O City, City, jewel of all cities, famed in tales throughout the world, leader of faith, guide of orthodoxy, protector of learning, abode of all good! Thou hast drunk to the dregs the cup of the anger of the Lord, and hast been visited with fire fiercer than that which in ancient days descended upon the Five Cities....
—Nicetas Choniates
…And therefore I have sailed the seas and come
To the holy city of Byzantium.
—W. B. Yeats