Constantinople

The city of Constantinople (today Istanbul) sits at the northeast end of the Sea of Marmara, at the entrance to the Hellespont (as Dati says, "on the left as you enter"). Originally the Greek city of Byzantion, it was renamed and established as the new capital of the Roman empire by Constantine I in 324 CE, from which it became the capital of the medieval Byzantine Empire, famous for numerous landmarks both pagan and Christian, such as the great basilica of Hagia Sophia. The city was famously sacked by a combined French and Venetian army of crusaders in 1204 and served as capital of the Latin Empire of Constantinople until 1261, at which time it was recovered by the Palaeologan dynasty (with the help of the Genoese, rivals to Venice). In Dati's day it was still the Palaeologan capital, although Ottoman incursions in both Asia Minor and Greece were steadily reducing their territories. The city fell to the Ottomans in 1453. Also worthy of note: while Constantinople was the main city on the peninsula of the "Golden Horn", almost more important for Italians in this period was the northern suburb of Pera, which the Palaelogans had granted to the Genoese in return for their assistance regaining the city in 1261. From this base the Genoese dominated long-distance trade out of the Black Sea in the 14th and 15th centuries. Campbell #1065.