CONSTANTINOPLE

Like the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire was defined by its capital. The people who identified with the empire called themselves Romaioi and the land they inhabited Romania. They were unique in medieval Christendom in deriving their ethnic name not from a tribal association nor from a territory, but from a city. Although the old, original Rome meant nothing to most of them, there was hardly a moment in their waking lives when they were not reminded of the New Rome, Constantinople. This was the place where the emperor lived, where metropolitan bishops were consecrated, tax officials appointed, tax-receipts transported, and where people went to order the best that money could buy, from a silver dish to an education. Just as Rome had been the Urbs par excellence, so Constantinople was the Polis, and its importance only increased as Byzantine society became less Roman in character. The loss of Antioch and Alexandria to the Arabs left Thessalonica as the only other imperial city which ranked as a megalopolis. The sacking of one provincial city after another (including, in the tenth century, Thessalonica) further enhanced the standing of the Queen of Cities which alone had remained inviolate under the protection of the Virgin Mother of God.