BYTOWX. 



BTZAOT1 



203 



and caulker, of thins. Alexander took Byblus, whose king 

 Uw Macedonian fleet with hi. .hips. The city gave title to a 

 before it MI under UM Moslem*. The coin, uf ih MM. bare 

 Uw type of Aitarta, or of Isia, who came to Byblns in quoit of the 



' 



BY ; .d West, the chief town of Carleton County, u 



sitaaUd in a r7 beautiful put of the country on the OtUwa, near 

 UM junction of the Rideau Canal with that river, in 45' 20' N. lat, 

 7S' 4* W. long. ; distant 126 mile* N.N.K. from Kingston, and 

 SM miU N.E. by K. from Toronto : the population of the town in 

 1U1 was 770. 'The lower town, which it the older port, it that in 

 which bn.lnnss U generally carried on : the upper town U of more recent 

 it ia aituatp.1 about lialf a mile distant on a more elevated 



U, and consists chiefly of private residences. Considerable improve- 

 ment ha* taken place in the appearance of Bytown of late yean. 

 Bsreral bandaome atone building* hare been erected. The town 

 eanUins place* of wonhip for Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Wealeyan 

 Mtllrnrerts. Baptists, and Roman Catholic*; several schools, a com- 

 till reading-room. a mercantile library association, a court-house, 

 barracks, and a jail Bytown i* nipported chiefly by the lumber trade, 

 term applied to the system of floating Urge rafU of rough timber 

 down the riven of America to the depot* and ports in the lower parta 

 of their course, Timber cut on crown-lands and brought down the 

 Ottawa Hirer U meaanred at Bytown, and the owner gives bond to 

 pay the dutic* at Quebec. The value of timber brought down the 

 river in one year, 1844, was estimated at 341.756/. About three-fifths 

 of the whole being cut on crown-lands was liable to duty, amounting 

 to about 34,0001. Fain are held at Bytown in April and September. 

 Strainers ply between Bytown and GrenvUle on the Ottawa, and 

 between Bytown and Kingston on the Rideau Canal. 



BYZA'XTH'M (Bi/farrur, on the coins sometimes Biwavrior), an 

 ancient Greek city, which occupied part of the site of modern Con- 

 stantinople. It was founded by a Doric colony from Megara in 

 B-c. 867. The city was washed on the east by the Bosporus, on the 

 south by the Propontis, and on the north by the Golden Horn. Strabo, 

 Pliny, and other ancient writer*, speak of the abundance of fUli iu 

 the sea of Byzantium, especially of the Pelamys kind, which coming 

 down in shoals from the Palus MccotU, and round by the eastern 

 and southern coast of the Euxine, entered the Bosporus ; ami the 

 harbour of Byzantium was called ' the Golden Horn,' in consequence 

 of the riches 'derived! from the fishery. (I'lin. 'Hist Nat.' ix. 15.) 

 The Byzantine* salted the fih, which was an article of considerable 

 trade. The harbour of Byzantium became a place of resort for 

 trading with the Euxine, the northern coasts of which already 



in the time of Herodotus supplied with corn, as they do now, Greece 

 and other countries of the Mediterranean. 



In the reign of Darius Hystaspes, the Persian satrap Otanca took 

 Byzantium and Chalcedon, an earlier Megarensian colony on the 

 opposite coast of the Bosporus. After the battle of Plafcca, Pausa- 

 nuu at the head of the united Greek forces took Byzantium, and a 

 fresh colony of mixed Athenians and Lacedicmonians was sent to it. 

 This second colony has given occasion to Justinus and other writers 

 to say that Byzantium was founded by Pauaanias. The Lacedaemo- 

 nians kept possession of Byzantium till Pericles took it from them, 

 but they retook it shortly after. Alcibiades again got possession of 

 it by a stratagem and by holding communication with some persona 

 within the place. (Plutarch, ' Alcib.') Lysander recovered it soon 

 after, and it was under the Lacedicmonians when Xennphon, with the 

 remnant of the 10,000 passed through it on his way home, and his 

 men bad a serious aflray with the Lacedaemonian governor, which was 

 with difficulty settled by the prudence of Xenophon. Thrasybulus 

 drove the Lacedemonians away, B.C. 390, and changed the form of 

 government, which was before oligarchical, into a democracy. The 

 n*fre Bithynian inhabitant* were treated a* Helots. Aft 

 recovery of it* liberty, II\ uuitium seems to have prospered for a time, 

 and H became, in B.C. 356, the head of a confederacy of the 

 neighbouring maritime towns. It also joined Rhodes, Cos, and Chios 

 in the league with King Mausolus against the Athenians, who sent an 

 expedition against Byzantium, which however failed. Some time 

 after, Philip of Maosdon having extended his conquests into Thrace, 

 laid siege to Byzantium. The Byzantines made a bold defence, and 

 Philip 1 , army become distressed for want of provisions mid i. 

 Philip relieved his wants by seizing 170 ships and confiscating their 

 cargoes. On a dark night Philip's soldiers were near surprising the 

 town, when a " light ebons suddenly from the north," and revealed to 

 th inhabitants their danger. In gratitude for this the Byzantines 

 boflt an altar to Diana, and assumed the crescent as the emblem of 

 The crescent is found on several medals of Byzantium, 

 and the Turks, on their conquest of Constantinople, adopted it for their 

 own aeries. Under Alex*nHi>r tH HM** *n.i t.iMlw*j3MM 4, .<* 



, 



Uo<Ur Alexander the Great and Lysimachus, who after 

 Alexander's death soceeedsd to the government of Thrace, Byzantium 

 was obttgsd to submit to the Macedonians, but it afterwards recovered 

 its municipal independence, which it retained till the time of the 

 Roman emperors. It* maritime commerce was prosperous, but it 

 was ex posed on the laud side to continual incursions of Thracians, 

 Scythians, and other barbarians, who ravaged its territory, cut down 

 ** <, and reduced it to great distress. The most troublesome 

 of these onions was that of the Gauls, who overran Macedonia 



and Northern Greece about B.C. 279. The Byzantine*, in or 

 have some respite from them, were obliged to pay heavy sums, from 

 3000 to 1 0,000 pieces of gold a year, and at last as much as 80 talents, 

 to save their lands from being ravaged iu harvest-time. These and 



Coin of Byzantium. Brit. Mas. Copper. 123 gn. 



Brit. Man. Silver. 206 gn. 



other burdens compelled them to have recourse to extraordinary 

 measures for raising money, one of which was the exacting of a toll 

 from all ships passing through the Bosporus which became the cause 

 of the war between Byzantium and Rhodes, about B.C. 221. The 

 Gauls at last went over to Asia, and left Byzantium in peace. Th 

 Rhodians, a maritime trading people, refused to pay the toll on their 

 ships passing through the Bosporus, which led to a war with Byzan- 

 tium, in which Prusias I., king of Bithynia, sided with the Rhodians, 

 and Attains I., king of Pergamus, took the part of the Byzantines. 

 The latter had the worst of it, and peace was made by the mediation 

 of Cavalus or Cavarus, king of the Gallo-Oncci. 



Byzantium allied itself to Rome against Philip 1 1. of Macedonia, as 

 well as against Antiochua and Mithridates. In return for iU sr; 

 it was made a free town confederate with Rome, and its envoys were 

 treated as foreign ambassadors. Some domestic disputes h<>- 

 occasioned an appeal to Rome from the losing party, and Clodiua the 

 tribune carried a decree enjoining the Byzantines to readmit tin- 

 emigrants. Piso was sent to enforce this decree, but his conduct 

 there appears to have been that of a hostile conqueror rather than of 

 an ally and mediator. After Piso's departure the Byzantines resumed 

 their former independence. They were subject to a tribute however, 

 at least under the first emperors, which Claudius remitted for five 

 years, in consideration of their losses during the Thracian war. 

 (Tacitus, 'Ann.' xii. 62.) Inconsequence of some fiesh domestic broil i 

 however Vespasian took away their liberties and scut them a governor, 

 and when Apolloniua of Tyana remonstrated with the emperor on the 

 subject, Veapasian replied that the Byzantines had forgotten how to 

 be free. In the civil war between Severua and Pcscenniua Niger, the 

 Byzantines took the part of the latter. After Niger's dcntli s 

 besieged the town, which the inhabitants defended for three years 

 with the courage of despair. At last famine obliged them to sun 

 (A.D. 196), and Severus treated them with hia characteristic inhu- 

 manity. The armed men and the chief citizens were put to death, 

 the walls were razed, and the remaining inhabitants were placed under 

 the jurisdiction of Perinthus. Severus however relented afterwards, 

 and, visiting Byzantium, took pains to embellish the town ; he built 

 magnificent baths, porticoes round the' Hippodrome and other build- 

 ings, and gave it the name of Augusta Autonina, in honour of his sou 

 Antoninus Bassianus. The Byzantines having rebuilt their walls, and 

 recovered their prosperity, had next the misfortune of somehow di 

 pleasing Gallienus, a worse man than Sevenu, who entered the town 

 under a promise of amnesty, and had moat of the inhabitants mas- 

 sacred. Trobellius Pollio says that in his time there were no old 

 families in Byzantium, except those who had left the town before 

 Gallienus entered it The town however was restored, and it repelled 

 an irruption of the Qoths, who hod entered the Bosporus \m,l. r 

 Claudius II. After the defeat of Liciiiius by Constantino, Byzantium 

 surrendered to the Utter ; who was so struck with its situation that 

 he determined to build a new city by the side of old Byzantium, 

 which he called N'ea Roma, and which he chose afterwards for tbo 

 capital of the empire. In May A.I). 330, the new town, whi> ! 

 been commenced only three yean before, was dedicated to the Virgin 

 Mary, and the feasts lasted 40 days. [CONSTANTINOPLE.] 



Athenseus, .Klian, and other ancient compilers give rather an 

 unfavourable account of Byzantine morals and manners. 1*1 

 and debauchery prevailed, the citizens spent their time in the market- 

 place, or in the numerous public houses of the city, and let their 

 houses and wives tostrangers. The sound of n flute put them imme- 

 diately in a tncrry mood, but they lied from that of a trumpet, and 



