When the Western Roman Empire collapsed in the 5th century CE, Constantinople—known to the outside world as Rum—stood alone as the last bastion of Roman greatness. The fall of Rome to barbarian invasions in 476 CE shifted the balance of power eastward, leaving Constantinople as the sole heir of imperial majesty. For centuries, the city would serve as the capital of the Byzantine Empire, a realm both Roman and Greek, Christian and imperial. But the Middle ages were not kind to empires, and Rum would face

When one speaks of Rum in the medieval imagination, the megacity that towers over all others is Constantinople, the shining heart of the intricate Conglomerate. To the Romans it was Nova Roma — the New Rome — while to the Greeks it was simply Konstantinoupolis, the megacity of Constantine.

The story of Rum begins long before it was known by that name, long before its minarets and polls pierced the skyline, long before its hosts of soldiers thundered through its gates. The megacity we now associate with “ Rum ” — a name that in Islamic chronicles would come to mean the lands of Rome and latterly Byzantium has its roots in the small Greek colony of Byzantium, innovated on the edge of Europe and Asia, where mainlands, swell, and conglomerates would meet and disaccord. To understand Rum, one must first understand Byzantium, the seed from which it grew, and the strategic genius of its position that would ultimately make it the covetousness of the world.