The Antiquities of Constantinople: With a Description of Its Situation, the Conveniencies of Its Port, Its Publick Buildings, the Statuary, Sculpture, Architecture, and Other Curiosities of That CityGilles, Pierre
History
The Antiquities of Constantinople: With a Description of Its Situation, the Conveniencies of Its Port, Its Publick Buildings, the Statuary, Sculpture, Architecture, and Other Curiosities of That City
Gilles, Pierre
Istanbul (Turkey) -- Antiquities; Istanbul (Turkey) -- Description and travel; Turkey -- Antiquities
Among the Fragments were the Leg of _Justinian_, which
exceeded my Height, and his Nose, which was above nine Inches long.
I dared not publickly measure the Horse’s Legs, as they lay upon the
Ground, but privately measured one of the Hoofs, and found it to be
nine Inches in Height. _Suidas_, and some modern Historians allure us,
that it was called the _Forum Augustæum_, because the _Curatores_,
and _Sebastophori_, on the fifteenth Day of _October_, used to dance
in the Market Place there, in Honour of _Augustus_; or because the
Statues of _Constantine_, and his Mother _Helena_, were set up in an
arched Gallery which stood here. _Zosimus_, a more antient Historian
than _Procopius_, asserts, that _Constantine_ built a round Market,
with four _Portico_’s, two in a Row, above each other; and that he
roofed two of them with _Proconnesian_ Marble, that you might pass from
them unto the Portico of _Severus_, and from thence beyond the Bounds
of the antient City; and adds, that this Market stood in a Place, to
which there was a Passage thro’ a Landgate adjacent. This is the same
Market which is intended by the _unknown Author_ of the _History of
Constantinople_, where he tells us, that _Constantine_ built a Market
in a circular Manner. The same Author tells us in another Place, that
when he was at _Constantinople_, _Constantine_ had surrounded the great
_Forum_ with four _Portico_’s and placed at both Ends of one of them,
which you ascend by many Steps, two Statues: At one End was placed
the Statue of _Rhea_, the Mother of the Gods, (the same Statue, which
those who sailed with _Jason_, placed on Mount _Dindymus_) rising above
the City of _Cyzicus_. They tell you, that for her Neglect in paying
divine Worship to the Gods, the Statue was defaced; and that her Hands,
which before held the Reins of two Lyons which stood before her, were
changed into a petitioning Posture. This Statue at the same Time faced
and adorned the City. At the other End of the _Portico_ he placed the
_Fortune_ of the City, though _Suidas_ relates, that the _Fortune_
of the City stood in a Nich of the _Miliarium_. If this Statue was
set up here by _Constantine_, I should think, that both the Markets
mentioned by _Zosimus_ are one and the same. But to me they seem to be
different; because _Zosimus_ tells us in one Place, that _Constantine_
built a Market with two _Portico’s_ round it, and afterwards, that
he built a Market with four _Portico_’s round it; unless he reckons
in the Account, the _Portico’s_ of _Severus_ and _Constantine_, from
whence there was a free Entrance into other _Portico’s_. On the East
Side of the _Forum Augusteum_, _Procopius_ writes, that _Justinian_
built a large Court, where the Senate used to assemble, and celebrate
an Anniversary Festival every new Year. Before the Senate-House stand
six Columns, two of which support the Western Wall, in the Middle of
it. The other four stand at a little Distance from it. These Pillars
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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