The View from the Bridge - Strolling Through Istanbul: The Classic Guide to the City - page 3

was taken by Darius in the year 512 B.C., and remained under
Persian control until 479 B.C., when it was recaptured by the Spartan
general Pausanias. Byzantium later became part of the Athenian
Empire; although it revolted in 440 B.C. and again in 411 B.C., it
was conquered on each occasion by the Athenians, the last time by
Alcibiades. After the defeat of Athens in 403 B.C. Byzantium was
captured by Lysander and was still under a Spartan governor when
Xenophon's Ten Thousand arrived shortly afterwards. Xenophon and
his men were so inhospitably treated that in retaliation they occupied
the town, leaving only after they exacted a large bribe from its citizens.
During the first half of the fourth century B.C. Byzantium was held
in enforced alliance with Athens, but in the year 356 B.C. the city
rebelled and won its independence. Despite this the Athenians,
through the urgings of Demosthenes, sent aid to Byzantium when
it was besieged by Philip of Macedon in 340 B.C. A contemporary
Athenian writer informs us that the Byzantine commanders were
forced to build taverns within the very defence walls in order to keep
their tipsy soldiers at their posts. But the Byzantines fought well, for
they successfully held of the Macedonians in a memorable siege.
Despite their spirited fight against King Philip, the Byzantines had
enough good sense not to resist his son, Alexander the Great. Soon
after Alexander's victory at the battle of the Granicus in 334 B.C.
Byzantium capitulated and opened its gates to the Macedonians.
Later, after Alexander's death in 323 B.C., Byzantium was involved
in the collapse and dismemberment of his empire and the subsequent
eastward expansion of Rome. In the year 179 B.C. the city was
captured by the combined forces of Rhodes, Pergamum and Bithynia.
A century later Byzantium was a pawn in the struggle between Rome
and Mithridates, King of Pontus. After the final victory of Rome,
Byzantium became its client state, and thereafter enjoyed nearly
three centuries of quiet prosperity under the mantle of the Pax
Romana. But eventually, in the closing years of the second century
A.D., Byzantium was swept up once again in the tides of history.
At that time Byzantium found itself on the losing side in a civil war
and was besieged by the Emperor Septimius Severus. After finally
taking Byzantium in the year 196 A.D., the Emperor tore down