Greek city of Byzantion in Thrace
Silver Drachm or Sigloi 19mm Struck 416-357 B.C.
Reference: Sear 1579; B.M.C. 3.1-8
Cow standing left, right foreleg raised; above, ΠΥ.
Incuse square of "mill-sail" pattern.
A prosperous city, through its control of the vital grain
trade from the Black Sea, Byzantion was founded by Megarian colonists about 657
B.C., and was besieged by Philip of Macedon, 340/339 B.C.
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Byzantium (Greek:
Βυζάντιον, Byzántion;
Latin:
BYZANTIVM) was an
ancient Greek
city, founded by
Greek colonists from
Megara in 667
BC and named after their king
Byzas (Greek:
Βύζας, Býzas,
genitive Βύζαντος, Býzantos). The name Byzantium is a
Latinization of the original name Byzantion. The city was later
renamed
Constantinople and briefly became the imperial residence of the classical
Roman
Empire, and then subsequently was the capital of the
Byzantine Empire,
the Greek-speaking Roman Empire of
late Antiquity
and the
Middle Ages. Constantinople was captured by the
Ottoman Turks, becoming the capital of their empire, in 1453. The name of
the city was changed to
Istanbul in
1930 following the establishment of modern
Turkey.
History
The origins of Byzantium are shrouded in legend. The traditional legend has
it that Byzas
from Megara (a
town near Athens),
founded Byzantium in 667 BC, 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
found 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 east 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 European 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
Asiatic 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 an imperial
residence inspired by Rome itself. (See
Nova Roma.)
After his death the city was called
Constantinople (Greek Κωνσταντινούπολις or Konstantinoupolis) ('city of
Constantine'). It remained the capitol of the
Eastern Roman Empire, which is called the
Byzantine Empire
by modern historians. This combination of imperialism and location would affect
Constantinople's role as the nexus point between two continents:
Europe and
Asia. It was a
commercial, cultural, and diplomatic magnet. With its strategic position,
Constantinople did 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 again became the capital of a 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 most populous city, although
Ankara is now
the capital.
Emblem
Though associated with the Sassanid Persians and with
Mithradates VI Eupator (who for a time incorporated the city into his
empire)[1],
by the late
Hellenistic or early Roman period, the star and crescent motif had been
associated to some degree with Byzantium. For example, some Byzantine coins of
the 1st century BC and later show the head of
Artemis with
bow and quiver, and feature a crescent with what appears to be a six-rayed star
on the reverse. According to accounts which vary in some of the details, in 340
BC the Byzantines and their allies the
Athenians were
under siege by the troops of
Philip
of Macedon. On a particularly dark and wet night Philip attempted a surprise
attack but was thwarted by the appearance of a bright light in the sky. This
light is occasionally described by subsequent interpreters as a meteor,
sometimes as the moon, and some accounts also mention the barking of dogs.
However, the original accounts mention only a light in the sky, without
specifying the moon.[2]
To commemorate the event the Byzantines erected a statue of
Hecate
lampadephoros (light-bearer or bringer). This story survived in the works
Hesychius of Miletus, who in all probability lived in the time of
Justinian
I. His works survive only in fragments preserved in
Photius and the tenth century lexicographer
Suidas. The tale is
also related by
Stephanus of Byzantium, and
Eustathius.
Devotion to Hecate was especially favored by the Byzantines for her aid
in having protected them from the incursions of Philip of Macedon. Her
symbols were the crescent and star, and the walls of her city were her
provenance.[3]
It is unclear how the symbol of a particular goddess (one of many[4])
would have been transferred to the city itself. If the Byzantines adopted the
crescent and star as a symbol of their city after the events of the mid 4th
Century BC, one is forced to wonder why they waited several hundred years before
putting the symbol on only some of their coins.
Later, under the Romans, cities in the empire often continued to issue their
own coinage. "Of the many themes that were used on local coinage, celestial and
astral symbols often appeared, mostly stars or crescent moons."[5]
The wide variety of these issues, and the varying explanations for the
significance of the star and crescent on Roman coinage precludes their
discussion here. It is, however, apparent that by the time of the Romans, coins
featuring a star or crescent in some combination were not at all rare.
Notable
people
-
Homerus, tragedian, lived in the early 3rd century BC
-
Philo, engineer, lived ca. 280 BC–ca. 220 BC
-
Epigenes of Byzantium, astrologer, lived in the 3rd–2nd century BC
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