Hello again!
My laptop is now connected to the internet- and I can update
again. Whether or not this is a good or a bad thing is up to you. I had a Greek
exam today- and am celebrating finishing it with a bowl of named brand
spaghetti hoops- fine dining on a student budget J
I started a new unit on Constantinople this week, and so
thought that’s what I might discuss.
Constantinople is my personal favourite city. I was lucky enough
to visit Istanbul a few years ago, and it truly is one of the most breath-taking
places you will ever see. The interior of Hagia Sophia (holy wisdom- a church,
then a mosque, first built in the Byzantine era) is stunning, and what’s more
amazing is the fact it didn’t fall down.
So, with not much else to say, I will give a brief rundown
of the history of the city. With the help of Wikipedia.
Founding of the City:
So as legend goes, Byzas, a son of Poseidon and Grand-son of
Zeus (not that unusual though- the Greek gods got about a bit) wanted to found
a city. He was instructed by the Oracle at Delphi (the go to oracle for all your
prophecy needs) that the ‘land of the blind’ was a great place to do this. Byzas
interpreted this to mean the golden horn. Byzas noticed this was a fantastic
place to build as city, so much better than across the sea to Asia, where
another settlement was. Byzas decided that whoever had built on the Asian side
of the Bosporus, rather than the European side, must be blind, and so the
prophecy was fulfilled. Byzas, being humble, named the city after himself, and
so Byzantion was born.
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| Istanbul/Constantinople/Byzantium on a modern day map. Google maps, to be precise! |
Pre-Constantine Era:
Byzantion was a colony of the Greek City Megara, and never
did much. For a while it was little more than a fishing village. It eventually
became a roman colony, and was expanded a bit by the emperor Septimius Severus,
but spent a long time doing nothing other than existing.
Then along came Constantine:
That funny looking guy from a few weeks ago? Well he united
the entire Roman Empire after a few wars, and was also the first ‘Christian’
emperor of Rome. Deciding to make a name for himself, and move away a little
from paganism, he REALLY built on Byzantium, introducing a forum, imperial
palace and hippodrome- all the necessary trappings of a classical city.
Byzantium became the capital of the Eastern Roman empire, and when formally
opened in 330- Constantine took a note out of Byzas’ book, and named it after
himself. Thus, Constantinople was born.
The Eastern Roman Empire:
When Rome fell in 476, Constantinople retained much of Rome’s
culture and ideals. People referred to themselves as Romans, and under
Justinian regained much of the old empire again. Over the next few centuries,
due to increasingly prevalent Arab, Slav and Avar consquests (as well as some
VERY significant disagreements with the pope!) the empire slowly decreased,
along with its influence over the rest of Europe. Nevertheless, Constantinople
kept going. Until 1453.
Suddenly… the Ottomans:
The Ottomans are interesting for a lot of reasons, they were
the first politically important non-Arab Muslims, but they also managed to
conquer Constantinople. Within a few decades the city was utterly transformed,
Hagia Sophia became a mosque, and the Topaki palace was constructed. As society
changed, Christian intellectuals left the city to Europe (which is speculated
to be one of the causes of the renaissance!). The Ottoman Empire grew
significantly, taking most of the regions previously owned by the Byzantines,
and lasted till 1923. The city continued to be called a Turkish variant of
Constantinople, but Istanbul, a colloquialism for the city was adopted along
with its new republic following Ottoman collapse. Istanbul is a derivative of εἰς
την πολις, meaning ‘in the city’ in Greek- harking back to its classical roots.
So that’s all for now. I have summed up 2000+ years
of history in 5 paragraphs- my lecturers would cry! Anyway, I’m off for now!
-Rachael! xxx
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