Title: Constantine—facts and information
Headings: Who was Constantine?
Who was Constantine?
Ancient Rome 101
Birth of Christianity
A change of scene
Constantinople, the new Rome
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Content: Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul), his capital, was dedicated in A.D. 330. Previously known as Byzantium, it had been under Roman control for well over a century, but Constantine rebuilt and expanded it on a monumental scale. He tripled the size of the existing city and offered full citizenship and free bread to encourage men of rank to move there with their families. A large palace and imposing legislative halls established the city’s gravitas as the new capital. Churches began to punctuate the skyline; Christians were welcomed, and other faiths were generally tolerated. The ascendant Constantinople soon eclipsed Rome. The western empire gradually crumbled until Rome’s fall in A.D. 476. Yet Constantine’s capital—and the Christian foundation he laid there for the empire—continued to thrive for nearly a thousand years. Constantinople, the new Rome
By the time Constantine established his new capital in A.D. 330, the city that would be called Constantinople had changed hands multiple times among regional superpowers.