Editing Byzantium (section)

==Etymology==

The etymology of ''Byzantium'' is unknown. It has been suggested that the name is of [[Thracian language|Thracian]] origin.<ref name="janin">{{Cite book|last=Janin|first=Raymond|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uyGFAAAAIAAJ|title=Constantinople byzantine: dévelopment urbain et répertoire topographique|date=1964|publisher=Institut Français d'Études Byzantines|location=Paris|pages=10–11|isbn=9789042931015 |language=French|author-link=Raymond Janin}}</ref> It may be derived from the Thracian personal name Byzas which means "he-goat".<ref name="Georgacas1947">{{Cite journal |last=Georgacas, Demetrius John |date=1947 |title=The Names of Constantinople |journal=Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association |publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press |volume=78 |pages=347–67 |doi=10.2307/283503 |jstor=283503}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Georgacas|first=Demetrius John|date=1947|title=The Names of Constantinople|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/283503|journal=Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association|volume=78|pages=347–367|doi=10.2307/283503|jstor=283503|issn=0065-9711}}</ref> Ancient Greek legend refers to the Greek king [[Byzas]], the leader of the Megarian colonists and founder of the city.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Room |first=Adrian |title=Placenames of the World: Origins and Meanings of the Names for 6,600 Countries, Cities, Territories, Natural Features, and Historic Sites |date=2006 |publisher=McFarland & Company |isbn=978-0-7864-2248-7 |edition=2nd |location=Jefferson, NC}}</ref> The name ''[[Lygos]]'' for the city, which likely corresponds to an earlier [[Thracian]] settlement,<ref name="janin" /> is mentioned by [[Pliny the Elder]] in his ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Natural History]]''.<ref>[[:wikisource:Natural History (Rackham, Jones, & Eichholz)/Book 4|Pliny, IV]], xi</ref>

''Byzántios,'' plural ''Byzántioi'' ({{langx|grc|Βυζάντιος, Βυζάντιοι}}, {{langx|la|Byzantius}}; adjective the same) referred to Byzantion's inhabitants, also used as an [[ethnonym]] for the people of the city and as a family name.<ref name="Georgacas1947" /> In the [[Middle Ages]], ''Byzántion'' was also a [[synecdoche]] for the [[eastern Roman Empire]]. (An [[Ellipsis (linguistics)|ellipsis]] of {{Langx|grc-x-medieval|Βυζάντιον κράτος|translit=Byzántion krátos}}).<ref name="Georgacas1947" /> ''Byzantinós'' ({{Langx|grc-x-medieval|Βυζαντινός}}, {{langx|la|Byzantinus}}) denoted an inhabitant of the empire.<ref name="Georgacas1947" /> The [[Anglicisation of names|Anglicization]] of Latin ''Byzantinus'' yielded "Byzantine", with 15th and 16th century forms including ''Byzantin'', ''Bizantin(e)'', ''Bezantin(e)'', and ''Bysantin'' as well as ''Byzantian'' and ''Bizantian''.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Oxford English Dictionary |publisher=OED Online |chapter=Byzantine, adj. and n.}}</ref>

The name ''Byzantius'' and ''Byzantinus'' were applied from the 9th century to gold [[Byzantine coinage]], reflected in the French ''besant'' (''d'or''), Italian ''bisante'', and English ''besant'', ''byzant'', or ''[[bezant]]''.<ref name="Georgacas1947" /> The English usage, derived from Old French ''besan'' (pl. ''besanz''), and relating to the coin, dates from the 12th century.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Oxford English Dictionary |publisher=OED Online |isbn=9780198611868 |chapter=bezant {{!}} byzant, n.|date=1991 }}</ref>

Later, the name ''Byzantium'' became common in the West to refer to the [[Eastern Roman Empire]], whose capital was Constantinople. As a term for the east Roman state as a whole, ''Byzantium'' was introduced by the historian [[Hieronymus Wolf]] only in 1555, a century after the last remnants of the empire, whose inhabitants continued to refer to their polity as the Roman Empire ({{Langx|grc-x-medieval|Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων|lit=empire of the Romans|translit=Basileía tōn Rhōmaíōn}}), had ceased to exist.<ref name="Kazhdan2005">{{cite book |last1=Kazhdan |first1=Alexander |editor1-last=Kazhdan |editor1-first=Alexander |title=The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium |date=2005 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-504652-6 |chapter-url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780195046526.001.0001/acref-9780195046526-e-0863?rskey=Cth99c&result=863 |chapter=Byzantium}}</ref>

Other places were historically known as ''Byzántion'' (Βυζάντιον) – a city in [[Ancient Libya|Libya]] mentioned by [[Stephanus of Byzantium]] and another on the western coast of India referred to by the [[Periplus of the Erythraean Sea]]; in both cases the names were probably adaptations of names in local languages.<ref name="Georgacas1947" /> [[Faustus of Byzantium]] was from a city of that name in [[Cilicia]].<ref name="Georgacas1947" />