an alliance with
Alexander the Great; but the city was thenceforth continually
harassed by enemies, and never regained its former prosperity.
About the year B.C. 277 it was menaced by the Gauls, to whom the
Byzantines were forced to pay tribute. When those invaders had been
driven back by the Thracian tribes, these in turn exacted from
Byzantium like payments, and to increase its revenues the city
taxed all vessels entering the Euxine. This led, B.C. 220, to a war
with Rhodes, instigated by aggrieved merchants in different parts
of the world, the result of which was that the Byzantines levied no
more tribute on ships.

By treaty, B.C. 148, Byzantium entered into relations with Rome,
then engaged in eastern wars, and from that time the Byzantines
sought Roman favor, and long maintained an alliance with the
empire. After this, little is told of Byzantium until the war of
the emperor Septimius Severus with his great rival, Niger, governor
of Syria. Byzantium adhered to the cause of Niger. Confident in
their future if he should be victorious, the Byzantines indulged
dreams of becoming the head of an eastern empire. Their city was
strongly fortified, they had a powerful fleet, and for three years
they held out against the Roman besiegers, then, after untold
sufferings and slaughter, yielded under the distress of famine. "At
last they were reduced to chewing leather hides soaked in water,
and finally to the horrible extremity in which the weak become
literally the prey of the strong." The Romans destroyed the
magnificent city walls and deprived Byzantium of municipal and
political liberties.

The fall of Byzantium was accomplished in A.D. 194-196, and when
next its site became the scene of historic events a wholly new
order of things had been inaugurated in the world. After his
successful war with his colleague Licinius, sole ruler of the
East, Constantine had him put to death in A.D. 325. Constantine
then became sole augustus, and in 330 he transferred the capital of
the empire from Rome to Byzantium, which was henceforth called
Constantinople.

The unfortunate Licinius was the last rival who opposed the greatness,
and the last captive who adorned the triumph, of Constantine. After a
tranquil and prosperous reign, the conqueror bequeathed to his family