Page 32 - A History of the World in 25 Cities

Life in
In the middle of the 500s, under Emperor Justinian, Constantinople was one of the world’s richest cities. Hundreds of thousands of people lived there, from many different countries and cultures.
The Roman Empire had split into two halves: the Western Empire, ruled from Rome, and the Eastern, or Byzantine, Empire,
with Constantinople as its capital. In 476, Rome was taken over by invaders, ending the Western Empire, but the Byzantine Empire continued
for hundreds of years. Taxes raised from the Empire made Constantinople rich;
it was full of palaces, churches and public buildings, many built from marble and
decorated with gold and bronze. The city traded and grew richer still, and its busy streets were full of shoppers, merchants and luxurious goods such as silk, spices and incense.
People in Constantinople were big fans of their favourite sport: chariot racing. The sport was so important that a passageway led directly from the emperor’s palace to his seat in the arena. The two teams, the Greens and the Blues, were deadly rivals and there were often fierce fights between them. But then the
Blues and the Greens united in an attempt to overthrow Emperor Justinian, and around 30,000 people were killed when they failed.
Back in the 320s, Emperor Constantine had been Rome’s first Christian emperor. But by the time of Emperor Justinian, the Christian Church had started to split into two branches: the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church. Eventually, the two religions became completely separate, and they still are today.
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