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A COMPANION VOLUME
IN THE SAME SERIES
ROME
PAINTED BY ALBERTO PISA
TEXT BY M. A. R. TUKER AND HOPE MALLESON
CONTAINING 70 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR
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"We can emphatically declare that it is brilliant,
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chapter to the last."--_Saturday Review._
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works which have for their special object to recall Rome
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many attractions to those who have been denied that
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PUBLISHED BY
A. & C. BLACK, SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W.
CONSTANTINOPLE
AGENTS
AMERICA THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
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[Illustration: A TURKISH LADY IN OUT-DOOR DRESS]
CONSTANTINOPLE
PAINTED BY WARWICK
GOBLE · DESCRIBED
BY ALEXANDER VAN
MILLINGEN, M.A., D.D.
PUBLISHED BY A. & C.
BLACK · LONDON · MCMVI
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
PAGE
THE MAKING OF CONSTANTINOPLE UNDER CONSTANTINE
THE GREAT 1
CHAPTER II
THE MAKING OF CONSTANTINOPLE, UNDER THE EMPERORS
CONSTANTIUS, JULIAN, VALENS, THEODOSIUS THE GREAT,
AND ARCADIUS 24
CHAPTER III
THE MAKING OF CONSTANTINOPLE UNDER THEODOSIUS II 52
CHAPTER IV
ALONG THE WALLS 80
CHAPTER V
ALONG THE WALLS BESIDE THE GOLDEN HORN 101
CHAPTER VI
ALONG THE LANDWARD WALLS 118
CHAPTER VII
AMONG THE CHURCHES OF THE CITY 132
CHAPTER VIII
AMONG THE CHURCHES 147
CHAPTER IX
AMONG THE CHURCHES 170
CHAPTER X
IMPRESSIONS OF THE CITY TO-DAY 195
CHAPTER XI
RELIGIOUS COLOURING 223
CHAPTER XII
TURKISH WOMEN 242
CHAPTER XIII
EPILOGUE 262
INDEX 277
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
1. A Turkish Lady in Out-Door Dress _Frontispiece_
FACING PAGE
2. The Quay in Galata 2
3. Galata from the Aqueduct of Valens 6
4. Stamboul Beggar 10
5. Gypsy Basket-Maker 12
6. A Step Street in Galata 16
7. A Flower-Market, Scutari 18
8. The Galata Bridge 22
9. A Cemetery by the Bosporus 24
10. "A Kafedji" 28
11. Golden Horn from the British Hospital, Galata 30
12. Street Scene, Clay Works 34
13. Street Scene, Stamboul 36
14. A Village Store at Kavak 40
15. Galata Tower from the Bridge 42
16. Refugee Huts on the Marmora 48
17. Turkish Delight Factory 50
18. Flower-Sellers 52
19. Carpet-Menders 56
20. Fruit-Market, Stamboul 60
21. Carpet Warehouse 64
22. Shoemaker, Stamboul 66
23. Street Scene, Roumeli Hissar 70
24. Grand Bazaar, Stamboul 72
25. A Blacksmith's Shop 76
26. Seraglio Point from "The Stones" 82
27. The Seraglio Lighthouse and Scutari 84
28. Crimean Memorial, British Cemetery, Haidar Pasha 88
29. Interior of the Mosque of Sultan Ahmed I. 94
30. Prinkipo (Princes Islands) 98
31. Golden Horn, early Morning 104
32. The Bridge from Galata 106
33. Golden Horn 108
34. Suleimaniyeh at Sunrise 110
35. Cemetery at Eyoub 112
36. Galata and Stamboul from Eyoub 114
37. Golden Horn after Sunset 116
38. The Walls; the Tower of Isaac Angelus 120
39. Constantinople and Golden Horn from the Cemetery at Eyoub 130
40. View from an old Cemetery 134
41. Market in the Court of the Mosque of Sultan Ahmed I. 138
42. Court of the Suleimaniyeh 142
43. Interior of S. Sophia 158
44. Interior of S. Sophia, the Sultan's Gallery 180
45. Fountain in S. Sophia 184
46. A Wet Day on the Galata Bridge 196
47. In the Grand Bazaar 198
48. A Fortune-Teller 200
49. Street Scene, Top-Khaneh 202
50. A Step Street 206
51. Simit-Seller 208
52. Market at Scutari 212
53. Entrance to a Turkish Khan 214
54. Turkish Well, Stamboul 216
55. A Fountain by the Bosporus 218
56. Open Air Café, Stamboul 222
57. Roumeli Hissar 224
58. A Howling Dervish 228
59. A Whirling Dervish 230
60. Tomb in Scutari 238
61. The Sweet Waters of Europe 254
62. The Yashmak 256
63. The Sweet Waters of Asia 260
CONSTANTINOPLE
CHAPTER I
THE MAKING OF CONSTANTINOPLE UNDER CONSTANTINE THE GREAT
328-337 A.D.
THE foundation of Constantinople was an event of the utmost political
significance. That personal feelings actuated Constantine the Great in
the decision to establish a seat of government far from the walls of
Rome is doubtless true. The insults to which he was exposed, on the
occasion of his visit to the ancient capital of the Empire, in 326, on
account of the execution of his wife and of his son, could not fail to
annoy him, and make him willing to shake the dust of the rude city from
off his feet. To have a placard put on his palace gates comparing him
with Nero was not flattering. Certainly the Roman populace did not make
respectful subjects. Diocletian also, before Constantine, had found
Roman citizens insolent, and fled from the slings and arrows of their
sarcasm without waiting to meet the Senate, or to be invested with the
consular dignity. But after all, personal feelings go only a short way
towards the explanation of an event so serious in the history of the
Roman State as the establishment of another seat of imperial authority.
The volume and force of a mighty river might as well be explained by the
drops of a shower which fall into its current. Constantine was too great
a statesman to be swayed by mere personal impulse. The foundation of
Constantinople was the outward and visible sign of profound changes in
the ideas and policy created and long embodied by the city enthroned
beside the Tiber. It was the expression of the spirit of a new epoch; as
much so as the foundation of Alexandria signified a change in the
political conceptions of the Hellenic world, or the building of St.
Petersburg marked the new aspirations heaving in the heart of Russia, or
the erection, in more recent times, of Washington or Ottawa proclaimed
the birth of new commonwealths, and the application of new principles.
Old ideas and ancient institutions cannot be altered in one day, or at
the caprice of one man. They are not the flimsy things which can be
created or destroyed by the wave of a magician's wand. Constantine
only placed the copestone on an edifice which other hands, before his
reign, had gradually raised from the foundations to the point demanding
completion. He finished what others had begun. The creation of the new
capital was the result of causes, long in action; not a whim or matter
of taste.
[Illustration: THE QUAY IN GALATA]
In the first place, the political relation of the city of Rome to the
Roman world had undergone a fundamental change. The citizens of that
wonderful city were no longer the proprietors and sovereigns of the
realm over which the Roman eagles had spread their wings. The Senate
which assembled in the Curia, the people which gathered in the Forum
Romanum, had ceased to rule subject cities and nations. That glory had
departed. In Gibbon's mordant language, "The Senate was left a venerable
but useless monument of antiquity upon the Capitoline hill." Every
freeman within the Empire's bounds was now the equal of the men whose
forefathers had been the kings of the world. Rome was now only one of
the great cities of the Roman State, differing from her peers only in
the memories and the prestige of a happier and grander past. The
government of the world by the city had broken down, and was vested in
the hands of one supreme man. And that man had gradually become an
absolute lord and monarch; who exercised plenary authority wherever he
chose to reside, who decked himself with jewels and resplendent robes,
who made his throne the lofty peak of a vast hierarchy of nobles and
officials, and introduced new methods of administration; a man, perhaps,
without a drop of the blood which Romans proudly bore, but a rude
provincial, yet to whose will the Eternal City bowed as humbly as the
remotest village beneath his sceptre. If a Cassius still lived he might,
pointing to the Master of the Empire, well exclaim, "He doth bestride
the narrow world like a Colossus, and we petty men walk under his huge
legs, and peep about to find ourselves dishonourable graves.... Rome,
thou hast lost the breed of noble bloods!" That a city which had been
sovereign and self-centred should remain the head and representative of
a cosmopolitan State, and of an autocratic Government, was something
incongruous and unnatural.
Nor was this the only respect in which the old order had changed and
given place to new. Under Constantine the attitude of the Roman
Government towards the Christian Church was the direct opposite of that
maintained by his predecessors. What they had regarded as a hostile
organisation, he welcomed as an ally and friend. What they had
endeavoured to uproot and destroy, he cultivated and supported. That he
entertained a sincere respect for Christianity as a moral and social
force, and believed that there was something Divine associated with it,
cannot be doubted. And in his opinion, it was the part of true
statesmanship to accept the religious and moral revolution that had come
into the world, and to utilise it for the welfare of the Empire. This is
not the place to discuss the question how wisely the alliance between
Church and State was effected, or to decide how much the parties to the
union thereby gained or lost. It is enough for our purpose to recognise
that the union introduced as profound a change of policy as can be
introduced into the affairs of men, that it widened the breach between
the past and the present, and rendered the embodiment of the new system
of things in forms peculiar to itself perfectly natural, if not
inevitable. This was the more certain to occur, seeing Rome continued to
be the centre of opposition to the new faith.
Yet another change in the Roman world which explains the appearance of a
new capital was the increased importance and influence of the Eastern
part of the Empire. Not only "captured Greece" but captured Asia also
"led captive her captor." The centre of gravity was now in the East.
There commerce was more flourishing, and intellectual life more active.
There the population was larger, and grouped in more important cities.
There Christianity had its home. Nor was it only in thought, and art,
and temper that the East exercised an ascendency. It was, moreover, the
post of greatest danger. Its frontiers were exposed to the most
formidable attacks which the Roman arms were now called to repel. The
secular hostility of Persia along the Tigris and Euphrates, the
incursions of Goths and Sarmatians across the lower Danube into the
Balkan lands, demanded constant vigilance, and involved frequent
warfare. The military front of the Empire was turned eastwards. There
"the triumph of barbarism" was meanwhile to be chiefly contested.
But to realise all the circumstances under which Constantinople was
founded, we should remember yet another fact. The rule of the Roman
world by one man had broken down, just as the rule of that world by the
citizens of Rome had failed. A single arm, it was discovered, could not
defend the frontiers of that vast realm against the numerous and
fierce foes who threatened its existence; or repress the insurrections
which ambitious men readily raised in widely scattered provinces, when
the central authority was too distant to strike promptly and with the
necessary vigour. Hence the famous scheme of Diocletian to divide the
burden of defending and administering the Empire between four rulers,
bound to one another by community of interest. As originally devised, it
was a short-lived scheme. But it was superseded only so far as its
details were concerned; its fundamental idea had come to stay. At first
sight, indeed, the restoration of the system of single rule, in the
person of Constantine, seemed to imply the abandonment of the multiple
form of government which Diocletian had established. Possibly
Constantine may have entertained such a purpose for some time. But
eventually he adhered to Diocletian's plan, and thought to improve upon
it by the introduction of the dynastic and hereditary factor, hoping
that by distributing the government among members of the same family,
joint rule would prove more cordial and permanent, because resting upon
a more solid basis. Accordingly, he arranged that after his death the
government should be divided between his three sons and two nephews.
[Illustration: GALATA FROM THE AQUEDUCT OF VALENS
The Galata Tower, which is such a prominent feature from this
standpoint, is used as a station for signalling any outbreak of fire,
and also the quarter of the city in which it occurs.]
This was an excessive partition of power, and proved unsatisfactory. But
the view that the welfare of the State required the attention and
abilities of more than one ruler was consistently upheld, so long as
Western and Eastern Europe formed integral parts of the same dominion.
As a consequence Rome ceased to be the capital of the Empire, even in
the ordinary acceptation of the term. For multiplicity of rule involved,
necessarily, as many seats of imperial administration as the number of
rulers associated in the government of the Empire. Hence, under
Diocletian, four cities boasted of being capitals. Furthermore, the
selection of what cities should enjoy that honour would be determined by
their fitness to become natural parts of the new organisation of the
Roman world. Even Rome's claim to be one of the capitals would be
submitted to that test. And when so submitted, the claim of the Eternal
City was disallowed even in that portion of the Empire which included
Italy, where, for strategic reasons, the choice fell first upon Milan
and subsequently upon Ravenna. When it came to the turn of the East to
provide suitable seats of government, the honours were shared between
Singidunum, near the modern Belgrade, and Nicomedia in Asia Minor. But
for reasons which will immediately appear, Constantine preferred
Byzantium, and, having changed the comparatively insignificant town into
a splendid city, named it New Rome and Constantinople, to become the
sole centre for the administration of the Eastern portion of the Empire,
and the local habitation of the spirit of a New Age.
It would appear that the selection of Byzantium for its great destiny
was made after the claims of other cities to that distinction had been
duly weighed. Naissus (the modern Nisch in Servia) which was the
Emperor's birthplace, Sardica (now Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria),
Thessalonica were thought of for that purpose. They had the
recommendation of giving ready access to the Danube frontier, along
which the barbarians caused anxiety and demanded close attention. Some
consideration was given to Nicomedia, which had already been selected by
Diocletian for his capital. It is also said, though without any serious
grounds for the statement, that Constantine actually began work for a
new city near the site of old Troy, under the spell of the poetic
legends which associated Ilium with the origin of the Roman people. But
the superiority of Byzantium to all rivals was so manifest that there
was hardly room for long suspense as to the proper choice. The old
oracle, "Build opposite the blind," which led to the foundation of
Byzantium could still serve to guide Constantine in his search for the
most suitable position of a new imperial city. There is no place in the
wide world more eminently fitted by natural advantages to be the throne
of a great dominion, than the promontory which guards the southern end
of the Bosporus. There Asia and Europe meet to lay down that antagonism
which has made so much of the world's history, and to blend their
resources for man's welfare. A Power upon that throne, having as much
might as it has right, should control a realm extending from the
Adriatic Sea to the Persian Gulf, and from the Danube to the
Mediterranean. From that point natural highways by sea and land proceed,
like the radii of a circle, in all directions where rule can be enforced
or commerce developed--to Russia, to Asia, to Africa, to the lands of
the West. Its magnificent harbour was fitly named the Golden Horn, for
it could be the richest emporium of the world's wealth. Under no sky can
men find a more enchanting bower of beauty, or have more readily the
charms of nature, the portion and delight of daily life. When Othman,
the founder of the Ottoman power, beheld in his dreams this fair city,
situated at the junction of two seas and two continents, it seemed to
him a diamond set in sapphires and emeralds. Here, moreover, men could
dwell secure. Foes advancing through Asia Minor would find their march
upon the city arrested by the great moat formed by the Bosporus, the Sea
of Marmora, and the Hellespont. The straits just named could be made
impassable to hostile fleets approaching from the Euxine or the
Mediterranean. While armies which had succeeded in breaking through the
barriers of the Danube and the Balkans could be confronted by
impregnable fortifications planted along the short landward side of the
promontory. "Of all the events of Constantine's life this choice," Dean
Stanley declares, "is the most convincing and enduring proof of his real
genius." Dr. Hodgkin pronounces it, "One of the highest inspirations of
statesmanship that the world has witnessed."
[Illustration: STAMBOUL BEGGAR
One of a privileged class who was caught sleeping on duty.]
With these reasons for the choice made by Constantine, personal feelings
may have been associated. Such feelings could well play a part his
attachment to Byzantium as in his detachment from Rome. It was at
Byzantium and on the neighbouring heights of Chrysopolis (Scutari), on
the Asiatic side of the narrow straits between the two towns, that
Constantine had finally defeated his rival Licinius, and brought the
Roman dominion under his own rule. To set up his throne amidst the
scenes of his crowning victories, where his figure would stand out to
view for ever in solitary grandeur, as the inaugurator of a new epoch in
the world's history, was a consideration that would appeal to the
feelings of men far less ambitious than the founder of Constantinople.
The long history of Byzantium, since the day when a band of colonists
from Megara settled there in 658 B.C., to the day in 328 A.D. when
Constantine enlarged the town into New Rome, must not detain us. It was
a prosperous little town, much occupied with fisheries, interested in
the business of corn and wine, and a port of call for ships trading
between the countries bordering the Euxine and the Ægean. It was also
celebrated as a fortress, being surrounded by walls of extraordinary
strength, which were defended on more than one occasion with great
heroism. Situated on one of the principal highways between the East and
the West, "even in the force and road of casualty," many of the chief
movements of ancient times in either direction passed by its ramparts,
and compelled its citizens to take a side in the conflicts of the great
powers of the day, and act a part on the field of general history. When
Darius I. crossed the Bosporus into Europe to chastise the Scythians in
Russia, the town fell under the power of Persia, and remained subject to
the Great King until Pausanias, the victor at Platæa, delivered it from
that yoke. In the struggle for supremacy between Sparta, Athens, and
Thebes, it was controlled now by one of the rivals and then by another
of them. It acquired great fame by its resistance to Philip of Macedon,
when the star and crescent moon, which have from that time been the
device of the city through all changes of fortune, exposed the approach
of the enemy and disconcerted his plans. With the rest of the Greek
world, Byzantium formed part of the dominion of Alexander the Great. In
the war between Rome and Mithridates, it became the ally of the former,
and was eventually merged in the Roman Empire. Septimius Severus
levelled its splendid walls to the ground, because of its loyal
adherence to the cause of his rival, Pescennius Niger. He also deprived
it of its higher rank among the towns of the province, making it
subordinate to Heraclea. But he soon recognised the mistake of
destroying a stronghold that guarded one of the great highways into the
Empire, and ordered the fortifications to be rebuilt, and the town to be
refurnished with temples, theatres, baths, and other public edifices.
The subordination of the town to Heraclea, however, was maintained, with
the result that the Bishop of Heraclea became the superior of his
brother of Byzantium until Constantinople was founded. Then, naturally,
the ecclesiastical chief of the new capital took precedence. But in
virtue of the higher position held previously by Heraclea, the Bishop of
that see acquired the right to preside at the consecration of the
patriarch of Constantinople, and retains that right to the present day.
So long may a comparatively trifling action leave its mark upon the
world's history.
[Illustration: GYPSY BASKET-MAKER
With the knife he is holding he cuts long shavings off the faggots
suitable for plaiting into baskets.]
In the course of the third century, Byzantium suffered from the raids of
the Goths, and in commemoration of the defeat inflicted upon the
barbarians by the Emperor Claudius Gothicus at Nissa in 269 A.D., the
graceful Corinthian column of granite, which still rises some 50 feet
high on the slope above the Seraglio Point, was erected, bearing on its
pedestal the inscription, "Fortunæ Reduci ob devictos Gothos" (To
Returning Fortune, on account of the defeated Goths). Finally, here, as
already stated, the struggle between Constantine and Licinius was
decided by the fall of the town into Constantine's hands, after a
desperate defence. From all this history of the town, one fact was
perfectly clear--the immense strategic value of the place. When
Constantine transformed Byzantium into a new capital and a great bulwark
of his Empire, he only developed the innate capacities of the site to
their natural culmination. Constantinople was Byzantium in flower.
Apart from the advantages offered by its situation, Byzantium had little
to recommend it to Constantine's regard. It presented neither ample
room, nor a large population, nor convenient and splendid buildings to
favour the rapid growth of a metropolis. Of the tongue of land on which
the town stood, only the portion to the east of the line drawn from the
present Stamboul Custom House, on the Golden Horn, across to the
Seraglio Lighthouse, on the Sea of Marmora, was occupied. In the bay
beside that Custom House lay the harbours of the town, where shipping,
traders, and merchants did mostly congregate. The Acropolis stood on the
rocky hill now enclosed within the Seraglio Grounds, and there several
temples were found, that gods and goddesses might unite with men in the
defence of the citadel. Against the steep side of the Acropolis, facing
the blue expanse of the Sea of Marmora and the hills and mountains of
the Asiatic shore, two theatres were built, while a stadium lay on the
level tract beside the Golden Horn. The huge structure of the
Hippodrome, which Severus had begun, was waiting to be completed, and to
the north of it were the Baths of Zeuxippus and the adjoining public
square which bore the same name. All this did not constitute a rich
dowry for the future capital. But perhaps to the founder of
Constantinople that fact was not a serious objection; the greatness and
splendour of the new city were to be his own creation.
When precisely work upon the new capital commenced cannot be determined,
but the year 328 A.D., as already intimated, may be regarded as the most
probable date. The circuit of the fortifications which should guard the
city was marked out by Constantine himself with solemn ceremonial, and
comprised the territory that stretched for nearly two miles to the west
of the old town. The north-western extremity of the enclosed area
reached the Golden Horn somewhere in the neighbourhood of the
Stamboul end of the Inner Bridge, while the south-western extremity
abutted on the Sea of Marmora, at a point between the districts to which
the Byzantine names Vlanga and Psamatia still cling. The most precise
indication of the line followed by the landward wall of Constantine is
found in the Turkish name Isa Kapoussi (the Gate of Jesus), attached to
a locality above the quarter of Psamatia. The name refers to an ancient
gateway which stood in the Constantinian fortifications, and survived
their disappearance until the year 1508, when it was overthrown by an
earthquake. It is mentioned in late Byzantine days as "The Ancient
Gate," and on account of its imposing appearance as "The very Ancient
Beautiful Gate" (Antiquissima Pulchra Porta). It was the original Golden
Gate or Triumphal Entrance of the city, and, like Temple Bar in London,
reminded the passing crowds both of what the city had been, and of what
it had become.
[Illustration: A STEP STREET IN GALATA]
The name of the adjoining church, now known as Isa Kapoussi Mesdjidi,
probably suggested the Turkish appellation of this interesting and
important landmark. The addition made by Constantine to the size of
Byzantium was certainly considerable, and the astonishment of his
courtiers at the scale of his plans had some ground in reason. But the
response of the Emperor brings us into closer touch with the emotion
which animated the occasion. "I must go on," said the founder of New
Rome, "until He stops who goes before me." It was a reply in harmony
with the declaration made at another time, that he founded the city at
the Divine command, _jubente deo_. The principal agent in a transaction
of great moment often feels himself to be the instrument of a higher
will than his own, and is haunted by the thought that he builds more
wisely than he knows.
Of course a city such as Constantine designed could not be built in one
day, but such was the eagerness with which the work was pressed forward,
that by the spring of 330 sufficient progress had been made to permit
the official inauguration of the capital of the East. The 11th of May in
that year was appointed to be the city's birthday. Never is the region
about Constantinople so beautiful as at that season. We can therefore
readily imagine the splendour in which earth and sea and sky arrayed
themselves to greet the advent of the new queen-city, and to match the
state and pomp and joy with which men acclaimed that nativity. In honour
of the event there was a long series of popular festivities for a period
of forty days, besides games in the Hippodrome, free access to the
Baths of Zeuxippus, free meals, and liberal gifts of money. For many
centuries the anniversary of the day was observed as a public holiday,
when the Law Courts were closed and races were held in the Hippodrome.
And that the lofty scene of the natal day might be acted over, a gilt
statue of Constantine, holding a Figure of the Fortune of the city, was
placed in a chariot, and under the escort of soldiers in white uniform
and carrying lighted tapers in their hands, was borne round the course
to receive the homage of the reigning Emperor and the assembled
multitudes. Probably the custom was a reminiscence of a procession in
which Constantine himself had taken part on the day of the inauguration
of the city.
[Illustration: A FLOWER-MARKET, SCUTARI]
What the feelings of the "oldest inhabitant" of Byzantium were on that
day it is not difficult to imagine. Any regret at the disappearance of
ancient and familiar landmarks would be lost in pride for the honour
which the old place had received, and in admiration of the magnificence
with which it was invested. Moreover, many features of the past had only
been transfigured, so that the new was not altogether strange. The
Hippodrome, which had stood for more than 130 years an unfinished pile,
was now completed; its seats were packed with spectators, and around its
spina, chariots whirled like the wind. The Baths of Zeuxippus kept their
place, but enlarged and beautified. The open space to the north of the
Baths was converted into a square, surrounded by porticoes, and named
Augustaion, after the title Augusta bestowed upon the Emperor's mother.
On the eastern side of the place stood the Senate-House, with a
colonnade of six noble columns before the entrance. At the north-western
corner of the square was the Milion, whence distances from New Rome were
to be measured. To the north, the church dedicated to Irene proclaimed
the new faith of the Empire, and told of the peace which had enfolded
the Roman world when Constantine became sole Emperor. The ground now
occupied by the Mosque of Sultan Achmed, to the east of the Hippodrome,
was appropriated for the buildings which were to constitute the imperial
palace. The fortifications along the west of the old town had been
removed, but instead rose ramparts which could render greater service to
mankind, and had a wider outlook upon the world. On the territory within
the principal gateway of Byzantium, a forum had been constructed, named
after Constantine, and there stood a porphyry column, surmounted by his
statue watching over the city. The forum, elliptical in shape, was
enclosed by a double tier of porticoes, with entrances on the east and
the west through fine archways of marble. It was the business centre of
the city. Proceeding westwards to the hill now occupied by the Turkish
War Office, one came to buildings that recalled the Capitol of Rome;
while on the hill now crowned by the Mosque of Sultan Mehemet rose the
church dedicated to the Holy Apostles, in and around which the Emperors
of Constantinople were to be laid to rest when, in the language of the
Byzantine Court ceremonies, the Kings of kings summoned them to appear
before Him. Aqueducts and cisterns provided an abundant supply of water
for numerous public baths and fountains, as well as for private use. The
principal streets were lined with porticoes affording shelter from sun
and rain. The sewers ran deep underground. And the waters of a harbour,
one of the greatest needs of the city, on its southern side gleamed in
the bend of the shore of the Sea of Marmora, where the vegetable gardens
of Vlanga Bostan now flourish. It was known, after the superintendent of
the works, as the Harbour of Eleutherius.
Statues, many of them the work of the finest chisels of antiquity, had
been collected from all parts of the Empire to make the new capital a
museum of art, and to foster the love of the beautiful. Historical
monuments also were there, to suggest the continuity between the past
and the present, and to rouse the men of a new age to emulate the noble
deeds of the old time before them. Of these monuments none was so
inspiring as the Serpent Column brought from Delphi to the Hippodrome,
upon whose lowest thirteen coils are graven the names of the heroic
little States which hurled the Persians out of Greece. No monument stood
more appropriately in a city whose supreme task was to resist the
encroachments of barbarism upon the civilised world. Scattered over the
city were palatial mansions, some erected at the Emperor's order for
personages whom he wished to attract to the new capital, others built by
men of wealth and rank who had come of their own accord to bask in the
sunshine of imperial favour. Persons belonging to other classes of
society had also been attracted in crowds by openings for business,
demand for labourers, exemption from certain taxes, and by the free
distribution of bread, for which the cornfields of Egypt furnished
80,000 modii of wheat. After the pattern of Rome, the good order of
the city was secured by the division of the city into fourteen wards or
regions, of which twelve lay within the walls, and two were suburban.
One of the latter, the 13th ward, was on the site of Galata; the other,
the 14th ward, the famous suburb of Blachernæ, stood on the hill now
occupied by the quarter of Egri Kapou. Both of these extra-mural suburbs
were fortified. Each ward had a curator, who attended to the general
interests of that portion of the city; a crier or messenger to give
public notice to its inhabitants of matters which concerned them; five
night watchmen; and a body of men (colligiati) representing the
trade-guilds, and varying in number according to the size or importance
of the ward, to render assistance in case of fire. After this survey of
the new city, the most loyal son of the old town might come to the
ancient Strategion--the ground devoted to military exercises (on the
level tract beside the present Stamboul Railway Station)--and gladly bow
to the decree inscribed on a column erected there, that Byzantium should
henceforth be named New Rome.
[Illustration: THE GALATA BRIDGE
which spans the Golden Horn at the end near the Bosporus forms the
principal link between Galata and Stamboul. It is presented here as seen
through a window in a small café on one of the adjoining steamboat
quays.]