Why did Constantine move the Capital at the peak of Rome's development?

 Why did Constantine move the Capital at the peak of Rome's development?

Constantine believed that the Roman Empire had become too big and disorganized to be managed as one Empire.

So he split it into two halves.

The eastern half became the Byzantine Empire. The capital of the eastern portion of the Roman Empire became Constantinople (renamed Byzantine), while the capital of the western Roman Empire remained Rome.

When Constantine split the Roman Empire it had actually already been in a slow decline for nearly two hundred years, so even though Rome was at its peak in terms of urbanization, the Roman Empire wasn't as economically sound anymore and it had faced significant political instability.

The Byzantine Empire outlasted the rest of the Roman Empire by nearly 1000 years. It didn't collapse until 1453, when it was defeated by the Ottoman Turks. Unlike  in the Roman Empire, Greek was the primary language in the Byzantine Empire.

The western Roman Empire fell in 476 AD. The western Roman Empire had its own emperor separate from the Eastern Roman Empire and its primary language was Latin instead of Greek. It was overrun by numerous Germanic tribes that ended up creating new monarchies. Italy itself fragmented into city-states and the countries that eventually became France, Spain, and England began to take shape.

The fall of the Western Roman Empire marks the beginning of what's called the Dark Ages. During the Dark Ages many of the tribes that sacked Rome became Christianized as they formed their own kingdoms that replaced the Roman Empire.

The Latin language also died out as a spoken language as early forms of French, Italian, and Spanish formed as spoken languages among commoners.

The Holy Roman Empire is really distinct from the actual Roman Empire that existed until 476.

It was initially preceded by the Carolingian Empire, which ruled much of France and Germany. The Carolingians were a dynasty that ruled the Franks, which were a group of people that lived mainly in modern day France.

In 800 A.D, the Carolingian king Charlemagne, was crowned by Pope Leo III and

it was declared that the 서 Roman Empire had been revived as "the Holy Roman Empire."

 

The Carolingian kingdom eventually fell apart, but the Holy Roman Empire continued when Otto I, who ruled the German Kingdom, was also crowned as "Holy Roman Emperor" in 962 A.D.

Since 962 The Holy Roman Empire continued to exist until 1806. By the time it fell, the Holy Roman Emperor had really been nothing more than a figurehead for over a century. It had a rather complex history that I can't really go into here. It didn't have a specified capital, but it was really centered in modern Germany instead of Rome. For much of its later history in fact, the Holy Roman Empire didn't even include Rome or much of modern Italy.

The important point to remember is that it the Holy Roman Empire really isn't a continuation of the Roman Empire since it didn't maintain Roman culture or Roman institutions. I find that the "Holy Roman Emperor" was really only the "Holy Roman Emperor" by name.

-----------------
Constantinople was designed and constructed at Constantine's command due to the fact that he wanted to build a new capital under the banner of Christianity (as he was the first Catholic christian emperor) and forget the pagan Gods under which Rome was built.

What also contributed to his decision to switch the capital was the growing unrest in the western part of the empire, and due to the fact that the city of Rome itself was not built (in regards to the terrain surrounding it and the fact that it was too far from its borders) in a very good defensive posture, whereas Constantinople was built in a position were it would be readily able to defend its borders with much greater speed than Rome. The city itself was set in a perfect position to defend itself from besiegers, each part of the city (being separated in the middle by the river Bosporus) could only be attacked from land on one side ( the western part of the city on its far western walls and the eastern part of the city on its far eastern walls).

in the generation that preceded Constantine the emperor Diocletian split the Roman empire into two halves, and each half had a senior and junior emperor. this rule of four did not outlive Diocletian since Constantine ignored DIocletian's order of succession in the western half of the empire and consolidated his power there. Constantine went on to conquer the eastern half of the empire (defeating in batle the successors Diocletian had appointed).

a little known fact is that the eastern half of the Roman empire was much more populated and wealthy than the western half and hence more desirable as a place to rule. this goes against our common sense since Rome first conquered what ended up being the western half of the empire before conquering the lands that would become the eastern half. it is also conceptually hard to view the eastern half of the empire as the continuation of the original Roman empire because Greek was the official language in the eastern half of the empire, not Latin.

the eastern half of the Roman empire (what historians later called the Byzantine empire) was perceived at the time of Constantine to be dominant half of the empire. the weaker western half of the empire fell in 476 AD. Greco-Roman civilization continued in the eastern half for almost another 1000 years.

the HRE dates back to 800 AD when pope (Roman bishop) Leo 3 crowned Frankish king Charlemagne as Emperor (implicitly Roman). Frankish king Charlemagne ruled over what is modern day Germany and France (not Italy). this coronation was only a symbolic gesture to indicate Charlemagne was the new Caesar since popes had no legal authority to crown secular rulers. to further confuse matters by medieval times Italy was nominally part of the territory of the HRE (ruled by a very weak king based in what is now Germany). the HRE was never based in Italy, only the concept of a king (Roman emperor) who ruled over vast territories.


Constantine moved the capital to the Eastern Roman Empire, and named it Constantinople. He did this because the Western Roman Empire was becoming unstable because of the people receiving government welfare and becoming soft. The Western Roman Empire was also under risk of being attacked by the Germans from the north, and other near enemies. It fell to German tribes called the Visigoths, the Ostrogoths, the Angles, the Saxons, and the Franks. After that, it was rampaged by the Huns.

https://youtu.be/e_phjB19ZEg

 

 

Constantinus가 태워 난 곳이 지금의 Servia Bulgaria 지방이다. 아버지가 프랑스 갈리아 지방에 있을 때 따라가서 컸다. 그는 알프스 산을 넘어 이탈리아로 진군하여 권력을 쥐었다. 당시 이탈리아 로마는 게르만 족이 많이 살아 이질화 되어 있고 문화도 라틴어를 쓰고 경제가 peak를 지나 기울어저 가고 있었다. 마라리아 병이 창궐하여 인구는 감소해 가고 변경은 로마에서 멀고 군사적 방어에 어려움이 있었다. 이와는 대조적으로 동부 로마제국은 소아시아 오리엔트 지방과 무역이 활발하고 상업이 발달하여 경제적으로 풍요롭고 Bysantine 은 북동부의 외부 침략에 바다를 끼고 있어 전략상 요새로 외적을 방어하기가 쉽고 그리스어를 쓰며 고전문화가 잘 보존되어 있어 발전의 희망이 있었다.

 

395AD 로마제국은 동 서로 분리되었다. Theodosius대재가 죽은 뒤 두 아들이 나눠 분리되었다.