Constantinople - Rome: "Constantine the Great"
Gnaeus Egnatius was a Roman senator who received the
title of proconsul after 146 BC. It was his appointment as governor of the
province of Macedonia that linked his name to one of the principal roads crossing
the Balkans, the Via Egnatia. This main trade route was the eastward extension
of Trajan’s road (Via Traiana), which ran southeast from Rome to end at Gnathia
(Egnatia), between the major ports of the Adriatic at Bari and Brindisi.
Gnathia had ferries to transport people and goods from the Italian peninsula to
the Balkan shores at the major port of ancient Epidamnos, renamed Durres after
the Roman conquest. Although the course of the Via Egnatia ran along older
Macedonian roads, it was constructed in line with all the technical features of
Roman road building. It passed close to cities old and new, such as Lychnidos
(Ohrid), Heraclea Lyncestis, Pella and Thessaloniki, where it ended, at least
during its first phase. It was however quickly expanded eastwards, to pass
through Rentina, Amphipolis, Philippi, Topeiros, Maximianoupolis, Traianoupolis
and as far as ancient Byzantium. The Via Egnatia was of tremendous military,
economic and commercial importance for the empire in Late Antiquity and
Byzantium, as it was the main road leading to the cities of the southern
Balkans. It was primarily used by the army, and of course by merchants, as a
relatively safe way to transport large quantities of goods from Rome and the
Italian Peninsula to Constantinople, at the entrance to the Black Sea.
After 315 Constantine no longer lived in Rome; he
returned only briefly in 326, to celebrate the twentieth year anniversary of
his reign. From as early as 319 he had decided to build a new city on the site of ancient Byzantium. In
324, as sole emperor, he gave it his name, offering his dynasty and the heirs
of his own empire a new capital. Constantinople was not designed to vie against
Rome - how could it? It was Constantine’s Rome.
Glossary (0)
Information Texts (4)
The city:
Around
the
top
of the Thermaic
Gulf
there were
several small ancient
towns
with intense
commercial
activity, which further expanded after
the destruction
of Olynthus
by Philip
in 348
BC. According
to Strabo,
King Cassander founded a new city
in 316 BC, naming it Thessaloniki
after his wife, sister to Alexander the Great. The few traces of Hellenistic
buildings
identified
to date
- an important
administrative
building complex in Governing House
Square, and the east
part of the
wall -
indicate that from
the outset the
city
was
intended
to
be a major
political and
military centre.
Thessaloniki’s geographic
location at a key point on Macedonia’s
land and sea routes was an important factor in its growth down the centuries.
From the mid 2nd century BC onwards it was the most important
military and trading post on the Via Egnatia, which crossed the Balkan Peninsula from Durres to Byzantium (later Constantinople). Its port also began
to flourish, lying as it did at the end
of the road
leading from the
Danube
to
the Aegean. The city thus became the crossroads
of the major trading routes heading East-West and North-South in the Roman Empire.
Christian
history in Thessaloniki
began with the arrival
of
Paul
the Apostle,
who
preached
in
the city’s synagogue
in
51
or early
52
AD,
though archaeological traces are thin
on the ground until three
centuries later. The 1st century
saw the foundation of the Roman forum, along with several public buildings such
as the library, the gymnasium and the Gallery of Figurines, which may have
belonged to the imperial bath complex. In 298-299 Caesar Galerius moved
his headquarters from Sirmium in Panonnia to Thessaloniki, adorning it with new
monumental buildings such as the palace, the hippodrome, the
theatre-stadium and the Rotonda, which was originally a temple modelled
after the Pantheon in Rome. The famous Arch of Galerius, a dedicatory
tetrapylon known locally as the Kamara, was erected at this time, decorated
with scenes from Galerius’s victories against the Persians. In 322 Constantine
the Great built the port at the southwest end of the shore.
Thessaloniki became an important
ecclesiastical
centre from
the
late 4th century onwards. In 380, while staying in the
city with his court in preparation for a campaign against the Goths, Emperor
Theodosius I was baptized by Bishop Acholius (or Ascholios) and issued a
decree forbidding
sacrifices
throughout the
empire. Around
the same time, the
bishop
of
the city
was
promoted to
archbishop
and vicar (representative)
of the Pope
of Rome,
with
jurisdiction
over
the entire prefecture of East Illyria. The
Christian churches built over the next two centuries changed the city, as they
were the tallest buildings and most important landmarks in the new town plan
developed on either side of the imperial road (the Via Regia), along the axis
of what is now Egnatia Street.
The Episcopal Church was a large five-nave basilica, possibly dedicated
to Agios Markos; the Church
of Agios Demetrios became
the city’s major pilgrimage shrine. The large public buildings of the past either
fell into gradual decline and were abandoned (such as the forum, which became a
quarry for rocks and clay), or changed function (such as the Rotonda,
which was converted into a Christian church).
Excavations
in the city’s historic centre have brought to light numerous early Christian
buildings, the majority of which are houses. Most are urban villas in the
city’s north and east section, with a spacious vaulted banquet room
(triclinium) and a peristyle surrounded by rooms, baths, storage areas or cisterns.
The cemeteries outside the city walls contained graves of all types, from pit
graves to cist graves and tiled versions etc. Most important of all are the
vaulted tombs, with fresco decorations in the interior.
From
the late 6th
century
Thessaloniki
was
repeatedly
raided by the
Avaro- Slavs and suffered earthquakes which destroyed many buildings. Combined with a general decline in the state
economy, the raids and earthquakes altered living conditions in the city. This
change can be
traced in the construction of smaller, humbler houses with one or
at most two rooms, erected on the ruins of old buildings. Descriptions of the
houses
preserved in
legal documents
of the Mount Athos monasteries
provide an idea
of life
in the city;
workshops and houses stood cheek by jowl, around shared courtyards with ovens
and wells. House walls often incorporated earlier ruins and were constructed of
various materials - some were of plaster coated wooden boards. Small churches
and chapels were founded in the neighbourhoods on monastery-owned land. The
Archbishop of
Thessaloniki
came
under the
Patriarchate
of
Constantinople
and the new Cathedral of Agia Sophia was built in the late 8th century,
decorated with mosaics sponsored by the emperor. The establishment of the Theme
of Thessaloniki in the early 9th century offered security to the
inhabitants and
stability
in the region.
The markets
filled with
goods
and the number
of visitors grew.
The
city
was
proud of its scholar Bishop
Leo the Mathematician and of two
brothers:
Constantine, who
became a monk
named
Cyril,
and
Methodius.
In 863
they travelled
to
Moravia, where
they created
the
Old Slavonic alphabet
and translated
the Bible,
the Divine Liturgy and
important
canonical
texts
into the
language of the newly converted Slavs. Over the next centuries
many more chapels and churches were built, such as Agios Euthymios, next
to Agios Demetrios, and Panagia
Chalkeon (1028).
After
Thessaloniki
fell to the Saracens in 904, the next wave of destruction occurred when the
city was wrested by the Normans
in 1185. The Crusaders made it the capital of the Frankish kingdom from 1204 to
1224. From then onwards Thessaloniki
frequently changed hands between Greek rulers who laid claim to the imperial
throne, until 1246, when it was annexed to the Empire of Nicaea along with the
rest of Macedonia.
In 1303 Irene-Yolanda
of Montferrat,
second wife
of
Andronicus II,
came to the city
and remained there until her death
in 1317, while in 1320 Emperor
Michael IX died
in the city.
Important monuments of Paleologan art and architecture still survive from the
first third of the 14th century, such as the churches of Agioi Apostoloi, Agia
Aikaterini, Agios Panteleimon, Agios Nikolaos Orfanos and the Taxiarches
(Archangels). Art production continued over the subsequent turbulent decades,
though on various scales: the Church of Christ the Saviour, built after 1340,
is the smallest church in the city, while that dedicated to the Prophet Elijah,
built after 1360, is one of the largest. Several vacant plots within the city
walls were turned into vegetable gardens or cemeteries.
During
the
conflict
between
Andronicus
II
and
his grandson
Andronicus
III,
the Serbs and
Ottomans
became involved
in the internal
affairs of the
empire
as allies
for
one or other
party
vying for the
throne,
drawing
ever closer
to Thessaloniki
and its
surroundings. From 1342 until 1349 the city
was tormented by discord between the Zealots and the Hesychasts. In 1387,
following a four-year siege, the city was surrendered to the Ottomans. In 1403
it returned to Byzantine rule under Manuel II. In 1412 and 1416 it was besieged
by Musa, one of the aspiring successors of Sultan Bayezid. Fearing a new
conquest by the Ottomans, in 1423 Andronicus Palaeologus handed the city over
to the Venetians, on conditions that were never honoured. Thessaloniki finally fell to the Ottomans in
1430.
The settlement:
The naturally fortified mound of Rentina is located
approximately 75km northeast of Thessalonica, south of the Richios River and
next to the ancient Via Egnatia. Excavations carried out on the hill and its
environs have revealed traces of human presence since Neolithic times; on the
basis of their construction and associated finds, the building walls and abutments
unearthed in the southwest section of the castle date to the Hellenistic period.
Rentina lies close to the settlement of Arethousa, which went into decline from
the 6th century onwards. According to one interpretation, Rentina
may take its name from the nearby staging post (mutatio) called Peridipidis
(genitive: Peripidinis).
The fortifications at Rentina are
reasonably well preserved, as are the impressive remains of a settlement that
may well be Artemision
Castle, referred to by
Procopius in his work On Buildings as
having acquired fortifications in the time of Justinian. Nevertheless, research
findings to date indicate that the first fortifications, which included water
cisterns capable of supporting a small guard, should be dated to the mid-4th
century. Under Justinian the wall was reinforced with towers and equipped with
a large cistern on the level ground in the citadel.
In mid-Byzantine times the wall
was rebuilt to serve as fortifications for a settlement founded in the first
half-decade of the 10th century, when it was seat of the Diocese of
Lete and Rentina. At that time a church was built over the ruins of the then
defunct cistern on the citadel, together with accommodation for the bishop and
his retinue. By the end of the same century several houses had been erected in
the lower town, following the line of the old wall and on stepped terraces. A
third wall then surrounded the settlement from the most vulnerable section to
the west, where a tower was built. Wood remains from the interior of this have
been carbon dated to around 980 AD.
After 1204 the settlement was
surrendered to the rulers of the Frankish Kingdom of Thessalonica. As indicated
by the large number of contemporary coins found in excavations, they appear to
have installed a permanent guard, with the obvious aim of controlling the Plain
of Thessalonica and the Strymonic
Gulf. In 1242 John
Vatatzes took the castle while marching on Thessalonica, since, as George
Acropolites would have it, the Franks abandoned their position without a fight.
News of the inhabitants of Rentina in the 13th and 14th
century is contained in legal documents held by monasteries on Mount Athos, where
mention is made of lands, mills and houses in the area. In the first half-decade
of the 14th century a small cruciform church was built inside the
eastern enclosure, possibly in connection with an infant and child cemetery. In
the mid-14th century the Metropolitan of Thessalonica granted the vacant
bishopric of Rentina to the Bishop of Platamonas, who was indicted for suspect
ordainments but acquitted at the synod of 1363. From around the same period it appears that
the inhabitants gradually abandoned the settlement, which passed successively into
the hands of Serbs, Greeks and then Turks. The arrival of Turkish Yuruks in the
area probably led the greater part of the population to seek the safety of
larger centres, the most prominent of which was Volvi. The few coins excavated
from that time up until the mid-16th century are illustrative of the
decline of the once flourishing settlement at Rentina, confirming the existence
of a small-scale farm on the same site.
The city:
Amphipolis is located at the foot of Mount Pangaion,
near the banks of the River Strymon. Archaeological evidence indicates strong
human presence and activity in the area from as early as the Middle Neolithic. Built
like an amphitheatre at a strategic location, Amphipolis was an Athenian colony
founded in 437/6 on the site of Ennea Hodoi (Nine Ways), and the earlier city of
Hedonia. Public and private life in the city blossomed during the Classical and
Hellenistic periods, while the fact that the Via Egnatia passed through
Amphipolis was a key factor in maintaining its prosperity through Roman and
early Christian times. At least until 692 it was the seat of a bishop, and grew
into a major centre of ecclesiastical activity in the area. Excavations within
the city limits have revealed four basilicas decorated with sumptuous mosaics
and marble revetments, an episcopical palace and a centrally
planned
church, all dating
to this period. At this time the city was fortified
by a 7.5 km long wall, and a second enclosure 2.2 km in length, bounding the
citadel.
The city was probably destroyed in
the 8th or 9th century, for it was then that the
inhabitants relocated to the major fortified harbour town of Chrysoupoli, at the mouth of the River
Strymon . A small settlement named Marmarion grew up on the ruins of
Amphipolis, becoming a staging post for travellers crossing the Strymon at the
nearby ford of Poros Marmariou. In the 13th-14th century two towers owned by
the monasteries of Mount Athos were founded on either side of the river. The better
preserved of the two, built of spolia on a hill to north of the modern village,
stood three storeys high and was surrounded by a defensive wall. According to an
inscription, the tower was founded in 1367 by two generals named Alexius and
Ioannis, blood brothers and founders of Pantocrator Monastery on Mount Athos,
which owns the monument. On the opposite bank of Strymon lie the remains of the
second tower, which must have been at least two floors high. Although the towers
were primarily used as warehouses for storing produce grown on the local estates
and monasteries, their presence also served to control the passage to the
hinterland. Chrysoupoli was abandoned in the 16th century, whereas
Marmaris survived for a further two hundred years, only to be replaced by
Neohorio.
The city:
Constantinople, the capital city of the Byzantine
Empire, was built on the site of the ancient Greek colony of Byzantium, on the
triangular peninsula formed by the Golden Horn,
the Bosporus and the Sea
of Marmara. This was an excellent location that controlled trade
routes linking the Aegean to the Black Sea. Emperor Constantine founded Constantinople
in 330 AD as a city to rival Rome
in splendour, wealth and power. The city grew fast, leading to problems of
space and facilities, so Theodosius I extended it to the west by building new
strong walls that protected Constantinople
until the end of the Byzantine Empire.
The
city was laid out after Rome.
A main road, the Mese Odos, linked the palace to the Golden
Gate. On this road was the Forum, a circular plaza with a statue
of Constantine
mounted on a column, surrounded by public buildings. Theodosius I and Arcadius later
built more forums decorated with their own statues.
Following
the Nika riots in the 6th century, Justinian adorned Constantinople
with magnificent edifices, palaces, baths and public buildings. This time also
saw the construction of Agia Sophia (the Holy Wisdom), the church which served
as the seat of the Ecumenical Patriarchate throughout the Byzantine period.
During
the 7th and 8th centuries Constantinople faced
major problems that threw it into disarray: attacks by the Avars (a siege in
674) and Arabs (attacks in 674 and 717-718); natural disasters (a powerful,
destructive earthquake in 740); and epidemics (plague in 747). Limited building
activity resumed in the 8th and 9th century, mainly concentrated on
strengthening the city's fortifications.
With
the recovery of the Byzantine Empire from the
9th to the 11th century, Constantinople became
the most populated city in Christendom; the majority of inhabitants were
Greek-speaking, but many other ethnic groups lived alongside them, such as
Jews, Armenians, Russians, Italians merchants, Arabs and mercenaries from Western Europe and Scandinavia. Many public, private and church-owned buildings were erected at the time, with
an emphasis on establishing charitable institutions such as hospitals, nursing
homes, orphanages and schools. Higher education flourished, thanks to the care
of the state and the emergence of important scholars. This renaissance lasted
until the mid-11th century, when economic problems due to poor management set
in, compounded by the adverse outcome of imperial operations beyond the borders.
The
Crusaders left Constantinople entirely
unscathed when first passing through, but in the Fourth Crusade of 1204 the
Franks conquered and ransacked the city, slaughtering those inhabitants they
did not take prisoner or drive out. In 1261 the city was retaken by Michael
VIII Palaeologus, who rebuilt most of the monuments and the walls but proved
unable to restore the city to its former splendour and glory. Enfeebled as it
was, the empire was incapable of checking the advance of the Ottomans, and in
1453 Constantinople finally fell into their
hands.
The fall signalled the end of the empire. Nevertheless, the Byzantine intellectual
tradition remained significant, as many scholars settled in the Venetian dominions
of Crete and the Peloponnese,
as well as in European countries, conveying Greek learning to the West.
Bibliography (2)
1. Μπούρας Χ., ‘Απόψεις των Βυζαντινών πόλεων από τον 8ο έως τον 15ο αιώνα’ in Οικονομική ιστορία του Βυζαντίου από τον 7ο έως τον 15ο αιώνα, Μ.Ι.Ε.Τ, Athens, 2006
2. Dagron, G, Η γέννηση μιας πρωτεύουσας: η Κωνσταντινούπολη και οι θεσμοί της από το 330 ως το 451, Μορφωτικό Ίδρυμα Εθνικής Τράπεζας, Athens, 2000
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