Walking Through Constantinople At Its Peak What Would You Have Seen

Constantinople. Queen of cities. One of the most impressive cities of the ancient world. Capital of the Eastern Roman Empire for more than a thousand years. But how can we imagine life to have been in Constantinople at its zenith in the age of the emperor Justinian? Imagine you could time travel back to the year 565 AD. What would you have seen had you visited Constantinople in that year? What sights, what landmarks would you have seen? What could you have done in that magnificent capital of the Eastern Roman Empire? Visiting the famous baths of Cyaxippus? Seeing impressive phora and old temples? Marveling at spectacular giant Nymphaia? Or seeing the entrance to the imperial palace? Going to a tavern and have a feast and maybe drink a bit too much wine? Join me today and let's find out what you would have seen if you could have visited that magnificent city in its prime, when it was at its most impressive. The year is 565 AD. The city of Constantinople is at its peak. About half a million people live in the city. Let's imagine you are a visitor and you visit Constantinople for the first time, arriving by land, entering through the golden gate in the lower right part of the city in this view. The first thing you would see would be the massive and impressive Theodosian land walls. Then you would arrive at the golden gate. This impressive gate would be truly marvelous to look at. Clad in white marble and decorated with golden statues on top, the gates themselves being covered in gold. The sight must have been truly impressive. We now have entered the city and continue on the Mese. This was a very large colonnaded street that ran through the entire city. However, at first you wouldn't have seen many buildings, as this region was never densely built on and consisted mainly of farmland. You would now have slowly walked towards the central part of the city. As you would continue walking on the Mese, you would at some point enter the first imperial forum. This was the forum of Arcadius. It was built in 403 AD in the reign of the emperor Arcadius, son of Theodosius. The forum was rectangular and in its midst there was a triumphal column with a statue of Arcadius on top. As you would leave this forum, you would continue on the Mese and pass the old city walls from emperor Constantine's time. And then you would enter the forum of the ox. This was a rectangular forum with many shops, built at some point in the 4th century AD. In its center, there was a bronze statue of an ox. Just a few years before your visit, the forum was damaged in a fire. So therefore we can imagine that by 565, it would have been restored and would have thus possibly looked surprisingly new. You would then continue your walk along the Mese and you would then arrive at the forum Amastrianum. On one side, there was a round temple, the temple of Helios. But by 565, it was most certainly converted into a church or used as something else because the pagan cults had been suppressed. On the other side of that splendid forum was the Capitolium. This was an old pagan temple, but after the suppression of paganism, the temple was converted into a place of higher learning. Now would be a good time to take a detour to a truly magnificent site, the famous church of the holy apostles. Second in magnificence only to the Hagia Sophia, this church was started by emperor Constantine and finished by his son, the emperor Constantius II in the 340s AD. It was built in the shape of a cross. Nearby, you would find the aqueduct of Valens running through the city. This impressive structure was built during the reign of the emperor Valens, finished in 368 AD, and it supplied Constantinople with fresh water from 120 kilometers away. Walking further along the aqueduct, you would find at its very end an impressive nymphaeum, dedicated to the nymphs, and so it contained a lot of pagan statues in the old days, which by the time of your visit had been replaced with more neutral statues of Roman emperors or philosophers. So going back from the church of the holy apostles along the Valens aqueduct, turning right at the nymphaeum, you would arrive at the next magnificent forum, the Forum of Theodosius. This rectangular forum was originally built in the time of Constantine, but it was later rebuilt by emperor Theodosius in 393. It had very beautifully decorated triumphal arches and also a triumphal column. You would continue your way on the Mese, where you would approach the central part of the city, where there was the highest density of buildings, and which contained the most spectacular buildings and fora. In this view here, you would come from the left along the Mese and you would enter the round or oval forum of Constantine. When you would enter this impressive forum, you would be absolutely awestruck. On one side of the forum, there was another nymphaeum, which was not as large as the great nymphaeum, but still impressive enough. But the real impressive sight was the statue of Athena Promachos, the one and same Athena Promachos that had stood on the Acropolis of Athens. It was brought to Constantinople around the year 465 and erected in the Forum of Constantine. You would then turn around and you would see the triumphal column of Constantine, on top of which there was a golden statue of Constantine as the god Apollo. On the other side, you would see the old senate house. This building had the form of a rotunda temple, but by the time you would visit, it was not used anymore as the assembly place of the senate. It is unknown as what it was used in 565, but it might have been used as a general assembly place. You would now exit this spectacular forum and walk along the city. Now the density of people, of shops and of merchants would increase even more. It would have been quite crowded. Merchants from all over the Eastern Roman Empire would bring wares to sell them in the great city. The territory of the Eastern Roman Empire was at its peak in 565, encompassing many territories from the former Western Empire. Therefore, the activity in Constantinople must have been incredible. Now you would already see the column of Justinian, on which an equestrian statue of him was placed. And of course you would see the incredible Hagia Sophia church in the distance. Now you would have finally arrived at the Hippodrome. The Hippodrome of Constantinople was only a bit smaller than the one in Rome, but still very impressive. 450 meters long and 130 meters wide and capable of holding a hundred thousand spectators. The racing factions, the whites, the greens, the reds and the blues were always fervently battling each other in spectacular races and not seldomly would these rivalries erupt into open rebellions, leading often to chaotic and tumultuous scenes of chaos throughout the city. After witnessing this insane spectacle, you would go on to the Augustion, which was the central forum of the city. Here was not only the Hagia Sophia and many triumphal columns, among those the tallest one of Justinian, but many shops as well. And it was a meeting place of great activity. You could go to one of the many merchants and haggle for some impressive wares from faraway lands, and maybe you would be able to catch a good price and even buy a rare item. Also at the Augustion were the largest baths of Constantinople, of which the city had many, but these were truly impressive. They had been rebuilt after having been badly damaged in the Nica riots in 532 AD and now had a much more Christian and less pagan look. But there were still many statues of Greek heroes and of philosophers in there. There were separate rooms and often also separate hours for women and men, as the moral rules had become much stricter under Christianity. There were many beautiful mosaics as well, adorning the many chambers of this large bathing complex. Leaving the baths back to the Augustion, you would see the Magnaura. This building was completely rebuilt after the riots of 532 had destroyed the previous building. At the time of your visit, it was brand new and was used as the new senate hall for meetings and the old illustrious order of senators. Nearby you would find the Chalke, completed not too long before your visit. It must have been a splendid building and served as the ceremonial entrance to the imperial palace. Now finally the time had come to visit the grandest of the buildings that emperor Justinian had built, the church of the holy wisdom, also known as Hagia Sophia, which is still standing today. This structure had been also built by the emperor Justinian, who was a prolific builder. The dome had a diameter of around 33 meters and an interior height of 55.6 meters. On the inside, you would have seen a brand new golden plating of the entire upper area, which must have looked absolutely incredible. Now after seeing this, you might maybe have wanted to visit the old Acropolis of the old Byzantium. Here people had worshipped the ancient roman and greek gods in many temples hundreds of years ago, but by the time of your visit, most of these temples had been dismantled and their building materials had been reused for other buildings. And so you now might have wanted to cheer yourself up from that sad sight, and so you might have wanted to visit one of the hundreds of taverns that were scattered throughout the city. Not only would you find food there, but also great company and wine to certainly cheer you up. I propose a toast to our host and to After this tavern visit might have escalated a bit, you might have wanted to refresh yourself the next morning at one of the many fountains found throughout the entire city. And so your time in Constantinople would draw to an end, and you would stroll along the streets, soaking in one last time the sights and sounds of the city. Let's say you would want to leave Constantinople by ship. The city would have a large number of harbors varying in size. Many ships would arrive at the ports of Constantinople from all over the roman empire, but especially from the war-torn west, from where many people, especially from old Rome, would seek refuge here in the booming capital. And so leaving Constantinople by ship, you would look back onto the impressive skyline of the city. You would see the many cupolas glittering in the sun, most impressively of course the one of the Hagia Sophia. You had now witnessed Constantinople in its prime, when it was probably the most impressive looking city. Truly sights that you would never forget in your life. This, dear friends of late roman history, is how I would have imagined a visit to Constantinople in the year 565 AD. I hope you enjoyed this visit to Constantinople, one of the most impressive cities that ever existed. If you like this type of content, please subscribe to this channel, and you can also consider supporting this channel via Patreon. It is thanks to our Patreons that I can still make videos about late roman history. Some of these scenes are partially based on Antoine Helbert's artworks, to whom I want to thus give particular credit. I put a link to his site into the video description. I wish you a wonderful day, dear friends of late roman history, gratias ti piago, and benevalete.