Origins of Byzantium:

After siding with Pescennius Niger against the victorious Septimius Severus the city was besieged by Rome and suffered extensive damage in AD 196. Byzantium was rebuilt by the now Roman Emperor Septimius Severus and quickly regained its previous prosperity. The location of Byzantium attracted Constantine the Great who, in AD 330, refounded it as Nova Roma or Constantinoupolis (Constantinople, Greek Κωνσταντινούπολις) after a prophetic dream was said to have identified the location of the city. The East Roman Empire which had its capital in Constantinople from then until 1453, has often been called the Byzantine Empire or Byzantium by modern scholars. By extension, the name Byzantium is often used to refer to the Byzantine Empire, its territory, and its customs.

Of course it did not take a prophet to see that this combination of imperialism and location would play an important role as the crossing point between two continents (Europe and Asia), and later a magnet for Africa and others as well, in terms of commerce, culture, diplomacy and strategy. At a strategic position, Constantinoupolis was able to control the route between Asia and Europe, as well as the passage from the Mediterranean Sea to the Euxinos Pontus (Black Sea).

The Patriarch of Constantinople, "head" of the church of Byzantium, answered only to the Emperor who held most religious power. When the Muslims conquered Constantinople both the Emperor and the Patriarch were killed. The position of head of the Greek Orthodox Church was given to Gennadius II Scholarius by the conquering Muslim Sultan Mehmed II. On May 29, 1453, the city fell to the Ottoman Turks and was part of the Ottoman Empire until its official dissolution on November 1, 1922. Since then it has remained a part of the Republic of Turkey (first declared on January 20, 1921, generally recognized on October 29, 1923). In the 20th century the city was renamed Istanbul. The renaming became official in 1930.


In 670 BC after winning a battle which the citizen of Byzantine attributate to the crescent moon, in honor of the city's patron, Artemis, the Greek Goddess of Hunt, who's symbol was the crescent moon,[1] they official claimed as their state flag this symbol. Other ancient cultures might have worshipped the sky, moon and starts but it was the Greek city of Bynzantium to be the first governing state to ever use it as their national and as official governing symbol. In 330 AD after Constantine became Christian and moved Nova Roma to the Byzantine Empire, he also added the Virgin Mary's star on the flag. When the city fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453 they saw this flag with the Cresent all over Constantinople and took it as their own which the Turkish Flag and many other Muslim nations have inherited ever since.

The cresent moon and star were not completely abonded by the Christian world after the fall of Constantinople. To date the Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem official church flag is a lavarum of white with a church building with two towers and on either side of the arms, at the top, are the outline in black of a crescent moon facing center, and a star/star with rays