Our focus is the city of Constantinople. Designated ‘New Rome’ to rule the Christian East at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, the capital of the Byzantine empire was considered the greatest metropolis of the middle ages. We will study the city through primary texts in translation and examine its surviving monuments and urban landscape. To encourage individual engagement with the city, each student will assume a typical persona drawn from the readings, from whose perspective she or he will observe the city as part of a broader assignment.
