A special shout-out to all the people who recently donated to us via Super Thanks 🤗: 🧡 @Kevin Gomez 🧡 @scrot 🧡 @Xina Marie Uhl 🧡 @Aaron Flynn 🧡 @Robert 🧡 @Gary Worthington 🧡 @howtorideahorse 🧡 @Franz Nowak 🧡 @(Ἰάσων) Sobek Lord of the Four Corners 🧡 @michael porzio 🧡 @David Batlle Thank you so much for your generous support and for believing in us 🙏 Your host, Sebastian
The grecorroman style was so intense and beautiful that Christianity didn't erase it, it adopted it. The dream of Roman unity prevailed for thousand years more, what a time of cultural height and religion!!
NYC and Chicago (and others) are declining already in our day! There are certain requirements for an urban civilization, and if a society does not uphold those requirements that civilization will not stand, no matter how many buildings, what amount of money, what degree of weaponry it may start with.
@@wynnschaible Liberals destroyed Rome due to leftwing corruption and policies, but conservatives destroyed Constantinople due to their bible believing fairytale beliefs. Liberals can't run a country, and neither can a non-existent so-called god. If conservatives in America think they can just god-god-god-god-god us back to prosperity, then America is just as doomed as Constantinople.
You may ofc, if the fact that the name was always some different variations of Istanbul even centuries before the age of Constantine doesn't bother you.
We, Bulgarians still call it Czarigrad (Цариград) meaning city of the Czar(Caesar)! Constantine I supposedly said that Serdica (nowadays Sofia - capital of Bulgaria with buildings from that time still standing) was his Rome, as he was using that place as residence before choosing Constantinople, I mean Czarigrad 😄! It happened so that I was born right in the middle between the two cities!
Dear Majorian: I think during the time of Justinian,some of the Pagan temples in Constantinople were still in use. Although Theodosius banned pagan religions, but according to Procopius, there were still small pagan religious group in Constantinople that makes Empress Theodora angry, also according to Procopius, the province of Egypt was also very pagan in 500s.
Hello tian ju liao, thank you so much for your very detailed and long comment :) I really appreciate it. And it is an honor for me that you joined Maiorianus as an official member. Your generous support will help me produce even better videos in the future :)
Thanks a lot Paul, that is wonderful for me to read :) I will certainly keep going, because there is still so very much I want to cover, all the eras until the very end in 1453 AD.
The version of the Church of the Holy Apostles that you show in this video is the Justinianianic phase, which was built beside the earlier and much smaller Constantinian phase. The Constantinian church likely served as Constantine's tomb, and descriptions suggest it was a round structure with niches containing symbolic sarcophaguses for the 12 Apostles plus one more for Constantine; positioning Constantine as a sort of Apostle. It probably looked very similar to the Rotunda of St. George in Thessaloniki. It's the lager cross-shaped Justinianianic phase that is emulated in Venice's Saint Mark's Basilica, Saint Front in Perigueux, etc. Dumbarton Oaks has a great book on the subject called, “The Holy Apostles: A Lost Monument, A forgotten Project, and the Presentness of the Past.”
Thanks!!! That was great. It would be great to see your description of the different regions of the empire. How Christian they were, how peacefully they were transformed, what were the economic prerequisites for this ..... and so on.
Something that's become apparent to me watching this is that the name Capitoleum (Temple) you mention in the video is also the name of one of the oldest shopping centers in Istanbul (Capitol). Never knew that was in reference to Byzantium.
Would be interesting to know more about the riots referred to in this episode! Especially relevant at the moment, which social unrest in a number of countries at the moment.
Outstanding and breathtaking reconstructions! Having just found this excellent channel - and immediately subscribed of course - I am impressed with the quality and detail of these videos on a sadly neglected subject, the history and culture of the Late Roman Empire. Great work!
Constantine: "Moving the capital of the Empire to a safe and secluded place like this was a brilliant decision. What a smart bastard you are, Constantine. What a smart bastard you are..." Lactantius: "By the way, Caesar. What do you intend to do with the succession to the throne?" Constantine: "I will divide the Empire for my children the day I meet that God you spend all day talking about. They will surely appreciate the efforts and sacrificies I made for its preservation and will know how to take care of it..."
Hello Aji de Roock, thanks a lot, I really appreciate it ! Yes, I was always fascinated by urban history, and especially Rome and Constantinople's urban history have always fascinated me.
hey man, your videos are amazing, as Zoroastrian Persian, I was feeling alone about my opinions on Roman history and reasons of their fall, then found your channel and saw that you basically have same opinions, you should create a discord or telegram channel
@@62rob53that would be because of the persian wars. And, recently, for having moral police killing young girls because of not dressing like nuns. It's not the west being hostile to Persia, that was a modern country in the '60ies and '70ies, before to turn into an authoritarian theocracy, that removed freedom of thought, of speech and any civil right. It's not the west to blame, if the relationship deteriorated. Nobody in the west despise the persians, known to be kind and civilized. Just their government sucks.
The song stabbing westward is very fitting...I cannot save you and you cannot save yourself....interesting times...ps. the elites are something else...always wondered if they obtain power from another source, non human...probably not...maybe I'm in the matrix...
Can it be that this is a re-upload? It seems to me that I saw a video with similar content on UA-cam a couple of weeks ago. At 5.37, a map of Constantinople is shown. I'd like to know whether the old road network can still be recognized in today's Istanbul. A while ago, I watched a documentary on TV showing that there are some inner cities of German towns where the medieval road network can even today be recognized.
Very good ! I'd like to see more content on this channel more often, Predict this to be a very large and succesful channel over the next few years, If I want to be lectured on the late roman era this is where its at the accent is perfect and the art is stunning. you have a very good thing going on here keep it up !
Hello Ashley, thanks a lot ,that is wonderful for me to read :) I am currently trying to increase my video production again so that hopefully I can release videos more often, but I want to do that without the quality suffering. There are still hundreds of topics on my to-do list, so we shall have video materials for many years to come :)
Question 🙋 What are those pillars that can be seen around the 20 seconds mark. They look like Hercules’ clubs. Is there an archeological record for such pillar designs or is it just the illustrators imagination?
Excellent question, they did actually exist: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forum_of_Theodosius#/media/File:Forum_Theodosius_Istanbul_March_2008_(1).JPG They are visible even today, where once the Forum of Theodosius stood. That is why the illustrations of Antoine Helbert are so excellent, they are all based on archeological evidence.
1:28 There are so many places to hide in a city like that but what were your chances of actually remaining hidden if the city was captured and sacked by the enemy? Probably slim I guess.
history books misinform readers the city was the second capital. it was not given this status until May 359 when an urban prefect was made the city's chief administrator. senators resident there were clari and the became clarissimi. the city may have had 250000 inhabitants and 350000 buy 400. It surpassed old rome circa 450 or a little later as the population of old rome dropped to 200-250k in 500.
Most of the city was built with wood, as all cities in Antiquity, I'd like to think that the fires it created were so strong that it melted whatever they had used for cement. Also many of those houses would've had wooden beams.
They reused stones from burnt buildings to make new ones. Do not forget that during riots, wars and pandemic outbreaks the population decreased. Also, Constantinople is on an active earthquake zone. If you are living in Europe, which is an old continent, the earthquake occurrence levels are very low. I live in Istanbul and we have a major above 6.0 on richter scale earthquake every 30 years. The earthquakes also demolished buildings and remnants of damaged buildings. These all contribute. As an example, all the classical antique statues and artifacts were stored in the Imperial Palace but at one time that building got burned down and alas, all the bronze statues got melted. You get the idea...
I'd recommend reading Timothy Barnes 'Constantine' , he argues that the city was largely destroyed by Septimius Severus and only started being rebuilt by Licinius, so there were no active pagan temples and Constantine had a blank sheet to build a new Christian capital.
Hi, that is an interesting theory, but there are competing theories which imho make more sense. It's a bit difficult to believe that in the 140 years between Septimius Severus and Licinius, the city remained largely destroyed. In fact, Severus actually rebuilt many monuments, and the 1st Hippodrome goes back to Severus. He also built the city walls and quite some other monuments. The temples on the Akropolis during that time would have 100% been rebuilt, since Rome was still very very pagan during that time. Also, there is archeological evidence that the city had grown beyond the Severan walls by the 3rd century, so this thesis of a destroyed city before Constantine doesn't make sense to me.
@@Maiorianus_Sebastian For me it makes sense that it was largely destroyed and though people still lived there was reduced to a status more akin to a town, the Romans had done such things before with Carthage and Jerusalem only to rebuild them later. It makes sense the pro Constantine histories would not want to give credit for rebuilding to Licinius but instead to Septimius Severus.
@dimensional X Greek nationalist people are so funny. They claim that every byzantine emperor were ethnic greeks and that that ancestry etc has nothing to do with it and is only decided to culture and language. But then when i ask them, what ethnicity constantine the great was, they just simply respond with : "Greek" lol. Constantines native language was latin and never considered himself a greek but a roman as tons of others did.
@@ItalMiser117 The ethnicity of Constantine does not matter. Who was living in and around the city, what was their ethnicity, which language they were speaking...? this matter. The Noble class never represents the ethnicity of the ordinary people they rule. For example; almost none of Ottoman Sultans were Turkish.
@@arldoran the ethnicity does matter since that was the topic of the conversation. Constantine the great wasn't greek. But many greeks claim that all byzantine emperors were greek
Every building was more classy and had a deep feeling back then. Now all buildings are mostly practical to keep people live there without any essence, spirit or beauty. I wish I could live back then when everything was more spiritual and connected.
@@Zeerich-yx9po True...it's a long time period. But he likes to start his transitions from earliest records to late Roman times. He could adjust his times however he wants....but we would need to see the transition from Athens non-Roman, Athens pagan Roman, Athens early Christian, Athens late Roman/Christian to the year 500 CE. To see the best transition from a pure Greek to Roman.
@@Zeerich-yx9po - Good to know. Certainly people on this channel don't realize the basic historical context and what could have transpired in that time.
You forgot to mention of destructive earthquakes. One earthquake created to really big tsunami and the other one disappeared an island. The reason of the city chosen by Constantine is Chrisopolis (Today Uskudar) Victory. He made a great victory against his last rival and Byzantium helped him a lot. This is an important detail too.
it's not surprising that the city looked 'pagan' as there was NO DISTINCT CHRISTIAN ARCHITECTURE AT THE TIME. The Christians built churches patterned after roman basilicas. It took another 2-3 centuries for the classical city with all its infrastructures to die with the exception of baths, circuses, some libraries. Everything else went: odeons (covered lecture and concert halls), theatres, palestra (gymnasiums), temples, amphitheatres, forums. The most impressive buildings were the early ones mentioned in the presentation and the huge Great Palace, and large churches. By 700 the main preoccupation of byzantine culture was religion and secular literature was secondary. Byzantine culture was not decadent; it was narrowly focused on a set of different values compared to pagan culture,
Akin to how when in another video Maiorianus claimed that Rome became the capital of the West in its' last decades. When in fact it was just an imperial residence for some emperors, and Ravenna remained the political/military capital until the fall.
First of all, in historical sources, it is not called Byzantium, but Romea. It was inhabited by Hellenes and Slavs. The history is known, but the Anglo-Saxons and Germans, out of hatred for Orthodoxy, change history and hide the truth.
Beautiful work, but somewhat speculative take on some of your history when no real facts to back you up nor contradict your speculations based upon your obvious prejudges .
Dear Costas, instead of just saying what it was not called and leaving us halfway, rather say what it was called. It would be more judicious and less selfish…
@@costamoc Romania, right. Or Empire of the Romans. But not Eastern Roman Empire. They never called themselves like that. However, we can use this term nowadays, because it is convenient, and closer to the reality than the old, false and restrictive "Byzantium", I agree. Have a good day !
It is my understanding that there is but one non ecclesiastical building in Istanbul today that predates the city's 2nd Fall in 1453 and that is Palace of Blachernae. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_Blachernae
Fantastic! I was surprised of how little remains of the Roman capital in modern Bizantium. What surprised me the more is that it was not a result of Ottoman occupation. It was rather due to the Ottomans that what is present nowadays has been preserved. At the time of Mehemet II just scattered remained of the Justinian palace and Hagia Sophia was in a truly sad state. The Crusaders occupation, the Venetian plundering brought the city to its knees and the later Comnenos and Paleologi sovereigns left the city to rot for almost 2 centuries before the Ottomans took over.
This video was the first one in which I heard you misspronounce a word, and you did it in such a german way. Ser only you germans read z as c (of medival latin) literally no one else does that.
Umm? An over-stuffed (with art 'stolen' from across the Roman empire) still Pagan culture (in art, taste, literature, architecture, teaching and study) built for an (almost) exclusively Christian city. In other words, a Theme Park version of the Theme Park that imperial Rome had long since become, but with an all too real and at times brutal seat of government; that is, a mirror of what Old Rome had once been .. in the imagination .. though wrapped up in a New Rome purpose. Beautiful, for sure, but as unpleasant as Roman Rome had been .. and as magnificent as it made itself. A successful piece of megalomania then, made lasting by Justinian's - also megalomaniacal - expensive building/ re-building sprees. And that, dear souls, was 'Rome' .. the reality, not the Gibbons history, nor the Holywood fiction. ;o)
@@decimusausoniusmagnus5719 Or, of course - though this might (just might) be a touch too far-out revolutionary in the common thought process today - simply tell it like it was. Yey! ;o)
You make pagan sound like a bad thing. It appears that the transformation to Christianity was not really a positive thing for the Roman Empire as a whole.
😅 I knew it. That voice. Infamous diehard Musk fanboy. Kept bothering me until I googled the name. How can you do such an excellent job presenting this history but fail so hard when it comes to musk's fake techno-futurism. Although, the hero-worshiping nostalgic dedication at the channel's core does check out. Why do you worship men, man?
@@micha2909 That part of the world was prominently Hellenistic Greek even during its proper latin Roman occupation! The Hellenistic world did not dissapear simply because some Roman legions (often with Greek soldiers), the local Roman prefect and his entourage were installed in the area! Out of them, the entire society was prominently Hellenistic Greek!
That's a bit complex, Turkey was in between. Geographically, an important part of it is located in Europe. Historically, the most precious Ottoman provinces were in Europe whereas Anatolia was a backwater. The empire had many ties with Europe, to the point it could be considered one of the European powers by some. Influences went both ways, for instance, the fashion of the 17th-century Polish nobility was inspired by the Turkish one. Oh, and the father of the Republic of Turkey was born in Thessaloniki.
@@GenerationX1984 byzantion. That was a whole different city though. Constantinople looked Absolutely different and was like 8 times larger than byzantion.
@@ItalMiser117 It's the same city with a different name in the different time periods......The City was built with the name Byzantion in the 6th century BC. Later became Augusta Antonina, then again Byzantion, then New Rome later Constantinople, the Ottomans called it Konstantiniye and in the present Istanbul.
@@heliedecastanet1882 Nah. It sounds like the most exagerated German accent I've listened to in my life and I'AM German. Absolutely unbeareble makes me want to stuff Kartoffeln in my ears. It's not his fault per sé, but he should REALLY give training his pronounciation another try. I have to be rude btw. it's my national pasttime. So, figg dich! :)
@@adrianseanheidmann4559 Ich weiß. Nur Englisch und Deutsch. Glücklicherweise werden Sie nicht gebeten, Höflichkeit zu lehren 🙂 What an interesting teacher you would be… Bonne soirée Kollege 😘
I CAN NOT BILIV HOW LENGVICH VITH NO NASIONALITI IS MOR IMPORTENT THEN NASHIONALITI WITH ( LENGVECH,ADMINISTRATION ,ARMY,FOLKOR PEAP0L,RELIGION) WE MASEDONIANS ARE THE 'BALKANS' NOT ( GREEKS, BULGARIAS ,SRBIANS OR ALBENIANS).WEST MAKE THEM IN 1800 TH.HUNDREDS SAS A CONTRES AND NATIONS.
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Thank you so much for your generous support and for believing in us 🙏
Your host, Sebastian
The grecorroman style was so intense and beautiful that Christianity didn't erase it, it adopted it. The dream of Roman unity prevailed for thousand years more, what a time of cultural height and religion!!
Still hard to imagine how quickly cities and technology declined! My support is being well spent, fantastic work!
NYC and Chicago (and others) are declining already in our day! There are certain requirements for an urban civilization, and if a society does not uphold those requirements that civilization will not stand, no matter how many buildings, what amount of money, what degree of weaponry it may start with.
Thanks so much for your extremely kind words and for your continuous support Hal :) I really appreciate it a lot.
@@wynnschaible True, what u said. Is also mentioned in the book 📖 Decline of the West.
@@wynnschaible - No kidding.
@@wynnschaible Liberals destroyed Rome due to leftwing corruption and policies, but conservatives destroyed Constantinople due to their bible believing fairytale beliefs. Liberals can't run a country, and neither can a non-existent so-called god. If conservatives in America think they can just god-god-god-god-god us back to prosperity, then America is just as doomed as Constantinople.
I saw those obelisks in 2009 AD. It was pretty cool being in such an ancient and important city. I still call it Constantinople lol
You may ofc, if the fact that the name was always some different variations of Istanbul even centuries before the age of Constantine doesn't bother you.
Heh, I saw them in 2009 BC
We, Bulgarians still call it Czarigrad (Цариград) meaning city of the Czar(Caesar)! Constantine I supposedly said that Serdica (nowadays Sofia - capital of Bulgaria with buildings from that time still standing) was his Rome, as he was using that place as residence before choosing Constantinople, I mean Czarigrad 😄! It happened so that I was born right in the middle between the two cities!
Dear Majorian: I think during the time of Justinian,some of the Pagan temples in Constantinople were still in use. Although Theodosius banned pagan religions, but according to Procopius, there were still small pagan religious group in Constantinople that makes Empress Theodora angry, also according to Procopius, the province of Egypt was also very pagan in 500s.
Hello tian ju liao, thank you so much for your very detailed and long comment :) I really appreciate it. And it is an honor for me that you joined Maiorianus as an official member. Your generous support will help me produce even better videos in the future :)
Interesting anyway
You have the best late Roman period videos. Keep up the good work. Priceless
Thanks a lot Paul, that is wonderful for me to read :) I will certainly keep going, because there is still so very much I want to cover, all the eras until the very end in 1453 AD.
Literally watching this while playing Crusader Kings 3: The Fallen Eagle. Thank you, Maiorianus ☺️
fallen eagle? is it a mod or something?
@@thatromanguy1906 It’s a mod that starts before 400 AD
Same lol
@@swann3482 I woke up at 6am and been playing oops
@@TaeSunWoo dat do be like that
The version of the Church of the Holy Apostles that you show in this video is the Justinianianic phase, which was built beside the earlier and much smaller Constantinian phase.
The Constantinian church likely served as Constantine's tomb, and descriptions suggest it was a round structure with niches containing symbolic sarcophaguses for the 12 Apostles plus one more for Constantine; positioning Constantine as a sort of Apostle. It probably looked very similar to the Rotunda of St. George in Thessaloniki.
It's the lager cross-shaped Justinianianic phase that is emulated in Venice's Saint Mark's Basilica, Saint Front in Perigueux, etc.
Dumbarton Oaks has a great book on the subject called, “The Holy Apostles: A Lost Monument, A forgotten Project, and the Presentness of the Past.”
The fall of Constantinople caused a change in commercial routes. Thats how Columbus discovered by mistake América.
Thanks!!! That was great. It would be great to see your description of the different regions of the empire. How Christian they were, how peacefully they were transformed, what were the economic prerequisites for this ..... and so on.
Similar to how the Anatolians became muslim later
In the west, the transformation was not peaceful. A lot of people didn’t want to become Christian. They did so at the point of the sword
This is a SERIOUSLY underrated channel.
Thank you. I love your vídeos and speech, including the inflections of your voice.
Something that's become apparent to me watching this is that the name Capitoleum (Temple) you mention in the video is also the name of one of the oldest shopping centers in Istanbul (Capitol). Never knew that was in reference to Byzantium.
Fascinating, indeed! Clear narration with just enough detail.
Would be interesting to know more about the riots referred to in this episode! Especially relevant at the moment, which social unrest in a number of countries at the moment.
Outstanding and breathtaking reconstructions!
Having just found this excellent channel - and immediately subscribed of course - I am impressed with the quality and detail of these videos on a sadly neglected subject, the history and culture of the Late Roman Empire. Great work!
Constantine: "Moving the capital of the Empire to a safe and secluded place like this was a brilliant decision. What a smart bastard you are, Constantine. What a smart bastard you are..."
Lactantius: "By the way, Caesar. What do you intend to do with the succession to the throne?"
Constantine: "I will divide the Empire for my children the day I meet that God you spend all day talking about. They will surely appreciate the efforts and sacrificies I made for its preservation and will know how to take care of it..."
Has there ever been a city more strategically located and geographically defendable as Constantinople?
Amazing videos! I love that you brig light to a very underrepresented topic. Thanks!
Hello Aji de Roock, thanks a lot, I really appreciate it ! Yes, I was always fascinated by urban history, and especially Rome and Constantinople's urban history have always fascinated me.
Great job, Sebastian 👍
Thanks so much for watching the video and for your kind words as always, Sobek 🤗
hey man, your videos are amazing, as Zoroastrian Persian, I was feeling alone about my opinions on Roman history and reasons of their fall, then found your channel and saw that you basically have same opinions, you should create a discord or telegram channel
We Europeans never want to recognize the greatness of ancient Persia; we only see it as an enemy..
Omg,you are true Persian
@@62rob53that would be because of the persian wars. And, recently, for having moral police killing young girls because of not dressing like nuns. It's not the west being hostile to Persia, that was a modern country in the '60ies and '70ies, before to turn into an authoritarian theocracy, that removed freedom of thought, of speech and any civil right.
It's not the west to blame, if the relationship deteriorated. Nobody in the west despise the persians, known to be kind and civilized.
Just their government sucks.
A I was thinking of the movie 400.
But as Thucydides knew, "Men make a state, not walls nor empty ships."
Thanks for bringing up this nice saying fractalbeethoven :)
The song stabbing westward is very fitting...I cannot save you and you cannot save yourself....interesting times...ps. the elites are something else...always wondered if they obtain power from another source, non human...probably not...maybe I'm in the matrix...
Please never change your background music . It
Agreed very relaxing
You would see especially Greeks, few romans but definitely not mongols that's for sure.
You would never see mongols even till today wtf 😂. Also AEK 👎. Gala 🔥
Great video! I live in Istanbul, would love to send you the pictures I took inside the archeological museum which show classical artifacts.
I love every video you make.
Can it be that this is a re-upload? It seems to me that I saw a video with similar content on UA-cam a couple of weeks ago.
At 5.37, a map of Constantinople is shown. I'd like to know whether the old road network can still be recognized in today's Istanbul. A while ago, I watched a documentary on TV showing that there are some inner cities of German towns where the medieval road network can even today be recognized.
Some section of Mesa boulevard is intact today as Divanyolu street.
Very good ! I'd like to see more content on this channel more often, Predict this to be a very large and succesful channel over the next few years, If I want to be lectured on the late roman era this is where its at the accent is perfect and the art is stunning. you have a very good thing going on here keep it up !
Hello Ashley, thanks a lot ,that is wonderful for me to read :) I am currently trying to increase my video production again so that hopefully I can release videos more often, but I want to do that without the quality suffering. There are still hundreds of topics on my to-do list, so we shall have video materials for many years to come :)
Question 🙋 What are those pillars that can be seen around the 20 seconds mark. They look like Hercules’ clubs. Is there an archeological record for such pillar designs or is it just the illustrators imagination?
Excellent question, they did actually exist: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forum_of_Theodosius#/media/File:Forum_Theodosius_Istanbul_March_2008_(1).JPG
They are visible even today, where once the Forum of Theodosius stood. That is why the illustrations of Antoine Helbert are so excellent, they are all based on archeological evidence.
@@Maiorianus_Sebastian Thank you so much for the answer! 🙏
Thanks!
Hello David :) Thank you so much for watching the video and for your generous donation. It is highly appreciated 🙏
1:28 There are so many places to hide in a city like that but what were your chances of actually remaining hidden if the city was captured and sacked by the enemy? Probably slim I guess.
No kidding. At some point, people have to draw water, eat, and defecate.
history books misinform readers the city was the second capital. it was not given this status until May 359 when an urban prefect was made the city's chief administrator. senators resident there were clari and the became clarissimi. the city may have had 250000 inhabitants and 350000 buy 400. It surpassed old rome circa 450 or a little later as the population of old rome dropped to 200-250k in 500.
constantinople was probably very beautiful at that time
Maybe I’m stupid, but how can buildings built almost entirely of stone burn down to the point of destruction?
Most of the city was built with wood, as all cities in Antiquity, I'd like to think that the fires it created were so strong that it melted whatever they had used for cement. Also many of those houses would've had wooden beams.
You're NOT stupid!! That's a very legitimate question!!!
They weren't only built of stone. Would was also in there. But behind the facade.
They reused stones from burnt buildings to make new ones. Do not forget that during riots, wars and pandemic outbreaks the population decreased. Also, Constantinople is on an active earthquake zone. If you are living in Europe, which is an old continent, the earthquake occurrence levels are very low. I live in Istanbul and we have a major above 6.0 on richter scale earthquake every 30 years. The earthquakes also demolished buildings and remnants of damaged buildings. These all contribute. As an example, all the classical antique statues and artifacts were stored in the Imperial Palace but at one time that building got burned down and alas, all the bronze statues got melted. You get the idea...
Not to mention the destruction of the crusaders in 1204 AD
I'd recommend reading Timothy Barnes 'Constantine' , he argues that the city was largely destroyed by Septimius Severus and only started being rebuilt by Licinius, so there were no active pagan temples and Constantine had a blank sheet to build a new Christian capital.
From what I’ve read, no pagan temples were allowed to be built in Constantinople after Constantine made it his capital.
Hi, that is an interesting theory, but there are competing theories which imho make more sense. It's a bit difficult to believe that in the 140 years between Septimius Severus and Licinius, the city remained largely destroyed. In fact, Severus actually rebuilt many monuments, and the 1st Hippodrome goes back to Severus. He also built the city walls and quite some other monuments. The temples on the Akropolis during that time would have 100% been rebuilt, since Rome was still very very pagan during that time. Also, there is archeological evidence that the city had grown beyond the Severan walls by the 3rd century, so this thesis of a destroyed city before Constantine doesn't make sense to me.
@@Maiorianus_Sebastian For me it makes sense that it was largely destroyed and though people still lived there was reduced to a status more akin to a town, the Romans had done such things before with Carthage and Jerusalem only to rebuild them later. It makes sense the pro Constantine histories would not want to give credit for rebuilding to Licinius but instead to Septimius Severus.
Great quality videos
Your content is so good you really need better audio equipment and or a space for voiceovers
Correction: Constantinople was never thracian. It was founded by the Greek colonists from doric region.
Not so clear.
@dimensional X Constantinople was built on an ancient Greek city named 'Byzantium' that's where the Byzantine Empire got it's name from
@dimensional X Greek nationalist people are so funny. They claim that every byzantine emperor were ethnic greeks and that that ancestry etc has nothing to do with it and is only decided to culture and language. But then when i ask them, what ethnicity constantine the great was, they just simply respond with : "Greek" lol.
Constantines native language was latin and never considered himself a greek but a roman as tons of others did.
@@ItalMiser117 The ethnicity of Constantine does not matter. Who was living in and around the city, what was their ethnicity, which language they were speaking...? this matter. The Noble class never represents the ethnicity of the ordinary people they rule. For example; almost none of Ottoman Sultans were Turkish.
@@arldoran the ethnicity does matter since that was the topic of the conversation. Constantine the great wasn't greek. But many greeks claim that all byzantine emperors were greek
I need a time machine, right now!
Every building was more classy and had a deep feeling back then. Now all buildings are mostly practical to keep people live there without any essence, spirit or beauty.
I wish I could live back then when everything was more spiritual and connected.
Oh for a time machine!
I like these "What would you have seen.." Have you ever thought about a video for cities like Athens from like 50 CE - 500 CE?
@@Zeerich-yx9po True...it's a long time period. But he likes to start his transitions from earliest records to late Roman times. He could adjust his times however he wants....but we would need to see the transition from Athens non-Roman, Athens pagan Roman, Athens early Christian, Athens late Roman/Christian to the year 500 CE. To see the best transition from a pure Greek to Roman.
@@Zeerich-yx9po - Good to know. Certainly people on this channel don't realize the basic historical context and what could have transpired in that time.
You forgot to mention of destructive earthquakes. One earthquake created to really big tsunami and the other one disappeared an island.
The reason of the city chosen by Constantine is Chrisopolis (Today Uskudar) Victory. He made a great victory against his last rival and Byzantium helped him a lot. This is an important detail too.
An in depth video on the Nika riots would be good
it's not surprising that the city looked 'pagan' as there was NO DISTINCT CHRISTIAN ARCHITECTURE AT THE TIME. The Christians built churches patterned after roman basilicas. It took another 2-3 centuries for the classical city with all its infrastructures to die with the exception of baths, circuses, some libraries. Everything else went: odeons (covered lecture and concert halls), theatres, palestra (gymnasiums), temples, amphitheatres, forums. The most impressive buildings were the early ones mentioned in the presentation and the huge Great Palace, and large churches. By 700 the main preoccupation of byzantine culture was religion and secular literature was secondary. Byzantine culture was not decadent; it was narrowly focused on a set of different values compared to pagan culture,
Even around the year 1000 there were bacchanalias; only members of the church were allowed to visit them
Fantastic City.
You had to pick the year 330 ad...not 329 or 331 but 330...interesting....
great to see Assassin's Creed Origins simulation
Love this channel...
The might and majesty of Constantine.
constantinople was constantins residence, not the new capital.
the city became a capital not before
constantius ii. or theodosius 1.
Pagan Rome is the best Rome.
Architecture wise yes . But savage brutality wise no .
@@michaeldy3157 Clothing wise best is also Pagan Rome. Christian Rome went onto wearing pants.
Excellent
Reeny couture's acknowledgement conscription
What does Constantinople look like at 717 A.D during 20 years anarchy
constantin made byzantium not the new capital of the roman empire but his new residence.
Akin to how when in another video Maiorianus claimed that Rome became the capital of the West in its' last decades. When in fact it was just an imperial residence for some emperors, and Ravenna remained the political/military capital until the fall.
At 2:16-2:17 we see a shadow of an airplane on the stairway.
that's a gliding bird
First of all, in historical sources, it is not called Byzantium, but Romea. It was inhabited by Hellenes and Slavs. The history is known, but the Anglo-Saxons and Germans, out of hatred for Orthodoxy, change history and hide the truth.
Beautiful work, but somewhat speculative take on some of your history when no real facts to back you up nor contradict your speculations based upon your obvious prejudges .
It was called Rome.
I'm a fan of Constantine and this wasawesome
I Like of The Video.
Gostei do video, gostaria que fosse traduzido para a língua portuguesa
It was never called Byzantium
Dear Costas, instead of just saying what it was not called and leaving us halfway, rather say what it was called. It would be more judicious and less selfish…
@@heliedecastanet1882 Romania or Eastern Roman Empire.
@@costamoc Romania, right. Or Empire of the Romans. But not Eastern Roman Empire. They never called themselves like that. However, we can use this term nowadays, because it is convenient, and closer to the reality than the old, false and restrictive "Byzantium", I agree.
Have a good day !
it was his chief residence not capital. a lot of the buildings were a bit rickety as these were constructed in such haste.
Man those Nika rioters sure burned down a lot of great buildings. Maybe Belisarius slaughtering all of them wasn't such a bad idea.
Actually, the rebels were lumpens.
Affidavit includes by Dell Ennis torok our 33 annals agenda's
😢
Don’t worry our eastern Roman predecessors. The republic is still fighting to undermine the sassanians and Seljuks
It is my understanding that there is but one non ecclesiastical building in Istanbul today that predates the city's 2nd Fall in 1453 and that is Palace of Blachernae. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_Blachernae
No Byzantine. Nova Roma ! East Roman empire.
Nea Roma?
Fantastic! I was surprised of how little remains of the Roman capital in modern Bizantium. What surprised me the more is that it was not a result of Ottoman occupation. It was rather due to the Ottomans that what is present nowadays has been preserved.
At the time of Mehemet II just scattered remained of the Justinian palace and Hagia Sophia was in a truly sad state.
The Crusaders occupation, the Venetian plundering brought the city to its knees and the later Comnenos and Paleologi sovereigns left the city to rot for almost 2 centuries before the Ottomans took over.
There was always a little money to restore something, but Byzantium is over..
This video was the first one in which I heard you misspronounce a word, and you did it in such a german way. Ser only you germans read z as c (of medival latin) literally no one else does that.
Umm? An over-stuffed (with art 'stolen' from across the Roman empire) still Pagan culture (in art, taste, literature, architecture, teaching and study) built for an (almost) exclusively Christian city. In other words, a Theme Park version of the Theme Park that imperial Rome had long since become, but with an all too real and at times brutal seat of government; that is, a mirror of what Old Rome had once been .. in the imagination .. though wrapped up in a New Rome purpose.
Beautiful, for sure, but as unpleasant as Roman Rome had been .. and as magnificent as it made itself. A successful piece of megalomania then, made lasting by Justinian's - also megalomaniacal - expensive building/ re-building sprees.
And that, dear souls, was 'Rome' .. the reality, not the Gibbons history, nor the Holywood fiction.
;o)
@@decimusausoniusmagnus5719 Or, of course - though this might (just might) be a touch too far-out revolutionary in the common thought process today - simply tell it like it was. Yey! ;o)
Give me a handful of fierce TURKIC warriors and i'll pregnate Constantinople.
You make pagan sound like a bad thing. It appears that the transformation to Christianity was not really a positive thing for the Roman Empire as a whole.
😅 I knew it. That voice. Infamous diehard Musk fanboy. Kept bothering me until I googled the name. How can you do such an excellent job presenting this history but fail so hard when it comes to musk's fake techno-futurism. Although, the hero-worshiping nostalgic dedication at the channel's core does check out. Why do you worship men, man?
Purgations marmora
What would you see ? Not Turks .
First it wasn't called Constantinople but Second Rome. It was not called Bizantia but Eastern Roman Empire.
Marmora
The usual falsification of history in this video as well! That the predominantly Greek Byzantium was not Greek but latin Roman!
It was Latin until the 6th century.
@@micha2909 That part of the world was prominently Hellenistic Greek even during its proper latin Roman occupation! The Hellenistic world did not dissapear simply because some Roman legions (often with Greek soldiers), the local Roman prefect and his entourage were installed in the area! Out of them, the entire society was prominently Hellenistic Greek!
The Ancient City Byzantion was created by the Megaris and became the name from Byzantas
Definitely not Islam
you need better narration
Turkey is not Europe
Part of it certainly is in Europe
@@ecurewitz Yeah, a small sliver of land. The bulk of it is in _the Middle East._
@@septimiusseverus343 still
This video is about Roman antiquity where Southern Europe, North Africa and West Asia all had the same culture.
That's a bit complex, Turkey was in between. Geographically, an important part of it is located in Europe. Historically, the most precious Ottoman provinces were in Europe whereas Anatolia was a backwater. The empire had many ties with Europe, to the point it could be considered one of the European powers by some. Influences went both ways, for instance, the fashion of the 17th-century Polish nobility was inspired by the Turkish one. Oh, and the father of the Republic of Turkey was born in Thessaloniki.
Byzantium is the original name of the city. Stupid religions changing its name.
No it wasn't
@@ItalMiser117 Oh really? What was it called before it was named Constantinople then? Since you know so much.
@@GenerationX1984 byzantion. That was a whole different city though. Constantinople looked Absolutely different and was like 8 times larger than byzantion.
@@ItalMiser117 It's the same city with a different name in the different time periods......The City was built with the name Byzantion in the 6th century BC. Later became Augusta Antonina, then again Byzantion, then New Rome later Constantinople, the Ottomans called it Konstantiniye and in the present Istanbul.
@@Geoma1999 no it doesn't. Refounded. Ever heard of that term?
OOOOF, sorry mate, I just can't with your voice. Please hire a narrator or I don't know, maybe a parrot?
Dear Adrian, his voice is so much more pleasant than your manners 🙂
@@heliedecastanet1882 Nah. It sounds like the most exagerated German accent I've listened to in my life and I'AM German. Absolutely unbeareble makes me want to stuff Kartoffeln in my ears. It's not his fault per sé, but he should REALLY give training his pronounciation another try.
I have to be rude btw. it's my national pasttime.
So, figg dich! :)
@@adrianseanheidmann4559 Vous ne croyez pas si bien dire, cher Adrian. C'est l'un de mes passe-temps favoris 🙂
Bisou, chaton 😘
@@heliedecastanet1882 Ich spreche kein Pampelmouse Kollege. :(
@@adrianseanheidmann4559
Ich weiß. Nur Englisch und Deutsch. Glücklicherweise werden Sie nicht gebeten, Höflichkeit zu lehren 🙂
What an interesting teacher you would be…
Bonne soirée Kollege 😘
I CAN NOT BILIV HOW LENGVICH VITH NO NASIONALITI IS MOR IMPORTENT THEN NASHIONALITI WITH ( LENGVECH,ADMINISTRATION ,ARMY,FOLKOR PEAP0L,RELIGION) WE MASEDONIANS ARE THE 'BALKANS' NOT ( GREEKS, BULGARIAS ,SRBIANS OR ALBENIANS).WEST MAKE THEM IN 1800 TH.HUNDREDS SAS A CONTRES AND NATIONS.
sometime it will be greek and cristian again.
CONSTADIN BIRTH PLACE VAS IN MASEDONIA IN TODAY SRBIJA NAME 'NISH".SO GREEK S DID NOT EXISTED AT THAT TIME.
We called ourselves Romans at that time and not Greeks.
this is not the cONSTANTİNOPORİS, İT İS İSTANBUL NOT THE TURKEY, it is TÜRKİYE... UNDERSDİNG MAN.
Thanks!
Hello Ruufus De Leon, thanks a lot for watching the video and for your generous support! I really appreciate it 🤗
Thanks!
Hello Squire Waldo :) Thanks so much for watching the video and for your generous donation! It is highly appreciated 😊