Constantinople (Istanbul, Turkey)

Moneta Historical Research by Tom Schroer

Roman coins from Constantinople in the Forum Ancient Coins consignment shop.

Byzantine coins from Constantinople in the Forum Ancient Coins consignment shop.

CONSTANTINOPOLIS (Istanbul, Turkey - 41°02'N, 28°57'E) was founded as Byzantium about 660 BC by colonists from the Greek city of Megara. Its name came from their reputed leader, Byzas. Its strong economic position on the European side of the southern end of the Bosporus was compounded by its strong defensive position with the Golden Horn on its north and the Propontis (Sea of Marmara) on its south, making it only approachable by land from the west. As well as being on the natural land route between the eastern and western classical world (the Bosporus is only about 17 miles wide and easily crossed), its position enabled it to capitalize upon the tuna (tunny) fish which migrated between the Pontus Euxinus (Black Sea) and the Propontis.

It fell to the Persian King Darius I in 512 BC, and except for its time of participation in the Ionian Revolt (499-494 BC), remained under Persian domination until the Greeks under the Spartan King Pausanias took the city in 478 BC. The Athenians managed to replace Pausanias as the leaders of the Greeks in the next year, forming the Delian League, of which Byzantium became a member. Except for brief periods of freedom following revolts in 440 BC (possibly in conjunction with Samos) and 412 BC, Byzantium remained under Athenian domination until the Spartans ended Athenian hegemony in 405 BC. The domination by the Spartans proved worse than that of the Athenians, and when Athens formed the Second Athenian Confederacy in 378 BC Byzantium joined, although it may have broken from the Spartans as early as 394 BC. Philip II of Macedonia ended the Second Athenian Confederacy in 338 BC after the Battle of Chaeronea and replaced it with his own Macedonian-dominated Corinthian League, but Byzantium was able to resist a siege by Philip and even Philip's famous son, Alexander III (Alexander the Great) bypassed Byzantium on his way to Asia, sweeping instead across the Hellespont. However the city inevitably fell under Macedonian dominion. After Alexander's death in 323 BC his empire was split among his generals (the Diadochi) with Lysimachus controlling Byzantium, but it apparently became a free city about the time of his death in 281 BC.

After his death the city soon came under assault by a large group of Celts who came to be known as Galatians once Nicomedes I of Bithynia allowed them passage to the lands east of his kingdom. However they continued to trouble the entire area of the Bosporus and exacted heavy tribute from Byzantium. Byzantium at first appealed to its sister Greek cities for help in paying the tribute, but when that failed they resorted to a levy upon passage of the Bosporus. That move was obviously resented by all of the other cities, and Rhodes eventually fought a successful war with Byzantium to force its removal, which occurred about 219 BC.

Byzantium allied itself with Rome against the Macedonians in the second century BC and maintained favorable relations with the Romans, allowing it to retain its status as a free city when the province of Bithynia was created in 74 BC, and even when the combined province of Pontus and Bithynia was created by Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (Pompey the Great) in 63 BC.

Its special status was long recognized by Rome as indicated by its coinage, which sometimes bears the emperor's image and sometimes is completely dominated by local types. Not much is known of Byzantium under the Romans until the end of the second century AD except that it was subject to tribute, which was remitted by Claudius for five years. At the end of the second century it had the enormous misfortune of siding with Pescennius Niger in his war with Septimius Severus which began in 193 AD. The city survived a long siege, but finally surrendered shortly after Niger's head was displayed before its walls in the late summer of 194. Severus was merciless in his treatment of the city, killing many of the inhabitants, essentially razing the city, and reducing it to the status of a village. However after his wrath died Severus recognized the value of the city's location and re-built it to twice its previous size.

Its fortunes began to rise when the Emperor Diocletian named Maximian to be his co-Augustus in the western Empire and established an imperial residence at nearby Nicomedia so he could focus on the east. Thus began a power shift to the east which culminated in 324 when the Augustus Constantine I decided to establish a "New Rome" on the site of Byzantium shortly after the conclusion of his Second Civil War against Licinius I. He launched a massive building campaign to transform the small existing city into a metropolis which he renamed Constantinopolis (Constantinople). November 8, 324, the official day of celebration of the victory in the Second Civil War, was the official founding. As part of that day's celebrations, Constantine promoted his son Constantius II to Caesar, and conferred the rank of Augusta upon both his mother Helena and his wife Fausta. The reasons for his decision to found Constantinople are not entirely clear, with some saying it was to found a new capital devoid of all the pagan associations of Rome, while others say it was simply a matter of geography. The building campaign was to take the next six years, but Constantinople was finally ready for its formal dedication on May 11, 330. It immediately became the imperial residence, although the Senate with its traditional powers remained in Rome.

Constantine I opened a mint in his new city in 326. It originally had only two officinae, but by 327 the number was seven and after the city's formal dedication it operated eleven officinae. Its growth was initially fueled by the transfer of personnel from Aquileia, Sirmium and Ticinum, all of which had closed between 325 and 327. The mint at Constantinople remained a principal mint of first the Roman and then the Byzantine Empires for over 1,100 years, finally falling to the Turks in 1453 AD.

Once established as the Imperial capital, the city continued to grow to new heights, gaining an enlarged hippodrome, a large forum, large churches, an aqueduct under Valens, and new walls which doubled the city's size under Theodosius II. It became the center of the eastern Christian church, and a council held there in 381 declared that the bishop of Constantinople should have primacy after the bishop of Rome because Constantinople was the New Rome.

The city became the capital of the Byzantine Empire and under Justinian I (527-565) the city's population reached about 500,000 people. It remained in Byzantine hands until its fall to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, except for a period from 1204-1261 when it was in the hands of western crusaders ("Latins").

Little is still in evidence of the Roman city because of the enormous amount of growth and prosperity the city has continued to have until the present day, with a current population of about 5,500,000 people. However parts of the city walls, part of the aqueduct, and part of the hippodrome can still be seen. According to a Turkish historian, the city's modern name of Istanbul is a mutation of Constantinopolis, with it first being pronounced as "Stinpolis", then "Stinpol", then "Estanbul", and finally Istanbul.

Dictionary of Roman Coins

CONSTANTINOPOLIS, formerly Byzantium, the most celebrated city of Thrace, derives its name from Constantine the Great, by whom it was enlarged with new buildings, and rendered almost equal to Old Rome; in order that Constantinople should be the capital of the empire in the east, as Rome was in the west.  It was taken by the Turks in the year 1453, by whom it is now called Stambul, and in whose possession it still remains a great metropolitan and royal city.  The coins which make mention of it, were struck either by Constantine or by his sons.

CONSTANTINOPOLIS - This legend appears on the obverse of several brass medallions, accompanied by the helmeted bust of the city of Constantinople, personified; the hasta pura on her shoulders: on the reverses are the several legends of FEL TEMP. REPARATIO - RESTITVTOR REIP. - VICTORIA AVGVSTI - VICT. AVGG. &c. all allusive to the reparations, restorations, and military successes, claimed to have been achieved for the empire, by Constantine and the princes of his family. - Engraved in Havercamp, Cabinet de Christine, TAB. xl.

Constantinople, in a later age, was one amongst the number of those cities to which the right of coining money was granted.  Hence on so many coins, we read, at the bottom, CON. CONST. etc.