Originally a Greek polis known as Byzantium, Constantinopolis occupied a strategic position between Europe and Asia, controlling key maritime routes between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. Refounded by Constantine I as Nova Roma, the city was conceived as a Christian imperial capital while retaining many institutions, monuments, and urban forms inherited from Roman tradition.
During the fourth century, Constantinopolis became a major political and ceremonial centre of the Empire, closely associated with imperial ideology, court culture, and religious debate. Its urban landscape, marked by forums, palaces, hippodrome, and temples later converted or replaced by churches, reflects the coexistence and tension between traditional cults and emerging Christian dominance.
In the reign of Julian (361–363), Constantinopolis stood as a focal point of imperial authority in Thracia, Europa, embodying both the legacy of Roman pagan traditions and the new religious realities of Late Antiquity. Its role as an intellectual and symbolic centre continued to shape debates on cosmology, theology, and imperial order well beyond the classical Roman period.
