Not just Constantinople for the Eastern Roman Empire, but also Ravenna for the Western Roman Empire after 402 AD.
Right. Rome had ceased to be “Rome” before this purported malaria epidemic.
In the West we tend to equate the end of the Roman Empire with the decline of Rome and the Western Empire, I guess in the 400s. But the Empire went on for nearly another 1,000 years with its capital at Byzantium/Constantinople. The fact that the Eastern Empire was more culturally Greek and was eventually overrun by Islam cuts them off from our historical memory.