History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 2Gibbon, Edward
History
History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 2
Gibbon, Edward
Byzantine Empire -- History -- To 527; Rome -- History -- Empire, 30 B.C.-476 A.D.
to observe, that whatever could adorn the dignity of a great
capital, or contribute to the benefit or pleasure of its numerous
inhabitants, was contained within the walls of Constantinople. A
particular description, composed about a century after its
foundation, enumerates a capitol or school of learning, a circus,
two theatres, eight public, and one hundred and fifty-three
private baths, fifty-two porticos, five granaries, eight
aqueducts or reservoirs of water, four spacious halls for the
meetings of the senate or courts of justice, fourteen churches,
fourteen palaces, and four thousand three hundred and
eighty-eight houses, which, for their size or beauty, deserved to
be distinguished from the multitude of plebeian inhabitants. 52
44 (return) [ Zosim. l. ii. p. 106. Chron. Alexandrin. vel
Paschal. p. 284, Ducange, Const. l. i. c. 24. Even the last of
those writers seems to confound the Forum of Constantine with the
Augusteum, or court of the palace. I am not satisfied whether I
have properly distinguished what belongs to the one and the
other.]
45 (return) [ The most tolerable account of this column is given
by Pocock. Description of the East, vol. ii. part ii. p. 131. But
it is still in many instances perplexed and unsatisfactory.]
46 (return) [ Ducange, Const. l. i. c. 24, p. 76, and his notes
ad Alexiad. p. 382. The statue of Constantine or Apollo was
thrown down under the reign of Alexius Comnenus. * Note: On this
column (says M. von Hammer) Constantine, with singular
shamelessness, placed his own statue with the attributes of
Apollo and Christ. He substituted the nails of the Passion for
the rays of the sun. Such is the direct testimony of the author
of the Antiquit. Constantinop. apud Banduri. Constantine was
replaced by the “great and religious” Julian, Julian, by
Theodosius. A. D. 1412, the key stone was loosened by an
earthquake. The statue fell in the reign of Alexius Comnenus, and
was replaced by the cross. The Palladium was said to be buried
under the pillar. Von Hammer, Constantinopolis und der Bosporos,
i. 162.—M.]
47 (return) [ Tournefort (Lettre XII.) computes the Atmeidan at
four hundred paces. If he means geometrical paces of five feet
each, it was three hundred _toises_ in length, about forty more
than the great circus of Rome. See D’Anville, Mesures
Itineraires, p. 73.]
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