Byzantium

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the city. For the state see 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 following the establishment of modern Turkey.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Emblem 2 Notable people 3 See also 4 Notes 5 References 6 External links

[edit] 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 north shore was a Greek city, Chalcedon. However, according to legend, they had not noticed the land that lay a half-mile away. Byzas founded his city here on the Asiatic coast 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 on the European side.

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 Κωνσταντινούπολις or Konstantinoupolis) ('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.

[edit] Emblem

Byzantium first produced coins with the crescent and star symbol in the 4th century BC. According to legend, this was to honour the moon-goddess Hecate, who the inhabitants believed had saved the city from attack by Philip II of Macedon in 340-339 BC.^[1][2] In 330 AD Constantine I added the Virgin Mary's star to the flag. Byzantium would then also be the first attested nation or empire to use the combination of the crescent moon and star together as an emblem.^{[citation needed]}

The crescent moon and star was not completely abandoned by the Christian world after the fall of Constantinople. To date the official flag of the Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem is a labarum of white, a church building with two towers, and on either side of the arms, at the top, are the outline in black of a crescent moon facing center and a star with rays.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Notable people

• Homerus, early 3rd century BC, tragedian
• Philo (ca. 280 BC-ca. 220 BC), engineer
• Epigenes of Byzantium (3rd century BC-2nd), astrologer

[edit] 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.

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

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

[edit] 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
• The Economic History of Byzantium, By Angeliki E. Laiou, Harvard University Press, January 2002.