BUTRINTO  , a seaport and fortified

town of southern Albania, Turkey, in the vilayet of Iannina; directly opposite the island of Corfu (Corcyra), and on a small stream which issues from Lake Vatzindro or Vivari, into the Bay of Butrinto, an inlet of the Adriatic Sea . Pop . (1900) about 2000 . The town, which is situated about 2 M. inland, has a small harbour, and was formerly the seat of an Orthodox bishop . In the neighbourhood are the ruins of the ancient Buthrotum, from which the modern town derives its name . The ruins consist of a Roman wall, about a mile in circumference, and some remains of both later and Hellenic work . The legendary founder of the city was Helenus, son of Priam, and Virgil (Aen. iii . 291 sq.) tells how Helenus here established a new Trojan kingdom . Hence the names New Troy and New Pergamum, applied to Buthrotum, and those of Xanthus and Simois, given to two small streams in the neighbourhood . In the 1st century B.C . Buthrotum became a Roman colony, and derived some importance from its position near Corcyra, and on the main highway between Dyrrachium and Ambracia . Under the Empire, however, it was overshadowed by the development of Dyrrachium and Apollonia .

The modern city belonged to the Venetians from the 14th century until 1797 . It was then seized by the

French, who in 1799 had to yield to the Russians and Turks .