He came to Byzantium in Thrace, beyond Chalcedon in Bithynia, and here he desired to build his city, and render it worthy of the name of Constantine.
On 11 May, 330 C.E., Emperor Constantine stood at the head of the ceremonial festivities that officially consecrated his new capital in the East. Constantinople, as the new city was called, heralded a new era of Constantine’s reign with him ruling as the sole emperor.
First settled in the seventh century B.C., Constantinople developed into a thriving port due to its prime geographic location between Europe and Asia and its natural harbor.
The emperor enlarged the city formerly called Byzantium, and surrounded it with high walls; likewise, he built splendid dwelling houses; and being aware that the former population was not enough for so great a city, he peopled it with men of rank and their families, whom he summoned from Rome and from other countries.
His last co-emperor, Licinius, was defeated at the battle of Chrysopolis in 324. Following this, Constantine selected a site for his new capital and began building what he would later call the “New Rome.” Constantine had begun his rule as one of four co-emperors, but by 324 he was the one and only ruler.
Constantine created another Senate which he endowed with the same honors and privileges as that of Rome, and he strove to render the city of his name equal in every way to Rome in Italy; nor were his wishes in vain, for by the favor of God, it became the most populous and wealthy of cities.
Constantinople suffered from a shortage of agricultural lands and a limited water supply. Yet the city became the Eastern political and economic center of the empire, not because of its location, but due to the incredible imperial patronage that forcibly pushed it to the forefront.
Constantinople stood as the seat of the Byzantine Empire for the next 1,100 years, enduring periods of great fortune and horrific sieges, until being overrun by Mehmed II of the Ottoman Empire in 1453.
Emperor Constantine founded city of Constantinople
