Origins of Byzantium
Overcrowding in the eighth century B.C.
led Greek city-states to send out colonies throughout the Mediterranean basin. Thus in the year 667 b.c. the legendary Byzas from the Greek city of Megara, after consulting the oracle of Apollo at Delphi, founded the seaport of Byzantium at the entrance of the Black Sea. In the second half of the fourth century b.c. King Philip II of Macedon (382336 B.C.) and his son Alexander the Great (356323 B.C.) dominated Byzantium as they built an empire reaching from Greece to India. After his death, Alexander's generals carved up his conquests into powerful kingdoms that valued their Greek heritage. By the first century B.C. these nations had been absorbed into the empire of ancient Rome. The non-Christian Roman state, founded in 753 B.C., lasted 1100 years.
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