Lygos the City

Panaromic view of Byzantion [1]

LYGOS is aiming to shape the future with the solutions it will offer... like its namesake, the Eternal City that shaped the history of the world did! But where was this great city?

According to Roman historian Pliny the Elder, the city of Lygos was founded in 13th Century BC as a Thracian colony. It was a promissing city; it lied at the juncture of two seas, on some of the important trade routes of the Ancient world. However, like many others, it was destoryed by the Aegean Migrations and the Bronze Age Collapse swallowed this Thracian colony, too... In 600 years, a group of colonists under the leadership of Byzas of Megara, a city in the vincinity of Athens, sailed up to the Seraglio Point of Istanbul, where Lygos was once, and founded a city of their of own in its place in 657 BC under the name “Byzantion”.

According to legend, Byzas consulted the Oracle of Delphi before founding his city. The Oracle decreed that he should found it “opposite the blind”. Confused as he made no sense out of it until he reached to the shores of the Bosphorus, and saw the city of Chalcedon on the Asian side. Chalcedon (present Kadıköy) was located a few kilometers away from the superior location that was once Lygos, and suprised by it as they did not found their city on that spot. And therefore, he founded his city on the “opposite of the blind.”

Map of Constantinople [2]

As an Ancient Greek colony situated in the midway between coastal cities of the Black Sea and settlements throughout the Aegean and Greece, Byzantion flourished due to its position on some of the important trade routes of the Ancient World in a short time. The affects of the Persian Wars and campaigns of Alexander the Great were minimal; the city managed to remain indepedent from both great powers. However, Byzantion paid the price of siding with the loser in a struggle to be the ultimate ruler of Rome between Pescennius Niger and Septimius Severus in 196 AD. Although Pescennius was defeated and Byzantion was in ruins, the victorious Septimius Severus decided to rebuild it to its former glory. Not only he restored what has been destroyed, but he expanded the city and built numerous monuments such as the famous Hippodrome, which is now known as the Sultanahmet Square.

The city suffered extensive damage for the second time during a power struggle between Emperor Constantine I and his co-Emperor and rival Licinius. Constantine’s projects in Byzantion were not limited to restorations. Expanding and renaming it New Rome (Nea Roma, May 11, 330), he also decided to make it his Empire’s capital. That name, however, didn’t last long, and people began to call it Constantinople. The first Hagia Sophia Church (present structure is the third) was also built during his reign.

Süleymaniye Mosque, Ottoman Era, Istanbul [3]

The 1,000 years following the division of Rome and fall of the Western half of the Empire, Constantinople became one of the most populous and wealthy cities of the world. In the 7th Century, while Rome had a population of 30,000 and Paris was about 10,000, Constantinople was housing well over a million people. Until the Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople on April 12, 1204, this vibrant city continued to thrive – though with ups and downs and some 40 unsuccessful sieges by many peoples. From the devastations of 1204 up to the Ottoman conquest of the city in 1453, Constantinople remained as a shadow of its glorious past; nothing much more than a small town. With the Ottoman takeover, however, the city entered yet another golden age. Ottoman monuments erected, taking place in the city’s silhouette together with the Byzantine monuments. As a natural consequence of being an Imperial capital, Constantinople regained its former splendor.

As the Ottoman Empire came to end and the Republic was declared, Istanbul became a reflection of modern Turkey. Being the most cosmopolitan city of the Middle East and the Balkans and a very attractive financial center, Istanbul is now housing Lygos once again… a LYGOS that is aiming to shape the future!

Levent District, Istanbul [4]

[1] (http://www.arkeo3d.com/byzantium1200)
[2] (http://www.arkeo3d.com/byzantium1200)
[3] (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suleymaniye_Mosque)
[4] (http://www.worldturkey.com/gallery/data/media/71/levent010.jpg)