Constantinople's Fall

Diocletian’s reforms established the rule of four, called the Tetrarchy, where in four emperors controlled the newly redistricted Roman Empire. Unbeknownst to Diocletian this particular reform would be a recipe for civil war. In the year 306, one year after Diocletian abdicated, Constantine I elevated to imperial rule over the western Empire after the passing of his father and then Augustus; Constantius. During Constantine’s reign he quickly gained popularity and consolidated his power while the rest of the emperors competed and quarreled amongst each other. Eventually the empire was overtaken strategically by two emperors Licinius and Constantine. This peace did not last long however, and in the year of 324 Licinius surrendered to Constantine after the battle of Chrysopolis. Eighteen years after his rise to Augustus Constantine had sole power of the Empire and earned the respect and admiration of his soldiers and people.

By the time Constantine came to rule the Empire in its entirety, was in shambles. The Capital city of Rome was a shadow of its former self, “Constantine abandoned the attempt to hold the world empire together. There was no longer an eternal Rome served by subject peoples. There could be only salvage” (Lamb 18). Constantine looked east toward Byzantium. The Byzantines were an isolated bunch that never really had a role in The Roman Empires growth, yet there was no overlooking Constantine’s certainty. Haste fully, structures were erected and a fortified wall was constructed around the city and in the year 330, during the 276 Olympiad, it was dedicated as “The almost forgotten name of Anthusa” (Lamb 20). The locals knew it as Constantine’s City or Constantinopolis. Constantine now had a home for his emp...

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... With advances in technology today one can only wonder what kind of “Basilica cannon” our generation will see in use, although the nuclear bomb is incontrovertibly at the forefront of this analogy. Constantinople, a city that was comparable to no other, and unfortunately a poster child to the ravages of technological advancement in warfare.

Works Cited

Harris, Jonathan. Constantinople: Capital of Byzantium. New York: Hambledon Continuum, 2007. 40,52,108,112. Print.

Lamb, Harold. Constantinople: The Birth of an Empire. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc, 1957. 18,20. Print.

Panorthodox, Neobyzantine. About the Great Church. Neobyzantine Movement, 2005. Web. .

Runciman, Steven. The Fall of Constantinople. New York: The Syndics of the Cambridge University Press, 1965. 128,133. Print.