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Meaning & History
Byzantium was an ancient Greek colony on the site that later became Constantinople, the capital city of the Roman/Byzantine Empire since 330 AC. From 1204 to 1261 was conquered and ruled by crusaders but Michael VIII Palaeologus reintroduced there a Byzantine dynasty. In 1453 the Ottoman Empire conquered it and Constantinople became the new imperial capital until 1922. Its modern name is İstanbul.