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5. Iconographic murals are not typical.
VI. It is interesting to know…
The origins of Byzantium are clouded by mystery, but for our list we
will follow the generally accepted version. Around 660 B.C., a Greek citi-
zen, Byzas, from the town of Megara near Athens, consulted the oracle of
Apollo at Delphi. Byzas requested advice on where he should found a new
colony, since the mainland of Greece was becoming overpopulated. The
oracle simply whispered, “opposite the blind.”
Byzas didn’t understand the message, but he sailed northeast across
the Aegean Sea. When he came to the Bosphorus Strait, he realized what
the oracle must have meant. Seeing the Greek city of Chalcedon, he
thought that its founders must have been blind, because they had not seen
the obviously superior site just half a mile away on the other side of the
strait. So
he founded his settlement on the better site, and called it Byzantium after
himself.
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