Episode 10 - Founding of Byzantion (Later Constantinople) Part 1

By the middle of the 7th century BC, the restless energy of the Greek Archaic period was spilling out across the seas. Colonists from Megara, like so many of their contemporaries, were looking for new land, new trade, and new opportunities. When they reached the Bosphorus, they found a site that was almost absurdly well-positioned—commanding the narrows between the Black Sea and the Aegean, with a defensible peninsula jutting into the water. According to later tradition, the oracle at Delphi had told them to settle “opposite the blind,” a cryptic phrase that made sense only when they saw Chalcedon, founded earlier on the less advantageous shore. Byzas and the Megarians, not being blind, chose the better spot, and so Byzantion was born. At the time, it was just another colonial outpost in a world full of them. But geography has a way of shaping destiny, and this little settlement on the Bosphorus was already set apart—its future greatness written into the landscape itself.

MUSIC:

Franz Gordon, Hanna Ekström, Anna Dager / Boxes of Memories / courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com.

Johannes Bornlöf / Colors in Movement / courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com.

Gavin Luke / Crucial Calculations / courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com.