Page:The Fall of Constantinople.djvu/210

192 THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. tns and Tlmcydides, it had been placed in the hippodrome by Constantino, and was probably looked on by the Byzantine spectators with similar awe to that with which the Turks have always regarded it — an awe which has probably been the main cause of its preservation. Kear the hippodrome, to the west, was the noble column of porphyry, which still stands as the Burnt Column, The column i: r t/ ./ ^ 7 of constau- but which, in 1200, had been recently restored, ac- cording to the still legible inscription, by the most pious emperor, Manuel Comnenos. In other parts of the city were other columns, while statues, some of which were of the best period of Greek art, were probably more numerous than in any city now existing. Beyond the hippodrome the trav- eller would have met on every hand solid constructions which bore witness to the wealth of the cit3 The northeastern cor- ner, now known as Seraglio Point, was one mass of churches, baths, and palaces. Behind it, and near the Church of the Divine AVisdom, rose, besides the buildings already men- tioned, the great palace of the Senate, and some of the most famous of what are now called Turkish baths. On the far- ther slope, towards the Marmora, were the beautiful church built by Justinian, and called now Little Hagia Sophia, the palace of the patriarch, called the Tricline, on account of the three flights of stairs by w^hich it was approached, and other buildings. To the west of these buildings were the law courts, the palaces of the nobility, with other columns and statues. The remains of the baths and of some of these palaces still bear witness to the solidity of tlieir construction, and the stateliness, and especially to what I may call the modernness, of their design. The shore of the Golden Horn from Seraglio Point, through- out half its distance, was occupied by foreign and native mer- chants, whose vast stores were crowded with merchandise. _ „ . The other half, up to the point where the wall The Pctrion. turned southwards to form the landward defence of the city, was occupied by monasteries and by churclies, which appear to have been enclosed by a wall, while the enclosure was known as the Petrion.