Great Ancient Civilizations of Asia Minor
Part 3 – By Madison Nef
In this part I’d like to talk about Constantinople, or as it is known today, Istanbul. Constantinople was originally Byzantium before Emperor Constantine I re-founded it in the year 324 AD. Constantinople quickly became known as the religious, political and cultural capital for Asia Minor with a population of 600,000 – 1,000,000 during the time of the Crusades. Constantinople became known as “a new Rome” because of the conflict between the cities in Asia Minor and Egypt. Both wanted to be looked upon as capitals for the Roman Emperor and Constantine saw that Rome was no longer a suitable place for him to live. He founded Byzantium and renamed in Constantinople. With the development of Constantinople, the Roman Empire slowly reunited.
The Byzantine Empire reigned from about 330-1453 AD and Constantinople took the place of Miletus as a capital Asia Minor city. In this age, Constantinople didn’t have as much influence as it does today, but it slowly grew to be one of the greatest city states of Asia Minor. Today, Ankara is the capital of Turkey, but most people still look to Istanbul as the capital as it has not only 3 times the population of Ankara at 12 million residents but also because of its political influence.
A section of Byzantium called “the First Hill” was thought to be a great public area, hosting a lot of temples and monuments at the time. There is not a lot of evidence of this as the area was heavily rebuilt by Constantine and the only artifacts that prove the existence of the area at all are the inscriptions on the coins. The hill is now home to Topkapi Palace. Topkapi is an extremely large palace located in Istanbul which served as a home for the Ottoman Turks for 400 years out of their 642 year reign. It is currently open as a museum.
Constantine wanted to turn Byzantium into the equivalent if not a BETTER Rome, and the first thing he did was expand Byzantium into a larger capital. He then added more monuments to set the tone so that more people would move there. In Justinian’s reign, he finished off Constantinople by building the beautiful Hagia Sophia basilica. It started as a Greek orthodox church, then became an imperial mosque, and is now a museum much like the Topkapi Palace. Prof. Kenneth Harl says that he finds the best thing to describe the relationship between Justinian and Constantine is the mosaic art that many visitors see as they enter the Hagia Sophia- the one depicting Holy Mary holding Jesus with Constantine on one side offering her a model of the city and Justinian on the other side offering her a model of the church. Needless to say, I agree- Constantine developed and built up the original city, starting with completely redesigning the downtown area of it (adding the first basilica churches, started the imperial palace, and built one of the first stadiums, the Hippodrome) while Justinian completed it by building Hagia Sophia and finishing off the imperial palace.
Constantinople continued to grow after his death with the building of the new triple wall which completely blocked out any invaders from Constantinople and discouraged many of the barbarians living outside of the city. The fortress consisted of a moat, an inner wall and then ANOTHER wall. It was built on a solid foundation that was almost impossible to dig through- and the first wall was 40 feet high. Even if you DID make it over the first wall, you were greeted with arrows and a SECOND wall with a height of 60 feet.
Today, Istanbul has a population of over 12,000,000, has housed 3 empires in its time (Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman) and while it is not an empire today, it might as well be as it has the same population size as Belgium.
John Chrysostom
While Constantine had done a great job in making Constantinople into a political capital, it was Chrysostom who left a great impact in the religious laws and ways of the Eastern Roman Empire. He fought for patriarch equality, and in the Second Ecumenical Council of 381 AD, he got his law passed: Constantinople was on par with the old Rome, meaning that the patriarch had the same rights as the Pope. Not only did Chrysostom get this law passed, but he was also involved in religious hijacking.
Mary was always the patron saint of Ephesus. John managed to take her shrine from Ephesus and move it to Constantinople with no complaints from Ephesus’ bishop, and soon Mary and her icons were protecting Constantinople instead of Ephesus when Constantinople was not even a religious city. In fact, it was strictly an imperial city! John was well known for his literary work and his speeches and is sometimes called “The Golden Mouth” in history. He was also the reason for the passing of the Chalcedonian creed at the Ecumenical Council of 451 AD. The creed stated that Christ was both human and divine. This would be the creed that Constantinople would follow for years to come. At the same time, the “single nature” or the Monophysite creed that had been written by Alexander I was condemned.
Justinian I (ruled 327-365 AD)
Justinian came to the throne in 327 AD and spent most of his time before his death in 365 AD trying to recapture the Western Provinces. His tries were not very successful and not only bankrupted him, but also put his entire empire at risk for more raids and attacks. This led to a military crisis in the next generation.
However, Justinian DID have some triumphant moments and there are a lot of good things to be said about him as well. He was responsible for earning Constantinople the title “Queen of Cities” and also was responsible for many of the domed churches that were scattered throughout the city. Perhaps his greatest achievement, however, was the completion of the Hagia Sophia, a large domed church that was and still is considered an architectural masterpiece for the time period it was built in. Although parts of it have been rebuilt a few times, most of the original building still stands strong, including the dome.
The Hagia Sophia is a beautiful church- it is about 15-20 stories high in modern standards and actually caused Queen Olga of Russia to convert immediately when she saw it: she said that “God must surely dwell in such a magnificent building”. The dome rests on another smaller rectangular dome which has the top cut off of it, allowing for more stability at such a height. The dome has 40 windows cut out at its base, so a lot of light gets in making it look like a dome on top of an orb of light from afar.
It is a great example of the advanced Roman architecture of the time, much like the triple wall.
The Byzantine Dark Age
After the death of Justinian, Constantinople began to fall. It was left bankrupt from Justinian’s war efforts to take over the West, and a plague swept through the land from 542-544 AD that cost Constantinople ½ of its population. It was Heraclius I who really salvaged Constantinople and pulled it out of its hole by borrowing money from the church and forming a new imperial army. He ruled from 610-641 and by 621 had a fully formed army.
Prior to this, Constantinople had almost been lost to the Persians and their military situation was very bad. In 621, Heraclius sent his entire army across the Black Sea and attacked Persia from behind, reversing the military situation for a short period of time. Unfortunately, the Arabs picked that exact time to attack Persia, over running it along with Syria, Egypt, and eventually North Africa. From there on out, Constantinople was constantly under siege from the Arabs. The Arabs were very religious people, calling themselves Khalif or “descendants of Muhammad”. They saw Constantinople as a principal and religious city from which the word of God should be preached. Both the Umayyad and the Abbasid Caliphate tried to re-take the city over the years but were not successful.
The reason for their failure was due to the extremely strong and fortified walls and also a new form of weapon that the Byzantines had discovered. It was Greek petroleum of sorts and it could be siphoned out at incoming fleets and armies and it would burn it up. It was described as “fire mixed with thunder and lightning” and it was these two main prospects that allowed Constantinople to stand so strong to the invasions.
After awhile the Arabs would hand over attack plans to other commanders on the spot- there was no longer any profit in conquering Asia Minor, or Constantinople for that matter. There was too much planning involved- you needed a year to set up your plans and get supplies for your trip and then ANOTHER year to trek through Asia Minor from Baghdad. You needed a fleet for your army and you needed food. And even if you DID conquer Asia Minor, there wasn’t much to be gained from it- the Arabs was more interested in Egypt and Syria.
The most that the Arabs ever did was set up military bases and camps on the outskirts of the mountains, and every once in a while they would raid Byzantine Asia Minor- but none of these raids ever amounted to much and never turned into a real conquest. These raids were more to throw the Byzantine emperors off balance and to get treaties from them, not to actually take over Constantinople.
However, the emperors in Asia Minor didn’t realize this and started stretching out their troops, sending them out to different parts of Asia Minor. The Heraclian and Isaurian Dynasties actually tried to rearrange Asia Minor all together to prepare for future attacks from the Arabs. The government in Constantinople also tried to colonize Asia Minor more, sending out small settlements of people. They were still struggling to make up their numbers from the plague, so much so that they would even bring in peasants from Europe to help colonize Asia Minor. They would also bring in Slavs, Greeks, Armenians AND Georgians to help make settlements larger.
Most of the newcomers were put into the armies and the continent was militarized in a way that it had not been in 700 years. A lot of the colonies were put on the outskirts as a defense system and it was all of these new settlements that really prevented some of the heavier Arab raids from collapsing Asia Minor like Persia, Syria and Egypt collapsed.
A lot of the seaside cities fell in the late 7th century- Ephesus was majorly sacked by the Arabs and had to be rebuilt but it was rebuilt on a smaller scale. The plague had also swept through here too and most of the population was already depleted. These smaller cities were VITAL to the protection of Asia Minor and it was a great loss. Starting in the archaic age, what was left of the cities either disappeared all together or declined so much that they may as well have disappeared.
The inner cities were also changing, and it is thought that the Romans returned to the ways of the Iron Age- there was no longer any need for walls as the emperors had secured peace for the time being and cities turned back to living in citadels. This was the case with Madensehir, a small city that rested in the valley of the Anatolian Plateau. The people living there packed up and completely abandoned the city, moving to the top of Karadag just above the plateau. Karadag means “Black Mountain”, which was a fitting name for it as it was an extinct volcano. It is thought that Madensehir was just too exposed for the people and they left.
Another good example is Canli Kalisi, another small city on the plain that was moved to a nearby but more defendable mountain range. Many of the churches and housing developments in this area are carved out of the standing stone, giving a great look of freestanding architecture of the time. Upon inspecting the dwellings, they seem fit for lords with a main dining area, a small private chapel and also many kitchens and sleeping chambers. However, these mountain cities were a lot more crowded than the plains OR the cities in general- there was not enough space, houses were crowded together, there was not a lot of room for agriculture and the greatest building was a church.
While the churches IMITATED the ones in Constantinople, they were a lot smaller and more humble, lacking the artistic style of the classical period (the 4th and 5th centuries).
In Cappadocia, there was often underground living quarters near large cities. The people would go underground and let the Arabs run over their farms as they often headed west, and then come up when they left. When they came back, they would go back underground and roll great millstones across the doorways to keep them safe.
The Dark Age was a horrible time for Asia Minor, but it truly held together. We saw wonderful architecture and weaponry, crafty planning and attacks, devastating plagues that wiped entire cities off the map, and war all the way through. Has our world today changed much from what it was back then? War is always prominent, illness kills more and more every day, and while we have more technology today, if we don’t use it correctly then we are only setting ourselves back further. Thank you for reading.
Maddie
