Names of Istanbul

The city of Istanbul has been known through the ages under a number of different names. The most notable names besides the modern Turkish name are Byzantium, Constantinople and Stamboul. Different names are associated with different phases of its history and with different languages.

Names in historical sequence

Lygos

According to Pliny the Elder the first name of Byzantium was Lygos. This may have been the name of a Thracian settlement situated on the site of the later city, near the point of the peninsula (Sarayburnu).

Byzantium

Byzantion (Βυζάντιον), Latinized as Byzantium, was founded by Greek colonists from Megara in 667 BC. The name is believed to be of Thracian or Illyrian origin and thus to predate the Greek settlement. It may be derived from a Thracian or Illyrian personal name, Byzas. Ancient Greek legend refers to a legendary king of that name as the leader of the Megarean colonists and eponymous founder of the city.

Much later, the name Byzantium became common in the West to refer to the Eastern Roman Empire, the "Byzantine" Empire, whose capital the city had been. This usage was introduced only in 1555 by the German historian Hieronymus Wolf, a century after the empire had ceased to exist. During the time of the empire, the term Byzantium was restricted to just the city, rather than the empire that it ruled.

Stamboul (film)

Stamboul (1931) is a British drama film directed by Dimitri Buchowetzki and starring Warwick Ward, Rosita Moreno, Margot Grahame, and Garry Marsh, and released by the British division of Paramount Pictures. Buchowetski also co-directed El hombre que asesino with Fernando Gomis, the Spanish-language version of the film, also released by Paramount.

The film is based on the novel L'homme que assasina (1906) by Claude Farrere and on a play by Pierre Frondaie.

Plot

In the lead-up to the First World War, a French military attaché falls in love with the wife of a prominent German in Stamboul in the Ottoman Empire.

Cast

References

External links