Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
WHAT IS THE MEANING OF ISTANBUL?
As a name, Constantinople is self-explanatory: a self-created tribute to its founder. But
Istanbul seems to contain no reference or traces to Turkish. One explanation is that Mem-
met's armies followed the Byzantine-Greek signs to the city (later translated into the Latin
alphabet), which read “this way to the city Eis tan pol,” which when rendered into Turkic
emerges as Istanbul.
HOW DID CONSTANTINE REMAKE BYZAS' CITY?
Constantine's new city had great natural advantages. As a crossroads for trade, it lay on the
route to the Silk Road to China and India and on the route to the Red Sea. Access to the
Mediterranean carried its galleys to Africa and southern Europe. Its foothold in Europe led
to the Balkans and beyond. Blessed with ample drinking water, the city could be defended
within walls quarried from local stone. In and around the city lay fertile soil for farming.
Constantine, of course, had imperial ambitions for his New Rome. Among his first pro-
jects was building a massive wall to enclose and defend his city, parts of which still stand
to overawe the visitor. Joined to what was planned as a racetrack (the hippodrome, built
later by Septimius Severus), Constantine laid out a great arena (with a capacity of 100,000)
as the secular center of the city. He plundered Egypt for an obelisk of Pharaoh Tutmose and
built Bucoleon Palace (now in ruins), celebrated for its golden tree and mechanical singing
birds.
…a form such as Grecian goldsmiths make
Of hammered gold and gold enameling
To keep a drowsy Emperor awake;
Or set upon a golden bow to sing
To lords and ladies of Byzantium
— W. B. Yates, “Sailing to Byzantium,” 1928
As Christ's secular representative, Constantine convened the great Council of Nicaea,
whose deliberations fashioned the Apostle's Creed and fixed a date for Easter.
WHAT WAS THE JUSTINIAN'S CONTRIBUTION TO NEW ROME?
Justinian was Emperor of Byzantium from 527 to 565. His legal code is a benchmark of
jurisprudence, codifying Roman law to become the basis of later European legal systems.
And his architecture still stands. The greatest of his buildings is Hagia Sophia (Sacred Wis-
dom), an Orthodox church at inception, a mosque for almost 500 years, and a magnificent
museum today. Among its glories are its soaring dome (183 feet above floor level), the nat-
ural light that floods the building, and the great space of the interior. The once-glorious mo-
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