The View from the Bridge - Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City - page 2

the Argonauts when they sailed across the Propontus 3,000 years ago
in search of the Golden Fleece, and so it still appears today to the
tourist approaching the city on a modern oceanliner.
According to tradition, the original settlement from which the
city grew was established on the acropolis above Saray Point in the
seventh century B.C., although there is evidence that the site was
inhabited much earlier than that. The legendary founder of the town
of Byzantium was Byzas the Megarian, who established a colony on
the acropolis in the year 667 B.C. We are told that Byzas had consulted
the Delphic oracle, who advised him to settle “opposite the land of
the blind”. The oracle was referring to the residents of Chalcedon, a
Greek colony which had been established some years before across
the strait. The implication is that the Chalcedonians must have been
blind not to have appreciated the much greater advantages of the
site chosen by Byzas. Situated at the mouth of the Bosphorus, it was
in a position to control all shipping from the Black Sea, the ancient
Pontus, through to the Propontus and the Aegean, while its position
on the boundary of Europe and Asia eventually attracted to it the
great land routes of both continents. Moreover, surrounded as it is on
three sides by water, its short landward exposure defended by strong
walls, it could be made impregnable to attack. As the French writer
Gyllius concluded four centuries ago: “It seems to me that while
other cities may be mortal, this one will remain as long as there are
men on earth.”
From the very beginning of its history Byzantium was an
important centre for trade and commerce, and was noted for its
wine and fisheries. Not all of the wine was exported, apparently, for
in antiquity the citizens of Byzantium had the reputation of being
confirmed tipplers. Menander, in his comedy, he Flute Girl , tells
us that Byzantium makes all of her merchants sots. Says one of the
Byzantine characters in his play: “I booze it all the night, and upon
my waking after my dose I feel that I have no less than three heads
upon my shoulders.” The character of a city is formed quite early in
its career.
During its first millennium Byzantium had much the same history
as the other Greek cities in and on the edge of Asia Minor. The city