Wide Desolation now attends thee, Thrace;
A heavy Vengeance waits; long hast thou try’d,
And daringly provok’d the Neighbouring States;
And now a Cloud of Woe hangs o’re thy Head,
Which daily swelling to a larger Size,
Shall burst in Blood, and ruine all about thee.
This Oracle or Prophecy, says Zosimus, truly fore-tells, tho’ in an Ænigmatical Manner, all the Calamities which would befall the Bythinians, by Reason of an excessive Tribute which had been demanded of them, and presignifies also their speedy Subjection to the Empire of Constantinople. And tho’ this did not happen till a long Time after, yet let no Man from thence infer, that the Time of the Accomplishment of the Prediction was expired before it came to pass. For all Time is but for a Moment with God, who is eternal. This Interpretation of the Oracle, says the Historian, I observed to be true, by comparing the Event of Things with the Words of the Prophecy; and adds, that if any other Interpretation seems more agreeable, any one is at his own Liberty to follow it. And to confirm the more this Explication of it, he tells us, how Constantine the Great and his Sons, oppress’d not only Bithynia, but the whole World with severe Exactions, so that whole Cities, unable to pay the Levies, remained desolate. The learned Tzetzes before-mentioned, explains this Oracle in another Manner, and says, that it was delivered by Phaenno. This Sybil, says he, was long ago famous for her Oracles, and foretold same Things many Ages since, which were accomplished but a little before the Times we live in; as the Conquest of Persia over the Empire, the Slavery and Subjection of the Emperor to them, his Dethronement by his People and Nobles, the Wars of the Scythians with the Eastern Empire, by whom she seems to mean the Turks. Thus far Zosimus. This Oracle, tho’ it be very antient, yet, amidst the present Ruins of Constantinople, it never appeared so manifest as now.
But to proceed in my Narration of other Monuments of Antiquity; On the Brow of the fourth Hill, which lies Eastward, you see a Church built to the Honour of Almighty God, which has been much celebrated in the Writings of modern Historians. The Walls of it within side are incrusted with several Kinds of Marble: It has two Porches or Vestibules, many lesser Cupola’s covered with Lead, the largest of which is supported with four Pillars of red Marble variegated, each of which Pillars measures seven Foot in Circumference. There’s another Cupola which bears upon four Arches, which are supported with four Pillars of Thebaic Marble. On the South Side of the fourth Hill there is erected a Pillar, which nearly resembles that, which was lately, as I observed, standing in the Exacionion, but is now removed into the Precinct of the Seraglio. Round the Basis of it there runs a Wreath of Laurel-work, and the Standard of the Cross, curiously cut in Basso Relievo. At the Foot of the fifth Hill is a double Wall, which encloses a Street now called Phanarium, because as the Inhabitants tell you, when the City was formerly besieged, it was built in the Space of one Night by Candle-light. I am induced from the Authority of Dionysius to believe, that Mellacopsas stood near this Street; the Reason why it was so called I have shewn in my Treatise of the Bosporus. On the Top of the fifth Hill stands the Palace of Selimus the Grand Signor, with a Caravansera, and his Tomb. Near it is a very large Cistern, in a pleasant Meadow, which is despoiled of its Roof and Pillars.