If we now retrace our steps to the Philadelphium and diverge thence from the Mese in a north-westerly direction, we shall soon reach the church of the Holy Apostles, the most imposing of the Christian edifices founded by Constantine. It is contained within an open court surrounded by cloisters, on which give the numerous offices required for the guardians of the sacred precincts. This church is one of the first of those constructed in the form of a cross.[352] Outside it is covered with variegated marbles, and the roof is composed of tiles of gilded brass. The interior is elaborately decorated with a panelled ceiling and walls invested with trellis-work of an intricate pattern, the whole being profusely gilded. Cenotaphs ranged in order are consecrated to the honour and glory of the Twelve Apostles, and in the midst of these is a porphyry sarcophagus wherein repose the remains of Constantine himself and his mother. The building is in fact a heroon or mausoleum designed to perpetuate the fulminating flattery of the period by which Constantine was declared to be the “equal of the Apostles.”[353] Subsequently, however, this religious pile was adopted as the customary place of interment of the Imperial families, and many tombs of royal personages are now to be seen scattered around. Amongst them lie the sons of Constantine, Theodosius I and II, Arcadius, Marcian, Pulcheria, Leo I, and Zeno.[354] On leaving this spot, if we turn to the south for a short distance, we shall be enabled to examine a tall column with a heavy capital elaborately sculptured in a Byzantino-Corinthian style. An inscription on the pedestal testifies to its having been erected by the Praefect Tatian to the memory of the Emperor Marcian.[355]
The region of Sycae, built on the steep slope of the hill which rises almost from the water’s edge to the north of the Golden Horn, is considered to be an integral part of the city. It is particularly associated with the brother of Arcadius, the enervated Honorius, who ruled the Western Empire for more than thirty years, an effigy rather than the reality of a king. Thus the Forum of Honorius constitutes its market-place, and its public baths are also distinguished by the name of the same prince. It possesses, moreover, a dock and a church with gilded tiles, and is fortified in the usual way by a wall with towers.[356]
Diagram of CP. in 6th century.
Latitude 41° N. (Nearly level with Naples and Madrid)
Rome was divided by Augustus into fourteen regions or parishes, to each of which he appointed a body of public officers whose functions much resembled those of a modern Vestry.[357] The municipal government of the new Rome is an almost exact imitation of that instituted by the founder of the Empire for the old capital. Here are the same number of regions, named numerically and counted in order from east to west, beginning at the end of the promontory. The last two of these, however, are outside the wall of Constantine, that is to say, Blachernae on the north-west and Sycae over the water. To each division is assigned a Curator or chief controller, a Vernaculus or beadle, who performs the duties of a public herald, five Vicomagistri, who form a night patrol for the streets, and a considerable number of Collegiati, in the tenth region as many as ninety, whose duty it is to rush to the scene of fires with hatchets and water-buckets.[358] At night the main thoroughfares are well lighted by flaring oil-lamps.[359]
One remarkable feature of the city, to be encountered by the visitor at every turn, is an elevated shed which can be approached on all sides by ranges of steps. These “Steps,” as they are briefly called, are stations for the gratuitous daily distribution of provisions to the poorer citizens. Every morning a concourse of the populace repairs to the Step attached to their district, and each person, on presenting a wooden tessera or ticket, inscribed with certain amounts, receives a supply of bread, and also a dole of oil, wine, and flesh.[360] More than six score of such stations are scattered throughout the town, and the necessary corn is stored in large granaries which are for the most part replenished by ships arriving every season from Alexandria.[361] More than twenty public bakeries furnish daily the required demand of bread.[362] Besides free grants of food and houses for the entertainment of strangers, the city contains various other charities under the direction of state officials, the chief of which are hospitals for the sick and aged, orphanages, poor-houses, and institutions for the reception of foundlings.[363] A medical officer, entitled an arch-physician, with a public stipend, is attached to each parish to attend gratuitously to the poor.[364]
The civic authorities are well aware that disease arises from putrid effluvia, and hence an elaborate system of deep drainage has been constructed so that all sewage is carried by multiple channels into the sea.[365] Since the introduction of Christianity, cremation has become obsolete, and burial in the earth is universally practised.[366] Public cemeteries, however, are not allowed within the walls, but churches and monasteries are permitted to devote a portion of their precincts to the purpose of interment. Such limited space is necessarily reserved for members of the hierarchy and persons of a certain rank, who have been beneficiaries of the church or order.[367]
We may here terminate our exploration of the topography of Constantinople, content to leave a multitude of objects, both interesting and important, beyond the limits of our survey. Were I to attempt the description of everything worthy of notice in the city, my exposition would soon resemble the catalogue of a museum, and the reader’s attention would expire under the sense of interminable enumerations. Our picture has been filled in with sufficient detail to convey the impression of a vast capital laid out in colonnaded squares and streets, to the adornment of which all that Grecian art could evolve in architecture and statuary has been applied with a lavishness attainable only by the fiat of a wide-ruling despot.