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Ancient/Classical History/sailing from Athens to Constantinople

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Expert: - 6/16/2011


Question
Could you please tell what kind of ship one would buy passage on to get from Athens to Constantinople in the 5th Century AD? What would the accommodations be like on this kind of ship? How long would the sea journey take? Would the best route be through the Dardanelle Strait and into the Sea of Marmara? What harbour in Constantinople would have been used? I hope you can help. Thanks very much

Answer
SAILING SHIP
SAILING SHIP

 Hello, Anne:

 1. Considered the best shipbuilders of the time, the Phoenicians designed boats that depended more on wind than on manpower. Phoenician ships could carry more cargo than galley ships, which needed room for oars and rowers. ANSWER: Sailing ship. (See pix)

 2. The Roman Period in Greece: 31 B.C. - A.D. 323
The growing power of Rome eventually surpassed and engulfed the Hellenistic Kingdoms. With the defeat and subsequent deaths of Antony and Cleopatra, the last of the Ptolemaic rulers, in 31 B.C., Octavian (Augustus) incorporated much of what had been Greece into the Roman province of Achaia. Centers of learning and the arts such as Athens and Rhodes, as well as the sanctuaries of Delos and Delphi, continued to flourish in the Roman period, particularly under the patronage of such philhellenic emperors as Hadrian (A.D. 117-38). Ephesos, Pergamon, and Aphrodisias were major Roman cities in Asia Minor.

   The Byzantine Period in Greece  : A.D. 323 - 1453:

   Constantine the Great created a new capital in the eastern half of the Roman empire, renaming the ancient Greek city of Byzantium "Nova Roma", the New Rome, more commonly known as the city of Constantine, "Constantinopolis" (modern Istanbul). His religious conversion and political recognition of the Christian faith paved the way for the continuation, in Christian form, of the Roman Empire. Henceforth, the "Eastern Roman Christian Empire" known in modern times as the Byzantine Empire, carried on the traditions of Greek culture. Following the sack of Constantinople in 1204 at the hands of Latin Crusaders, much of Greece came under Frankish or Venetian ownership. The Byzantine Empire finally came to an end with the capture of Constantinopolis by the Ottoman Turks in 1453.

    3. Water flows in both directions along the strait, from the Sea of Marmara to the Aegean via a surface current and in the opposite direction via an undercurrent. Dardanelles Strait, a vital transportation bridge between the Black Sea and Mediterranean Sea, is a narrow channel of water that connects the Aegean Sea to the Sea of Marmara.

    4. The promontories on which the capital lies are divided one from the other by the last and largest of those inlets which cut the western shore of the channel known as the Bosphorus. This inlet is a large and important harbour, running from east to north west, capable of floating 1200 ships. It curls up in a course of little more than four miles to the foot of the hills which, joining the heights on either side, seem to form a vast amphitheatre, till it meets the united volume of two streams—the Cydaris and Bar-bysus of the ancients—the two whelps of the oracle.

    "Bless'd they who make that sacred town their home, By Pontus' mouth upon the shore of Thrace, There where two whelps lap up the ocean foam, Where hind and fish find pasture at one place."

    This peculiar harbour lias always, by reason both of its form and its fulness, been called the Golden Horn!

                                          *****************

    I doubt if I answered your questions totally. Hard, hard research. Two hours. Anyway, let me know if I missed anything, Anne. Right now I'm a little punchy. Take care and stay SAFE.

                                              As always ....

                                                                 HANK  

Hank Hokamp

Expertise

I CAN answer almost any question that pertains to ANCIENT HISTORY! It would be a waste of time if I couldn't. I enjoy studying the people and their way of life that existed a very long time ago, especially in Greece and Rome. All history is human, my friends! Mysterious.

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