THE MAKING OF CONSTANTINOPLE, UNDER THE EMPERORS CONSTANTIUS, JULIAN,
VALENS, THEODOSIUS THE GREAT, AND ARCADIUS.
337-408 A.D.
AFTER visiting the sights of Rome, the Persian prince Hormisdas was
asked to give his impressions of the city. "One thing disappoints me,"
he replied, "men die here just as in the humblest village of the
Empire." So was it in New Rome. Seven years after the inauguration of
the city he founded, Constantine the Great died in the neighbourhood of
Nicomedia. His body was carried to Constantinople in a golden coffin,
and, amid demonstrations of public grief, was laid to rest in a
sarcophagus of porphyry in the Church of the Holy Apostles. The tomb was
flanked by twelve pillars, representing, so the fact was construed, the
glorious company of the Apostles, with whom he could fitly be
associated as the champion of the Christian faith. The good that men do
is, however, not always interred with their bones, and Constantinople
remained to attest the far-sighted wisdom of its founder, and to grow in
splendour and importance. But one hundred and ten years had to come and
go ere the city attained its full stature. It is the history of the
growth of Constantinople during this period that will now engage our
attention.
[Illustration: A CEMETERY BY THE BOSPORUS]
Upon the death of Constantine, the eastern division of the Empire came
under the rule of his second son, Constantius, who soon discovered how
much work upon the new seat of government remained to be done. Nor could
his visit to Old Rome fail to impress upon his mind the greatness and
the difficulty of the task before him. "Having entered," says the
historian, Ammianus Marcellinus, speaking of that visit of Constantius,
"the Forum of Trajan, the most marvellous structure in the whole world,
he was struck with admiration, and looked around in amazement without
being able to utter a word, wondering at the array of gigantic
buildings, which no pen can describe, and which men can create and see
but once in the course of centuries. Abandoning all hope of ever being
able to erect anything which would approach even at a respectful
distance Trajan's work, he turned his attention to the equestrian
statue found in the centre of the Forum, and said to his followers that
he would have one made like it. Hormisdas, who accompanied the Emperor,
quietly remarked, pointing to the Forum, 'For such a horse, you must
first provide such a stable.'"
Nevertheless, Constantius carried forward the improvement of New Rome to
such an extent that Themistius, a contemporary, speaking of the
Emperor's services in the matter, declares that the city was indebted to
Constantine the Great only for its name, and owed its actual
construction to Constantius. During this reign the fortifications of the
city were completed, the Church of the Holy Apostles underwent repair,
and the Church of S. Sophia, usually ascribed to the founder of the
city, was built, the date of its dedication being the 15th of February
360, two years before Constantius died. Constantius, moreover, placed
the city, like Rome, under a Prefect--_Præfectus Urbis_--and, what is
worthy of note, endowed the new capital with a library, thus placing in
its hand the lamp of learning which was to shine so far in the world's
history. If we may judge by the terms in which Themistius refers to the
foundation of this library, the value of books was fully appreciated in
those days. "Thus," he exclaims, "the Emperor has recalled and raised
from the dead the souls of wise men and of heroes for the welfare of the
city for the souls of wise men are in their wisdom, mind, and
intelligence, while their monuments are the books and writings in which
their remains are found." The author of the _Areopagitica_ said no more
when he declared, "A good book is the precious life-blood of a master
spirit embalmed and treasured up to a life beyond life."
[Illustration: "A KAFEDJI"
Turkish coffee is to be obtained everywhere; a "kafedji" has here set up
his little stall at the corner of a street.]
Julian, the successor of Constantius, was attached to the city by
special ties. It was the place of his birth, and there he had received
part of his early education. The school he attended was attached to the
Basilica which stood on the site of the Cistern now styled Yeri Batan
Serai, a little to the south-west of S. Sophia, and thither he went
under the conduct of his pædagogue, Mardonius, to study grammar and
rhetoric, dressed simply and associating freely with his
fellow-students. His progress in his studies soon became the talk of
society, and in public opinion presaged his fitness to become, in due
time, the ruler of the Empire. Whereupon the jealousy which besets
despotic rule was roused in Constantius, and Julian was banished to
Nicomedia. But Julian always retained a warm affection for the home of
his childhood and youth. Speaking of Constantinople in one of his
letters he says, "I love her as my mother, for I was born and brought up
there, and I can never be guilty of ingratitude towards her." Nor had he
reason to complain of his Alma Mater's feelings towards himself. When he
approached the city, in 361, to assume the crown, the whole population
poured out to meet him, and hailed him with transports of joy as at once
their sovereign and fellow-citizen. The young capital acquired a greater
sense of dignity and importance at the thought that one who had been
cradled within its precincts now occupied the throne of the Roman world.
Julian spent only ten months in Constantinople as Emperor, his stay
being cut short by war with Persia, whose hostility was not less intense
since the chief seat of the Empire had been brought nearer to the
frontier between the two States. Into those few months, however, Julian
put an immense amount of work. The condition of affairs in his native
city was not after his heart, either as a statesman, philosopher, or
devotee of the ancient faith of Athens and Rome. There the Christianity
he would fain destroy was strongly entrenched. There wrangling sects of
the new creed, more difficult to appease than the wild Franks and
Alemanni, who had felt the strength of his arm upon the banks of the
Rhine, kept the population in constant turmoil. There was found an
Augean stable of official corruption, of unpunished crimes, of relaxed
military discipline, and of extravagant luxury at the court. According
to Libanius, a thousand cooks, a thousand hairdressers, more than a
thousand cup-bearers, a crowd of waiters, swarming like bees in a hive,
and eunuchs, thick as flies in early summer, were employed in the
service of the imperial palace. One day Julian sent for a barber, and in
answer to the summons an official in a gorgeous uniform made his
appearance. "But I called for a barber, not for a receiver-general,"
exclaimed the indignant Emperor. An investigation of the case having
been made, it was discovered that in addition to a large salary the
barber enjoyed the right to many perquisites, and received daily rations
sufficient for twenty men and as many horses. Julian swept the palace
clean of such abuses. Furthermore, Julian increased the importance of
the Senate of the city by the embellishment of the Senate-House, by
additional privileges conferred on the members of that body, and by
taking part in the deliberations of the assembly. He also constructed
another harbour on the southern side of the city, placing it in the
hollow ground below the heights on which the Hippodrome stands, and thus
provided for the convenience and safety of ships that found it difficult
to make the Golden Horn from the Sea of Marmora, in the face of the
northern winds that prevail in the Bosporus. The harbour was first known
as the New Harbour and the Harbour of Julian, but, in the sixth century,
it was also named the Harbour of Sophia or the Sophias, in view of
extensive repairs made at the instance of the Empress Sophia, the
consort of Justin II. The basin of the harbour can still be traced in
the configuration of the ground it once occupied, where its memory is
preserved by the present name of the locality--Kadriga Limani, the Port
of the Galley. At the head of the harbour Julian built a portico, a
crescent in shape, and therefore spoken of as the Sigma, from its
resemblance to the curved form of that letter in the Greek alphabet.
Very appropriately the portico became a favourite lounge of the
philosophers in Constantinople, and the scene of their discussions. But
what Julian doubtless considered his richest and most filial gift to the
city of his birth, was the presentation to its public library of his
collection of books.
[Illustration: GOLDEN HORN FROM THE BRITISH HOSPITAL, GALATA]
Valens, the next Emperor concerned with the growth of the city, gave
special attention to the water-supply of Constantinople--always a
serious question owing to the comparative scarcity of water in the
immediate neighbourhood. The picturesque aqueduct which, with its double
tier of arches garlanded with ivy, still transports water across the
valley between the hills surmounted respectively by the Mosque of Sultan
Mehemet and the War Office, was built in this reign. It was an addition
to the system of water-supply provided by Constantine; a system which,
probably, had previously served the town of Byzantium, and which he only
extended and improved. Near the eastern end of the aqueduct a splendid
public fountain was placed. The Cistern of the Prætorian Prefect,
Modestius, now used as a Saddle-Market, near the Mosque of Sultan
Mehemet, belongs to this period; and, as a result of the abundance of
water thus introduced into the city, several public baths were erected.
The Baths or Thermae of Roman Constantinople, we should remember, are
the models of what we style the Turkish bath, and it is a curious fact
that this mode of bathing has been continued as a habit of popular life
only in countries comprised in the eastern division of the Empire.
But what, perhaps, makes the reign of Valens chiefly memorable in the
history of the city is that in his time the citizens of Constantinople
had their first experience of a usurpation of the throne, and of an
attack upon their walls.
The former event was brought about by a certain Procopius, a cousin of
the Emperor Julian.
Making the most of his relationship to the family of Constantine, he
took advantage of the discontent which the administration of Valens had
provoked, and having won the populace of the city and a body of troops
by means of liberal donatives, seized the palace and installed himself
as Emperor. A sharp war with Valens ensued, in which the usurper was at
length captured and put to death, while his partizans, and even persons
suspected of having favoured his cause, were put to the torture, and had
their property confiscated. Thus Constantinople learned--not for the
last time--the meaning of a reign of terror. A signal example also was
made of Chalcedon (Kadi Keui), on the opposite Asiatic shore, because
its inhabitants had sided with Procopius. The walls of the town were
ruthlessly torn down, and it was with the material thus made available
that the Aqueduct of Valens was built and that the Baths of Constantine
were repaired. Yet more serious was the quarrel of Valens with the
Goths, whom he had permitted to cross the Danube in their retreat before
the Huns, and settle in the territory we know as Bulgaria. The officials
entrusted with the control of the refugees, and with the duty of
providing them with food, did their work with such stupidity and
rapacity that the high-minded Goths flew to arms, and, at the close of a
struggle extending for upwards of a year, inflicted in 378 an
overwhelming defeat upon the imperial forces, outside the walls of
Adrianople. The Emperor himself and two-thirds of his army lay dead upon
the field. The Roman legions had not known such a disaster since they
were defeated by Hannibal at Cannæ. Flushed with victory, the Goths
marched upon Constantinople, assailed the walls, and nearly burst the
gates open. The honours of the defence fell to the widow of Valens, the
Empress Dominica, who, with the money found in the treasury, raised a
body of troops among the citizens, arming them with what weapons could
be found. A body of Arab soldiers, recently arrived in the city, also
rendered valuable aid. Sallying forth, they closed with the Goths in a
desperate struggle. Victory wavered between the two sets of barbarians;
when, suddenly, a long-haired, almost naked Arab, uttering a loud,
hoarse, and doleful cry, like a bird of evil omen, rushed upon the
Goths, and drawing his dagger, cut the throat of an opponent, and then
slaked his thirst at the flowing wound. What with the impression
produced by this horrid incident, added to a growing sense of the
impossibility of their taking a fortified place, the Goths gave up the
contest and retired from the city. This was the first siege of
Constantinople.
With the accession of Theodosius I., a brighter day dawned upon the
Empire. He not only subdued the Goths, but converted them into allies,
and persuaded them to put 40,000 of their brave troops at his service.
He even induced their aged king, Athanaric, who had sworn never to set a
friendly foot upon Roman soil, to visit Constantinople. The visitor was
profoundly impressed by the appearance of the city. "Now," said he, "I
see what I often heard of, but never believed, the renown of this great
city." Then, surveying the city's situation, the movement of ships
coming and going, the splendid fortifications, the crowded population
made up of various nationalities, like streams coming from different
directions to gush from the same fountain, the well-ordered troops, he
exclaimed, "Verily, the Emperor is a god upon earth; whoso lifts a
hand against him is guilty of his own blood." Upon the death of
Athanaric, which occurred about a fortnight after he reached
Constantinople, Theodosius buried the body of his guest with royal
honours in the Church of the Holy Apostles, and, by this act of
chivalrous courtesy, bound the Goths more firmly to his side.
[Illustration: STREET SCENE, CLAY WORKS]
The barbarians, however, were by no means the only disturbers of the
peace of the Empire with whom Theodosius found it necessary to deal.
Society in the Roman world was distracted by the conflict between pagans
and Christians on the one hand, and by the keener strife between
Christian sects on the other, and it was the ambition of Theodosius to
calm these troubled waters. For this laudable end he employed the
questionable means of edicts for the violent suppression of heathenism
and heresy. To destroy the old faith of the Empire was comparatively an
easy task, although it involved him in a war with the pagan party in the
West. But to uproot the tares of heresy was a more formidable
undertaking; they were so numerous, vigorous, and difficult to
distinguish from the true wheat. For the space of forty years, the views
of Arius on the Person of Christ had prevailed in Constantinople, and
the churches of the city were in the hands of that theological party.
Only in one small chapel, the Church of Anastasia, was the Creed of
Nicæa upheld there by Gregory of Nazianzus, and despite his eloquence he
was a voice crying in the wilderness. But Theodosius, having been won
over to the Nicene Creed, determined to make it the creed of the State.
Accordingly, upon his arrival in Constantinople on the 20th of November
380, he sent for Demophilus, the Arian bishop of the city, and commanded
him either to accept the orthodox views or leave Constantinople.
Demophilus had the courage of his convictions, and, bidding his flock in
S. Sophia farewell, left the capital in obedience, as he said, to the
injunction, "When they persecute you in one city, flee ye to another."
All the churches of the city were now transferred to the orthodox party.
The Arians, however, maintained religious services according to their
own tenets outside the city walls, in the district known as the
Exokionion (quarter of the outside column). The name was due to the
presence there of a column surmounted by a statue of Constantine. Owing
to their association with the district, Arians were sometimes designated
Exokionitæ. The district lay immediately outside the gateway in the
Constantinian walls already noted as the Ancient Gate of late
Byzantine times, and as Isa Kapoussi since the Turkish Conquest. It can
therefore be readily identified, and, curiously enough, under the
disguise of a Turkish garb--Alti Mermer, the Six Marbles--the locality
still retains its old name. For the Turkish designation is due to a
misunderstanding of the meaning of the term Exakionion, a corrupt form
of Exokionion frequently employed by Byzantine writers.
[Illustration: STREET SCENE, STAMBOUL]
In pursuance of his religious policy, Theodosius furthermore convened at
Constantinople an assembly of 355 bishops, known as the Second General
Council, to reaffirm the Nicene Creed as the true Catholic faith, and to
restore the orthodox character of the capital of the East. At this
Council, the question of precedence between the Sees of Rome, Antioch,
Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Constantinople, which awakened burning
jealousies in the Christian world, was finally settled. The first place
was assigned to the Bishop of Rome, the prestige of the ancient capital
asserting itself, but the second place was given to Constantinople,
because it was New Rome, notwithstanding the closer connection of the
remaining rival Sees with the earlier history of the Christian faith. In
this decision, political reasons outweighed religious considerations.
But while thus occupied with high matters of Church and State,
Theodosius did not forget the embellishment of his capital. On the
contrary, what Theodosius did for that object, and left to his son and
grandson to complete, entitles him to be regarded as the second founder
of Constantinople. Under his auspices, a great forum, named the Forum of
Theodosius and the Forum of Taurus, was constructed on the summit of the
hill now occupied by the Turkish War Office. It was the largest forum in
the city, and there Theodosius erected a hollow column, _columna
chochlis_, similar to the column of Trajan and the column of Marcus
Aurelius at Rome. For better or worse, the desire to emulate Rome was
always an ambition of the young capital. Around the exterior of the
column winded a spiral band of bas-reliefs commemorating the exploits of
the Emperor, while the stairway within led to his statue on the summit.
Up that stairway, the Emperor Murzuphlus was taken to the top of the
column by the Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade after their capture of the
city in 1204, and then barbarously hurled to the ground. Certain
persons, who became wise after the event, then pointed to a figure
represented on the column as falling from a high turret, and read there
the prophecy of this outrage upon humanity. The column was taken down
by Sultan Bajazet II. (1481-1512) to furnish material for the bath he
constructed in the vicinity. So does glory vanish. To the forum was
attached, as usual, a Basilica, the Basilica Theodosiana, 240 feet long
by 140 wide, remarkable for twelve marble columns 25 feet in height. To
the same Emperor is also ascribed a lofty pyramidal structure, in or
beside the forum, surmounted by a movable bronze figure to indicate the
direction of the wind, and appropriately named the Anemodulion. Judging
from the descriptions we have of it, the edifice displayed considerable
artistic taste. Upon it stood, in characteristic forms, the statues of
the twelve winds on the list of ancient meteorologists. There, one could
hear youths blowing trumpets, see laughing Cupids pelting each other
with apples, and admire wreaths of foliage, flowers, and fruit. It
recalls the Temple of the Winds at Athens. Another erection of the time
of Theodosius was the Golden Gate which was subsequently incorporated in
the fortifications built by his grandson and namesake, Theodosius II. It
was originally designed as a triumphal arch to celebrate the victory of
Theodosius I. over Maximus, who had usurped the throne of the western
division of the Empire, and through that archway Theodosius passed
three years later, when he returned to Constantinople in triumph. Like
similar monuments, the Golden Gate consisted of three arches, the
central arch being loftier than its companions, and was decorated with
statues of the Emperor, Victory, the Fortune of the city, and a group of
elephants in bronze. Upon the two fronts of the central arch was a Latin
inscription in gilt metal letters, gleaming like a crown of gold upon
the head of the gateway. The legend, "Theodosius adorns this place,
after the doom of the usurper," looked towards the west; while the
words, "He who constructed the Golden Gate brings in the Golden Age,"
faced the east. When incorporated in the fortifications of Theodosius
II., the Golden Gate served as the State entrance to the city.
Another monument of the city due to Theodosius is the obelisk which
still keeps its place, as though the symbol of eternity, amid the ruins
of the Hippodrome. It was brought from Egypt before the Emperor's reign,
but was successfully placed in position under his auspices, and two
inscriptions, one in Latin, the other in Greek, record the pride which
the achievement excited. They read to the effect that what others had
vainly attempted was accomplished by Theodosius during the prefecture
of Proclus--the time taken being thirty days according to the Latin
legend, thirty-two days according to the Greek version.
[Illustration: A VILLAGE STORE AT KAVAK]
The bas-reliefs of the pedestal on which the obelisk stands, however
little they flatter the art of the period, are extremely interesting for
the glimpses they afford us of life in Constantinople under Theodosius
I. Any one who wishes to look upon the events of that distant day, and
cares to breathe the atmosphere in which his fellowmen then lived,
should come and linger before these weather-worn figures in which the
Past is perpetuated. They are not of "Attic shape"; they have not the
"fair attitude" of "the brede of marble men and maidens," with which
Grecian urns were overwrought. Nevertheless, they too set the permanent
against the transitory scenes of our human history. Here the obelisk is
still being dragged through the city to the Hippodrome amidst the
deafening shouts of an enthusiastic population; it is still hoisted in
breathless silence and suspense from the ground, and set firm upon its
base to stand erect for these fifteen centuries. Here four-horse
chariots are still driving furiously around the _spina_ of the
race-course; the banners of the Factionsblue, green, white, red--still
wave frantically in the air; the crack of whips, the cheers of
spectators, urging steed and driver onward and faster, may still be
heard; the acclamations, the strains of music, the joyous dance, the
wild frenzy when the Emperor crowns the victor's brow with laurel still
rend the air. Theodosius, his Empress, his two sons, Honorius and
Arcadius, still stand or sit before us. Here are the senators of New
Rome, and the courtiers in attendance upon the Emperor. Barbarians,
eastern and western, are here doing homage on bended knee to their
conqueror, and offering him tribute. Here are the Gothic troops which
Theodosius subdued and won to his side, wearing their golden collars,
and guarding him with spear and shield. Here the people of the city hold
colloquy with their sovereign through the tall heralds--mandatores--who
stand on the steps leading to the imperial tribune. Here Christianity
with the Labarum in its hand triumphs, and in the Greek and Latin speech
inscribed upon these stones we still listen to the voices that mingled
in the Græco-Roman world.
Other works of Theodosius could be mentioned, such as the improvement of
the Harbour of Eleutherius (at Vlanga Bostan), and the palaces erected
for the accommodation of members of the imperial family. But perhaps
we shall obtain a more vivid impression of the extent to which the
growth and improvement of Constantinople were due to this Emperor, from
the impression which the changes he introduced made upon the mind of a
contemporary who had known the city from the days of Constantius. "No
longer," exclaims Themistius, as he surveys the altered aspect of the
place, "no longer is the vacant ground in the city more extensive than
the ground occupied by buildings; nor is the land under cultivation
within the walls more than that which is inhabited. The beauty of the
city is no longer scattered over it in patches, but is now continuous
throughout its whole area, like a robe finished to the very fringe. The
city is resplendent with gold and porphyry; it boasts of a new forum,
named after the Emperor; it is provided with baths, porticoes, gymnasia,
and what was its former extreme limit is now its centre. If Constantine
could see the city he founded, he would look upon a glorious and
splendid scene, not upon a bare and naked void; he would behold it fair,
not with apparent, but with real, beauty." The mansions of the wealthy
were now larger and more stately; the suburbs also had grown. "The
city," continues the orator, "is full of carpenters, builders,
decorators, and every other class of artisans, so that it might fitly be
described as a workshop of magnificence. Should the zeal of the Emperor
to adorn the city continue, a wider circuit will become necessary, and
the question will arise, whether the city added to Constantinople by
Theodosius does not excel in splendour the city which Constantine added
to Byzantium."
[Illustration: GALATA TOWER FROM THE BRIDGE
The stairway down which the Turkish lady is hurrying leads to one of the
many steamboat piers adjoining the bridge.]
In the reign of Arcadius, events of great moment in the history of the
city occurred. In the first place, the government of the Empire, which
had been in the hands of Theodosius alone for a few months, was now
again divided between his sons, the West falling to Honorius, the East
becoming the dominion of Arcadius. This proved the final division of the
government, and prepared the way for the ultimate sundering of Europe
into two worlds. For it stimulated a conflict of interests and
occasioned a warfare of intrigues that strengthened the tendency for the
parts of the Empire to fall apart and form, practically, distinct
States. Thus, however, the individuality and independence of
Constantinople came to be clearly and fully asserted. In the next place,
under Arcadius, the question how far Constantinople and the Balkan lands
were to remain under the control of the Germans settled to the south of
the Danube reached its most critical stage. Would the East be
Teutonized, as the West was destined to be? Was the unity of Europe to
assume a Germanic form after the old Roman unity was broken? There were
moments in the reign of Arcadius when the signs of the times indicated
that the same destiny awaited both divisions of the Empire. Alaric, at
the head of the Visigoths, was ravaging the Balkan peninsula, and seemed
ready to establish a permanent kingdom there. Constantinople was full of
Germans. A fair-haired German lady, the Empress Eudoxia, shared the
throne of Arcadius. Germans were largely employed as workmen and as
household servants. Germans demanded liberty to worship in a church
within the walls, according to the Arian views introduced among them by
Ulfilas. Chrysostom, opposed their demand, and carried on a mission for
the conversion of the Goths in the city to the orthodox faith. The
politicians of the capital were divided into a Roman and a German party.
Gainas, a Goth, was in command of the army, and had become all-powerful.
At his instance, Rufinus and Eutropius, successively chief Ministers of
the Government of Arcadius, were put to death. He incited the
Ostrogoths settled in Asia Minor to rebel, and brought them over to
Europe to support his ambitious plans. He filled Constantinople with
Gothic soldiers, and twice attempted to burn down the palace. And when,
in view of the precautions taken against him, he found it prudent to
quit the city, it was with the idea of returning with a larger force to
make himself the master of the place. His plan failed, as such schemes
often fail, through an accident of an accident. A Gothic soldier treated
a poor beggar woman roughly; a citizen took her part and struck the
assailant dead. In the condition of the public mind, this proved the
spark which produces a tremendous explosion. The city gates were
immediately closed and the ramparts manned, while an infuriated mob went
through the city hunting for Goths, and did not cease from the mad
pursuit until the blood of 7000 victims had stained the streets of the
city. Gainas was pursued and defeated, and eventually his head was sent
to Constantinople by the Huns among whom he had sought refuge. This,
indeed, did not put all further trouble at the hands of Goths to an end,
but it was the knell of German domination in Constantinople and the
East. The reign of Arcadius is the watershed upon which streams, which
might have flowed together, separated to run in opposite directions and
through widely diverse scenes of human affairs. The inscription, "_ob
devictos Gothos_," upon the column of Claudius Gothicus now acquired a
deeper meaning.
But one cannot think of the reign of Arcadius without recalling the fact
that for six years of that reign Constantinople was adorned by the
virtues, and thrilled by the eloquence, of John Chrysostom. Although
popular with the masses, he provoked the bitter hostility of the Court
and of a powerful section of the clergy, by his scathing rebukes of the
frivolous and luxurious habits of fashionable society, and by the
strictness of his ecclesiastical rule. He had the misfortune to quarrel
with the ladies of the city, including the Empress, for their
extravagance and looseness of manners. Ladies of fashion, for instance,
saw nothing unbecoming in taking a swim in the public cisterns of the
city. A sermon, preached while a statue of the Empress was being
inaugurated close to the cathedral of S. Sophia, filled the cup of his
offences. It may not be true that in the course of the discourse he
compared the Empress to Herodias demanding the head of his namesake,
John the Baptist. But whatever the precise form of his words, he said
enough to exasperate her to a degree that made her insist upon his final
banishment, notwithstanding all the popular opposition to that step. By
a strange fate, the pedestal of the column which bore the statue still
remains, being now placed for safe keeping within the railing that
encloses a narrow strip of ground on the northern side of the Church of
S. Irene, in the first court of the Seraglio. A Latin inscription upon
it records the erection of the monument in honour of Eudoxia, ever
Augusta, by Simplicius, the Prefect of the city; while an inscription in
Greek adds the information that the statue was of silver, the column of
porphyry, and that the monument stood near the Senate-House.
Notwithstanding, however, the anxieties of the period, the improvement
of the city continued to go forward. The splendour of the Court was
increased by the erection of four princely mansions, placed respectively
at the disposal of the Empress and her three daughters, Arcadia, Marina,
and the famous Pulcheria. New Thermæ were built, one of them, the Thermæ
Arcadianæ, situated near the Sea of Marmora on the level tract below S.
Irene, being a great ornament to the city. A more abundant supply of
water was secured by the construction of the large open reservoir,
whose basin, 152 metres square, now occupied by vegetable gardens and
houses, is still seen to the south-west of the Mosque of Sultan Selim,
above the quarter of the Phanar. But the most notable addition to the
equipment of the capital was a great forum placed upon the summit of the
Xerolophus, the hill at the south-western corner of the city. It was
commonly known as the Forum of Arcadius, but sometimes also as the Forum
of Theodosius, on account, probably, of additions made to it by
Theodosius II., the son and successor of Arcadius.
[Illustration: REFUGEE HUTS ON THE MARMORA
This pile of huts is perched on the old seaward walls overlooking the
Sea of Marmora. Petroleum cans are largely used for building material.]
As usual, the forum was surrounded by porticoes and adorned with many
statues; but its chief ornament was another lofty hollow column similar
to that in the Forum of Theodosius I., thus furnishing the city with the
same number of that class of columns as Rome possessed. On the summit of
the monument stood the statue of Arcadius, and the procession of
sculptured figures that winded their way around the shaft to his feet
celebrated his victories over the Goths. The column held its place, in
spite of storms, earthquakes, and fires, until 1715, when, threatening
to fall, it was taken down as far as its pedestal, for the safety of
neighbouring buildings. But it was inspected by many European visitors
to Constantinople previous to that date, with the fortunate result that
we have drawings and descriptions of the monument which allow us to form
some adequate idea of its general appearance and artistic merits. It
stood upon a platform of three steps, the uppermost step being 33½
feet square. The pedestal, a hollow cube, rose 26 feet high, each side
consisting of six huge blocks of marble. Along its upper portion it was
adorned profusely with wreaths, eagles, genii, and other usual forms of
architectural decoration, while the eastern, western, and southern sides
were covered with triumphal scenes in bas-relief. "Along the highest
part of the pedestal, on the southern side," says the traveller Wheler,
"one sees the Labarum in a wreath held by two Victories. Below it, are
the Emperors Arcadius and Honorius, in honour of whom the column was
erected, with two Victories crowning them in presence of a crowd of
senators. Still lower down, in a third line, appear Victories contending
with one another, and several figures wearing mural crowns, representing
the cities conquered by the armies of the two Emperors." From the
pedestal to the summit of the column 23 drums of marble, so well joined
as to seem one piece of stone, soared some 121 feet higher to give
the monument a total altitude of 146 feet. The figures on the upper part
of the shaft were larger than those nearer the ground, so as to appear
of the same size as the latter when seen from a distance. The hollow
shell of the shaft was 28 feet round, and from 2 feet to 1¾ foot
thick, the thickness diminishing as the shaft ascended. From the door in
the northern side of the pedestal 233 steps, lighted by 50 lights, led
one through the shaft to a door opening upon the abacus of the capital,
a platform 17¾ feet square, from which to survey securely the
glorious panorama presented by the great city below, and the surrounding
landscape of sea and islands and mountains.
[Illustration: TURKISH DELIGHT FACTORY
The contents of the large copper pans are kept stirring for two hours or
more over a wood fire; various flavourings are added during this process
according to the result desired; those mostly in use are essence of
almonds, vanilla, rose leaves, almonds and pistachios.]