April xvii.
I took the opportunity of passing over the chanel to Constantinople, in company of Signior Wright, the Dutch minister of this place, with whom I visited the mint; the Grand Signior’s lions; and the mosques of Sultan Solymán, Sultan Bajazet, Sultan Achmét, and the Validée. That of Bajazet and the Validée are adorned only with two minarées, that of Solymán with four, and that of Achmét with six. They all much resemble one another, both in the inward and outward figure. They first consist of a spatious court, enriched all round with fair and regular cloisters formed by pillars, some of whose shafts are carved with white marble, some with serpentine stone, and some with porphyry; but all the capitals are of the modern Turkish figure. Next is the body of the mosque, covered outwardly with domes, and supported inwardly with four massy pillars, from the tops of which rises a regular cupola, forming the roof of the whole mosque. Whoever exactly compares the beauty and grandeur of these several mosques, will find that of Solymán more regular, and artificial in the outward frame; that of Achmét more magnificent in the whole, and on the outside more beautiful in the work of the pillars; that of the Validée, tho less in bulk and extent than the other two, yet more curious in the inward ornaments and workmanship than either; and that of Bajazet, which is the oldest, inferior to the rest both in bulk and beauty, except that some cast pillars, which form the cloisters of the court, consist of a more polite, shining, and pretious stone.
The same morning I visited the antient cirque of this city, a large oblong space flanked on three sides with the houses of the city, and on the fourth with the walls of the mosque of Sultan Achmét. Therein stand three pillars, the first of square stone, formerly covered with gilded brass, at the end of the cirque, and supposed to have been the goal of the stadium. It now declines much, having suffered greatly by time, and openings in the several joints of the stones. The second pillar is of wreathed brass, not above twelve feet high, lately terminated at the top with figures of three serpents rising from the pillar, and with their necks and heads forming a beautiful triangle. But this monument was rudely broken from the top of the pillar by some attendants of the late Polish ambassador, whose lodgings were appointed in this cirque, opposite to the said pillar[69]. The third pillar is a long square stone, or obelisk, decreasing gradually from its basis, till it ends almost in a point. The matter is granate, or Theban marble; and each side is engraven with birds, beasts, and other hieroglyphical figures[70]. This had once lain upon the ground, and, as we may conceive from the inscriptions, a considerable time; till Theodosius erected it on a large and square basis, adorned on each side with various images; and having fixt on the top of this basis four brass supporters, on these he set the aforesaid hieroglyphical Theban column. There is a Latin inscription on one side of the basis, and a Greek one on the other, importing what I here mention concerning the erection of the pillar. The Greek runs thus:
ΚΙΟΝΑ ΤΕΤΡΑΠΛΕΥΡΟΝ ΑΕΙ ΧΘΟΝΙ ΚΕΙΜΕΝΟΝ ΑΧΘΟϹ
ΜΟΥΝΟϹ ΑΝΑϹΤΗϹΑΙ ΘΕΥΔΟϹΙΟϹ ΒΑϹΙΛΕΥϹ
ΤΟΛΜΗϹΑϹ ΠΡΟΚΛΟϹ[71] ΕΠΕΚΕΚΛΕΤΟ ΚΑΙ ΤΟϹΟϹ ΕϹΤΗ
ΚΙΩΝ ΗΕΛΙΟΙϹ ΕΝ ΤΡΙΑΚΟΝΤΑ ΔΥΩ
The Latin thus:
DIFFICILIS QVONDAM DOMINIS PARERE SERENIS
IVSSVS ET EXTINCTIS PALMAM PORTARE TYRANNIS
OMNIA THEODOSIO CEDVNT SOBOLIQVE PERENNI[72]
TER DENIS SIC VICTVS EGO DOMITVSQVE DIEBVS[73]
The remaining verse, mentioned by Sir George Sandys, is now covered in the ground[74].