Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 03.djvu/158

CONSTANTINOPLE 122 CONSTELLATION CONSTANTINOPLE ("city of Con- stantine"), called by the Turks Stam- boxtl; a celebrated city of Turkey in Eu- rope; capital of the Turkish empire; on a promontory jutting out into the Sea of Marmo.a, having the Golden Horn, an inlet of the latter, on the N. and the Bosporus on the E. The city proper is thus surrounded by water on all sides excepting the W,, where is an ancient and lofty double wall 4 miles in length, stretching across the promontory. On the opposite side of the Golden Horn are Galata, Pera, and other suburbs, while on the Asiatic side of the Bosporus entrance is Skutari. Occupying the extreme point of the promontory on which the city stands is the Seraglio or palace of the Sultan, which, with its buildings, pavil- ions, gardens, and groves, includes a large space. Of the 300 mosques, the most remark- able are the royal mosques, of which there are about 15, esteemed the finest in the world. First among these is the Mosque of St. Sophia, the most ancient existing Christian Church, converted into a mosque in 1453 on the capture of the city by the Turks. Another magnificent mosque is that of Soliman; after which are those of the Sultana Valide, built by the mother of Mohammed IV., and of Sultan Achmet, the most conspicuous ob- ject in the city when viewed from the Sea of Marmora. Constantinople has but one remarkable square, called the At-Meidan, occupying the site of the ancient Hippodrome. There are about 180 public baths in the city, mostly of marble, of plain exterior, but handsome and commodious within. The few manufactures are chiefly con- fined to articles in morocco leather, sad- dlery, tobacco-pipes, fez caps, arms, per- fumes, gold and silver embroideries, etc. The foreign commerce is considerable. The harbor, the Golden Horn, which more resembles a large river than a harbor, is deep, well-sheltered, and capable of con- taining 1,200 large ships, which may load and unload along the quays. It is about 6 miles long, and a little more than half a mile broad at the widest part. The exports consist of silk, carpets, hides, wool, goats'-hair, and valonia. The suburb Galata is the principal seat of foreign commerce. Here are sit- uated the arsenals, the dock-yard, and the artillery barracks, extending along the Bosporus for nearly 1% miles. It is an ancient place. Pera occupies the more elevated portion of the promontory of which Galata forms the maritime port. Both it and Galata have now much of the appearance of a modern European town. Constantinople occupies the site of the ancient Byzantium, and was named after Constantine the Great, who rebuilt it about 330 A. D. It was taken in 1204 by the Crusaders, who retained it till 1261; and by the Turks under Mo- hammed II., May 29, 1453 — an event which completed the extinction of the Byzantine Empire. See Byzantine Em- pire and Byzantium. In 1915 the Brit- ish and French fleet and forces attempt- ed to capture Constantinople by attack- ing in the Dardanelles, but failed. With the collapse of the empire in October, 1918, Constantinople was occupied by an Allied military commission. Pop. about 1,000,000. CONSTANTINOPLE, STRAIT OP. See Bosporus. CONSTANTItrS, CHLOSUS, nephew of the emperor Claudius II., became Czesar in 292 A. D., received Britain, Gaul, and Spain as his governm.ent, and after re- establishing Roman power in Britain and defeating the Alemanni, became one of the two Augustuses in 305, Vut died in York in 306. Constantine the Great was his son. — (2) Constantius, third son of Constantine, was Roman emperor, 337- 361 A. D. He fought with the Persians; and after the death in 350 of his brother Constans (who in 340 had defeated their elder brother Constantine) , became sole emperor till his death in 361. CONSTELLATION, a group or con- figuration of stars, within certain bound- aries, to which a definite name has been assigned, the name being generally ex- pressed in its Latin for the sake of in- ternational convenience and of exactness. This grouping is almost entirely arti- ficial, though some of the configurations bear some resembic.nce to the object in- dicated by the name. Histary. — Before the invention of al- manacs the risings and settings of the constellatioiis were loclred to by husband- men, shepherds, and st:: -faring men as the landmarks of the seasons, and of the weather which each season was expected to bring. The earliest description that we have of the constellations is the poem by Aratus, called "The Phenomena of Aratus," about 280 B.C. The Greek sphere used by Hipparchus, 125 B. C, ap- pears to be the earliest known accurate representation of the positions and mag- nitudes of the stars, and upon this they were grouped into 48 constellations. We know of this work through the descrip- tion of it in Ptolemy's "Meg ale Syn- taxis," A. D. 170. This was translated by the Saracens into Arabic, A. D. 813-832, and miscalled by them the "Almagest," and it is principally through translations of this work that we know of these 48