Название: The Antiquities of Constantinople
Автор: Gilles Pierre
Издательство: Bookwire
Жанр: Книги о Путешествиях
isbn: 4064066232856
isbn:
THE
ANTIQUITIES
OF
Constantinople.
BOOK I.
Chap. I.
Of the Founders of Byzantium, and the different Successes and Revolutions of that City.
It is recorded by Stephanus and Pausanias, that Byzantium, now call’d Constantinople, was first founded by Byzas the Son of Neptune and Ceroessa, or by a Person named Byzes, Admiral of the Fleet of the Megarians, who transplanted a Colony thither. I am of Opinion, that this was the same Person with Byzas. For had it taken its Name from Byzes, this City had more properly been call’d Byzeum than Byzantium. Philostratus, in the Life of Marcus a Sophist of Byzantium, calls the Admiral of that Fleet by the Name of Byzas, when he informs us, that Marcus (whom he would have descended from the ancient Family of Byzas) made a Voyage to Megara, and was exceedingly in Favour with the People there, who had formerly sent over a Colony to Byzantium. This People, when they had consulted Apollo where they should found a City, received in Answer from the Oracle, That they should seek out a Situation opposite to the Land of the Blind. The People of Chalcedon were given to understand by this mystical Answer, that tho’ they had made a Landing there before, and had an Opportunity of viewing the commodious Situation of that and other Places adjacent, yet at last had pitch’d upon the most improper Place of all. As to what is mention’d by Justin, that Byzantium was first founded by Pausanias a Spartan, I take it to import no more than this; that they who affirm that Syca, at present call’d Galata, was first founded by the Genoese, as was Constantinople by Constantine, their Meaning was, that they either rebuilt or enlarged those Places, and not that they were the first Founders of them. For when I find it in Herodotus, that upon the Invasion of Thrace by Darius, the People of Byzantium and Chalcedon were not in the least Expectation of the Arrival of the Phœnician Fleet, that having quitted their Cities, they retired into the Inland Shores of the Black Sea, and there founded Mesembria, and that the Phœnicians burnt Byzantium, and Chalcedon; I am of Opinion, that the Lacedæmonians, under the Command of Pausanias, sent a Colony thither, and rebuilt Byzantium, which was before either a Colony of the Megarians, or the Seat of the Subjects of Byzas the Son of Neptune, its first Founder. Eustathius assures us, that it was anciently called Antonina from Antoninus Bassianus, the Son of Severus Cæsar, but that it passed under that Name no longer than his Father liv’d, and that many Years after it was call’d New Rome, and Constantinople, and Anthusa, or Florentia, by Constantine the Great; upon which Account it is call’d by Priscian New Constantinopolitan Rome. It was foretold by the Oracle, that its Inhabitants should be a successful and flourishing People, but a constant Course of Prosperity did not always attend them. ’Twas with great Difficulty that this City first began to make a Figure in the World, in the Struggles it underwent with the Thracians, Bithynians, and Gallogrecians, and in paying a yearly Tribute of eighty Talents to the Gauls who govern’d Asia. ’Twas with greater Contests that it rose to higher Degrees of Eminency, being frequently harass’d, not only with foreign, but domestick Enemies. Mighty Changes it underwent, being sometimes under the popular, sometimes under the aristocratical Form of Government, widely extending its Conquests in Europe and Asia, but especially in Bithynia. For Philarcus observes in the sixth Book of his History, that the Byzantians had the same Power over the Bithynians, as the Lacedæmonians had over their Helotæ. This Commonwealth had so great a Veneration for the Ptolemæi Kings of Ægypt, that to one of them nam’d Philadelphus, they pay’d divine Honours, and erected a Temple to him, in the Sight of their City; and so great a Regard had they for the Roman Name, that they assisted them against the King of Macedon, to whom, as degenerating from his Predecessors, they gave the nickname of Pseudo-Philippus. I need not mention the powerful Succours they sent against Antiochus, Perseus, Aristonicus, and the Assistance they gave Antonius, when engaged in a War against the Pyrates. This City alone stood the Brunt of Mithridates’s whole Army landed in their Territories, and at last, though with great Difficulty, bravely repell’d the Invader. It assisted at once Sylla, СКАЧАТЬ