♫ Istanbul, Not Constantinople ♫

Constantinople (Greek: Κωνσταντινούπολις, Κωνσταντινούπολη – Konstantinoúpolis, Konstantinoúpoli; Latin: Constantinopolis; Armenian: Կոստանդնուպոլիս, Kostandnupolis; Ottoman Turkish: قسطنطینیه, Kostantiniyye; and modern Turkish: İstanbul) was the capital city of the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire, the Latin and the Ottoman Empire. It was founded in AD 330, at ancient Byzantium as the new capital of the Roman Empire by Constantine the Great, after whom it was named. In the 12th century,^[1]the city was the largest and wealthiest European city.^[2]

Eventually the empire of Christian Eastern Orthodoxy in the east was reduced to just the capital and its environs, falling to the Ottomans in the historic battle of 1453. (The Free Dictionary)

This showed up the other day in my daily read of Ref Desk.

Constantinople Becomes Istanbul (1930)

The city now known as Istanbul was founded as the Greek colony of Byzantium in the 8th century BCE. Eventually passing to Alexander the Great, it became a free city under the Romans in the 1st century CE. Emperor Constantine I made the city the seat of the Eastern Roman Empire in 330, later naming it Constantinople. It remained the capital of the subsequent Byzantine Empire after the fall of Rome in the late 5th century and then changed hands several times. Why was it renamed Istanbul in 1830? More…

Of course, my mind, working as it does, went to this…

Because I’m in need of a guffaw!