of the Macedonians.
From the same cause arose the violent intestine contests which ended in the
establishment of a rude and turbulent democracy. About seven years after
its second colonization, the Athenian Cimon wrested it from the
Lacedaemonians; but in 440 B.C. it returned to its former allegiance.
Alcibiades, after a severe blockade (408 B.C.), gained possession of the
city through the treachery of the Athenian party; in 405 B.C. it was
retaken by Lysander and placed under a Spartan harmost. It was under the
Lacedaemonian power when the Ten Thousand, exasperated by the conduct of
the governor, made themselves masters of the city, and would have pillaged
it had they not been dissuaded by the eloquence of Xenophon. In 390 B.C.
Thrasybulus, with the assistance of Heracleides and Archebius, expelled the
Lacedaemonian oligarchy, and restored democracy and the Athenian influence.

After having withstood an attempt under Epaminondas to restore it to the
Lacedaemonians, Byzantium joined with Rhodes, Chios, Cos, and Mausolus,
King of Caria, in throwing off the yoke of Athens, but soon after sought
Athenian assistance when Philip of Macedon, having overrun Thrace, advanced
against it. The Athenians under Chares suffered a severe defeat from
Amyntas, the Macedonian admiral, but in the following year gained a
decisive victory under Phocion and compelled Philip to raise the siege. The
deliverance of the besieged from a surprise, by means of a flash of light
which revealed the advancing masses of the Macedonian army, has rendered
this siege memorable. As a memorial of the miraculous interference, the
Byzantines erected an altar to Torch-bearing Hecate, and stamped a crescent
on their coins, a device which is retained by the Turks to this day. They
also granted the Athenians extraordinary privileges, and erected a monument
in honour of the event in a public part of the city.

During the reign of Alexander Byzantium was compelled to acknowledge the
Macedonian supremacy; after the decay of the Macedonian power it regained
its independence, but suffered from the repeated incursions of the
Scythians. The losses which they sustained by land roused the Byzantines to
indemnify themselves on the vessels which still crowded the harbour, and
the merchantmen which cleared the straits; but this had the effect of
provoking a war with the neighbouring naval powers. The exchequer being
drained by the payment of 10,000 pieces of gold to buy off t