FOUNDATION OF CONSTANTINOPLE

The Roman Emperor

Constantine I (r.306-337 CE) moves the capital of the empire to a new city founded on the site of Byzantion, calling it Constantinople. The new city is ideally sited on several trade routes, is more central to the vast lands of the empire, and is able to be designed and built to suit the empire’s needs.

Constantine founded the city which bore his name as a ‘New Rome’ and the civil and administrative centre of his empire