The name New (or Second) Rome was used for Constantinople in rhetoric speeches already from the end of the 4th century, as the political importance of Constantinople as a Roman capital increased. The name became more meaningful at the beginning of the 6th century; Rome had been occupied by the Ostrogoths, and now it was Constantinople that carried the symbolic weight of being the ‘eternal city’ and the ecumenical capital in Late Antiquity. This name also came to indicate the rebirth of the...

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