Some modern Historians will have it, that _Constantine the Great_ first built the Palace of _Chalca_. I should be inclinable to disbelieve them, but that I am induced to think it was so, when I observ’d the brazen Tyles gilded with Gold, resembling those of the _Capitol_, and a _Forum_ of _Old Rome_, whose Buildings _Constantine_ was proud to imitate, as near as he could. I could never learn, who it was who remov’d the Tyles of the _Chalca_; though it is not improbable, but that they were spoiled by the Fire. ’Tis related by _Procopius_, that _Genseric_ plunder’d half the _Roman_ Capitol of the gilded Plates of Brass that cover’d it, and that _Constantine_ the _Third_, the Nephew of _Heraclius_, carry’d off the Silver Plates which were laid over the _Pantheon_. At a small Distance (on the South-west Side of the Church of St. _Sophia_) from the Water-Pipes of an _Aqueduct_ running from a Conduit situate in the _Forum Augusteum_, where was erected the Pillar of _Justinian_, are still remaining seven _Corinthian_ Pillars, on the _Shaft_ of one of which is cut the Name of _Constantine_, with the _Signal_ of the Cross he saw in the Heavens, with this Inscription, ἐν τούτῳ νίκα. The _Basis_ and _Shaft_ of these Pillars are buried, at the Bottom of them, under Ground, to the Depth of six Foot, which I discover’d, when I casually fell into the Foundation of the Walls, which were built between them. I could not see the _Plinth_ of the _Base_ of any of them, because it was cover’d with Earth; yet I perceiv’d the lowermost _Tore_, which was eight Digits in Thickness, and seven in Height. The Stone at the Bottom of the _Shaft_ was nine Inches broad. Every Pillar is thirty Foot and six Digits high: In short, the whole _Pillar_, _Capital_ and _Pedestal_, is about forty six Foot and a half in Height. The Bottom of the _Shaft_, which I measured just above the Stone it bears upon, is eighteen Foot in Circumference. The Pillars stand at the Distance of twenty Foot and ten Digits from each other. The Inhabitants say, that these Pillars stood within the Palace of _Constantine_; others say, that they formerly supported a Bridge, over which you passed, as you went from the Palace to the Church of St. _Sophia_. But there is nothing of Truth in either of these Opinions; for ’tis plain from what I observed before, that they stood in the _Forum Augusteum_. So that I am inclined to believe, that they supported the Arches of the _Portico’s_, in which the Statues of _Constantine the Great_, his Mother _Helena_, and other Statues were placed. From what I have said, the Reader may trace the Beauty and Grandeur of the Palaces at _Constantinople_, as well as from _Zosimus_, who says, that _Constantine_ built some Palaces at _Constantinople_, little inferior to those of _Rome_. _Eusebius_ reports, that he illustrated and adorn’d _New Rome_, and the Imperial Palace, in other respects, besides those I have mention’d, but that in the finest