Why is Moscow the Third Rome and Rome the Eternal City? Which city is called the Mother of the World, and which is the City of Kings? We tell you where cities get their nicknames.
Moscow. Third Rome
As you know, the Second Rome is Constantinople (present-day Istanbul), which received a resounding pseudonym due to the fact that it was there in 330 that the emperor of the Roman Empire Constantine the Great moved his capital. The empire from that time began to be called Byzantine, since Constantinople was then not yet Constantinople, but Byzantium. With this, everything is clear. But why did Moscow suddenly become the Third Rome? It's more difficult here.
The fact is that the last Byzantine emperor Constantine XI Palaeologus died in battle during the capture of Constantinople by the Turks. This happened in 1453. He had no children, so his younger brother Thomas Palaeologus was the heir to the Byzantine throne. After Thomas's death, his son Andrei Paleologus became the nominal Byzantine emperor, at the same time the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II appropriated the title of Byzantine emperor to himself. After Andrei Palaeologus died in 1502, his own sister Sophia Palaeologus, who was at that time the wife of the great Moscow prince John III, remained the only heir to the Byzantine throne. Thus, according to the laws of medieval international law, Moscow is the direct heir to the Roman Empire. And Istanbul-Constantinople, accordingly, should be a Russian city.
The Russian Empire once almost restored historical justice and almost returned Istanbul to the bosom of the Christian church. This happened during the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878. Then our troops were only 15 km from Istanbul, but the intervention of diplomats from England, France and Germany, as well as the indecision of the Russian Emperor Alexander II prevented the implementation of these plans.
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Sophia Paleologue, by the way, is the grandmother of Ivan the Terrible. She died in 1503. 50 years after her death, the Patriarch of Constantinople wrote to the Tsar of Moscow: "… your great Russian kingdom, the Third Rome, has surpassed everyone in piety, you alone in the whole universe are called a Christian king."
Now look at the image of the two-headed eagle on our coins. This is an eagle from the coat of arms of the Palaeologos, the last emperors of the Roman Empire.
Rome. The eternal City
In Latin, aeterna urbs, or Roma aeterna. One of the first to call him so in one of his elegies was the Roman poet Albius Tibullus, who lived in the 1st century BC. e. The city on seven hills, as Rome is also called, was founded in the VIII century BC. e. mythological brothers Romulus and Remus, fed by a she-wolf (and it is she who is one of the main symbols of Rome).
Lawrence Alma-Tadema. Tibullus at Delia. 1866 year.
This name stuck to one of the oldest cities in the world after it repeatedly rose from the ashes after numerous invasions of barbarians in the IV-VI centuries AD. e., as well as after the plundering by the Norman troops of Robert Guiscard in May 1084 and the mercenaries of Charles V in May 1527.
Cairo. City of a Thousand Minarets
Why Cairo is called the City of a Thousand Minarets is probably understandable. The dominant religion here is Islam. But few know that originally the city was supposed to be called Al-Mansouriyah ("victorious"), but during its foundation the unexpected happened. Thousands of workers stood ready with shovels to start digging the first trenches for the foundations of the future city at the ringing of special bells. A whole crowd of astrologers awaited auspicious omens in the sky. But then a raven sat on the rope on which the bells hung and a ringing was heard. Hearing this sign, the workers drove their shovels into the ground. And then the astrologers cried out in one voice: "Al-Qahira!" ("Mars Rises").
The Citadel of Cairo in a painting by David Roberts.
Dmitry Rzhannikov