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A Rus' Fur Trader in Constantinople

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A Rus' Fur Trader in Constantinople

Follow a merchant around the Byzantine capital, then read about Justinian, Theodora and the city's trade.

The map and the journey

Read the map description and the journey. Then answer the questions.

The map, described in words (Constantinople, about 950 CE)
• The Golden Horn: a long, sheltered harbor along the city's north side.
• St. Mamas: a suburb outside the walls; most historians place it northeast of the city, across the Golden Horn on the shore of the Bosporus.
• Hagia Sophia: the great church Justinian rebuilt, near the city's eastern tip.
• The Hippodrome and the Great Palace: just south of Hagia Sophia. The Hippodrome is a huge track for chariot races.
• The Mese: the main street, running west from near Hagia Sophia past the Forum of Constantine, a busy market square.
• The Land Walls: two lines of walls and a moat across the city's west side, from the Sea of Marmara to the Golden Horn. Water guards the other sides.
The journey (Ingvar is a made-up merchant; the rules come from real treaties of 911 and 944)
Each June, Rus' merchants from Kiev floated their boats down the Dnieper River to the Black Sea and sailed south to the Bosporus. Ingvar arrives in early summer with furs, wax, honey and enslaved captives to sell. Officials write down the names of his group and lodge them at St. Mamas, where the empire supplies their food. Each morning he crosses the Golden Horn by boat. He may enter the city through only one gate, without weapons, in a group of no more than 50, with an imperial official at his side. At the Forum of Constantine he sells his furs and pays the emperor's tax. Before buying silk, he learns that any silk worth more than 50 gold coins must be shown to an official, who seals it. On a race day he walks to the Hippodrome. In early autumn he sails home, because the treaty does not let Rus' merchants spend the winter at St. Mamas.
1.
Each morning Ingvar crosses from St. Mamas to the city. In which direction does he travel?
Question 1 options
2.
After selling his furs at the Forum of Constantine, Ingvar walks along the Mese to the Hippodrome. Which way does he walk?
Question 2 options
3.
Sort each rule from the journey by its most likely purpose.
4.
Ingvar brings furs, wax and honey and takes home silk. What does this trade best show about Constantinople's role?
Question 4 options

Rome's eastern capital

Read the passage. Use it and the map to answer.

The City That Outlasted Rome

1In 330 CE the emperor Constantine made the Greek town of Byzantium his capital and renamed it Constantinople. The Sea of Marmara lay to its south, the Golden Horn to its north and the Bosporus to its east. In 476 the last emperor in the west lost his throne, but the eastern half of the empire went on. Historians later named it the Byzantine Empire; its people called themselves Romans.

2Justinian ruled from 527 to 565, with his wife Theodora as a powerful partner. In 532, fans of the Blue and Green chariot teams, who were usually rivals, joined together in the Hippodrome against Justinian's officials, angry about heavy taxes and harsh punishments. Rioters burned much of the city center. According to the historian Procopius, Justinian was ready to flee by ship until Theodora told the council she would rather die an empress than run. Soldiers trapped the rioters in the Hippodrome and killed thousands. Justinian then rebuilt Hagia Sophia, finished in 537, and had Roman laws collected into one code. In 542 a deadly plague struck the city, and historians estimate it killed a large share of its people.

3Trade kept the city rich. Ships moving between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean passed its harbors, and the government collected a tax of about one-tenth on many goods. Officials ran guilds of silk makers, bakers and other trades and set many of their prices and rules. The gold coin, the solidus, was trusted far beyond the empire.

4The Rus', whose rulers were based in Kiev, were both trading partners and a danger. Rus' fleets attacked Constantinople in 860 and 941, and in 941 Byzantine ships drove them off with Greek fire, a burning liquid that kept burning on water. Treaties then set rules for Rus' traders. In 988 Prince Vladimir of Kiev was baptized as an Orthodox Christian and married the emperor's sister Anna. The Rus' Primary Chronicle, written in Kiev in the early 1100s, says Vladimir's envoys had visited Hagia Sophia and reported that they did not know whether they were in heaven or on earth. Orthodox Christianity and an alphabet based mostly on Greek letters, later called Cyrillic, spread among the Rus'.

5The city fell twice. Crusaders captured and looted it in 1204, and in 1453 the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II took it with the help of huge cannons.

5.
Based on paragraph 2, what made the riot of 532 so dangerous for Justinian?
Question 5 options
6.
Theodora's words are known from Procopius, who wrote his history years later. Procopius also wrote a separate book that harshly attacked Justinian and Theodora. How should a historian treat Theodora's words?
Question 6 options
7.
Use the map and paragraph 1. Why did the city need its strongest walls on the west side?
Question 7 options
8.
Underline the sentence from paragraph 4 that best shows Byzantine culture spreading to the Rus'.

9.
Use paragraph 4. Suppose the Primary Chronicle was finished in 1113.

It was written about years after Vladimir was baptized.

10.
Given the time between the events and the writing, what is the envoys' story in the Primary Chronicle most useful for?
Question 10 options
11.
Claim: The Byzantine government controlled trade closely to keep Constantinople both rich and safe. Do you agree? Use at least one detail from the journey and one from the passage, and explain your reasoning.