Etymology
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Byzantium

ancient Greek settlement in Thrace on the European side of the Bosphorus, said to be named for its 7c. B.C.E. founder, Byzas of Megara. A place of little consequence until 330 C.E., when Constantine the Great re-founded it and made it his capital (see Constantinople).

Entries linking to Byzantium

Constantinople 

from 330 C.E. to 1930 the name of what is now Istanbul and formerly was Byzantium, the city on the European side of the Bosphorus that served as the former capital of the Byzantine and Ottoman empires, from Greek Konstantinou polis "Constantine's city," named for Roman emperor Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus (see Constantine), who transferred the Roman capital there.

bezant (n.)
gold coin issued by the emperors at Constantinople, c. 1200, from Old French besant (12c.), from Latin byzantius, short for Byzantius nummus "coin of Byzantium." They circulated widely in Europe in the early Middle Ages, when most countries had no gold coins of their own.
Byzantine (adj.)
pertaining to Byzantium (q.v., original name of Constantinople, modern Istanbul), 1770, from Late Latin Byzantinus; originally used of the style of art and architecture developed there 4c.-5c. C.E.; later in reference to the complex, devious, and intriguing character of the royal court of Constantinople (1937). As a noun from 1770. Byzantian is from 1610s.

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Definitions of Byzantium

Byzantium (n.)
an ancient city on the Bosporus founded by the Greeks; site of modern Istanbul; in 330 Constantine I rebuilt the city and called it Constantinople and made it his capital;
Byzantium (n.)
a continuation of the Roman Empire in the Middle East after its division in 395;
Synonyms: Byzantine Empire / Eastern Roman Empire
From wordnet.princeton.edu

Dictionary entries near Byzantium

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