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Istanbul today is a megacity with over 13 million people, or about 18% of Turkey’s population of 73 million.\u00a0 It is the largest city in Turkey, and is the cultural, economic, and financial center of Turkey.\u00a0 How did this metropolis come into existence?<\/p>\n
Even though there were people living in this area for many centuries, Istanbul came into existence as a city around the 7th<\/sup> Century B.C.E. [1] when a large number of Greek colonists moved there.\u00a0 These Greek colonists were led by King Byzas, who named the city Byzantium after himself.<\/p>\n A few centuries later, Rome grew and established the Roman Empire in the first century B.C.E.\u00a0 As the Roman Empire expanded, its tenacles naturally also reached the strategically located city of Byzantium (see map<\/a><\/strong> on the strategic location of Byzantium with respect to Asia, Europe, and Africa; zoom out 4-5 clicks to see a larger geographical area), and Byzantium officially became part of the Roman Empire in A.D. 73.\u00a0 The city also transformed from mostly Greek to a mixture of Greek and Latin in language and culture.\u00a0 Even though the city was known as Byzantium, it was actually associated with the Roman Empire, and not with the later Byzantine Empire as discussed next.<\/p>\n Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire<\/strong><\/p>\n The capital of the Roman Empire was usually Rome, but sometimes also in other cities.\u00a0 As a matter of fact, in the 3rd century A.D., the Roman Empire was often ruled by four emperors (tetraarchy).\u00a0 However, in 324 A.D., after defeating his rivals, Constantine the Great (272-337) became the sole emperor of the whole Roman Empire.\u00a0 Constantine liked Byzantium so much that he set up two capitals for the Roman Empire, with Rome being the capital of the Western Roman Empire and Byzantium, which he called the “New Rome,” as the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire. \u00a0 However, his people honored him and called Byzantium “Constantinople.”<\/p>\n In 313 (before he became the ruler of the whole Roman Empire), Constantine, the Emperor of the Western Roman Empire, and Licinius, the Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire agreed and issued the Edict of Milan that proclaimed religious tolerance in the Roman Empire.\u00a0 This stopped the persecution of Christians (as well as believers of other faiths) and also returned confiscated Christian church properties.<\/p>\n Constantine converted to Christianity in 312 and was the first Christian Roman Emperor.\u00a0 To honor the Roman Empire’s new religion, a large cathedral was built in 360, and this cathedral in its third version is called Hagia Sophia, or the Church of the Holy Wisdom. The original church was destroyed by fire from rioters in 404, and the second church built on this site in 415 was also destroyed by fire from rioters in 532.\u00a0 The current magnificent structure was built in 537.\u00a0 It was the largest cathedral in the world for nearly a thousand years, and is famous for its massive dome.\u00a0 It is considered to be the epitome of Byzantine architecture and sometimes referred to as the building that changed the history of architecture.\u00a0 It was designed by the Greek physicist Isidore of Miletus and the Greek mathematician Anthemius of Tralles.\u00a0 Hagia Sophia served as the main Eastern Orthodox Christian church of the Byzantine Empire.<\/p>\n
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