Byzantine Art and Icons

The Roman Empire was too large to be safeguarded at all. To bring the capital to a safer and easier to defend place, the Emperor Constantine decided to build a new city, on the border between Europe and Asia, at the point where the Mediterranean and the Black Sea meet. In his honor the city was called Constantinople. It was built on the site of another small city called Byzantium, which is why Constantinople was commonly called Byzantium and its inhabitants Byzantines. Constantinople was easy to defend because it was protected by the sea and the mountains.