Constantinople: Capital of Byzantium

by Jonathan Harris

This is a book which  covers the history of Constantinople, primarily in the period 1200 to 1453 when the Ottoman's defeated the Byzantine's.

The book suggests that the city may have existed as early as 500 BCE.  However, its dominant position seems to have started in 300 AD when Constantine chose it as the site for the head of his Roman Empire.  The city had a long and glorious history.  It had great wealth, strong defences, lots of Christian relics and the strong belief that the Emperor was a chosen representative of God and that the Virgin Mary protected the city.

The city withstood many sieges partly because of its strong wall fortifications, the strong currents in the oceans and the underground cisterns.  While the city withstood invaders rulers were not so lucky, many were overthrown during the centuries, some by people who were able to get through the gates by bribing guards.  I was amazed to learn that they had hospitals which offered services for the poor and other assitance for homeless or people suffering after periods of drought or who were escaping batttles.  Apparently they had set prices for fish in the nmarket and government controlled prices for liquour in taverns and regulated sizes for the glasses used to serve alcohol.

The city is reported to have been spectacularly beautiful until in the 1200's when one emperor was being overthrown and battles that ensued damaged many buildings and set fire to others.  Foreigners living in the city, e.g. Venetians, raided a lot of the relics and beautiful art objects and these were later transferred to many European locations, especially Venice.   The author suggests that if one would like to know what Constantinople would have looked like in the Byzantine period, to look at the architecture of Venice.  The city never seemed to recover from this destruction until the Ottomans took over.

The book ends with the conquest of the city by the Ottomans.

I found the book interesting but a bit hard to read, the author seemed to jump around between different time periods so it was hard to follow at times.