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Transcriber’s note:
Two volumes of this book have been put together as a single
volume.
The pages have been rearranged so that the text describing the
illustrations follow immediately the illustrations. Captions
of the illustrations have been used as Chapters’ headers.
The original spellings of Turkish names have been retained
except where they are misleading, such as “Babu (Gate
in Old Turkish) Hummayoun” for Baba (Father in Turkish)
Hummayoun. Also consistency in these names have been assured by
using the most frequent spelling of these names.
The erroneous statement by author about the emigration of
Muhammad from Medina to Mecca has been corrected as from Mecca
to Medina.
The the header “Sultan Selim’s Palace at Scutari” is
replaced by the caption of the related illustration “Mosque of
Sultan Selim at Scutari” as the illustration displays a mosque.
“Fisher, & Co. London, & Quai de l’Ecole, Paris.” line
which is repeated in all captions has been omitted to avoid
redundancy.
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CONSTANTINOPLE
AND THE SCENERY OF
THE SEVEN CHURCHES OF ASIA MINOR
ILLUSTRATED.
IN A SERIES OF DRAWINGS FROM NATURE
BY THOMAS ALLOM.
WITH
AN HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF CONSTANTINOPLE, AND DESCRIPTIONS OF THE PLATES,
BY THE REV. ROBERT WALSH, LL.D.
CHAPLAIN TO THE BRITISH EMBASSY AT THE OTTOMAN PORTE.
FIRST SERIES.
FISHER, SON, & CO.
NEWGATE ST., LONDON; & QUAI DE L’ECOLE, PARIS.
PREFACE.
NOTHING can form a stronger contrast in modern times, than
Asiatic and European Turkey. The first preserves its character
unchanged−-men and things still display the permanency of Oriental
usages; and they are now as they have been, and will probably continue
to be, for an indefinite period.
Not so the second−-Constantinople having for centuries exhibited the
singular and extraordinary spectacle of a Mahomedan town in a Christian
region, and stood still while all about it were advancing in the march
of improvement, has at length, as suddenly as unexpectedly, been roused
from its slumbering stupidity; the city and its inhabitants are daily
undergoing a change as extraordinary as unhoped for; and the present
generation will see with astonishment, that revolution of usages and
opinions, during a single life, which has not happened in any other
country in revolving centuries.
The traveller who visited Constantinople ten years ago, saw the
military a mere rabble, without order or discipline, every soldier
moving after his own manner, and clad and armed after his own fashion;
he now sees them formed into regular regiments, clothed in uniform,
exercised in a system of tactics, and as amenable to discipline
as a corps of German infantry. He saw the Sultan, the model of an
Oriental despot, exhibited periodically to his subjects with gorgeous
display; or to the representatives of his brother sovereigns, gloomy
and mysterious, in some dark recess of his Seraglio: he now sees him
daily, in European costume, in constant and familiar intercourse with
all people−-abroad, driving four-in-hand in a gay chariot, like a
gentleman of Paris or London; and at home, receiving foreigners with
the courtesies and usages of polished life. He formerly saw his kiosks
with wooden projecting balconies, having dismal windows that excluded
light, and jalousies closed up from all spectators; he now sees him in
a noble palace, on which the arts have been exhausted to render it as
beautiful and commodious as that of a European sovereign. He formerly
saw the people listening to nothing, and knowing nothing, but the
extravagant fictions of story-tellers; he now sees them reading with
avidity the daily newspapers published in the capital, and enlightened
by the realities of passing events.
It is thus that the former state of things is hurrying away, and he who
visits the capital to witness the singularities that marked it, will
be disappointed. It is true, it possesses beauties which no revolution
of opinions, or change of events, can alter. Its seven romantic hills,
its Golden Horn, its lovely Bosphorus, its exuberant vegetation,
its robust and comely people, will still exist, as the permanent
characters of nature: but the swelling dome, the crescent-crowned
spire, the taper minaret, the shouting muezzin, the vast cemetery, the
gigantic cypress, the snow-white turban, the beniche of vivid colours,
the feature-covering yasmak, the light caïque, the clumsy arrhuba,
the arched bazaar−-all the distinctive peculiarities of a Turkish
town−-will soon merge into the uniformity of European things, and, if
the innovation proceed as rapidly as it has hitherto done, leave scarce
a trace behind them.
To preserve the evanescent features of this magnificent city, and
present it to posterity as it was, must be an object of no small
interest; but the most elaborate descriptions will fail to effect it.
It is, therefore, to catch the fleeting pictures while they yet exist,
and transmit them in _visible_ forms to posterity, that the present
work has been undertaken, and, that nothing might be wanting, Asiatic
subjects are introduced; thus presenting, not only the Turk of one
region as he was, but of another as he is, and will continue to be.
The Views are accompanied with letter-press, describing the usages,
customs, and opinions of the people, as ancillary to the pictorial
representations; and a Map of the Bosphorus is added, pointing out
localities, and directing attention to the spot on which the reality
stood or still stands. To complete the whole, an historical sketch of
the city from its foundation is annexed, with a chronological series of
its Emperors and Sultans to the present day; thus combining a concise
history of persons and events, with copious details of its several
parts, and vivid and characteristic representations of its objects.
ROBERT WALSH.
LIST OF PLATES.
VOL. I.
Map of Constantinople To face i
Constantinople from the Golden Horn Frontispiece 1
Fountain and Market Place of Tophana Vignette Title 7
Roumeli-Hissar, or, The Castle of Europe 9
The Great Cemetery of Scutari 12
The Cistern of Bin-bir-derek 14
The Solimanie, or Mosque of Sultan Soliman 16
Mosque of Sultan Achmet 18
Tophana, Entrance to Pera 20
Prison of the Seven Towers 22
Petit Champs des Morts 23
Reception-Room of the Seraglio 26
Brusa and Mount Olympus 28
Emir Sultan, Brusa 31
Guyuk-Suey−-Sweet Waters of Asia 32
The Bath 35
The Aurut Bazaar, or Slave Market 37
The Mosque of Yeni Jami 39
Baluk Hané 40
The Great Bazaar 41
The Atmeidan, or Hippodrome 44
The Mosque of Santa Sophia 45
Eyoub Sultan−-Fountain and Street of Tombs 48
Hunkair, or Unkiar Iskelessi 50
Entrance to the Bosphorus from the Black Sea 52
Pass in the Balkan Mountains−-by Haidhos 56
Route through the Balkan Mountains−-by Tâtar-Bazaar 57
The Barbyses, or Sweet Waters of Europe 57
Interior of a Turkish Caffinet 59
The Village of Babec 61
The Ruins of Ephesus 63
Greek Priest’s House near Yeni Kuey 65
The Acropolis at Sardis 66
Palais of Saïd Pasha 69
The Remains of Hierapolis 70
Philadelphia 71
Pass in the Balkan Mountains−-Bulgarian Side 73
Mosque of Sultan Selim at Scutari 74
Mosque of Mahmoud II. at Tophana 75
Caravanseraï at Guzel-Hissar, on the Meander 76
Anadoli-Hissar, or Castle of Asia 77
Outer Cooling-Room of the Bath near Psamatia Kapousi 78
The Acropolis of Pergamus 79
The Triple Wall of Constantinople 81
Yèrè-Batan-Seraï 82
Kiz-Koulasi−-Leander’s, or the Maiden’s Tower 83
Mosque of Shahzadeh Djamesi 84
LIST OF PLATES.
VOL. II.
Gardens of the Seraglio, Constantinople Vignette 94
Apartment in the Palace of Eyoub, the Residence
of the Asmé Sultana. 33
Obelisk of Theodosius, in the Atmeidan 1
The Sultans New Palace on the Bosphorus 2
A Street in Smyrna 4
Mosque of Buyuk Djami, Scutari 6
Fountain near Babu Hummayoun 6
The Castle of Smyrna 7
The City of Magnesia, and Mount Sipylus 9
Inner Court of the Mosque of Sultan Osman. 12
Metropolitan Church of Magnesia 13
The Ruins of Hieropolis, from the Theatre 17
The Princes’ Islands. 20
The Monastery of St. George of the Precipice 24
Guzel-Hissar, and the Plain of the Meander 26
Greek Church of Baloukli 28
Greek Church of Saint Theodore, Pergamus. 31
Remains of the Church of St. John--Pergamus. 35
Mosque of Santa Sophia, and Fountain of the Seraglio. 38
Pass and Waterfall in the Balkan Mountains. 40
City of Thyatira. 41
Constantinople from the Heights above Eyoub. 43
Mausoleum of Sultan Mahomet and his Family. 49
Spring of the Miraculous Fishes at Baloukli. 51
Ascent of the High Balkan Mountains. 53
Circassian Slaves in the Interior of a Harem,
Constantinople 55
Constantinople, from Cassim Pasha 58
Village in Roumelia, near Adrianople 62
Cavalry Barracks on the Bosphorus 65
Entrance to the Divan, Constantinople 67
The Medâk or Eastern Story-Teller 71
A Street in the Suburbs of Adrianople 73
The Fort and Town of Silivria 74
Turkish Letter-Writer, Constantinople 75
The Square of the Fountain, Adrianople 77
Joannina, the Capital of Albania 78
The Favourite Odalique 79
Smyrna, from the Harbour, Asia Minor 79
The Castle of Argyro-Castro, Albania 81
Town and Castle of Paramythia, Albania 82
The Sultana in her State Arrhuba 83
The Tomb of Ali Pasha and Fatimah, Joannina 83
Halt of Caravaniers at a Seraï 85
The Ruins of Laodicea 86
Castle of Parga, Albania 87
Castle and Valley of Suli 89
Scutari−-and the Maiden Tower 91
Governor’s House, Philadelphia 92
The Gygean Lake, and Place of a Thousand Tombs 93
Map of the Mediterranean, and Turkish Empire.
Fisher, Son, & Co. Printers.
[Illustration: DRAWN & ENGRAVED BY ALEX^R FINLAY & SON.
CONSTANTINOPLE
and the
BOSPHORUS.]
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE.
The first mercantile expedition undertaken by the Greeks, to a distant
country, was that to Colchis, the eastern extremity of the Black Sea,
to bring back the allegorical golden fleece. This distant and perilous
voyage, could not fail, in that rude age, to excite the imagination; so
the poets have adorned its historical details with all the fascinations
of fiction; the bold mariners who embarked in the ship Argo are
dignified with the qualities of heroes, and their adventures swelled
into portentous and preternatural events. The Symplegades were placed
at the entrance of this dark sea, which closed upon and crushed the
daring ships that presumed to penetrate into its mysteries, and so
for ever shut out all access to strangers. But the intrepid sailors,
whose names are handed down to posterity for their extraordinary
physical powers, overcame every difficulty; and Jason, the Columbus of
the ancient world, returned in safety with his golden freight. From
that time the hitherto impervious sea changed its name. It had been
called by the inhospitable appellation of _Axenos_, because it was
inaccessible to strangers; it was now named _Euxenos_, as no longer
repelling, but, on the contrary, inviting foreigners to its shores.
The dark Euxine, and all its visionary dangers, soon became familiar
to the enterprising Greeks, and colonies were every where planted on
the narrow waters that led to it. Little, however, was understood of
the advantages of selecting a site for these young cities; and one
of the first on record still remains, to attest the ignorance of the
founders. In the year 685 before the Christian era, Argias led a colony
from Megara, which he settled at the mouth of the Bosphorus. The site
selected for the town was the shore of a shallow bay that indented
the Asiatic coast, and was exposed to every wind. It was first called
Procerastes, afterwards Colpusa, and finally Chalcedon.
A few years had brought experience to the Greeks, and a more mature
judgment led them to select a better situation. About thirty years
after, Byzas led another colony from Megara. He consulted the oracle,
as was usual in such cases, where he should erect his new city; and
the answer was, of course, wrapt in mystery. He was directed to place
it “opposite the city of the blind men.” On exploring the mouth of the
strait, he discovered, on the European shore, a situation unrivalled
perhaps by any other in the world. A peninsula of gradual elevation was
washed on one side by the Propontis, and on the other by a magnificent
harbour, broad and deep, and sheltered from every wind, capable of
holding in security all the ships of all known nations, and just
within and commanding the mouth of the great watery thoroughfare to
the newly discovered sea. Here they built their city, and called it
Byzantium, after its founder Byzas, who, from his singular judgment and
sagacity in maritime affairs, was also denominated the Son of Neptune.
The accomplishment of the mysterious oracle was now apparent. The
striking contrast between his selection and that of his predecessors
on the opposite coast, caused their settlement to be called “the City
of the Blind Men,” because its founder overlooked, or could not see
the beauties and benefits of the site of Byzantium, when he had full
liberty to choose. Byzantium was afterwards enlarged and re-edified
by Pausanias, a Spartan, and, in process of time, from the singular
superiority of its commanding situation and local advantages, became
one of the most important of the free and independent republics of
the Greeks, and suffered the penalty of its prosperity by becoming an
object of envy and cupidity to its contemporaries.
The sovereigns of Bythinia and Macedon were the most persevering
in their attacks. A siege by the latter is rendered memorable by a
circumstance connected with it. Philip sat down before the city, and
attempted to take it by surprise. A dark night was selected for the
purpose, when it was hoped the citizens could not be prepared to
resist the concealed and sudden attack. The moon, however, appeared
to emerge from the black sky with more than common brilliancy, and
illumined distinctly every object around the city. The obscure
assailants were thus unexpectedly exposed to view, and discovered; and
the citizens, now upon their guard, easily repulsed them. Grateful for
this seasonable and supposed miraculous interference of the goddess,
the Byzantines adopted Diana as their tutelar deity, and depicted
her under the form of a crescent. By this emblem she is represented
on the coins of the city, still extant, with the legend ΒΥΣΑΝΤ ΣΩΤ,
implying that she was the “_saviour of Byzantium_.” This emblem of
the ancient city was adopted by Constantine, when he transferred
hither the seat of empire, and it was retained by the Turks, like
many other representations, when they took possession of it. The
crescent therefore is still its designation, not as a Mohammedan, but a
Byzantine emblem.
After many struggles, with more powerful nations, to maintain its
independence, Byzantium attracted the attention of the Romans. In the
contests of the different competitors for the empire, the possession
or alliance of this city was of much importance, not merely on account
of its power and opulence, but because it was the great passage from
Europe to Asia. It was garrisoned by a strong force, and no less
than five hundred vessels were moored in its capacious harbour. When
Severus and Niger engaged in hostilities, this city adhered to the
latter, many of whose party fled thither, and found a secure asylum
behind fortifications which were deemed impregnable. Siege was laid
to it by the victorious Severus, but it repelled all his assaults for
three years. Its natural strength was increased by the skill of an
engineer named Priscus, who, like another Archimedes, defended this
second Syracuse by the exercise of his extraordinary mechanical powers.
When it did yield, it fell not by force, but famine. Encompassed by
the great Roman armies on every side, its supplies ware at length cut
off, as the skill of the artist was incapable of alleviating the
sufferings of starvation. By the cruel and atrocious policy of the
most enlightened ages of the pagan world, the magistrates and soldiers
were put to death without mercy, for their gallant defence, to deter
others from similar perseverance; and to destroy for ever its power
and importance, its privileges were suppressed, its walls demolished,
its means of defence taken away; and in this state it continued, an
obscure village, subject to its neighbours the Perenthians, till it was
unexpectedly selected to become the great capital of the Roman empire,
an event rendered deeply interesting because it was connected with the
extinction of paganism, and the acknowledgment of Christianity, as the
recognised and accredited religion of the civilized world.
The emperor Diocletian, impelled by his cruel colleague Galerius,
had consented to the extermination of the Christians, now becoming a
numerous and increasing community all over the Roman empire: decrees
were issued for this purpose, and so persevering and extreme were the
efforts made to effect it, that medals were struck and columns erected
with inscriptions, implying that “the superstition of Christianity
was utterly extirpated, and the worship of the gods restored.” But
while, to all human probability, it was thus destroyed, the hand of
Providence was visibly extended for its preservation; and mankind with
astonishment saw the sacred flame revive from its ashes, and burn with
a more vivid light than ever, and the head of a mighty empire adopt
its tenets from a conviction of their truth, when his predecessor had
boasted of its extinction on account of its falsehood. This first
Christian emperor was Constantine.
Christian writers assert that he, like St. Paul, was converted by
a sensible miracle while journeying along a public way. There were
at this time six competitors for the Roman empire. Constantine was
advancing towards Rome to oppose one of them−-Maxentius: buried in
deep thought at the almost inextricable difficulties of his situation,
surrounded by enemies, he was suddenly roused by the appearance
of a bright and shining light; and looking up, he perceived the
representation of a brilliant cross in the sky, with a notification,
that it was under that symbol he should conquer. Whether this was some
atmospheric phenomenon which his vivid imagination converted into
such an object, it is unnecessary to inquire. It is certain that the
effects were equally beneficial to mankind. He immediately adopted the
emblem as the imperial standard, and under it he marched from victory
to victory. His last enemy and rival was Licinius, who commanded in
the east, and established himself on the remains of Byzantium, as his
strongest position: but from this he was driven by Constantine, who was
now acknowledged sole emperor of the East.
His first care was to build a city near the centre of his vast empire,
which should control, at the same time, the Persian power in the east,
and the barbarians on the north, who, from the Danube and the Tanais,
were continually making inroads on his subjects. It was with this
view that Diocletian had already selected Nicomedia as his residence;
but any imitation of that persecutor of Christianity, was revolting
to the new and sincere convert to the faith,--so he sought another
situation. He at one time had determined on the site of ancient Troy,
not only as commanding the entrance of the Hellespont, and so of all
the straits which led to the Euxine Sea, but because this was the
country of his Roman ancestors, to whom, like Augustus, he was fond of
claiming kindred. He was at length induced to adopt the spot on which
he had defeated his last enemy, and he was confirmed in his choice by a
vision. While examining the situation, he fell asleep; and the genius
who presided over mortal slumbers, appeared to him in a dream. She
seemed the form of a venerable matron, far advanced in life, and infirm
under the pressure of many years and various injuries. Suddenly she
assumed the appearance of a young and blooming virgin; and he was so
struck with the beautiful transition, that he felt a pride and pleasure
in adorning her person with all the ornaments and ensigns of his own
imperial power. On awaking from his dream, he thought himself bound to
obey what he considered a celestial warning, and forthwith commenced
his project. The site chosen had all the advantages which nature could
possibly confer upon any single spot. It was shut in from hostile
attack, while it was thrown open to every commercial benefit. Almost
within sight, and within an easily accessible distance, were Egypt and
Africa, with all the riches of the south and west, on the one hand; on
the other were Pontus, Persia, and the indolent and luxurious East.
The Mediterranean sent up its wealth by the Hellespont, and the Euxine
sent hers down by the Bosphorus. The climate was the most bland and
temperate to be found on the surface of the globe; the soil, the most
fertile in every production of the earth; and the harbour, the most
secure and capacious that ever opened its bosom to the navigation of
mankind: winding round its promontories, and swelling to its base, it
resembled the cornucopia of Amalthea, filled with fruits of different
kinds, and was thence called “The Golden Horn.”
His first care was to mark out the boundaries. He advanced on foot with
a lance in his hand, heading a solemn procession, ordering its line
of march to be carefully noted down as the new limits. The circuit
he took so far exceeded expectation, that his attendants ventured to
remonstrate with him on the immensity of the circumference. He replied,
he would go on till that Being who had ordered his enterprise, and
whom he saw walking before him, should think proper to stop. In this
perambulation he proceeded round six of the hills on which the modern
city is built. Having marked out the area, his next care was to fill
it with edifices. On one side of him rose the forests of Mount Hæmus,
whose arms ramify to the Euxine and the mouth of the Bosphorus, covered
with wood; these gave him an inexhaustible supply of timber, which the
current of the strait floated in a few hours into his harbour, and
which centuries of use have hardly yet thinned, or at all exhausted. On
the other, at no great distance, was Perconessus, an island of marble
rising out of the sea, affording that material ready to be conveyed by
water also into his harbour, and in such abundance, that it affords at
this day, to the present masters of the city, an inexhaustible store,
and lends its name to the sea on whose shores it so abounds.
The great materials being thus at hand, artists were wanted to work
them up. So much, however, had the arts declined, that none could be
found to execute the emperor’s designs, and it was necessary to found
schools every where, to instruct scholars for the purpose; and, as
the pupils became improved and competent, they were despatched in
haste to the new city. But though architects might be thus created
for the ordinary civil purposes, it was impossible to renovate the
genius of sculpture, or form anew a Phidias or a Praxiteles. Orders
therefore were sent to collect whatever specimens could be found of
the great artists of antiquity; and, like Napoleon in modern times,
he stripped all other cities of their treasures, to adorn his own
capital. Historians record the details of particular works of art
deposited in this great and gorgeous city, as it rose under the plastic
hand of its founder, scarcely a trace of which is to be seen at the
present day, and the few that remain will be described more minutely
hereafter. Suffice it to say, that the baths of Zeuxippus were adorned
with various sculptured marble, and sixty bronze statues of the finest
workmanship; that the Hippodrome, or race-course, four hundred paces
long, was filled with pillars and obelisks; a public college, a circus,
two theatres, eight public and one hundred and fifty private baths,
five granaries, eight aqueducts and reservoirs for water, four halls
for the meeting of the senate and courts of justice, fourteen temples,
fourteen palaces, and four thousand three hundred and eighty-eight
domes, resembling palaces, in which resided the nobility of the city,
seemed to rise, as if by magic, under the hand of the active and
energetic emperor.
But the erection that gives this city perhaps its greatest interest,
and it is one of the few that has escaped the hand of time or accident,
is that which commemorates his conversion to Christianity. He not
only placed the Christian standard on the coins of his new city, but
proclaimed that the new city itself was dedicated to Christ. Among his
columns was one of red porphyry, resting on a base of marble; between
both he deposited what was said to be one of the nails which had
fastened our Saviour to the cross, and a part of one of the miraculous
loaves with which he had fed the five thousand; and he inscribed on the
base an epigram in Greek, importing that he had dedicated the city to
Christ, and “placed it under his protection, as the Ruler and Governor
of the world.” Whenever he passed the pillar, he descended from his
horse, and caused his attendants to do the same; and in such reverence
did he hold it, that he ordered it, and the place in which it stood, to
be called “The Sacred.” The pillar still stands. The dedication of this
first Christian city took place on the 11th of May, A. D. 330.
Constantine left three sons, who succeeded him; and numerous relatives,
who all, with one exception, adopted the religious opinions he had
embraced. This was Julian, his nephew. He had been early instructed
in the doctrines and duties of the new faith, had taken orders, and
read the Scriptures publicly to the people; but meeting with the
sceptic philosophers of Asia, his faith was shaken, and, when the
empire descended to him, he openly abandoned it. With some estimable
qualities, was joined a superstitious weakness, which would not suffer
him to rest in the philosophic rejection of Christianity. He revived,
in its place, all the revolting absurdities of heathenism. In the
language of the historian Socrates, “He was greatly afraid of dæmons,
and was continually sacrificing to their idols.” He therefore not only
erased the Christian emblems from his coins, but he replaced them with
Serapis, Anubis, and other deities of Egyptian superstition. He was
killed on the banks of the Euphrates, in an expedition against the
Persians, having, happily for mankind, reigned but one year and eight
months, and established for himself the never-to-be-forgotten name of
“Julian the Apostate.”
The family of Constantine ended with Julian, and, as the first had
endeavoured to establish Christianity as the religion of this new
capital of the world, so the last had endeavoured to eradicate it.
But his successor Jovian set himself to repair the injury. He was
with Julian’s army at the time of his defeat and death, and with
great courage and conduct extricated it from the difficulties with
which it was surrounded. He immediately proclaimed the restoration of
Christianity, and, as the most decided and speedy way of circulating
his opinions, he had its emblems impressed on his first coinage. He is
there represented following on horseback the standard of the Cross, as
Constantine had done, and so was safely led out of similar danger. He
caused new temples to be raised to Christian worship, with tablets or
inscriptions importing the cause of their erection, some of which still
continue in their primitive state. He reigned only eight months; but
even that short period was sufficient to revive a faith so connected
with human happiness, and so impressed on the human heart, that little
encouragement was required to call it forth every where into action.
From the time of Jovian, Christianity remained the unobstructed
religion of Constantinople; but an effort was made in the reign of
Theodosius to revive paganism in the old city of Rome. The senate, who
had a tendency to the ancient worship, requested that the altar of
Victory, which was removed, might be restored; and an attempt was made
to recall the Egyptian deities. On this occasion, the emperor issued
the memorable decree, that “no one should presume to worship an idol by
sacrifice.” The globe had been a favourite emblem of his predecessors,
surmounted with symbols of their families, some with an eagle, some
with a victory, and some with a phœnix; but Theodosius removed them,
and placed a cross upon it, intimating the triumph of Christianity over
the whole earth; and this seems to have been the origin of the globe
and cross, which many Christian monarchs, as well as our own, use at
their coronations. From this time, heathen mythology sunk into general
contempt, and was expelled from the city of Constantinople, where the
inquisitive minds of cultivated men had detected its absurdities: it
continued to linger yet a while longer, among the _pagi_, or villages
of the country, and its professors were for that reason called
_pagani_, or pagans, a name by which they are known at this day. The
Christian city had so increased, that it was necessary to enlarge its
limits. Theodosius ran a new wall outside the former, from sea to sea,
which took within its extent the seventh or last hill. The whole was
now enclosed by three walls, including a triangular area, of which old
Byzantium was the apex. Two of its walls were washed by the waters of
the Propontis and the Golden Horn, and the third separated the city
from the country, the whole circuit being twelve miles. These walls,
with their twenty-nine gates, opening on the land and sea, and the
area they enclose, remain without augmentation or diminution, still
unaltered in shape or size, under all the vicissitudes of the city, for
fifteen hundred years.
When the city had thus increased in magnitude and opulence, it became
the great mark for the ambition of the barbarians that surrounded it.
Placed at the extremity of Europe, it was the bulwark, as it were,
against Asiatic aggression, and, filled with the riches of the earth,
the great object of cupidity. In the year 668, after it had stood for
three centuries unmolested by strangers, the Saracens attempted to
take it. They were at that time a great maritime nation, and had made
immense naval preparations. They had been converted to Mohammedanism
about forty years, and were under an impression that the sins of all
those who formed the first expedition against this Christian town would
be forgiven; and they set out with a vast fleet. They disembarked
on the shores of the Sea of Marmora, and assaulted the city on the
land-side along the whole extent of the wall of Theodosius. The height
and solidity of it defied them. For six years they persevered in their
attacks, till sickness, famine, and the sword nearly annihilated their
vast army. Their attempts were renewed at several times afterwards,
and defeated by the terror of the _Greek fire_, which was then for the
first time discovered and made use of.
The attacks of the Saracens having failed, and the Asiatics having
desisted from a hopeless attempt, a new enemy advanced against the
devoted city, and from a very different quarter. In the year 865, in
the reign of Michael, son of Theophilus, the Sarmatians, Scythians,
and the barbarous people now composing the empire of Russia, collected
a vast fleet of boats, formed out of the hollowed trunks of single
trees, and from hence called by the Greeks _monoxylon_. They descended
the great rivers, and, from the mouth of the Borysthenes, fearlessly
pushed out into the open sea in those misshapen and unmanageable logs
which are still seen in the same regions. Their vast swarms of boats,
like squadrons of Indian canoes, arrived at the mouth of the Bosphorus,
and darkened the waters of the strait with their countless numbers.
But the rude navy of these undisciplined barbarians was either sunk
by the Greek fleet, or consumed by the Greek fire. For a century they
continued, with unsubdued perseverance, in their fierce attacks, fresh
swarms always succeeding to those that were destroyed, till at length
one great and final attempt was made to obtain the object of their
cupidity.
In the year 973, a land-army was added to the fleet, and the command
given to Swatislas, a savage of singular habits and ferocity. He slept
in the winter in the open air, having a heap of snow for his bed,
wrapped in a bear’s skin, and with no pillow but his saddle. He quaffed
an acid drink, probably the quass of the modern Russians, and he dined
on slices of horse-flesh, which he broiled himself on the embers with
the point of his sword. He was invited by the emperor Nicephorus
to repel an invasion of other barbarians, and he gladly undertook
the enterprise. Having proceeded round the coast of the Euxine in
his hollow trees, to the mouth of the Danube, he disembarked; and,
defeating the barbarians against whom he was allied, he advanced to the
Balkan mountains. Here he looked down from the heights on the fertile
plains below, and at once conceived the project of making himself
master of the city, and obtaining that object of ambition, which the
Russians never since seem to have abandoned. To this end, he descended,
and first proceeded to Adrianople. The Greeks, finding he had passed
this great barrier, became dreadfully alarmed. They sent a formal
demand that their ally should now evacuate their territory, as they
had no longer an occasion for his services. He replied, he could not
think of returning till he had seen the wonders of their great city.
Swatislas, never calculating on a retreat, had neglected to secure the
passes open behind him, that the forces he had left at the mouth of
the Danube might follow him. These passes the Greeks now seized, and
cut off the connexion between the two divisions of his army. Finding
himself sorely pressed and in imminent danger, he made a precipitate
retreat, and with loss and difficulty reached the sea-shore, where
he again attempted to establish himself. But he was compelled to
abandon this position also, and, in attempting to escape by sea,
became entangled in masses of ice, and unable to reach the shore. Here
the greater part of his barbarous hordes miserably perished, but the
remnant that escaped brought back with them a precious benefit, which
compensated for all their losses. Olga, the mother of Swatislas, had
been baptized at Constantinople, some time before, by the Greek name of
Helena. The first seed of the Gospel was thus sown, and the invaders,
when they entered the country, were prepared to adopt the religion of
the people they came amongst. They had been generally baptized there,
and those who escaped brought home with them the faith of the Greeks.
The Russians, thus become members of the Greek church, adopted its
discipline and doctrines,--to which they still adhere.
But an invasion was now meditated from a quarter, whence, of all
others, it was least expected, and the Christians of the East were
attacked by their fellow Christians of the West. The Crusaders were
called to arms by a warning which they deemed the voice of God, and
they set out from their own homes to obey it. The sufferings they
brought upon themselves by their ignorance and presumption, the ruin
they inflicted upon others by their vices and passions, could not
repress the ardour of these infatuated fanatics. Three times had new
swarms set out from Europe, and the miserable remnants returned utterly
defeated, after desolating the country of friend and foe through which
they passed. The fourth expedition inflicted misery and destruction on
the Christian city of Constantinople. After Peter the Hermit and St.
Bernard had excited and sent forth a countless rabble to the shores of
Palestine, Fulk, another illiterate preacher, issued from his cell at
Neuilly, in France, and became an itinerant missionary of the Cross.
He commenced, as usual, by performing miracles, and the fame of his
sanctity and superhuman power gave him all the influence he could wish
in a barbarous and superstitious age; so he excited a fourth crusade
against the Infidels, who had, by their presence, desecrated the holy
sepulchre. The former soldiers of the Cross had suffered so much by
their insane expeditions by land, that they now resolved to undertake
one by sea; and for that purpose despatched deputies to the Venetians
and the maritime states of Italy, to supply them with a convoy: their
request was granted, and a fleet accordingly prepared.
Constantinople had hitherto escaped these marauders; they had passed
its walls without inflicting injury, but an occasion now occurred
which gave them a pretext for entering it. The emperor Alexius had
deposed, and put out the eyes of his brother Isaak, whom he kept in
prison, and his nephew Alexius, the heir to the throne, was a fugitive
in the west of Europe. He thought it a good opportunity to avail
himself of foreign assistance, and he applied to the leaders of the
crusade to aid his cause. They affected to say, that the recovery of
the lime and stone of the holy sepulchre was too important an object
to be postponed for one of justice and humanity; but, tempted by large
pecuniary offers, and calculating on the pretext of taking possession
of the great city, avarice and ambition soon silenced the claims of
superstitious piety. Dandolo was then doge of Venice; he was totally
blind, yet he embarked with the crusaders. Their immense fleets
literally covered the narrow waters of the Adriatic, and they arrived
in safety at Chalcedon, under the convoy of the skilful mariners that
now conducted them. They mounted to the heights of Scutari, and from
thence contemplated, with longing eyes, the wealth and splendour of the
magnificent city on the opposite shore, spread out on the seven hills
before them.
Constantinople was at this time the emporium of every thing that was
grand and beautiful in the arts, science, and literature of the world.
The city contained, it is said, two millions of inhabitants, and was
adorned with the noblest specimens of statuary and architecture, either
the productions of its own artists, or the spoils of Egypt and other
lands.
The usurper, Alexius, arrogant in safety, but abject in danger, after
a feeble resistance, fled from the city with such treasure as he could
hastily collect, and the feeble Isaak was taken from the prison in
which he had been immured. It was a singular and affecting sight, to
behold the blind and venerable doge of Venice leading to the throne the
equally blind and venerable emperor of Constantinople.
It was now that the real character of the crusaders developed
itself. They claimed the promised reward for this act of justice and
humanity; but it was in vain the young Alexius attempted to raise the
sum he proposed to pay: the present state of his empire rendered it
impossible; so his Christian guests were glad to avail themselves of
his inability, and pay themselves. In the language of the historian,
“their rude minds, insensible to the fine arts, were astonished at the
magnificent scenery; and the poverty of their native towns, enhanced
the splendour and richness of this great metropolis of Christendom;”
they longed, therefore, for the pretext and opportunity of its pillage.
A rude but vigorous Greek, named Mourzoufle, who saw their design,
assisted by his countrymen, deposed the weak monarch and his son, who
was now associated with him, and their deaths soon followed. With his
iron mace, Mourzoufle stood the defender of Constantinople against the
rapacity of the crusaders, and attempted to burn their galleys. He was,
however, repulsed; and, after various struggles, the imperial city,
the head of the Christian world, was taken by storm, and given up to
plunder, by the pious pilgrims of the Cross, and its fierce defender
was dragged to the summit of the pillar of Theodosius, and from thence
cast down and dashed to pieces.
The scenes of carnage that followed are revolting to humanity. The
Roman pontiff himself, who had granted a plenary indulgence to all who
engaged in the expedition, was compelled to denounce their brutality.
He accused them of “sparing neither age nor sex, nor religious
profession, of the allies they came to assist; deeds of darkness were
perpetrated in the open day; noble matrons and holy nuns suffered
insult in the Catholic camp.” As an instance of individual suffering,
an imperial senator, Nicetas, an eye-witness, details what he himself
endured. His palace being reduced to ashes, he fled for refuge to an
obscure house in the suburbs of the town. Here he concealed himself,
guarded by a friendly Venetian in disguise, till an opportunity
occurred of saving his own life, and the chastity of his daughter, from
the ferocious crusaders who were pillaging the city. On a winter’s
night, with his wife and tender child, carrying all they possessed on
their shoulders, they fled for life; and, in order to disguise their
rank and features, smeared their clothes and faces with mud; nor could
they rest a moment, from their pursuers, till they reached a distance
of forty miles from the capital. On their road, they overtook the
venerable Greek patriarch, the head of the Christian church in the
East, flying also for his life, mounted on an ass, and almost naked.
Nicetas afterwards lived to instruct and inform the world, by his
important history of these events.
Meantime the captors glutted, without restraint, every passion. They
burst into the church of Santa Sophia, and other sacred edifices, which
they defiled in the most wanton manner. They converted sacred chalices
into drinking-cups, and trampled under foot the most venerable objects
of Christian worship. In the cathedral, the veil of the sanctuary was
torn to pieces for the sake of the fringe, and the finest monuments of
pious art broken up for their material. It would be too revolting to
detail all the particulars of these impious outrages; let one suffice.
They placed on the throne of the patriarch a harlot, who sang and
danced in the church, to ridicule the hymns and processions of the
Oriental Christian worship.
In those excesses it was that this noble city suffered its first
dilapidation. The monuments of ancient art, collected from all parts of
the world, were defaced and broken to pieces, not simply from a bigoted
rage against any superstition different from their own, but from a
crusade of ignorance against whatever bore the stamp of literature and
science. A contemporary writer details particular specimens of art that
were wantonly broken and destroyed; and the present denuded state of
the city attests that the deeds of those barbarians were as destructive
as those of the equally ignorant Turks. Their utter contempt for
learning was displayed in various ways: in riding through the streets,
they clothed themselves and their horses in painted robes and flowing
head-dresses of linen, and displayed on them pens, ink, and paper, in
ridicule of the people who used such worthless things. It was therefore
no exaggeration when the Greeks called them Αγραμματοι και αναλφαβετοι
Βαρβαροι, “Barbarians who could neither read nor write, who did not
even know their alphabet.”
The Latins, who had thus seized on the capital, usurped the whole
of the Grecian territories, and divided it among themselves. Five
sovereigns, of the western invaders, occupied the throne in succession,
till it descended to Baldwin. Michael Palæologus was destined to
restore the ancient and rightful dynasty. In the year 1261, Alexius,
a noble Greek, who was dignified with the name of Cæsar, commanded a
body of troops in his service. He crossed the Hellespont into Europe,
and advanced cautiously under the walls of the city. There was a body
of hardy peasantry, at that time cultivating the lands of Thrace, of
very doubtful allegiance. They were called volunteers, for they gave
their services freely to any one who paid them. These bold men were
induced to join themselves to the forces of Alexius; and, by stratagem,
they entered the town. They gained the co-operation of a Greek, whose
house communicated with the wall by a subterranean passage. Through
this, Alexius was introduced with some of his volunteers; but he had
scarcely passed the golden gate, when the peril of the enterprise
struck him, and his heart failed him. He was pushed on, however, by his
bolder companions, and at length emerged from the dark passage into the
Greek house in the heart of the city. From hence they suddenly issued,
and, though few in number, soon filled the streets with terror and
dismay, from the suddenness of their attack, and the unknown extent
of the danger. But every one was predisposed to join the enterprise.
They looked upon the Latin conquest with irrepressible and increasing
horror, and the streets were soon filled with shouts for Michael.
Baldwin, utterly unapprehensive and unprepared, was suddenly roused
from his sleep: he made no attempt to preserve his usurped power. He
escaped to Italy, where he lived a private life for thirteen years, an
object more of contempt than pity, vainly soliciting aid to recover a
kingdom which he had neither right to keep, nor courage to defend.
The Greeks were thus restored to their capital, after their Latin
allies had held an unrighteous possession of it for fifty-seven years.
As the ravages of their hands were irreparable and permanent records
of their oppression, so the memory of them was indelible. It caused
that irreconcilable animosity between the eastern and western people of
the same faith, which has widened, to an unapproachable distance, the
separation of the two churches, so that it is likely nothing within the
probability of human events will ever diminish it. To such an extent
had it reached, and so deeply did it rankle in the minds of the Greeks,
that, two centuries after, when they were about to be overwhelmed
by the resistless power of the Turks, they had rather trust to the
tender mercies of the followers of Mohammed, than seek a perilous aid
from their fellow-christians. To this day the memory of these events
is recent in the minds of the people of Constantinople, and it has
generated a lasting hostility to the Latin church, which seems only to
increase and strengthen with revolving years.
Immediately after the restitution of the city to the Greeks, a new
feature was added to it: another western people were received into
it, not as allies with arms in their hands, but as something still
more useful−-merchants, to cultivate the arts of peace, and enrich
the Eastern empire by their opulence and activity. These were the
Genoese. This enterprising little state had already penetrated to
the remotest extremity of the Black Sea, and the commodities brought
from thence were particularly valuable to the Greeks. The Oriental
church prescribes a vast number of fasts, in the observance of which
it is very rigorous. The Genoese had established an extensive fishery
at Caffa, in the Crimea; and sturgeon, strelitz, and other fish
brought down by the current of the Tanais, and fed in the flat and
slimy bottom of the Palus Mæotis, were of the utmost value to the
strict disciplinarians of the Eastern church. To vend this necessary
commodity, and always to keep a supply for the demands of the Greek
capital, they were allowed to establish a commercial mart in its
vicinity.