About the Middle of the _Hippodrom_, among a strait Range of small _Obelisks_, there stand seven Pillars. One of which, made of _Arabian_ Marble, is seventeen Foot and eight Digits in Circumference. There was erected upon the Top of it, by one _Abraham_ a Basha, the Statue of _Hercules_. It was cast in Brass, and made of the Spoils which he had taken in _Hungary_; but upon the Death of _Abraham_, _Hercules_, who was reported to have travell’d so many Countries, and tam’d so many Monsters, was at last forced to submit, and be torn to pieces by the _Turks_, the most inveterate Enemies to _Statuary_, and the whole _Vitruvian_ Art; so that they treated him in as barbarous a manner as he was by _Diagoras_, who going into an Inn, and wanting Wood to boil his Lentils, finding a wooden Statue of _Hercules_, well-finish’d, cut it to pieces, and threw it into the Fire, saying these Words; _O Hercules, who hast pass’d with so much Courage through thy twelve Labours, try how thou canst struggle with the thirteenth_. In the same Range of _Obelisks_ there stands another Pillar. ’Tis made of Brass, but not fluted, but wreath’d round with the Foldings of three Serpents, like those we see in great Ropes. The Heads of these Serpents are placed in a triangular Form, and rise very high upon the Shaft of the Pillar. There are many fabulous and trifling Reports among the Inhabitants, concerning the Erection of this Pillar, which is occasion’d by their Ignorance of the History of their Ancestors. _Zosimus_, among other Historians, writes, that _Constantine_ the _Great_ plac’d in the _Hippodrom_ the _Tripos_ of _Apollo_, which was brought from _Delphos_, and which had on it the Image of that God. _Sozomen_ tells us, that _Constantine_ did not only place the _Delphick Tripos_ in the _Hippodrom_, but also that celebrated _Tripos_, which _Pausanias_ the _Lacedæmonian_ General, and the Cities of _Greece_, upon the Conclusion of the War with the _Medes_, consecrated to _Apollo_. _Eusebius_ is more clear upon this Occasion, and says, that _Constantine_, in some part of _Constantinople_, see up the Image of _Sminthius Apollo_, which was a Title given to him; but that in the _Hippodrom_ he placed the _Pythian Tripos_, round which was wreathed the Figure of the Serpent _Python_; so that it seems to me very probable, that this was the same _Tripos_ which was plac’d upon the brazen Pillar I am speaking of at _Constantinople_. _Herodotus_ writes, that the golden _Tripos_ which was at _Delphos_, was made out of a tenth Part of the Spoils taken from the _Persians_, and erected upon this Pillar; and adds farther, that when the _Persians_ were routed at the Battle of _Platææ_, there was found a golden _Tripos_, which was restor’d to _Apollo_, and set upon a brazen Pillar, encircled with three Serpents entwin’d, near an Altar. ’Tis a Mistake in those who imagine, that this Pillar was formerly overlaid with Gold, but was plunder’d of it by the _Turks_; since _Pausanias_