capitals

Examples of capitals in the following topics:

• The Shift East

  • Constantine built a new imperial residence in Byzantium and renamed the city Constantinople after himself, which would later become the capital of the Empire for over one thousand years.
  • It would later become the capital of the Empire for over one thousand years; for which reason the later Eastern Empire would come to be known as the Byzantine Empire.
  • Among the various locations proposed for this alternative capital, Constantine appears to have toyed earlier with Serdica (present-day Sofia), as he was reported saying that "Serdica is my Rome."
  • The capital would often be compared to the 'old' Rome as Nova Roma Constantinopolitana, the "New Rome of Constantinople."
  • Explain why Constantine moved the capital of the Empire to Constantinople and the consequences that had for the Empire as a whole

• Classical Greek Architecture

  • The triglyps are located above the center of each capital and the center of each lintel.
  • The Ionic Order is most easily identified by its voluted capital.
  • The capitals of the Corinthian Order were much deeper than those of the Doric and Ionic Orders.
  • The ratio of capital height to diameter is generally about 1:16:1.
  • Corner capital in the Ionic style with a diagonal volute, showing also details of the fluting separated by fillets.

• The Ghana Empire

  • In the medieval Arabic sources the word "Ghana" can refer to a royal title, the name of a capital city, or a kingdom.
  • Research on the site of Koumbi Saleh (or Kumbi Saleh), a ruined medieval town in southeast Mauritania that may have been the capital of the Ghana Empire, suggests earlier beginnings.
  • Al-Bakri, who wrote in the 11th century, described the capital of Ghana as consisting of two towns six miles apart, one inhabited by Muslim merchants and the other by the king of Ghana.
  • The empire's capital is believed to have been at Koumbi Saleh on the rim of the Sahara desert.
  • It was protected by a stone wall and functioned as the royal and spiritual capital of the empire.

• Naming of the Byzantine Empire

  • The Byzantine Empire, sometimes referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire in the East during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul, originally founded as Byzantium).
  • Constantine I (r. 324–337) reorganised the empire, made Constantinople the new capital, and legalised Christianity.
  • For example, the Byzantine capital, Constantinople, was adorned with a large number of classical sculptures, although they eventually became an object of some puzzlement for its inhabitants.
  • The term comes from "Byzantium", the name of the city of Constantinople before it became Constantine's capital.
  • A map of Constantinople, the capital and founding city of the Byzantine Empire, drawn in 1422 CE by Florentine cartographer Cristoforo Buondelmonti.

• Great Zimbabwe

  • Great Zimbabwe was the capital of the Kingdom of Zimbabwe (13th–15th c.); it flourished as an international gold and ivory trade center and its architecturally unique ruins remain among the oldest and largest structures in Southern Africa.
  • It was the capital of the Kingdom of Zimbabwe during the country's Late Iron Age.
  • The Kingdom of Zimbabwe, of which Great Zimbabwe was the capital, existed between circa 1220 and 1450 in modern-day Zimbabwe.
  • By 1450, the capital and most of the kingdom had been abandoned.

• The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

  • It is important to note, however, that the so-called fall of the Roman Empire specifically refers to the fall of the Western Roman Empire, since the Eastern Roman Empire, or what became known as the Byzantine Empire, whose capital was founded by Constantine, remained for another 1000 years.
  • After his death in 395, he gave the two halves of the Empire to his two sons Arcadius and Honorius; Arcadius became ruler in the East, with his capital in Constantinople, and Honorius became ruler in the West, with his capital in Milan and later Ravenna.
  • By the late 3rd century, the city of Rome no longer served as an effective capital for the Emperor, and various cities were used as new administrative capitals.
  • In 476, after being refused lands in Italy, Orestes' Germanic mercenaries under the leadership of the chieftain Odoacer captured and executed Orestes and took Ravenna, the Western Roman capital at the time, deposing Western Emperor Romulus Augustus.

• Bornu Empire

  • The Kanembu eventually abandoned their nomadic lifestyle and founded a capital around 700 CE under the first documented Kanembu king (mai), known as Sef of Saif.
  • The capital of Njimi grew in power and influence under Sef's son, Dugu.
  • He built a fortified capital at Ngazargamu, to the west of Lake Chad (in present-day Niger), the first permanent home a Sayfawa mai had enjoyed in a century.
  • With control over both capitals, the Sayfawa dynasty became more powerful than ever.
  • He eventually built a capital at Kukawa (in present-day Nigeria) in 1814.

• The Aztec People

  • The Republic of Mexico and its capital, Mexico City, derive their names from the word "Mexica."
  • The capital of the Aztec empire was Tenochtitlan, built on a raised island in Lake Texcoco.
  • Subsequently the Spanish founded the new settlement of Mexico City on the site of the ruined Aztec capital, from where they proceeded to colonize Central America.
  • Archeological evidence shows that jade, obsidian, feathers, and shells reached the capital through established trade routes.
  • The capital of Tenochtitlan was divided into four even sections called campans.

• The Byzantine-Bulgarian Wars

  • Its leading cultural position was further consolidated with the invention of the Glagolitic and Early Cyrillic alphabets shortly after in the capital Preslav, and literature produced in Old Bulgarian soon began spreading north.
  • In 971 John I Tzimiskes, the Byzantine emperor, subjugated much of the weakening Bulgarian Empire, facing wars with Russians, Pechenegs, Magyars and Croatians and by defeating Boris II and capturing Preslav, the Bulgarian capital.
  • The rebellion failed to immediately capture Bulgaria's historic capital Preslav, but established a new capital city at Tărnovo, presumably the center of the revolt.

• The Northern Song Era

  • During the Northern Song (960-1127), the Song capital was in the northern city of Kaifeng, and the dynasty controlled most of what is now Eastern China.
  • However, the poor performance and military weakness of the Song army was observed by the Jurchens, who immediately broke the alliance, beginning the Jin–Song Wars of 1125 and 1127; during the latter invasion, the Jurchens captured not only the capital, but also the retired Emperor Huizong, his successor Emperor Qinzong, and most of the imperial court.
  • The remaining Song forces regrouped under the self-proclaimed Emperor Gaozong of Song (1127–1162) and withdrew south of the Yangtze to establish a new capital at Lin'an (modern Hangzhou).
  • The Jurchen conquest of northern China and the shift of capitals from Kaifeng to Lin'an was the dividing line between the Northern and Southern Song dynasties.