New Rome

For other uses, see New Rome (disambiguation).

New Rome (Greek: Νέα Ῥώμη, Nea Romē; Latin: Nova Roma) was a name given by the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great in 330 AD to his new imperial capital at the city on the European coast of the Bosporus strait, also known as Byzantium until then, and as Kōnstantinoúpolis (Constantinople). The city is now known as Istanbul.

Constantine essentially rebuilt the city on a monumental scale, partly modelled after Rome. Names of this period included ἡ Νέα, δευτέρα Ῥώμη, "the New, second Rome";[1] Alma Roma, Ἄλμα Ῥώμα; Βυζαντιάς Ῥώμη, "Byzantine Rome"; ἑῴα Ῥώμη, "Eastern Rome"; and Roma Constantinopolitana.[2]:354

The term New Rome lent itself to East–West polemics, especially in the context of the Great Schism, when it was used by the Eastern Orthodox Greek writers to stress the rivalry with the Western Catholic Rome. New Rome is also still part of the official title of the Patriarch of Constantinople–New Rome.[3]

References

  1. ↑ The 5th-century church historian Socrates of Constantinople writes in his Historia Ecclesiastica, 1:16 (c. 439) that the emperor named the city "Constantinople" while decreeing that it be designated a "second Rome" (‘Κωνσταντινούπολιν’ μετονομάσας, χρηματίζειν ‘δευτέραν Ῥώμην’ νόμῳ ἐκύρωσεν).
  2. ↑ Georgacas, Demetrius John (1947). "The Names of Constantinople". Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association (The Johns Hopkins University Press) 78: 347–67. doi:10.2307/283503. JSTOR 283503.
  3. ↑ Bartholomew, Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch
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