constantine moved the capitol of the roman empire to constantinople.
constantine moved the capitol of the roman empire to constantinople.
who moved the capitol of the roman empire to constantinople?
constantine
that it was in constantinople that orlando become a woman reflects the city's status in the 17th century as a melting pot of cultures with a mixed population of turks, greeks, armenians, sephardic jews, circassians, sudanese, and other peoples from all over the ottoman empire, in short a place with no fixed identity that existed half in europe and half in asia, making the city the perfect backdrop for orlando's transformation. furthermore, constantinople had been founded by the greeks as byzantium in 7th century bc; had become the capital of the roman empire in 324 ad when the emperor constantine the great renamed the city after himself; for centuries had been seen as a bastion of christianity against islam; was taken by the ottomans in a siege in 1453, becoming the capital of the world's most powerful muslim empire; and was renamed istanbul in 1924, making the city itself into a metaphor for shifting identities, whatever they be national, cultural, religious, gender, ethnic or sexual. in the 17th century, constantinople was europe's largest city as well as one of the most wealthiest. the american scholar urmila seshagiri wrote that the "fixed british hegemonies" of the early chapters set in london and in the english countryside seem "fragile" when orlando is confronted with the vast, teeming, wealthy city of constantinople with its multi-ethnic, multi-religious population that appears as a far more powerful and greater city than london, which was woolf's way of undermining the assumption widely held in 1928 britain that the british empire was the world's greatest empire. sackville-west had lived in constantinople in 1912-14 when nicolson had been the third secretary at the british embassy and loved that city, which she viewed as a beautiful city full of diverse cultures and peoples. that orlando's transformation occurs during the course of anti-christian riots by the muslim population of constantinople is woolf's attack on british imperialism. by the second half of the 17th century, the ottoman empire was in decline while the british empire was on the ascent, which is the precise time that orlando changes sex. woolf believed that the "eastern question" as imperial rivalry for control of constantinople, "the city of all the world's desire" as it sits at a strategic location where europe and asia meet to have been one of the main causes of the first world war, and by dating orlando's transformation at the moment that the ottoman empire began to decline was a political point. one of the main justifications for the british empire was the alleged need to protect white women from being raped by non-white men, and by having lady orlando escape from constantinople without a man to protect her was an attack upon this theory.
orlando: a biography
the roman empire (, ; koine greek: , tr. ) was the post-republican period of ancient rome, consisting of large territorial holdings around the mediterranean sea in europe, north africa and west asia ruled by emperors. from the accession of caesar augustus to the military anarchy of the third century, it was a principate with italy as metropole of the provinces and its city of rome as sole capital (27 bc – 286 ad). the roman empire was then ruled by multiple emperors and divided in a western roman empire, based in milan and later ravenna, and an eastern roman empire, based in nicomedia and later constantinople. rome remained the nominal capital of both parts until 476 ad, when it sent the imperial insignia to constantinople (byzantium in ancient greek) following the capture of ravenna by the barbarians of odoacer and the subsequent deposition of romulus augustus. the fall of the western roman empire to germanic kings, along with the hellenization of the eastern roman empire into the byzantine empire, is conventionally used to mark the end of ancient rome and the beginning of the middle ages.
roman empire