On this date… 11 May 330
Emperor Constantine dedicates Constantinople
Cue music:
“So, take me back to Constantinople
No, you can't go back to Constantinople
Been a long time gone, Constantinople
Why did Constantinople get the works?
That's nobody's business but the Turks”
Long before it became Istanbul (which came from the Greek “I Sten Pol,” meaning “within the city” or just “the city”), Constantinople (“city of Constantine”) was a world capital for more than a millennium. But before it was the leading Eastern Roman or Ottoman city, it had humble origins as a Greek colony founded somewhere in the 7th century BCE known as Byzantium. Once the Romans gained control of the Mediterranean in their vast empire, Septimus Severus, emperor from 193 to 211, renamed it Augusta Antonina after his son, only to see the name change again over 100 years later. For it was on this date, 11 May 330, that the Emperor Constantine the Great (306 to 337) dedicated the city as his new capital for the Eastern Roman Empire. Located on a strategic spot controlling the passage between the Mediterranean and Black Seas via the Bosporus Strait, Constantinople connects Europe to Asia.
The world of Constantine in 330 CE was much different than that of Julius and Augustus Caesar or even Marcus Aerelius just a few hundred years before. They had lorded over the vast territories of the Roman Republic and Empire as singular rulers, as Caesars. By the time of Constantine, the Roman Empire was too large for one ruler to administer alone, so in 293 CE the Emperor Diocletian split it into two halves, each with their own court and administrative capital. Both the Western and Eastern portion of the empire were further broken down with a junior (caesar) and senior (augustus) emperor, a period known as the Tetrarchy. In 306, after the death of his father, Constantine became junior emperor of the Western portion of the empire, with his lands consisting of Gaul (modern-day France), Britain, and Spain, as well as most of the military strength. The empire was fragile and none of the co-emperors fully trusted each other. This tension led to clashes amongst them. Constantine defeated one of his co-emperors at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312, supposedly receiving a vision of the Christian god before the battle, which would eventually spur him to convert to Christianity later in life. Constantine continued to fight with his rivals until eventually becoming sole emperor of a reunified Roman Empire in 324. He ordered a new city to be built to celebrate his accomplishments, which would serve as his new capital to better serve the needs of the empire.
But a unified empire still had problems. The Goths (not the modern-day variety that dresses in black), a Germanic group, plagued the border regions of central Europe. The eastern flank of the empire saw continued fighting with the Sasanian Empire of Persia (modern-day Iran). There were other skirmishes around the empire, often involving the persecution of Christians and Constantine’s defense of them.
By 330, the city he’d ordered built had been sufficiently completed. He called the city New Rome (Nova Roma in Latin). Constantine went to mass at his new church, Hagia Irene, the Church of Divine Peace. The Hagia Irene is the oldest church in the city. It still stands as a museum. After mass, Constantine then issued an edict declaring the city the new capital. Even after getting sacked and suffering through riots, it would remain a world capital for more than 1500 years, until 1923 when Ankara became the capital the newly-formed Republic of Turkey.
