Byzantium
Byzantium(see map: Greece and the Aegean world), a famous city on the European side of the south end of the Bosporus, between the Golden Horn and the Propontis (mod. sea of Marmara). The Greek city occupied only the eastern tip of the promontory, in the area now covered by the Byzantine and Ottoman palaces of Constantinople/Istanbul. The evidence of cults and institutions confirms the claim of the city of Megara (between Athens and Corinth) to be the main founder, but groups from the Peloponnese and central Greece probably also participated in the original colony, which is to be dated 668 (Herodotus 4. 144) or 659 BC (Eusebius Chronica). Little material earlier than the late 7th cent. bc has yet emerged from excavations. Except during the Ionian Revolt (see Greece, history) the city was under Persian control from Darius I's Scythian expedition until 478....
[The entire page is 457 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Oxford University Press Titles
