In the 4th century, the Roman Emperor Constantine declared Byzantion the capital of the Roman empire. There are many reasons for the capital change in Rome. In my opinion, the biggest factor in the search for a new capital may be to destroy the Pagan Roman heritage and build a new Christian city from scratch.
Istanbul, the ‘Byzantion’ as it was called at that time, was the most suitable city due to its location. The emperor, who thought that a new name was needed for the new capital, decided on the name Nova Roma, and the name of Istanbul remained as Nova Roma until his death. I stated that the purpose of the emperor was to establish a new Christian city, and for this, many different buildings were started to be built with that famous Roman architecture. Nova Roma needed an icon such as Hagia Sophia, Hagia Irene, Goths Column, Hippodrome and besides all these. This symbol came from Jerusalem. Hz. This symbol was the Million Stone, believed to have been touched by Jesus. And the Million Stone was accepted as the zero point and those famous Roman roads had already begun to sail towards all cities. In the distances of Rome to other cities, the Million Stone was always accepted as a reference point and it was said that all roads lead to Rome. That Rome is actually today’s Istanbul. With the death of Constantine, Nova Roma became Constantinople for you. With the conquest of Sultan Mehmet, it continued to be called Constantinople, and there were also discourses in the form of Constantinople (the translation of the name Constantinople into the Arabic language), and Der-Saadet (City of Happiness) was the commonly used name among the people in the Ottoman Empire. After the proclamation of the Republic, the young Republic gave the name Istanbul in 1929 to this unique city and today it is recorded as the official name of this ancient city.
So, what happened that the zero point was moved from Istanbul to Greenwich? As I mentioned, the zero point was the million stone at first, then the dome of Hagia Sophia was accepted and the 0th Meridian was moved to Greenwich, England, with a decision taken at the Washington Meridian Congress held in the United States in 1884. It is very clear what actually happened; power shifted from east to west. I hope that the zero point will one day come back to where it belongs, namely Istanbul.
If you are wondering about the million stone; A small remnant of it still stands today. Its place is located near the entrance of the Basilica Cistern in Sultanahmet Square, next to the tramway.
Without forgetting; From the 4th century to the 20th century, Istanbul was the Roman Empire (330-395), the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire (395-1204, 1261-1453), the Latin Empire (1204-1261) and the Ottoman Empire (1453-1923). It is the only city that served as the capital of 4 different empires. Today, Istanbul is not the capital of the Republic of Turkey for good reasons, but as Napoleon Bonaparte said, “If the world were only one country, its capital would be Istanbul”, as can be understood from the sentence, Istanbul is neither east (most east of the west) nor west (most west of east), it is the center of the world.
