of Byzantion itself and no monograph on Byzantion has been written
since V. P. Newskaja’s, originally published in Russian in 1953.^107 The
scholarly and comparative evidence collected in theInventory of Archaic
and Classical Poleishelps to redress this strange imbalance. Byzantion
can, as a result, resume its place among the truly exceptional city-states
of the fifth and fourth centuriesbc, alongside Athens, Sparta, and
Syracuse. The territory controlled by the city of Byzantion in this period
(estimated by Loukopoulou andŁajtar asc.1500 km^2 ), extended from a
north-western frontier on Lake Derkos, a famousfishing lake in close
proximity to the Black Sea coast, to the River Athyras (Kara Su), and
along the Athyras lake (Büyükcekmeçe) in the south.^108 How and when
the city acquired such extensive territory is not certain. According to
Ps.-Skymnos (722–23), Byzantine territory included the locality Phileas,
or Philia, in the north, on a promontory extending into the Black Sea. To
the north it bordered land controlled by Thracian dynasts (Plb. 4.45.1);
Fig. 5.7.Istanbul, view of the Bosporus from Topkapi palace, the heart of the
ancient city of Byzantion.
(^107) Newskaja 1955; Loukopoulou andŁajtar (2004) provide an up to date point of reference,
but Isaac’s chapter on Byzantion (1986, 215–37) is still a useful account and commentary;
Robinson 2011, 146–9,reconsidersthecity’s constitutional structure withreference to Aristotle’s
statements (and their economic dimensions) about democracy at Byzantion. 108
Str. 7.6.1, p. 319 and fr. 56; Pl.NH4.46; Pompon. 2.24; Isaac 1986, 232–3on
territorial matters.
238 Regionalism and regional economies