cannon powerful enough to bring down the walls of Constantinople. By March 1453 Urban's cannon had been transported from the Ottoman capital of Edirne to the outskirts of Constantinople. In April, having quickly seized Byzantine coastal settlements along the Black Sea and Sea of Marmara, Ottoman troops in Rumelia and Anatolia assembled outside the Byzantine capital. Their fleet moved from Gallipoli to nearby Diplokionion, and the sultan himself set out to meet his army.[{{Cite web |url=https://www.britannica.com/ |title=Encyclopedia Britannica | Britannica |website=www.britannica.com |accessdate=4 April 2023 |archive-date=9 September 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180909130055/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edward-Willis-Scripps |url-status=live }}] 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. The Empire fell on 29 May 1453.
The number of people captured by the Ottomans after the fall of the city was around 33,000. The small number of people left in the city indicates that there could not have been many residents there. The primary concern of Mehmed II in the early years of his reign was the construction and settlement of the city. However, since an insufficient number of Muslims accepted his invitation, the settlement of 30 abandoned neighborhoods with the inhabitants of formerly conquered areas became necessary.[{{cite book |last1=Majeska |first1=George P. |title=Russian Travelers to Constantinople in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries |date=1984 |publisher=Dumbarton Oaks |isbn=978-0-88402-101-8 |page=28 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=teyNhL3AuGEC |language=en |quote=...There are many other marble stone columns standing around the city with many large inscriptions carved on them from top to bottom. There is much that amazes [one there, much] which the human mind cannot express. [For example,] iron cannot [cut] this stone...}}]
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 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. Many languages were spoken in Constantinople. A 16th century Chinese geographical treatise specifically recorded that there were translators living in the city, indicating it was multilingual, multicultural, and cosmopolitan.[{{Cite journal |last=Chen |first=Yuan Julian |date=2021-10-11 |title=Between the Islamic and Chinese Universal Empires: The Ottoman Empire, Ming Dynasty, and Global Age of Explorations |url=https://www.academia.edu/59068575 |journal=Journal of Early Modern History |volume=25 |issue=5 |pages=422–456 |doi=10.1163/15700658-bja10030 |issn=1385-3783 |s2cid=244587800 |access-date=28 March 2022 |archive-date=17 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220417192653/https://www.academia.edu/59068575 |url-status=live }}]
===Markets===
[[File:A characteristic group of street merchants of Constantinople - DPLA - d03e9b5979a6b07b578fbcc9ca791a7e.jpg|thumb|A characteristic group of street merchants of Constantinople, ca. 1870-1920; from the Nicholas Catsimpoolas Collection of the Boston Public Library]]
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".[{{Cite book |last=Dalby |first=Andrew |title=Tastes of Byzantium: The Cuisine of a Legendary Empire |publisher=I.B. Tauris |pages=61–63}}]
=== Architecture and coinage ===
{{Main|Byzantine architecture}}
[[File:Hagia_Sophia_(15468276434).jpg|right|thumb|Columns of the [[Hagia Sophia]], currently a mosque]]
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,[{{Cite web |title=San Marco Basilica | cathedral, Venice, Italy |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/San-Marco-Basilica |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210206093006/https://www.britannica.com/topic/San-Marco-Basilica |archive-date=2021-02-06 |access-date=2018-10-15 |website=Encyclopedia Britannica}}] the basilicas of [[Ravenna]], and many churches throughout the Slavic East. Also, alone in Europe until the 13th-century Italian [[Italian coin florin|florin]], the Empire continued to produce sound gold coinage, the [[solidus]] of [[Diocletian]] becoming the [[bezant]] prized throughout the Middle Ages. Its [[Theodosian Walls|city walls]] were much imitated (for example, see [[Caernarfon Castle]]) and its urban infrastructure was 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 [[Bath House|bathhouses]] were built in [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine centers]] such as Constantinople and [[Antioch]].[{{Citation |title=Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium |year=1991 |editor-last=Kazhdan |editor-first=Alexander |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-504652-6 |editor-link=Alexander Kazhdan}}]
=== Religion ===
Constantine's foundation gave prestige to the Bishop of Constantinople, who eventually came to be known as the [[Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople|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 [[East-West Schism|Great Schism]] that divided [[Roman Catholic Church|Western Catholicism]] from [[Eastern Orthodoxy]] from 1054 onwards.
=== Education ===
There were many institutions in ancient Constantinople such as the [[University of Constantinople|Imperial University of Constantinople]], sometimes known as the University of the Palace Hall of Magnaura ({{langx|el|Πανδιδακτήριον τῆς Μαγναύρας}}), an [[Eastern Roman Empire|Eastern Roman]] educational institution that could trace its corporate origins to 425 AD, when the emperor [[Theodosius II]] founded the Pandidacterium ({{langx|grc-x-medieval|Πανδιδακτήριον}}).["The Formation of the Hellenic Christian Mind" by [[Demetrios Constantelos]], {{ISBN|0-89241-588-6}}: "The fifth century marked a definite turning point in Byzantine higher education. Theodosios ΙΙ founded in 425 a major university with 31 chairs for law, philosophy, medicine, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music, rhetoric and other subjects. Fifteen chairs were assigned to Latin and 16 to Greek. The university was reorganized by Michael III (842–867) and flourished down to the fourteenth century".]
== International status ==
[[File:Constantinople imperial district.png|right|thumb|Constantinople's monumental center]]
The city acted as a defence for the eastern provinces of the old Roman Empire against the barbarian invasions of the 5th century. The {{Convert|18|m|4=-tall|sp=us|adj=mid}} 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 {{Convert|60|km|sp=us|adj=on}} chain of walls across the [[Thrace|Thracian]] [[peninsula]]. Many scholars{{Who|date=January 2010}} argue that these sophisticated fortifications allowed the east to develop relatively unbothered while [[Ancient Rome]] and [[Western Roman Empire|the west]] collapsed.[{{Cite news |title=Constantinople |language=en-GB |work=Barbarism and Civilization |url=http://www.civilization.org.uk/decline-and-fall/constantine/constantinople |url-status=live |access-date=2018-04-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180505130920/http://www.civilization.org.uk/decline-and-fall/constantine/constantinople |archive-date=2018-05-05}}]
Constantinople's fame was such that [[Sino-Roman relations|it was described]] even in contemporary [[Twenty-Four Histories|Chinese histories]], the ''[[Old Book of Tang|Old]]'' and ''[[New Book of Tang]]'', which mentioned its massive walls and gates as well as a purported [[Water clock|clepsydra]] mounted with a golden statue of a man.[Ball (2016), pp. 152–153; see also endnote No. 114.][Hirth (2000) [1885], [http://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/halsall/eastasia/romchin1.asp East Asian History Sourcebook] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161009151247/http://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/halsall/eastasia/romchin1.asp |date=2016-10-09 }}. Retrieved 24 September 2016.][Yule (1915), 46–48; see also footnote No. 1 on p. 49.] The Chinese histories even related how the city [[Siege of Constantinople (674-678)|had been besieged]] in the 7th century by [[Mu'awiya I]] and how he exacted [[tribute]] in a peace settlement.[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.]
== See also ==
=== People from Constantinople ===
*[[List of people from Constantinople]]
=== Secular buildings and monuments ===
{{div col}}
*[[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]]
{{div col end}}
=== Churches, monasteries and mosques ===
{{div col}}
*[[Atik Mustafa Pasha Mosque|Church of Saint Thekla of the Palace of Blachernae]]
*[[Bodrum Mosque|Church of Myrelaion]]
*[[Chora Church]]
*[[Little Hagia Sophia|Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus]]
*[[Church of the Holy Apostles]]
*[[Church of St. Polyeuctus]]
*[[Eski Imaret Mosque|Monastery of Christ Pantepoptes]]
*[[Fenari Isa Mosque|Lips Monastery]]
*[[Gül Mosque|Monastery of the Christ the Benefactor]]
*[[Hagia Irene]]
*[[Hirami Ahmet Pasha Mosque|Saint John the Forerunner by-the-Dome]]
*[[Kalenderhane Mosque|Church of Theotokos Kyriotissa]]
*[[Koca Mustafa Pasha Mosque|Church of Saint Andrew in Krisei]]
*[[Nea Ekklesia]]
*[[Pammakaristos Church]]
*[[Stoudios]] Monastery
*[[Toklu Dede Mosque]]
*[[Vefa Kilise Mosque|Church of Saint Theodore]]
*[[Zeyrek Mosque|Monastery of the Pantokrator]]
*Unnamed mosque established during Byzantine times for visiting Muslim dignitaries[See [http://estudiosmedievales.revistas.csic.es/index.php/estudiosmedievales/article/viewFile/388/395 Islamic Ritual Preaching (Khutbas) in a Contested Arena: Shi'is and Sunnis, Fatimids and Abbasids] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150701143955/http://estudiosmedievales.revistas.csic.es/index.php/estudiosmedievales/article/viewFile/388/395 |date=2015-07-01 }} Paul E. Walker. University of Chicago. Anuario de Estuddios Medievales (2012)][{{Cite web |title=Μεγάλη διαδικτυακή εγκυκλοπαίδεια της Κωνσταντινούπολης |url=http://constantinople.ehw.gr/Forms/fLemmaBodyExtended.aspx?lemmaID=11800 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151205102846/http://constantinople.ehw.gr/Forms/fLemmaBodyExtended.aspx?lemmaID=11800 |archive-date=2015-12-05}}][{{Cite book |last=Borrut |first=Antoine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JeA-08EUCOEC&q=Entre+m%C3%A9moire+et+pouvoir&pg=PA235 |title=Entre mémoire et pouvoir: L'espace syrien sous les derniers Omeyyades et les premiers Abbassides |date=2011 |publisher=Brill |isbn=9789004185616 |page=235 |language=fr |access-date=2020-11-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220109202244/https://books.google.com/books?id=JeA-08EUCOEC&q=Entre+m%C3%A9moire+et+pouvoir&pg=PA235 |archive-date=2022-01-09 |url-status=live}}][{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uVQOZWilJrgC&pg=PA3 |title=Proceedings of the 21st International Congress of Byzantine Studies: London, 21–26 August, 2006, Volume 1 |publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. |year=2006 |isbn=9780754657408 |editor-last=Jeffreys |editor-first=Elizabeth |page=36 |access-date=2020-11-09 |editor-last2=Haarer |editor-first2=Fiona K. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220109202240/https://books.google.com/books?id=uVQOZWilJrgC&pg=PA3 |archive-date=2022-01-09 |url-status=live}}]
{{div col end}}
=== Miscellaneous ===
{{div col}}
*[[Byzantine calendar]]
*[[Byzantine silk]]
*[[Eparch of Constantinople]] ([[List of urban prefects of Constantinople|List of eparchs]])
*[[Sieges of Constantinople]]
*[[Third Rome]]
*[[Thracia]]
*[[Timeline of Istanbul history]]
{{div col end}}
== Notes ==
{{notelist}}
== References ==
{{reflist}}
== Bibliography ==
{{refbegin|40em}}
*[[Warwick Ball|Ball, Warwick]] (2016). ''Rome in the East: Transformation of an Empire'', 2nd edition. London & New York: Routledge. {{ISBN|978-0-415-72078-6}}.
*{{Cite journal |last=Bogdanović |first=Jelena |year=2016 |title=The Relational Spiritual Geopolitics of Constantinople, the Capital of the Byzantine Empire |url=https://www.academia.edu/33732768 |url-status=live |journal=Political Landscapes of Capital Cities |publisher=Boulder : University Press of Colorado |pages=97–153 |doi=10.5876/9781607324690.c003 |isbn=9781607324690 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220109202302/https://www.academia.edu/33732768 |archive-date=2022-01-09 |access-date=2018-09-18 |doi-access=free}}
*{{Cite book |last=Bury |first=J. B. |url=https://archive.org/details/historyoflaterro0000unse |title=History of the Later Roman Empire: From the Death of Theodosius I to the Death of Justinian |publisher=[[Dover Publications]] |year=1958 |url-access=registration}}
*{{Cite book |last=Crowley |first=Roger |title=Constantinople: Their Last Great Siege, 1453 |publisher=Faber and Faber |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-571-22185-1}}
*Emerson, Charles. ''1913: In Search of the World Before the Great War'' (2013) compares Constantinople to 20 major world cities; pp 358–80.
*{{Cite book |last1=Evans, Helen C. |url=https://archive.org/details/gloryofbyzantium00evan |title=The glory of Byzantium: art and culture of the Middle Byzantine era, A.D. 843–1261 |last2=Wixom, William D |publisher=The Metropolitan Museum of Art |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-8109-6507-2 |location=New York |access-date=2016-02-19 |url-access=registration}}
*{{Cite journal |last=Frazee |first=Charles A. |year=1978 |title=The Catholic Church in Constantinople, 1204–1453 |url=https://ojs.lib.uom.gr/index.php/BalkanStudies/article/view/1671 |url-status=live |journal=Balkan Studies |volume=19 |pages=33–49 |issn=2241-1674 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191018165453/https://ojs.lib.uom.gr/index.php/BalkanStudies/article/view/1671 |archive-date=2019-10-18 |access-date=2019-10-18}}
*{{Cite book |last=Freely |first=John |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780140244618 |title=Istanbul: The Imperial City |publisher=Penguin |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-14-024461-8}}
*{{Cite book |last1=Freely |first1=John |title=The Byzantine Monuments of Istanbul |last2=Ahmet S. Cakmak |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-521-77257-0}}
*{{Cite book |last=Gibbon |first=Edward |title=The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire |publisher=Phoenix Press |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-7538-1881-7 |author-link=Edward Gibbon}}
*{{Cite book |last=Hanna-Riitta |first=Toivanen |title=The Influence of Constantinople on Middle Byzantine Architecture (843–1204). A typological and morphological approach at the provincial level |publisher=Suomen kirkkohistoriallisen seuran toimituksia 202 (Publications of the Finnish Society of Church History No. 202) |year=2007 |isbn=978-952-5031-41-6}}
*{{Cite book |last=Harris |first=Jonathan |title=Constantinople: Capital of Byzantium |date=9 February 2017 |publisher=Bloomsbury, 2nd edition, 2017 |isbn=978-1-4742-5465-6}} [https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=53285 online review] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210530215203/https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=53285 |date=2021-05-30 }}
*{{Cite book |last=Harris |first=Jonathan |title=Byzantium and the Crusades |date=20 November 2014 |publisher=Bloomsbury, 2nd edition, 2014 |isbn=978-1-78093-767-0}}
*{{Cite book |last=Herrin |first=Judith |url=https://archive.org/details/byzantiumsurpris0000herr |title=Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-691-13151-1}}
*{{Cite web |last=[[Friedrich Hirth|Hirth, Friedrich]] |date=2000 |editor-last=Jerome S. Arkenberg |title=East Asian History Sourcebook: Chinese Accounts of Rome, Byzantium and the Middle East, c. 91 B.C.E.{{snd}}1643 C.E. |url=http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/eastasia/romchin1.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200413123157/http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/eastasia/romchin1.html |archive-date=2020-04-13 |access-date=2016-09-10 |website=Fordham.edu |publisher=[[Fordham University]] |orig-year=1885}}
*[[Raymond Ibrahim|Ibrahim, Raymond]] (2018). ''Sword and Scimitar'', 1st edition. New York. {{ISBN|978-0-306-82555-2}}.
*{{Cite book |last=Janin |first=Raymond |title=Constantinople Byzantine |publisher=Institut Français d'Etudes Byzantines |year=1964 |edition=2 |location=Paris |language=fr |author-link=Raymond Janin}}
*Klein, Konstantin M.: Wienand, Johannes (2022) (eds.): ''City of Caesar, City of God: Constantinople and Jerusalem in Late Antiquity.'' De Gruyter, Berlin 2022, ISBN 978-3-11-071720-4. doi: [https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110718447 City of Caesar, City of God].
*Korolija Fontana-Giusti, Gordana 'The Urban Language of Early Constantinople: The Changing Roles of the Arts and Architecture in the Formation of the New Capital and the New Consciousness' in ''Intercultural Transmission in the Medieval Mediterranean'', (2012), Stephanie L. Hathaway and David W. Kim (eds), London: Continuum, pp 164–202. {{ISBN|978-1-4411-3908-5}}.
*{{Cite book |last=Mamboury |first=Ernest |title=The Tourists' Istanbul |publisher=Çituri Biraderler Basımevi |year=1953 |location=Istanbul |author-link=Ernest Mamboury}}
*{{Cite book |last=Mansel |first=Philip |title=[[Constantinople: City of the World's Desire, 1453–1924]] |publisher=St. Martin's Griffin |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-312-18708-8}}
*{{Cite book |last=Meyendorff |first=John |url=https://archive.org/details/romeconstantinop00meye |title=Rome, Constantinople, Moscow: Historical and Theological Studies |publisher=St. Vladimir's Seminary Press |year=1996 |isbn=9780881411348 |location=Crestwood, NY |author-link=John Meyendorff |url-access=registration}}
*{{Cite book |last=Müller-Wiener |first=Wolfgang |title=Bildlexikon zur Topographie Istanbuls: Byzantion, Konstantinupolis, Istanbul bis zum Beginn d. 17 Jh |publisher=Wasmuth |year=1977 |isbn=978-3-8030-1022-3 |location=Tübingen |language=de |author-link=Wolfgang Müller-Wiener}}
*{{Cite book |last=Phillips |first=Jonathan |title=The Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople |publisher=Pimlico |year=2005 |isbn=978-1-84413-080-1}}
*{{Cite book |last=Runciman |first=Steven |title=The Fall of Constantinople, 1453 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=1990 |isbn=978-1-84413-080-1}}
*{{Cite book |last=Treadgold |first=Warren |title=A History of the Byzantine State and Society |publisher=[[Stanford University Press]] |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-8047-2630-6}}
*[[Henry Yule|Yule, Henry]] (1915). Henri Cordier (ed.), [https://archive.org/stream/cathaywaythither01yule#page/n3/mode/2up ''Cathay and the Way Thither: Being a Collection of Medieval Notices of China, Vol I: Preliminary Essay on the Intercourse Between China and the Western Nations Previous to the Discovery of the Cape Route'']. London: Hakluyt Society. Accessed 21 September 2016.
{{refend}}
== External links ==
{{Commons category|Constantinople}}
{{EB1911 poster|Constantinople}}
*[https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/BURLAT/3*.html#1 Constantinople], from ''History of the Later Roman Empire'', by [[J. B. Bury]]
*[https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04301a.htm History of Constantinople] from the "New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia".
*[https://hispanatolia.com/en/1453-the-fall-of-constantinople-the-end-of-one-empire-and-the-beginning-of-another/ 1453, the fall of Constantinople: the end of one empire and the beginning of another] – Very detailed article about the last days of Constantinople during the Ottoman siege
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20060218051306/http://www.pallasweb.com/pantokrator/ Monuments of Byzantium] – Pantokrator Monastery of Constantinople
*[https://www.ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/greek-resources-constantinople.asp Constantinoupolis on the web] Select internet resources on the history and culture
*{{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060915170436/http://www2.arch.uiuc.edu/research/rgouster/ |date=September 15, 2006 |title=Welcome to Constantinople }}, documenting the monuments of Byzantine Constantinople
*[http://www.byzantium1200.com/ Byzantium 1200], a project aimed at creating computer reconstructions of the Byzantine monuments located in Istanbul in 1200 AD
*[http://www.civilization.org.uk/decline-and-fall/constantine/constantinople Constantine and Constantinople] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180505130920/http://www.civilization.org.uk/decline-and-fall/constantine/constantinople |date=5 May 2018 }} How and why Constantinople was founded
*[https://www.pallasweb.com/deesis/ Hagia Sophia Mosaics] The Deesis and other Mosaics of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople
{{Istanbul}}
{{Byzantine Empire topics|state=collapsed}}
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:Constantinople| ]]
[[Category:320s establishments in the Roman Empire]]
[[Category:330 establishments]]
[[Category:1453 disestablishments]]
[[Category:Capitals of former countries]]
[[Category:Constantine the Great]]
[[Category:History of Istanbul|*]]
[[Category:Holy cities]]
[[Category:Populated places along the Silk Road]]
[[Category:Populated places established in the 4th century]]
[[Category:Populated places of the Byzantine Empire]]
[[Category:Thrace]]
[[Category:Archaeological sites in the Marmara region]]