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