[235] The vast baths of the Empire, as is well known, were evolved into a kind of polytechnic institutes for study and recreation.

[236] Chron. Pasch., an. 450. Artificial lighting was first introduced by Alex. Severus; Hist. August.; Cod. Theod., XV, i, 52; Cod., XI, i, 1, etc.

[237] Cedrenus, i, p. 648.

[238] Codin., p. 83; cf. Mordtmann, op. cit., p. 66.

[239] Zosimus, iii, 11. It contained 120,000 volumes, the pride of the library being a copy of Homer inscribed on the intestine of a serpent 120 feet long. The building, however, was gutted by fire in the reign of Zeno; Zonaras, xiv, 2, etc.

[240] Suidas, sb. Menandro; Agathias, iii, 1; Procop., De Aedific., i, 11.

[241] Zonaras, xiv, 6; Marcellinus, Com., an. 390, etc.

[242] Socrates, vi, 18; Theophanes, an. 398; Sozomen (viii, 20) says merely an inaugural festival. The pedestal, with a bilingual inscription, was uncovered of late years, precisely where we should expect it to have stood, and yet Paspates (Βυζαντινὰ Ανάκτορα, p. 95) in his map removes it a quarter of a mile southwards to meet his reconstructive views, cf. Mordtmann, op. cit., p. 64.

[243] Codin., p. 35.

[244] Ibid., p. 19. There is now an Ottoman fountain on the same site. In the case of doubtful identifications, I usually adopt the conclusions of Mordtmann (op. cit., p. 64).

[245] Milliarium Aureum (Notitia, Reg. 4). In imitation of that set up by Augustus in the Roman Forum; Tacitus, Hist., i, 27, etc.

[246] Cedrenus, i, p. 564; Codin., pp. 28, 35, 168, etc. Byzantios and Paspates speak of an upper storey supported by seven pillars, on the strength of some remains unearthed in 1848, but the situation does not seem to apply to this monument as at present located; see also Grosvenor (op. cit., p. 298) for an illustration of the figures.

[247] Codin., p. 40. Removed to Hippodrome, perhaps, at this date. In any case the scrappy and contradictory records only allow of a tentative restoration of the Milion. Close by was the death-place of Arius, in respect of whom, with Sabellius and other heretics, Theodosius I set up a sculptured tablet devoting the spot to public defilement with excrement, etc. (ibid.). Such were the manners and fanaticism of the age.

[248] Zosimus, iii, 11.

[249] Gyllius, De Topog. CP., ii, 13.

[250] The method of construction can be seen in the sketch of the ruins (c. 1350) brought to light by Panvinius (De Ludis Circens., Verona, 1600) and reproduced by Banduri and Montfaucon. As to whether the intercolumnar spaces were adorned with statues we have no information. The wealth of such works of art at Constantinople would render it extremely likely. Cassiodorus says the statues at Rome were as numerous as the living inhabitants (Var. Ep., xv, 7). We know from existing coins that the Coliseum was so ornamented (see Maffei, Degl’ Amfitheatri, Verona, 1728; Panvinius, op. cit., etc.). High up there appears to have been a range of balconies all round (Cod. Theod., XV, i, 45).

[251] They were of wood till 498, when they were burnt, but what time restored in marble is unknown; Chron. Pasch., an. 498; Buondelmonte, Descript. Urb. CP., 1423.

[252] Codin., p. 14, etc. These substructions still exist; Grosvenor, op. cit., p. 303.

[253] Const. Porph., op. cit., ii, 20; Nicetas Chon., De Man. Com., iii, 5. Eight, or perhaps twelve, open-barred gates separated the Manganon (more often in the plural, Mangana) from the arena; see the remains in the engraving of Panvinius.

[254] Const. Porph., i, 68, 92, etc.; Agincourt, op. cit., ii, pl. 10. The latter gives copies of bas-reliefs in which the Emperor is shown sitting in his place in the Circus (see below). Procopius calls it simply the throne; De Bel. Pers., i, 24; cf. Jn. Malala, p. 320; Chron. Pasch., an. 498. Originally, it appears, merely the seat or throne, but afterwards the whole tribunal or edifice.

[255] Const. Porph., i, 9, 92. It was also called the Pi (Π) from its shape; ibid., i, 69.

[256] Named the Cochlea or snail-shell; it seems to have been a favourite gangway for assassinating obnoxious courtiers; Jn. Malala, p. 344; Chron. Pasch., an. 380; Theophanes, an. 5969; Codin., p. 112, etc.

[257] Const. Porph., i, 68; cf. Procop., De Bel. Pers., i, 24.

[258] Const. Porph., i, 63; Codin., p. 100. The Circus, begun by Severus, was finished by Constantine; Codin., pp. 14, 19; see Ducange, sb. nom.

[259] Euripus (Εὔριπος). I. The narrow strait at Chalcis, said to ebb and flow seven times a day; Strabo, x, 2; Suidas, sb. v. II. Tr. Any artificial ornamental pool or channel, partic. if oblong; see refs. in Latin Dicts., esp. Lewis and S. III. A canal round the area of the Roman Circus, to shield the spectators from the attack of infuriated beasts; devised apparently by Tarquinius Priscus; Dionysius Hal., iii, 68; rather by Julius Caesar, and abolished by Nero; Pliny, H. N., viii, 7, etc. IV. Restored by, or in existence under, Elagabalus as a pool in the centre; Hist. Aug., 23; so Cassiodorus, Var. Ep., iii, 51; Jn. Malala, vii, p. 175 (whence Chron. Pasch., Olymp., vii, p. 208; Cedrenus, i, p. 258); Lyons and Barcelona mosaics (see Daremberg and S. Dict. Antiq.). V. The name tr. to whole Spine by Byzantines; Jn. Lydus, De Mens., i, 12, Εὔριπος ὠνομάσθη ἡ μέσον τοῦ ἱπποδρόμου κρηπίς; Const. Porph., op. cit., pp. 338, 345; Cedrenus, ii, p. 343, etc. Labarte seems strangely to have missed all but one of the numerous allusions to the Euripus; op. cit., p. 53. This note is necessary, as no one seems to have caught the later application of the name.

[260] This monument still exists; see Agincourt, loc. cit., for reproduction of the sculptures, etc.

[261] Notitia, Col. Civ. This name was not bestowed on it by Gyllius, as Labarte thinks (p. 50). It remains in position in a dilapidated condition; see Grosvenor, op. cit., p. 320, etc.

[262] Also in evidence at the present day; see Grosvenor’s photographs of the three, pp. 320, 380. It is mentioned by Herodotus (ix, 80); and by Pausanias (x, 13), who says the golden tripod was made away with before his time. Some of the Byzantines, however, seem to aver that Constantine had regained possession of that memorial; Eusebius, Vit. Const., iii, 54; Codin., p. 55; Zosimus, ii, 31, etc. It appears that the defacement of this monument was carried out methodically during a nocturnal incantation under Michael III, c. 835. At the dead of night “three strong men,” each armed with a sledge-hammer, stood over it (Ἐν τοῖς εἰς τὸν εὔριπον (see p. 62) τοῦ ἱπποδρομίου χαλκοῖς ἀνδριᾶσιν ἐλέγετό τις εἶναι ἀνδριὰς τρισὶ διαμορφούμενος κεφαλαῖς) prepared to knock off the respective heads on the signal being given by an unfrocked abbot. The hammers fell, two of the heads rolled to the ground, but the third was only partly severed, the lower jaw, of course, remaining; Theoph., Cont., p. 650; Cedrenus, ii, p. 145. On the capture of the city in 1453 the fragment left was demolished by Mahomet II with a stroke of his battle-axe to prove the strength of his arm on what was reputed to be a talisman of the Greeks; Thévenot, Voyage au Levant, etc., 1664, i, 17, “la maschoire d’embas.” So history, as it seems, has given itself the trouble to account for the mutilation of this antique. I must note, however, that neither Buondelmonte, Gyllius, Busbecq, Thévenot, nor Spon, has described the damages it had sustained at the time they are supposed to have contemplated the relic. See also Grosvenor, op. cit., p. 381, whose account is scarcely intelligible and is not based on references to any authorities.

[263] Nicetas Chon., De Signis CP. This figure appears to be delineated in the plate of Panvinius, which, however, is not very reliable, as both the Colossus and the Serpent-pillar are absent from it.

[264] Codin., p. 124. Probably, and supplanted at a later date by one of Irene Attica. This is the literal Euripus.

[265] Theophanes, an. 699. That the Empress sat in this lodge to view the races (Buondelmonte) is beyond all credence, nor is there any authority for placing it to one side among the public seats (Grosvenor’s diagram), where her presence would be equally absurd. Her bust may have appeared in it beside that of her husband. It is clearly indicated in its true place on the engineering sculptures of the Theodosian column (see above).

[266] Nicetas Chon., De Alexio, iii, 4; De Signis; Codin., p. 39. First at Tarentum; Plutarch, in Fabius Max., etc. To the knee it measured the height of an ordinary man.

[267] Nicetas Chon., De Signis; also celebrated by Christodorus, Anthology, loc. cit.

[268] The eggs in honour of Castor and Pollux; Tertullian, De Spectaculis, 8:

Κάστορά θ’ ἱππόδαμον καὶ πὺξ ἀγαθὸν Πολυδεύκεα.

Iliad, iii.

The dolphins probably referred to Neptune, to whom the horse was sacred.

[269] See Lyons and Barcelona mosaics as referred to above.

[270] See the coins, etc., in Panvinius, which show that these cones with their stands were about fifteen to twenty feet high. Sometimes they rested on the ends of the Spina, at others on separate foundations three or four feet off it.

[271] Nicetas Chon., De Man. Comn., iii, 5; Codin., pp. 53, 192. They were brought to Venice by the Crusaders in 1204, and now stand before the cathedral of St. Mark; Buondelmonte, loc. cit. A much longer pedigree is given by some accounts (Byzantios, op. cit., i, p. 234), from Corinth to Rome by Mummius, and thence to CP. by Constantine. They even had a journey to Paris under Napoleon.

[272] Grosvenor, op. cit., p. 351. Some remains of it are still visible.

[273] Codin., p. 54.

[274] Nicetas Chon., loc. cit.

[275] Ibid., Codin., p. 54.

[276] Ibid., p. 31.

[277] Nicetas Chon., De Signis: Καλοῦμαι Νίκων καὶ ὁ ὅνος Νίκανδρος, κ.τ.λ. Cf. Plutarch, Antony.

[278] Ibid.

[279] Ibid.

[280] Codin., p. 53.

[281] Jerome, Chronicon, an. 325. CP. “dedicatur pene omnium urbium nuditate.” This Saint, however, is somewhat given to hyperbole.

[282] See the various illustrations in Panvinius.

[283] We hear nothing of vomitoria, approaches beneath the seats to the various positions, nor do we know how the large space under the incline of benches was occupied. At Rome, in the Circus Maximus, there were “dark archways” in this situation, which were let out to brothel-keepers; Hist. August. sb. Heliogabalo, 26, etc. In the time of Valens, however, a record office was established here; Jn. Lydus, De Magistr., iii, 19.

[284] Procopius, De Bel. Pers., i, 24.

[285] Ducange, op. cit., i, p. 104; a collection of instances.

[286] Const. Porph., loc. cit. At Rome such awnings were decorated to resemble the sky with stars, etc.

[287] Codin., pp. 20, 22; part previously by Severus; Zosimus, ii, 30.

[288] Codin., p. 39.

[289] Ibid., p. 37.

[290] Cedrenus, p. 564.

[291] Ibid., p. 616; Zonaras, xiv, 2.

[292] Resembling, if not the prototype of, the Venus dei Medici; see Lucian, Amores.

[293] See Pausanias, v, 12.

[294] Cedrenus, loc. cit.

[295] Theophanes, an. 6024.

[296] Zosimus, ii, 30; Codin., p. 41. Said to have been designed to the size and shape of Constantine’s tent, which was pitched here when he took Byzantium from Licinius.

[297] Ibid.; Jn. Malala, p. 320; Zonaras, xiii, 3, etc. Really a statue of Apollo taken from Heliopolis in Phrygia and refurbished.

[298] Ibid.; Cedrenus, i, p. 565. The blending of Paganism and Christianity is an interesting phase in the evolution of Constantine’s theology. The crosses of the two thieves were also reputed to have been stowed here till removed to a safer place by Theodosius I; also a part of the true cross; Socrates, i, 17; Codin., p. 30. Curiously enough, this Forum has been confounded with the Augusteum both by Labarte and Paspates, a mistake almost incredible in the latter, a resident, considering that the pillar of Constantine still exists in a scarred and mutilated condition; hence known as the “Burnt Pillar,” and called by the Turks “Djemberli Tash,” or Hooped Stone; see Grosvenor, op. cit., p. 374, etc.

[299] Jn. Malala, loc. cit.; Codin., pp. 44, 180.

[300] Ibid., pp. 28, 68; Cedrenus, ii, p. 564.

[301] Notitia, Reg. 6; Cedrenus, i, p. 565. It had been burnt down previous to this date, but seems to have been restored.

[302] Codin., p. 48.

[303] Notitia, Reg. 5; Gyllius, De Top. CP., iii, 1.

[304] Socrates, i, 16.

[305] Codin., p. 48.

[306] Jn. Malala, p. 292.

[307] Codin., p. 76.

[308] Codin., pp. 41, 170. It fell into decay and was, perhaps, removed before this date; cf. Mordtmann, p. 69; one of the Gorgons was dug up in 1870.

[309] Codin., p. 40.

[310] See Mordtmann, op. cit., p. 69, and Map.

[311] Evidenced by the discovery of a swarm of leaden bullae, or seals for official documents, about 1877; ibid., p. 70. But in the sixth century the legal records from the time of Valens were kept in the basement of the Hippodrome; Jn. Lydus, De Magistr., iii, 19.

[312] Cod. Theod., XIV, ix, 3, with Godfrey’s commentary. The Turkish Seraskierat has taken the place of Taurus.

[313] Cedrenus, i, p. 566; Codin., p. 42, etc. The chronographists think it particularly necessary to mention that this pillar was pervious by means of a winding stair. In a later age, when the inscriptions on the base became illegible, they were supposed to be prophecies of the future conquest of Constantinople by the Russians.

[314] Marcell., Com., an. 480, 506; Zonaras, xiv, 4.

[315] Déthier, op. cit., p. 14; he discovered a few letters of the epigram (Anthology, Plan., iv, 4) on a fragment of an arch; cf. Cedrenus, i, p. 566.

[316] The favourite Byzantine appellation for Joshua the son of Nun.

[317] Ibid.; Nicetas Chon., De Signis, 4.

[318] Codin., p. 42.

[319] Ibid., p. 124.

[320] Ibid., pp. 42, 74; see Anthology (Plan.), iv, 22, for two epigrams which give some idea of the scope of these Xenodochia.

[321] Notitia, Reg. 10.

[322] Cedrenus, i, p. 610; Zonaras, xiv, 1; sufficiently corroborated by Cod., VIII, xii, 21, and not a mere assumption arising out of the similarity of νυμφαῖον to νύμφη, a bride, as argued by some commentators. Fountains were sacred to the Nymphs; see Ducange, CP. Christ, sb. voc.

[323] See the title De Aqueductu in both Codes and Godfrey’s commentary.

[324] This aqueduct seems to have been built originally by Hadrian, restored by Valens, who used for the purpose the walls of Chalcedon as a punishment for that town having taken the part of the usurper Procopius, and again restored by Theodosius I. Hence it is denoted by the names of each of these emperors at different times; Socrates, iv, 8; Zonaras, xiii, 16; and the Codes, loc. cit.

[325] Chrysoloras, loc. cit., etc.

[326] Codin., p. 14.

[327] Ibid., p. 21; Byzantios, op. cit., i, p. 262. Still existing in a dry state, and occupied by silk weavers. Most probably the name arises from its having been founded by a patrician Philoxenus; the Turks call it Bin ber derek, meaning 1,001 columns; see Grosvenor, op. cit., p. 366.

[328] Cod., XI, xlii, 7: “It would be execrable,” remarks Theodosius II, “if the houses of this benign city had to pay for their water.” By a constitution of Zeno every new patrician was to pay 100 lb. of gold towards the maintenance of the aqueducts; Cod., XLI, iii, 3.

[329] Codin., p. 9.

[330] Forty of these at Rome; Notitia (Romae), Col. Civ.

[331] Codin., p. 50; cf. Cedrenus, ii, p. 107. “Hypnotic suggestion” might account for some displays of this kind, and create a popular belief in the test, which in most instances, however, would be more likely to prove a convenient method of varnishing a sullied reputation. Near the Neorium was a shelter called the Cornuted Porch, in which St. Andrew, the apostle assigned by tradition to these regions, was supposed to have taught. It took its name from a four-horned statue in the vicinity, which had the credit of evincing its disapproval of an incontinent wife by turning three times round on its pedestal if such a one were brought into its presence; Codin., p. 119.

[332] Cedrenus (i, p. 565) attributes it to Theodosius I, Codinus (p. 108) to Leo Isaurus; Nicetas Chon. (De Signis) laments its destruction without mentioning the founder.

[333] Legendary apparently. They really met in Pannonia; Julian, Orat.

[334] Codin., pp. 43, 44, 182, 188. The Philadelphium was considered to be the μεσόμφαλος or middle of the city. The numerous crosses set up by Constantine are supposed to refer to the cross which he is said to have seen in the sky near Rome before his victory over Maxentius—a fiction, or an afterthought, but whose?

[335] Codin., pp. 45, 65.

[336] Cedrenus, i, p. 566.

[337] Ibid.; Anna Comn., xii, 6.

[338] Codin., p. 45. Unless the course of the brook has altered, the Amastrianum should be more to the south or west than shown on Mordtmann’s map.

[339] Codin., pp. 45, 172; forming some kind of boundary or inclosure perhaps.

[340] Cedrenus, i, p. 566.

[341] Ibid.; Codin., pp. 44, 173.

[342] Theophanes, an. 5895, etc.; cf. Chron. Paschal., an. 421.

[343] Cedrenus, i, p. 567.

[344] Zonaras, xiii, 20; the base still remains in Avret Bazaar; the pillar was still intact in the time of Gyllius, who ascended it; op. cit., iv, 7. The sketches supposed to have been taken of the figures on the spiral and published by Banduri and Agincourt have already been alluded to; see p. 49.

[345] Notitia, Reg. 12, etc.

[346] Buondelmonte’s map; a “very handsome gate”; Codin., p. 122. I have noted Van Millingen’s opinion that this was not the original “Golden Gate”; see p. 34. But its mention in Notitia, Reg. 12, seems fatal to his view.

[347] Codin., p. 46.

[348] Ibid., pp. 102, 121; see Paspates for an illustration of the structure still on this site; Βυζαντιναὶ Μελεταί, p. 343.

[349] Codin., p. 72; the Arians, chiefly Goths, were hence called Exokionites; Jn. Malala, p. 325; Chron. Pasch., an. 485.

[350] Codinus, p. 47.

[351] Ibid.

[352] Gregory Nazianz., De Somn. Anast., ix.

[353] Eusebius, Vit. Constant., iv, 58, et seq.; a later hand has evidently embellished this description.

[354] Const. Porph., De Cer. Aul. Byz., ii, 43; Codin., p. 203.

[355] Corp. Inscript. Lat., Berlin, 1873, no. 738; still existing and called by the Turks the “Girls’ Pillar,” from two angels bearing up a shield figured on the pedestal; see Grosvenor, op. cit., p. 385; there is an engraving of it in Miss Pardoe’s “Bosphorus,” etc. The “girls” are utilized by Texier and P. in their frontispiece.

[356] Notitia, Reg. 13; Procopius, De Bel. Pers., ii, 23, etc. Perhaps not walled till later; Jn. Malala, xiii, p. 430.

[357] Suetonius, in Augusto, 30.

[358] Notitia, Reg. 1, with Pancirolus’s notes; Pand., I, xv; cf. Gallus by Becker-Göll, Sc. i, note 1.

[359] Ammianus, xiv, 1, with note by Valesius.

[360] Cod. Theod., XIV, xvii; Suidas sb. Παλατῖνοι; we do not know the exact form of these Gradus, but only that they were high, the design being doubtless such as would prevent a crush. This state-feeding of the people was begun at Rome by Julius Caesar, and of course imitated by Constantine; Socrates, ii, 13, etc. The tickets were checked by a brass plate for each person fixed at the Step; Cod. Theod., XIV, xvii, 5.

[361] Cod. Theod., IV, v, 7; always with Godfrey’s commentary; Eunapius, Vit. Aedesii.

[362] Notitia, Urb. CP., passim.

[363] See Cod., I, iii, 32, 35, 42, 46, etc. Cf. Schlumberger’s work on the Byzantine bullae.

[364] Cod. Theod., XIII, iii, 8; Cod., X, lii, 9.

[365] Codin., p. 22; cf. Pandect., XLIII, xxiii, 1. It appears probable that neither middens nor cesspools existed within the walls.

[366] See Minucius, Octavius, 10.

[367] Paspates, Βυζαντιναὶ Μελεταί, p. 381, etc. There were, perhaps, over one hundred churches and monasteries in Constantinople at this time, but the Notitia, a century earlier, reckons only fourteen churches; see Ducange’s list.

[368] Western scholars since the Renaissance have fallen into the habit of applying the diminutive Graeculi to the Byzantines, thereby distinguishing them from the Graeci, their pre-eminent ancestors, who established the fame of the Dorians and Ionians. The Romans, after their conquest of the country, began to apply it to all Greeks. Cicero, De Orat., i, 22, etc.

[369] Suidas, sb. nom.; Tertullian, Apologia, 39; Athenaeus, xiii, 25. There was, however, a minor school of philosophy at Megara.

[370] Aristotle, Politica, iv, 4. As late as the sixteenth century the housewives residing next the water habitually took the fish by simple devices, which are described by Gyllius; De Top. CP. Praef.

[371] See the statements by Theopompus, Phylarchus, etc., in Müller, Fragm. Hist. Graec., i, pp. 287, 336; ii, p. 154; iv, p. 377. Having obtained an ascendancy over the frugal and industrious Chalcedonians they are said to have corrupted them by their vices; cf. Müller’s Dorians, ii, pp. 177, 418, etc.