Byzantium

This article is about the city. See also Byzantine Empire.

Byzantium (Greek: Βυζάντιον, Latin: BYZANTIVM, Byzantium) was an ancient Greek city, which was founded by Greek colonists from Megara in 667 BC and named after their king Byzas or Byzantas (Βύζας or Βύζαντας in Greek). The name "Byzantium" is a Latinization of the original name Byzantion. The city is what later evolved to be the center of the Byzantine Empire (the Greek-speaking Roman Empire of late Antiquity and the Middle Ages) under the name of Constantinople. Constantinople fell to the Turkish Ottoman Empire in 1453. The name of the city was changed to Istanbul in 1930.

History

The origins of Byzantium are shrouded in legend. The traditional legend has it that Byzas from Megara (a town near Athens), founded Byzantium, when he sailed northeast across the Aegean Sea. Byzas had consulted the Oracle at Delphi to ask where to make his new city. The Oracle told him to find it "opposite the blind." At the time, he did not know what this meant. But when he came upon the Bosporus he realized what it meant: on the Asiatic shore was a Greek city, Chalcedon. It was they who must have been blind because they had not seen that obviously superior land was just a half mile away on the other side of the Bosporus. Byzas founded his city here in this "superior" land and named it Byzantion after himself. It was mainly a trading city due to its strategic location at the Black Sea's only entrance. Byzantion later conquered Chalcedon, across the Bosporus.

After siding with Pescennius Niger against the victorious Septimius Severus, the city was besieged by Roman forces and suffered extensive damage in 196 AD. Byzantium was rebuilt by Septimius Severus, now emperor, and quickly regained its previous prosperity. The location of Byzantium attracted Roman Emperor Constantine I who, in 330 AD, refounded it as Nova Roma. After his death the city was called Constantinople (Greek Κωνσταντινοπολησ or Konstantinopolis) ('city of Constantine'). It remained the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, which was later called the Byzantine Empire by historians.

This combination of imperialism and location would affect Constantinople's role as the crossing point between two continents: Europe and Asia. It was a commercial, cultural, and diplomatic magnet. With its strategic position, Constantinople could control the route between Asia and Europe, as well as the passage from the Mediterranean Sea to the Black Sea.

On May 29, 1453, the city fell to the Ottoman Turks, and, once again, became the capital of another powerful state, the Ottoman Empire. The Turks called the city Istanbul (though not officially renamed until 1930) and it has remained Turkey's largest (and arguably its most important) city, although Ankara is now the capital.

Emblem

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Notable people

• Homerus, early 3rd century BC, tragedian
• Philo (ca. 280 BC-ca. 220 BC), engineer
• Epigenes (3rd century BC-2nd), astrologer
• Leontius (c. 485-c. 543), theologian and writer

References

• Harris, Jonathan, Constantinople: Capital of Byzantium (Hambledon/Continuum, London, 2007). ISBN: 978 1847251794
• Jeffreys, Elizabeth and Michael, and Moffatt, Ann, Byzantine Papers: Proceedings of the First Australian Byzantine Studies Conference, Canberra, 17-19 May 1978 (Australian National University, Canberra, 1979).
• Istanbul Historical Information - Istanbul Informative Guide To The City. Retrieved January 6, 2005.
• The Useful Information about Istanbul. Retrieved January 6, 2005.

• The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium (Oxford University Press, 1991) ISBN: 0195046528

See also

• Constantinople details the history of the city before the Turkish conquest of 1453.
• Istanbul details the history of the city from 1453 on, and describes the modern city.

External links

• Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies : www.byzantium.ac.uk
• Description of Byzantine monetary system - fifth Century BC : History of money FAQs