\paperw4260 \margr0\margl0 \plain \fs20 \f1 \fs24 Ever since Emperor Constantine had established the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire on the shores of the Bosphorus, giving it
the name of ôNew Rome,ö Constantinople had been filled with splendid monuments like basilicas, villas, public buildings, and powerful walls. Around the year One Thousand, during the Byzantine era, the city possessed numerous churches and monasteries, co
nstructed by the greatest Greek architects and decorated by masters of the art of mosaic. In the fourteenth century, under the rule of the Palaeologus dynasty, Constantinople was practically isolated and surrounded by Ottoman settlements, and fortresses
