Byzantium

Topographical map of Constantinople during the Byzantine period, by Cplakidas via Wikimedia

Byzantium was a Greek city located on the western side of the Bosporus, one of the straits* that separates Europe from Asia Minor. The city had great strategic importance because it was situated on a hilly, triangular-shaped peninsula and had natural protection against attack. Its large, well-protected natural harbor, known as the Golden Horn, provided a secure location for ships. Its location at the crossroads of Europe and Asia made the city an important center of trade. In late Roman times, Byzantium became the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire (later known as the Byzantine Empire) and the name of the city was changed to Constantinople.

Byzantium was founded in the 600s B.C. by Greeks from the city of Megara. According to tradition, it was named after its legendary founder, Byzas. Before setting sail from Megara, Byzas asked an oracle where he should establish a new colony. The oracle replied, “Opposite the blind.” When Byzas reached the Bosporus, he found another Greek city already in place on the opposite side of the strait. It was called Chalcedon (which means “city of the blind” in Greek) because its founders had failed to take advantage of the better location on the western side of the strait, the site chosen by Byzas.

Soon after its founding, Byzantium flourished as a center of trade. Its principal products included fish, grain, furs, honey, gold, and wax, much of which came from areas around the Black Sea. In 512 B.C., the Persian king, Darius I, conquered Byzantium. It remained part of the Persian Empireuntil 478 B.C., when the Greeks, under the leadership of Pausanias of Sparta, liberated the city. The next year, Athenians forced out the Spartans, and Byzantium became a member of the Delian League, an alliance of city-states* headed by Athens. The Athenians and Spartans competed for control of the city for almost 150 years.

In the mid-300s B.C., the people of Byzantium successfully resisted an attempt by Philip II of Macedonia to seize control of the city. However, they were unable to resist Philip’s son, Alexander the Great. When Alexander asserted his control over Greece in 335 B.C., Byzantium acknowledged Macedonian rule. Even so, the city continued to enjoy considerable freedom.

Byzantium formed an alliance with the Romans in 146 B.C. and gradually lost its independence in the years that followed. The emperor Septimius Severus destroyed the city in A.D. 196 because its inhabitants had supported his rival during a period of civil war. He later rebuilt the city because of its strategic importance and renamed it Augusta Antonina. In A.D. 330, the emperor Constantine I chose Byzantium as the new capital of the empire and changed its name to Nova Roma, or “New Rome.” Soon, however, the city became known as Constantinople, and it remained the most important city of the Eastern Roman Empire. (See also Rome, History of; Greece, History of.)

* strait narrow channel that connects two bodies of water

* city-state independent state consisting of a city and its surrounding territory

Book 📚 Excerpt Ancient Greece and Rome: An Encyclopedia for Students (4 Volume Set)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

THE SLAVICIZATION OF EUROPE

Image
Where linguistic evidence can give us very little help, however, is with chronology. We know the Slavic language family emerged relatively recently, but what does that mean? Some experts argue that the split with Baltic-speakers began only in the middle of the first millennium AD, at the precise moment when Slavic-speakers begin to appear in our sources. Others would place it much earlier – by maybe even a thousand or more years. This difference of opinion matters when it comes to trying to understand the Slavicization of Europe which unfolded after c.500 AD. If we should be envisaging very few Slavic-speakers at that date because the linguistic split was just beginning, so that Europe’s Slavic-speakers may have amounted to no more than the Sclavenes and Antae of Korchak and Penkovka fame, then the broad Slavic domination of Europe achieved by c.900 AD has to be accounted for from an extremely restricted demographic base. If, on the contrary, the Slavic linguist
Read more

AHHIYAWA

Image
Fig 1. Homeric depiction of the  . Few topics have aroused greater controversy than the  identity and location of this land. In the 1920s Emil Forrer  equated Ahhiyawa with the Homeric Achaia, observing that Homer  refers not to Greeks but to Achaeans. His view attracted both supporters and skeptics. Locations for Ahhiyawa have been proposed  for the western mainland of Anatolia, the Aegean islands, Thrace  and the mainland of Mycenaean Greece. In fact most specialists  have envisaged its extending over more than one of these. The least  plausible location would be entirely on the Anatolian mainland.  With the title of “Great King” for the rulers of Ahhiyawa, it cannot  have covered only a very restricted area; and western Anatolia now  appears fully occupied by the various components of Arzawa, before and after its division by Mursili II. Likewise a carefully argued case for locating Ahhiyawa as an island realm with a narrow  coastal strip on the Anatolian mainland from Mi
Read more

Daza

Image
Description :Maximinus II. AD 310-313. AV Aureus (18mm, 5.30 g, 12h). Antioch mint. Struck AD 311. MAXIMI NVS P F AVG, laureate head right / SOLE IN VICTO, Sol standing left, raised hand and holding Victory; (crescent)SMAT(star). RIC VI 160; Depeyrot 29/3; Calicó 5032. EF, a few marks. Maximinus II. (Jovius), emperor, A.D. 305. Galerius Valerius Maximinus, originally called Daza, played a somewhat prominent part in the complications following on the abdication of DIOCLETIAN and MAXIMIANUS I. Those emperors were succeeded as Augusti by GALERIUS and CONSTANTIUS, who appointed as Caesars Daza, under the name of Maximinus, and Severus. On the death of Constantius (A.D. 306) Galerius assigned the provinces beyond the Alps to Constantine, but conferred the vacant title of Augustus on Severus, leaving that of Caesar to Constantine and Maximin. Severus was put to death A.D. 307, and Galerius made Constantine and Licinius Augusti, assigning Illyricum to the latter. Maximin, who was
Read more