Constantinople
The Byzantine capital where Procopius recorded that in 536 the sun shone without brightness for a whole year.
- Founded
- 330 CE by Constantine I on the site of Byzantium
- Modern city
- Istanbul
- Modern country
- Turkey
- Role
- Capital of the Eastern Roman Empire until 1453
- Key source
- Procopius, historian of Justinian's reign
- Status
- UNESCO 'Historic Areas of Istanbul' (1985)
What is Constantinople known for?
Constantinople was founded by the emperor Constantine I in 330 CE on the site of the Greek city of Byzantium, on the Bosporus. It was the capital of the Eastern Roman, or Byzantine, Empire for more than a thousand years, until the Ottoman conquest in 1453, and is now Istanbul. Its historic areas, including Hagia Sophia, are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Under Justinian I in the 6th century, the historian Procopius wrote that in 536 the sun gave its light without brightness, like the moon, for the whole year. Other writers in the Mediterranean, China and Ireland recorded dim skies, cold and crop failures at the same time.
Tree-ring and ice-core studies now link the event to large volcanic eruptions in 536 and 540, which cooled the Northern Hemisphere. The Plague of Justinian struck Constantinople a few years later, in 541–542.
Procopius, writing in Constantinople, described the dim sun of 536.
Mentioned on these pages
- PersonGeorge Syncellus
- PersonJustinian I
- PersonTheodosius II
Sources
- UNESCO World Heritage Centre, 'Historic Areas of Istanbul'Reference
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, 'Istanbul'Reference
- Wikipedia, 'Volcanic winter of 536'Reference
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