[70] 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. I am glad to hear that you like it! Author of this blog, Serhat Engul, is a licensed tour guide based in Istanbul. Emperor Justinian became the greatest emperor who ruled the Byzantine Empire. It is said that, in 1038, they were dispersed in winter quarters in the Thracesian Theme when one of their number attempted to violate a countrywoman, but in the struggle she seized his sword and killed him; instead of taking revenge, however, his comrades applauded her conduct, compensated her with all his possessions, and exposed his body without burial as if he had committed suicide. [69], 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. Today Justinian is known for Constantinople’s greatest building, Hagia Sophia. Dear Oliveiro, Thank you very much for your kind review. The reigning emperor Alexius III had made no preparation. [64] In 1182, most Latin (Western European) inhabitants of Constantinople were massacred.[65]. 152–153; see also endnote No. After the shock of the Battle of Adrianople in 378, in which the emperor Valens with the flower of the Roman armies was 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 triple-wall fortifications, which were not to be breached until the coming of gunpowder. Theodosius showed a very successful administration and secured the borders. Similarly those of the Palatine Chapel, the Martorana at Palermo, and the cathedral of Cefalù, together with the vast decoration of the cathedral at Monreale, demonstrate the influence of Byzantium on the Norman Court of Sicily in the twelfth century. [75] 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. 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. Beautiful silks from the workshops of Constantinople also portrayed in dazzling colour animals – lions, elephants, eagles, and griffins – confronting each other, or represented Emperors gorgeously arrayed on horseback or engaged in the chase. [32] It was a move greatly criticized by the contemporary consul and historian Cassius Dio who said that Severus had destroyed "a strong Roman outpost and a base of operations against the barbarians from Pontus and Asia". He lived in Nicomedia in the early years of his reign. 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. He wanted to create a new city in the east. It also lacked the panoply of other administrative offices regulating the food supply, police, statues, temples, sewers, aqueducts, or other public works. Latin invasion lasted from 1204 to 1261 and it was finally repelled by a Byzantine prince. [61] John II built the monastery of the Pantocrator (Almighty) with a hospital for the poor of 50 beds. Translated with commentary by Cyril Mango and Roger Scott. Tension between the citizens and the Latin soldiers increased. In 1261, Constantinople was captured from its last Latin ruler, Baldwin II, by the forces of the Nicaean emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos. [51], In 860, an attack was made on the city by a new principality set up a few years earlier at Kyiv 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 Prince's Islands. [...] When [...] order was restored, [...] citizens were tortured to make them reveal the goods that they had contrived to hide. At last these disorders took the form of a major rebellion of 532, known as the "Nika" riots (from the battle-cry of "Conquer!" – 1643 C.E. Under Justinian, great conquests were made and magnificent structures were built. It had no praetors, tribunes, or quaestors. I like your style to make your presence in your profession. Constantinople's change of name was the theme for a song made famous by, "Constantinople" was one of the "big words" the Father knows toward the end of, "Constantinople" was also the title of the opening edit of, A Montreal-based folk/classical/fusion band calls itself "Constantinople. Visitors and merchants were especially struck by the beautiful monasteries and churches of the city, in particular the Hagia Sophia, or the Church of Holy Wisdom. Ball (2016), pp. "As a result Constantinople became seriously depopulated," Talbot concludes. In Constantinople, the hippodrome became over time increasingly a place of political significance. In the course of a plot between Philip of Swabia, Boniface of Montferrat and the Doge of Venice, the Fourth Crusade was, despite papal excommunication, diverted in 1203 against Constantinople, ostensibly promoting the claims of Alexius, son of the deposed emperor Isaac. argue that these sophisticated fortifications allowed the east to develop relatively unmolested while Ancient Rome and the west collapsed. Constantinople (/ˌkɒnstæntɪˈnoʊpəl/[5] Greek: Κωνσταντινούπολη; Latin: Cōnstantīnopolis; Turkish: Kostantiniye) was the capital city of the Roman Empire (330–395), the Byzantine Empire (395–1204 and 1261–1453), the brief Crusader state known as the Latin Empire (1204–1261), and the Ottoman Empire (1453–1923). In 1204, however, the armies of the Fourth Crusade took and devastated the city, and its inhabitants lived several decades under Latin rule. At the western entrance to the Augustaeum was the Milion, a vaulted monument from which distances were measured across the Eastern Roman Empire. At the time, the amount is said to have been 80,000 rations a day, doled out from 117 distribution points around the city.[36]. The fall of … 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 clamoured for the removal of unpopular ministers. In the language of other peoples, Constantinople was referred to just as reverently.