Editing Constantinople (section)

== Names ==
[[File:Saint Sophia, Constantinopolis.jpg|thumb|290px|[[Hagia Sophia]] built in AD 537, during the reign of [[Justinian I|Justinian]].]]

=== Before Constantinople ===
According to [[Pliny the Elder]] in his ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Natural History]]'', the first known name of a settlement on the site of Constantinople was ''Lygos'',<ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20170101063545/http://www.masseiana.org/pliny.htm ''Pliny the Elder'', book IV, chapter XI]}}. Quote: "On leaving the Dardanelles we come to the Bay of Casthenes, ... and the promontory of the Golden Horn, on which is the town of Byzantium, a free state, formerly called Lygos; it is 711 miles from Durazzo,..."</ref> a settlement likely of [[Thracian]] origin founded between the 13th and 11th centuries BC.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |year=1908 |title=Constantinople |encyclopedia=Catholic Encyclopedia |publisher=Robert Appleton Company |location=New York |url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04301a.htm |access-date=2007-09-12 |last=Vailhé |first=S. |volume=4 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100722013539/http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04301a.htm |archive-date=2010-07-22 |url-status=live}}</ref> The site, according to the founding myth of the city, was abandoned by the time Greek settlers from the city-state of [[Megara]] founded ''Byzantium'' ({{langx|grc|Βυζάντιον}}, ''Byzántion'') in around 657&nbsp;BC,<ref name="roo177">{{Cite book |last=Room |first=Adrian |title=Placenames of the World: Origins and Meanings of the Names for 6,600 Countries, Cities, Territories, Natural Features, and Historic Sites |publisher=McFarland & Company |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-7864-2248-7 |edition=2nd |location=Jefferson, N.C. |page=177}}</ref> across from the town of [[Chalcedon]] on the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus.

The origins of the name of ''Byzantion'', more commonly known by the later Latin ''Byzantium'', are not entirely clear, though some suggest it is of [[Thracian language|Thracian]] origin.<ref>Janin, Raymond (1964). ''Constantinople byzantine''. Paris: Institut Français d'Études Byzantines. p. 10f.</ref><ref name="johns">Georgacas, Demetrius John (1947). "The Names of Constantinople". ''Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association'' (The Johns Hopkins University Press) '''78''': 347–67. {{doi|10.2307/283503}}. {{JSTOR|283503}}.</ref> The founding myth of the city has it told that the settlement was named after the leader of the Megarian colonists, [[Byzas]]. The later Byzantines of Constantinople themselves would maintain that the city was named in honour of two men, Byzas and Antes, though this was more likely just a play on the word Byzantion.{{sfn|Harris|2017|pages=25–26}}

The city was briefly renamed ''Augusta Antonina'' in the early 3rd century AD by the Emperor [[Septimius Severus]] (193–211), who razed the city to the ground in 196 for supporting a [[Pescennius Niger|rival contender]] in the [[Year of the Five Emperors|civil war]]. He then had it rebuilt in honour of his son Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (who succeeded him as Emperor), popularly known as [[Caracalla]].{{sfn|Harris|2017|page=43}}<ref name="IA">Necdet Sakaoğlu (1993/94a): "İstanbul'un adları" ["The names of Istanbul"]. In: 'Dünden bugüne İstanbul ansiklopedisi', ed. Türkiye Kültür Bakanlığı, Istanbul.</ref> The name appears to have been quickly forgotten and abandoned, and the city reverted to Byzantium/Byzantion after either the assassination of Caracalla in 217 or, at the latest, the fall of the [[Severan dynasty]] in 235.

=== Names of Constantinople ===
{{Main|Names of Istanbul{{!}}Names of Constantinople}}

[[File:Column of Constantine.jpg|thumb|The [[Column of Constantine]], built by [[Constantine I]] in 330 to commemorate the establishment of Constantinople as the [[New Rome|new capital]] of the [[Roman Empire]]]]

Byzantium took on the name of Constantinople ({{langx|el|Κωνσταντινούπολις|translit=Kōnstantinoupolis|lit=city of Constantine}}) after its refoundation under [[Roman emperor]] Constantine I, who transferred the capital of the Roman Empire to Byzantium in 330 and designated his new capital officially as {{lang|la|[[New Rome|Nova Roma]]}} ({{lang|grc|Νέα Ῥώμη}}) 'New Rome'. During this time, the city was also called 'Second Rome', 'Eastern Rome', and {{lang|la|Roma Constantinopolitana}} ([[Latin]] for 'Constantinopolitan Rome').<ref name="johns"/> As the city became the sole remaining capital of the Roman Empire after the fall of the West, and its wealth, population, and influence grew, the city also came to have a multitude of nicknames.

[[File:Keystone_Constantine_Forum_Istanbul.JPG|thumb|left|This huge [[Keystone (architecture)|keystone]] found in [[Çemberlitaş, Fatih]], might have belonged to a [[triumphal arch]] at the [[Forum of Constantine]] built by [[Constantine I]].]]
As the largest and wealthiest city in Europe during the 4th–13th centuries and a center of culture and education of the Mediterranean basin, Constantinople came to be known by prestigious titles such as ''Basileuousa'' (Queen of Cities) and ''Megalopolis'' (the Great City) and was, in colloquial speech, commonly referred to as just ''Polis'' ({{lang|grc|ἡ Πόλις}}) 'the City' by Constantinopolitans and provincial Byzantines alike.<ref>Harris, 2007, p. 5</ref>

In the language of other peoples, Constantinople was referred to just as reverently. The medieval Vikings, who had contacts with the empire through their expansion in eastern Europe ([[Varangians]]), used the Old Norse name ''Miklagarðr'' (from ''mikill'' 'big' and ''garðr'' 'city'), and later ''Miklagard'' and ''Miklagarth''.{{sfn|Harris|2017|page=1}} In Arabic, the city was sometimes called ''Rūmiyyat al-Kubra'' (Great City of the Romans) and in Persian as ''Takht-e Rum'' (Throne of the Romans).

In East and South Slavic languages, including in [[Kievan Rus']], Constantinople has been referred to as ''[[Tsargrad]]'' (''Царьград'') or ''Carigrad'', 'City of the Caesar (Emperor)', from the Slavonic words ''tsar'' ('Caesar' or 'King') and ''grad'' ('city'). This was presumably a [[calque]] on a Greek phrase such as {{lang|grc|Βασιλέως Πόλις}} (''Vasileos Polis''), 'the city of the emperor [king]'.

In [[Persian language|Persian]] the city was also called ''Asitane'' (the Threshold of the State), and in [[Armenian language|Armenian]], it was called ''Gosdantnubolis'' (City of Constantine).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Everett-Heath |first=John |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780191882913.001.0001/acref-9780191882913;jsessionid=888EB32E38583EE8E0B91B8F5DDD5536 |title=The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Place Names |date=2019-10-24 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-188291-3 |language=en-US |doi=10.1093/acref/9780191882913.001.0001 |access-date=19 March 2023 |archive-date=26 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326031024/https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780191882913.001.0001/acref-9780191882913;jsessionid=888EB32E38583EE8E0B91B8F5DDD5536 |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Modern names of the city ===
[[File:Hippodrome_Constantinople_2007_007.jpg|thumb|left|[[Obelisk of Theodosius]] is the Ancient Egyptian obelisk of Egyptian King [[Thutmose III]] re-erected in the [[Hippodrome of Constantinople]] by the Roman emperor [[Theodosius I]] in the 4th century AD.]]

The modern Turkish name for the city, ''[[Istanbul|İstanbul]]'', derives from the [[Greek language|Greek]] phrase ''eis tin Polin'' ({{lang|grc|εἰς τὴν πόλιν}}), meaning '(in)to the city'.{{sfn|Harris|2017|page=204}}<ref>{{OEtymD|Istanbul}}</ref> This name was used in colloquial speech in [[Turkish language|Turkish]] alongside ''Kostantiniyye'', the more formal adaptation of the original ''Constantinople'', during the period of [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] rule, while western languages mostly continued to refer to the city as Constantinople until the early 20th century. In 1928, [[Turkish Language Commission|the Turkish alphabet was changed]] from Arabic script to Latin script. After that, as part of the [[Turkification]] movement, Turkey started to urge other countries to use [[Geographical name changes in Turkey|Turkish names for Turkish cities]], instead of other transliterations to Latin script that had been used in Ottoman times and the city came to be known as Istanbul and its variations in most world languages.<ref name="Shawn">Stanford and Ezel Shaw (1977): History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Vol II, p. 386; Robinson (1965), The First Turkish Republic, p. 298</ref><ref>Tom Burham, ''The Dictionary of Misinformation'', Ballantine, 1977.</ref><ref>Room, Adrian, (1993), ''Place Name changes 1900–1991'', Metuchen, N.J., & London:The Scarecrow Press, Inc., {{ISBN|0-8108-2600-3}} pp. 46, 86.</ref><ref>[http://concise.britannica.com/ebc/article-9368294/Istanbul Britannica, Istanbul] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071218080707/http://concise.britannica.com/ebc/article-9368294/Istanbul |date=2007-12-18 }}.</ref>

The name ''Constantinople'' is still used by members of the [[Eastern Orthodox Church]] in the title of one of their most important leaders, the Orthodox [[Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople|patriarch]] based in the city, referred to as "His Most Divine All-Holiness the Archbishop of Constantinople New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch". In Greece today, the city is still called ''Konstantinoúpoli(s)'' ({{lang|el|Κωνσταντινούπολις/Κωνσταντινούπολη}}) or simply just "the City" ({{lang|el|Η Πόλη}}).