The Importance Of Constantinople: The City Of Byzantium

621 Words2 Pages

Abhishek Goel
Core 2
January 23, 2014
Constantinople

The city of Byzantium was built in the seventh century and was proved to be both beneficial for Romans and Greeks. Emperor Constantine wanted to unite the Roman empire and realized the strategic importance of Byzantium upon reuniting the Empire of Rome because it was placed on the European side of Strait of Bosporus, so in 324 AD, Constantine decided to build his new capital their and named it Constantinople. Constantinople was built in the hope of reuniting the Roman Empire. Before Constantinople, the Empire was divided into two parts; Emperor Diocletian ruled the East and Emperor Constantine ruled the West. Emperor Constantine was ruthless and when an Emperor named Lucinius took complete power of the East in 313 A.D, Constantine challenged and defeated Lucinius at the Battle of Chrysopolis and became the Emperor of the whole Roman Empire. Now that Constantine was the Emperor of the whole, reunited Empire, he needed to relocate Rome’s capitol somewhere besides old Rome because the infrastructure was of the city was weak, the eco...

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