The City of Countless Names– History 2

The city of Constantinople sits at the juncture of two continents, two seas and countless empires across time. Since the cities’ founding, it’s mercantile, political, and religious significance ensured its constant growth and the covetous desire of others. The Greeks, the Romans, and the Christians once possessed this strategic city, and now it is the shining gem in the increasingly tarnished crown of the diminishing Ottoman Empire. In 1853, the Russian Czarina used a squabble over religious sites to threaten the Ottoman Empire with war, pulling the city into greater international import. With more English, French and Italian forces passing through the city each day, and its young Sultan’s new progressive policies, Constantinople faces enemies and allies unused to its exotic ways and ancient dangers.

After removing his rivals for the Imperial throne, Constantine the Great needed a new capital for his new Aluminate Roman Empire. The empire’s frontiers spread too wide to rule from Rome and an emperor from the west living in the east would help unify an empire splinted by a war for succession.  Constantine found his capital in Byzantium, and in 324 AD he began construction on his “Nova Roma” (New Rome).

Constantine his empire wealth into the new capital, bringing the best artists, sculptors, and architects, funding civic improvements like roads and aqueducts, buying (or otherwise procuring) the most precious artifacts and relics, and building Aluminate churches.

Guided by an angel, Constantine took a spear and marked the boundary of the city’s new fortifications, two miles out from the city walls. Soon Nova Roma’s size quadrupled Byzantium’s. Its founder and his city became so intertwined, Nova Roma became Constantinople (Constantine's City). In 337 AD Constantine died and was buried beneath the Church of the Holy Apostle, leaving his successors to enjoy his cities growth, prosperity, and natural defenses.

Theodosius I became emperor in 379. During his reign, he transported an Egyptian obelisk to Constantinople, suppressed pagan practices, unified the beliefs of the Aluminate faith, and built the Church of Jonathon the Baptist to house the saint’s skull. Thirteen years after his death in 395 AD, Theodosius II took the throne. Theodosius II oversaw the building of the great two-tiered walls (known as the Theodosian walls) around the entire city. Much of the Theodosian walls still stand, most evidently on the western side of the city. These walls protected Constantinople for 800 years.

Emperor Justinian I tried to expand the border of his empire. His partial success brought back a glimmer of the Roman Empire’s glory. More impressively, he rebuilt the Hagia Sofia after its fiery destruction, creating the most iconic and beautiful church in Constantinople.  During his blessed reign, the bubonic plague killed over a third of Constantinople’s population from 541-542 AD. The plagues death toll would have been lower, but strange poisonous fumes in the air and unnatural cold weather caused a massive famine in the years before, weakening everyone. Justinian himself caught the plague but lived another 23 years.

During the Middle Ages, Constantinople was the largest and wealthiest city in Europe, producing incredible works of art and architecture.  Unfortunately, this prosperity drew the attention of powerful covetous men. Its natural defenses and manmade fortifications kept the armies belonging to the Followers of the Word out of Europe, but it couldn’t keep out Enrico Dandolo of Venice, and his mutinous Crusaders. In 1204, they left their papal mission behind (or possibly followed it to the letter) to siege Constantinople by land and sea, broke through the wall, and occupied the city. For three days the Crusaders looted, vandalized, raped, and killed in Constantinople. They destroyed the entire Library of Constantinople, tortured the city’s inhabitants to find more loot, and even ripped all the gold decorations from sacred Aluminate sites. They made a shattered, violated wreck of Constantinople, and divided the empire’s territory among their leaders. The great city struggled on, suffering a mass exodus of its population, another plague of the Black Death in 1347, factional infighting, and the horrific leadership of its masters.

Relics of Constantine

In some church legends, Constantine sent his mother Helena to build churches in the Holy Land. With the help of a monk named Macarius (or a reluctant Jewish leader named Judas, whom she tortured into helping) Helena found the hiding place of the cross of Jesus Christ (known as the True Cross) and the crosses of the two thieves who died alongside him. Helena puzzled over which was the True Cross until one of the crosses brought a dead man (or woman) back to life.

On the same trip, Helena, aided by Judas, found the nails used in Christ’s crucifixion. After a prayer for guidance, flames from heaven pointed out their location buried in the dirt near Calvary. When she dug up the nails, they glowed with a divine light.  Helena turned the nails into rings for the bridle of Constantine’s horse to bless him in battle. The wood from the True Cross could be just about anywhere…

Other relics from Constantine’s reign include the Crown of Thorns, Moses’ Staff, and the Shroud of the Virgin Mary.  Naturally, you’ll want to adapt these stories to one of the real world religion analogs of Victoriana. Such as:

- Wood from the stake used to impale Saint Justas

- Links from the chains used to imprison Saint Simon Paul

- Metal from the Gladius that stabbed Saint Xanthus

- Teeth from the lion to which the Romans fed Saint Tamit

We have one more week of Constantinople’s history. After that, we’ll start talking about the nuts and bolts of the city as it was in the 1850s. I’ve really enjoyed, looking at church history from a gaming perspective for this. One of the really great things about this city is all the religions that have touched its past. You really can stick anything you want in there, and history will back you up.