Constantine’s city does not appear to have been so completely Christian as the ecclesiastical writers would have us suppose. Zosimus tells us that Constantine erected a shrine to the Dioscuri in the Hippodrome, and he mentions the temples of Rhea and the Tyché of the city in a large four-porticoed forum. A whole population of bronze and marble statues was brought together from Greece, Asia Minor, and Sicily. The baths of Zeuxippus alone are said to have had more than sixty bronze statues,[6] a still greater number were assembled in the Augusteum and other squares, and in the Hippodrome, where, according to Zosimus,[7] Constantine placed the Pythian tripod, which had been the central object in the temple of Apollo at Delphi. On the triple coils of the bronze serpents in the At-Meidan can still be read the names of the Greek states, which, after the battle of Plataea, dedicated a tithe of the spoil to the Delphic oracle, as described by Herodotus.[8]
An extremely valuable description of ancient Byzantium and the reconstruction by Constantine is given by Zosimus, writing not much more than a century after the transformation. “Now the city lay upon the crest of a hill which forms a part of the isthmus that is made by what is called the ‘Horn’ (κέρας) and the Propontis. And formerly it had its gate (πύλη) at the end of the colonnades which Severus built.” ... “And the wall on its western part descending along with the crest reached to the temple of Aphrodite, and the sea of Chrysopolis [Scutari] which is opposite; and in the same way from the crest the wall descended northward to the harbour which is called Neorion, and from thence up to the sea which lies directly in front of the straits through which one enters the Euxine.” ... “This then was the ancient size of the city. And Constantine erected a circular forum where formerly was the gate, and surrounded it with porticoes of two storeys. He set up two very big arches of Proconnesian marble opposite each other; through them one entered the porticoes of Severus or issued from the ancient city. And wishing to make the city much larger he further continued the old wall fifteen stadia, and inclosed the city with a wall which cut off the isthmus from sea to sea.”
It is clear from this that the ancient land gate of Byzantium stood on the crest of the ridge close to the site now occupied by the Porphyry Column (which was set up by Constantine in the New Forum), and formed the end of a street of columns built by Severus (the Mese). From this gate the wall ran southwards to a temple of Aphrodite, and along the shore of the Propontis opposite Scutari. Northwards it descended to the Golden Horn at the Neorion port, and turned along the shore to Seraglio Point. Now the Neorion port was just outside the entrance to the modern Galata bridge,[9] and the account agrees perfectly with the Notitia in which we find the following: “The sixth ward at entering on it is level ground for a short distance, all the rest is upon the descent; for it extends from the Forum of Constantine to the stairs where you ferry over to Sycae [Galata]. It contains the porphyry pillar of Constantine; the Senate House in the same place, the Neorion port; the stairs of Sycae, &c.”
It is evident that the city which Constantine found had been virtually rebuilt by Severus in the style of the East. From the days when Alexandria and Antioch were planned a city had become a whole to be designed according to rule. Essential features of such cities—of which Palmyra is the best representative—were long avenues of columns forming the main streets, and a triumphal arch with a central “golden milestone.” The main street of columns at Constantinople, which we later hear of by the name of the Mese as forming the way from the Milion to the Forum of Constantine, cannot be any other than the “Porticoes of Severus” just mentioned. In the fifth century we find the Mese referred to in the building laws of Zeno. “We ordain that none shall be allowed to obstruct with buildings the numerous rows of columns which are erected in the public porticoes, such as those leading from what is called the Milion to the Capitol,” any shops or booths between the columns “must be ornamented on the outside at least with marble, that they may beautify the city and give pleasure to the passers by.”[10] Mordtmann shows that this great columned way occupied very nearly the line of the present Divan Yiulu; indeed, it is hardly possible to divert the great arteries at any stage of a city’s evolution, and the Mese itself probably followed the course of a foot-track to the gate of the Acropolis.
By building walls across the land between the Golden Horn and the sea at distances farther and farther from Seraglio Point, the city has been successively enlarged; the great land walls, within which the shrunken city now lies, are mainly the work of Theodosius II. These, the walls of the Constantinople known to the Crusaders, are still comparatively perfect; a triple line on the land side and a single line around the sea margin, some fourteen miles of walls, eight or ten to fifteen feet thick, strengthened by great towers, completely girdles the city round about. The land-wall of Constantine’s city, situated between the Acropolis and the present walls, has disappeared, but its course has been traced (see [Fig. 1]).
Acropolis.—The topography of ancient Constantinople has engaged the attention of generations of writers, and an approximation to true results has undoubtedly been reached. First we must mention Pierre Gilles, usually called Gyllius, who, travelling to collect MSS. for Francis I., resided in the city for many years, and died in 1555. Then Du Cange, in his great work Constantinopolis Christiana, 1680, by a careful comparison of the authorities, certainly made discoveries in a country he had never visited. The folios of Banduri[11] followed in 1711; and in 1861 Labarte published a more detailed study of the Imperial quarter, chiefly based on the ample notices in the Book of Ceremonies of Constantine Porphyrogenitus. This work, Le Palais Impérial de Constantinople et ses Abords, shows remarkable insight and critical acumen. Buzantios in Constantinopolis, 1861, and Paspates in his Byzantinae Melatae, 1877, made several further identifications. The latter followed with The Great Palace of Constantinople, recently translated by Mr. Metcalfe, which goes over the same ground as Labarte; but the excavations for the railway, which now circles Seraglio Point, had in the meantime exposed some remains, and made the examination of certain walls possible.
Although Paspates made several valuable suggestions, many of his conclusions are certainly not sustained by his reasoning; indeed, Labarte in many points of divergence was probably much nearer the facts. Paspates’ views were accepted by Mr. Bury,[12] to be followed in turn by Mr. Oman in The Byzantine Empire of the “Story of the Nations” Series. A work in Russian has recently been devoted to the study of the Palace quarter.[13] Unger’s collection of topographical references in Quellen der Byzantinischen Kunstgeschichte is also of the greatest service.
Fig. 1.—Plan of Constantinople showing its development.
In 1892 appeared Dr. Mordtmann’s Esquisse, together with a large plan of the city, on which the probable identifications of the ways and buildings were laid down; this was prepared at the instance of the Comte Riant, who, in his Exuviae Constantinopolitanae, contributed the result of much research to our knowledge of Byzantine antiquities.