Thesis

About the new capital, Constantinople

The importance of Rome as the seat of the governmental power of the empire had been gradually decreasing over time because many important political figures had moved out into the adjoining countryside. Thus, Rome’s political influence over the region declined. Constantine reduced Rome’s political power far more significantly than this. He established a new capital for the Empire at the ancient Greek city of Byzantium, and named it Constantinople after himself. This new capital is partly due to his decision to adopt Christianity, and partly due to the geography of the Empire. With this new capital, Constantine was able to move his army, with himself at the head, to many places around the empire in a shorter time with a shorter distance. This would provide him with key military advantages, and ensure that supplies were always on hand, while allowing for a fast response time to foreign invasions. Constantinople provided the city with easy access to the Balkan provinces, and the eastern frontier. Because Constantinople was on a vital trade route, Constantine was similarly able to control the traffic flowing through the Bosporus. This allowed the new capital to flourish economically, and outreach Rome in the financial regard. Concerning outreaching Rome, Constantine himself, quadrupling its territory, laid out the formal boundaries of the new capital city. There were defensive walls that were completed around the city 4 years after the boundaries were laid, and on the 11th of May 330 BC, 2 years after the walls were completed, the new city itself was formally dedicated. The new capital of the empire bore a unique resemblance to the Old Rome, in the way it’s physical representation, and its government system. Like the Old Rome, Constantinople was built on seven different hills, provided subsidized grain to it’s people, and had the normal governmental buildings a capital needed, including a new senate building. The great Serpent Column of Delphi was placed in the newly completed hippodrome. Constantine’s palace, designed by him, afforded him an excellent view of the city, and gave him immediate access to the kathisma, which was Constantine’s royal box that was over the hippodrome. Constantine even went so far as to build himself a column called, very originally, the Column of Constantine, and put it in the Forum of Constantine. It was twenty-five meters high and was constructed of porphyry. Nowadays, what is left of it is known as the Burnt Column. On the peak of the column is a statue of Helios with its face adapted in small ways to resemble Constantine’s own. While Constantine’s face became the center of Constantine, the new capital of the Roman Empire became a spiritual epicenter for Christians around the world. Several churches were built there, two by Constantine and another suspected to be by him. The Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom) and the Hagia Eirene (Holy Peace) are both known to have been built by Constantine’s orders. The third church, the Church of the Holy Apostles, is suspected to have been built by Constantine. Constantinople was filled with all sorts of religious statues and monuments, drastically different from the pagan Old Rome. Where the Old Rome was filled with statues to old heroes and warriors, New Rome was brimming with religious icons and figures. New Rome was, in many ways, a Christian capital of Constantine’s empire.