20:30         Who Wrote the Bible? [subtitles]
Theologian Robert Beckford grew up believing that The Bible was the literal truth. But, 20 years on from his Baptist upbringing, Beckford is no longer so sure that the good book is the pure, unadulterated word of God untouched by human hand.
Constantinople (Roman name: Constantinopolis; Greek: Konstantinoupolis or Êùíóôáíôéíïýðïëç) is the former name of the city of Istanbul in Turkey. Its original name was Byzantium (Greek: Byzantion or Âõæáíôéïí, pronounced roughly Booz-dan-tee-on). The name is a reference to the Roman emperor Constantine I who made it the capital of the Roman Empire on May 11, 330 AD. Constantine named the city Nova Roma (New Rome), but that name never came into common use.
Constantinople was the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, also known as the Byzantine Empire. In Byzantine times the Greeks called Constantinople i Poli ("the City", since it was the centre of the Greek world and for most of the Byzantine period the largest city in Europe. It was captured and sacked by the Fourth Crusade in 1204 and then re-captured by Nicaean forces under the command of Michael VIII Palaeologus in 1261.
Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire finally fell to the Ottoman Empire on May 29, 1453 (See the Fall of Constantinople). The Ottoman Turks called the city Stamboul or Istanbul, from the original Greek "eis tin Poli" (to the city.) When the Republic of Turkey was founded in 1923, the capital was moved from Istanbul to Ankara.
Flavius Valerius Constantinus (272–May 22, 337), commonly known as Constantine I or Constantine the Great, was proclaimed Augustus by his troops on July 25, 306 and ruled an ever-growing portion of the Roman Empire to his death. Constantine is famed for his refounding of Byzantium as "New Rome," which was always called "Constantine's City"— Constantinople. With the "Edict of Milan" in 313, Constantine and his co-Emperor removed all onus from Christianity. By taking the personal step of convoking the Council of Nicaea (325) Constantine began the Roman Empire's unofficial sponsoring of Christianity, which was a major factor in that religion's spread. His reputation as the "first Christian Emperor" was promulgated by Lactantius and Eusebius and gained ground in the succeeding generations.
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