Editing Constantinople (section)

=== Before Constantinople ===
According to [[Pliny the Elder]] in his ''[[Natural History (Pliny)|Natural History]]'', the first known name of a settlement on the site of Constantinople was ''Lygos'',<ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20170101063545/http://www.masseiana.org/pliny.htm ''Pliny the Elder'', book IV, chapter XI]}}. Quote: "On leaving the Dardanelles we come to the Bay of Casthenes, ... and the promontory of the Golden Horn, on which is the town of Byzantium, a free state, formerly called Lygos; it is 711 miles from Durazzo,..."</ref> a settlement likely of [[Thracian]] origin founded between the 13th and 11th centuries BC.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |year=1908 |title=Constantinople |encyclopedia=Catholic Encyclopedia |publisher=Robert Appleton Company |location=New York |url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04301a.htm |access-date=2007-09-12 |last=Vailhé |first=S. |volume=4 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100722013539/http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04301a.htm |archive-date=2010-07-22 |url-status=live}}</ref> The site, according to the founding myth of the city, was abandoned by the time Greek settlers from the city-state of [[Megara]] founded ''Byzantium'' ({{langx|grc|Βυζάντιον}}, ''Byzántion'') in around 657&nbsp;BC,<ref name="roo177">{{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 |publisher=McFarland & Company |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-7864-2248-7 |edition=2nd |location=Jefferson, N.C. |page=177}}</ref> across from the town of [[Chalcedon]] on the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus.

The origins of the name of ''Byzantion'', more commonly known by the later Latin ''Byzantium'', are not entirely clear, though some suggest it is of [[Thracian language|Thracian]] origin.<ref>Janin, Raymond (1964). ''Constantinople byzantine''. Paris: Institut Français d'Études Byzantines. p. 10f.</ref><ref name="johns">Georgacas, Demetrius John (1947). "The Names of Constantinople". ''Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association'' (The Johns Hopkins University Press) '''78''': 347–67. {{doi|10.2307/283503}}. {{JSTOR|283503}}.</ref> The founding myth of the city has it told that the settlement was named after the leader of the Megarian colonists, [[Byzas]]. The later Byzantines of Constantinople themselves would maintain that the city was named in honour of two men, Byzas and Antes, though this was more likely just a play on the word Byzantion.{{sfn|Harris|2017|pages=25–26}}

The city was briefly renamed ''Augusta Antonina'' in the early 3rd century AD by the Emperor [[Septimius Severus]] (193–211), who razed the city to the ground in 196 for supporting a [[Pescennius Niger|rival contender]] in the [[Year of the Five Emperors|civil war]]. He then had it rebuilt in honour of his son Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (who succeeded him as Emperor), popularly known as [[Caracalla]].{{sfn|Harris|2017|page=43}}<ref name="IA">Necdet Sakaoğlu (1993/94a): "İstanbul'un adları" ["The names of Istanbul"]. In: 'Dünden bugüne İstanbul ansiklopedisi', ed. Türkiye Kültür Bakanlığı, Istanbul.</ref> The name appears to have been quickly forgotten and abandoned, and the city reverted to Byzantium/Byzantion after either the assassination of Caracalla in 217 or, at the latest, the fall of the [[Severan dynasty]] in 235.