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Siege of Byzantium (324) 324

Siege of Byzantium (324): Licinius & Constantine montage
Image: File:Colossal statue of Constantine - Palazzo dei Conservatori - Musei Capitolini - Rome 2016.jpg: User:Jbribeiro1 File:Bust of Licinius, Ku, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.

Key facts

Year324Wikidata P585 (point in time)
EraAncient (before 500)derived from year
LocationTurkeyNatural Earth (modern borders)
ContinentAsiaNatural Earth
Coordinates41.0153, 28.9847Wikidata P625

About the battle

The siege of Byzantium was carried out some time between July and September 324 by the forces of the Roman emperor Constantine I (r. 306–337) during his Second Civil War against his rival, co-emperor Licinius (r. 308–324). It would have been started simultaneously with the naval battle of the Hellespont (today known as Dardanelles) in which Constantine's son and caesar Crispus (r. 317–326) defeated the Lycinian navy commanded by Admiral Abanto.

The victory on the Hellespont made it possible to prolong the siege of Byzantium and forced Licinius to summon the forces that were quartered in the city to Asia Minor, where the emperor intended to regroup his remaining forces to confront Constantine again. However, he would be defeated at the consecutive battle of Chrysopolis, ending the Tetrarchy system and allowing the Constantine to establish himself as sole ruler of the Roman Empire.

This was the tenth significant siege of the city, and there were to be many more.

Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Siege of Byzantium (324) (revision 1370739918), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; formatting and citations removed. No text added.

Location

41.0153, 28.9847 · Turkey

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Nearby battles

Browse more: battles in Turkey · Asia · Ancient battles

Further reading