antinople.-Politica

.-Military Discipl

anc

braced and consecrated by succeeding generations. The age of the great Constantine and his sons is filled with important events; but the historian must be oppressed by their number and variety, unless he diligently separates from each other the scenes which are connected only by the order of time. He will describe the political institutions that ga

escended to address to the senate and people of Rome; but they were seldom honored with the presence of their new sovereign. During the vigor of his age, Constantine, according to the various exigencies of peace and war, moved with slow dignity, or with active diligence, along the frontiers of his extensive dominions; and was always prepared to take the field either against a foreign or a domestic enemy. But as he gradually reached the summit of prosperity and the decline of life, he began to meditate the design of fixing in a more permanent station the strength as well as majesty of the throne. In the choice of an advantageous situation, he preferred the confines of Europe and Asia; to curb with a powerful arm the barbarians who dwelt between the Danube and the Tanais; to watch with an eye of jealousy the conduct of the Persian monarch, who indignantly supported the yoke of an ignomi

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d and fortified by the Spartan general Pausanias. See Scaliger Animadvers. ad Euseb. p. 81. Ducange, Constantinopolis, l. i part i. cap 15, 16. With regard to the wars of the Byzantines again

nks, attested the unskilfulness, the terrors, and the devotion of the Grecian navigators, who, after the example of the Argonauts, explored the dangers of the inhospitable Euxine. On these banks tradition long preserved the memory of the palace of Phineus, infested by the obscene harpies; 4 and of the sylvan reign of Amycus, who defied the son of Leda to the combat of the cestus. 5 The straits of the Bosphorus are terminated by the Cyanean rocks, which, according to the description of the poets, had once floated on the face of the waters; and were destined by the gods to protect the entrance of the Euxine against the eye of profane curiosity. 6 From the Cyanean rocks to the point and harbor of Byzantium, the winding length of the Bosphorus extends about sixteen miles, 7 and its most ordinary breadth may be computed at about one mile and a half. The new castles of Europe and Asia are constructed, on either continent, upon the foundations of two celebrated temples, of Serapis and of Jupiter

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Geograph Minor, tom. iii.,) and by Gilles or Gyllius, a French traveller of the XVIth century. Tournefort (Lettre XV.) s

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the harpies were only locusts. The Syriac or Phoenician name of those insects, their noisy flight, the stench and devastati

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lace called Laurus Insana. That of Phineus was in Europe, near the village of Maur

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and abandoned by the waves. At present there are two small islands, one tow

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fteen Roman miles. They measured only from the new castles,

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. p. 577. Under the Greek empire these castles were used as state p

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ons, and the amazing numbers of his land and sea forces. The Byzantines afterwards transported these

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nem consulentibus ubi conderent urbem, redditum oraculum est, quaererent sedem oecerum terris adversam. Ea ambage Cha

onstantinople. The River Lycus, formed by the conflux of two little streams, pours into the harbor a perpetual supply of fresh water, which serves to cleanse the bottom, and to invite the periodical shoals of fish to seek their retreat in that convenient recess. As the vicissitudes of tides are scarcely felt in those seas, the constant depth of the harbor allows goods to be landed on the quays without the assistance of boats; and

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broken off; or, to speak less figuratively, most of the recesses of

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nfirmed by modern travellers. See Thevenot, part i. l. i. c.

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, p. 289. The chain was drawn from the Acropolis near the modern Kiosk, to the t

se the sea of Marmara, which was known to the ancients by the denomination of Propontis. The navigation

Mount Olympus, covered with eternal snows. 14 They leave on the left a deep gulf, at the bottom of which Nicomedia was seated, the Imperial residence of Diocletian; and they p

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good description of the Propontis, but contents himself with the vague expression of one day and one night's sail. When Sandy's (Travels, p.

ature: the traveller, and especially the poet, who sailed along the Hellespont, who pursued the windings of the stream, and contemplated the rural scenery, which appeared on every side to terminate the prospect, insensibly lost the remembrance of the sea; and his fancy painted those celebrated straits, with all the attributes of a mighty river flowing with a swift current, in the midst of a woody and inland country, and at length, through a wide mouth, discharging itself into the Aegean or Archipelago. 18 Ancient Troy, 19 seated on a an eminence at the foot of Mount Ida, overlooked the mouth of the Hellespont, which scarcely received an accession of waters from the tribute of those immortal rivulets the Simois and Scamander. The Grecian camp had stretched twelve miles along the shore from the Sigaean to the Rhaetean promontory; and the flanks of the army were guarded by the bravest chiefs who fought under the banners of Agamemnon. The first of thos

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f supposing new, and perhaps imaginary measures, for the purpose of rendering ancient writers as accurate as himself. The stadia employed by Herodotus in the description of

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ed on the authority of poets and medals by M. de la Nauze. See the Academie des Inscriptions, tom. vii. Hist. p. 74. elem. p. 240. Note: The practi

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have been made with tolerable accuracy; but the vanity, first of the Persians, and afterwards of the Greeks, was interested to magnify

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rabo, p. 591. Plin. iv. c. 12.) which make 875 paces. It is singular that Gibbon, who in the fifteenth note of this chapter reproaches d'Anville with being fond of supposing new and perhaps imaginary measures, has here adopted the peculiar measurement which d'Anville has assigned to the stadium. This great geographer believes

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e banks of the Hellespont; and had read Strabo; he ought to have consulted the Roman itineraries. How was it possible for him to confound Ilium and Alexandria Troas, (Observations, p. 340, 341,) two cities which were sixteen miles dista

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irty lines of Homer's catalogue. The XIIIth Bo

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the ships, which were drawn upon dry land, and the posts of Ajax an

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a, but this apparent difference may be reconciled by the large extent of its circumference. Before the foundation of Constantinople, Thessalonica is mentioned by Cedrenus, (p. 283,) and Sardica by Zo

of the eastern provinces may, in some degree, be ascribed to the policy of Constantine, as the barbarians of the Euxine, who in the preceding age had poured their armaments into the heart of the Mediterranean, soon desisted from the exercise of piracy, and despaired of forcing this insurmountable barrier. When the gates of the Hellespont and Bosphorus were shut, the capital still enjoyed within their spacious enclosure every production which could supply the wants, or gratify the luxury, of its numerous inhabitants. The sea-coasts of Thrace and Bithynia, which languish under the weight of Turkish oppression, still exhibit a rich prospect of vineyards, of gardens, and of plentiful harvests; and the Propontis has ever been r

ica Of Con

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i. p. 127. His plan of the seven hills is clear and

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, a sort of Thunnies, were the most celebrated. We may learn from Polybius, Strabo, and

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conspectu Asiam, Egyptum. Africamque a dextra: quae tametsi contiguae non sunt, maris t

liberally supplied by the ingenuity of succeeding writers; who describe the nocturnal vision which appeared to the fancy of Constantine, as he slept within the walls of Byzantium. The tutelar genius of the city, a venerable matron sinking under the weight of years and infirmities, was suddenly transformed into a blooming maid, whom his own hands adorned with all the symbols of Imperial greatness. 27 The monarch awoke, interpreted the auspicious omen, and obeyed, without hesitation, the will of Heaven The day which gave birth to a city or colony was celebrated by the Romans with such ceremonies as had been ordained by a generous superstition; 28 and though Constantine might omit some rites which savored too strongly of their Pagan origin, yet he was

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cendo humana divinis, primordia urbium

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urbis quam aeteras nomine, jubente Deo, dona

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s to vague and general expressions. For a more particular account of the vision, we are obliged to

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e, which had been dug for that purpose, was filled up with handfuls of earth, which each

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dent, though borrowed from a suspected

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plan inserted in the Imperium Orientale of Banduri as the most complete; but, by a series of very nice observations, he reduced the extr

es of those who approach Constantinople, appear to rise above each other in beautiful order. 31 About a century after the death of the founder, the new buildings, extending on one side up the harbor, and on the other along the Propontis, already covered the narrow ridge of the sixth, and the broad summit of the seventh hill. The necessity of protecting those suburbs from the incessant inroads of the barbarians engaged the younger Theodosius to surround his capital with an adequate and permanent enclosure of walls. 32 From the eastern promontory to the golden gate, the extreme length of Constantinople was about three Roman miles; 33 the circumference measured between ten and eleven; and the surface might be computed as equa

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boundary on the side of the harbor. It is mentioned in Ducange, l. iv. c. 6; but

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thquake, and rebuilt in three months by the diligence of the praefect Cyrus. The suburb of the Bl

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proportion of which has been ingeniously determined by M. d'Anville. He compares the 180 feet with 78 Hashemite cubits,

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even towers. D'Anville examines with care, and receives with confidence, this decisive testimony, which gives a circumference of ten or twelve miles. The e

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ian. It has since borne the names of Pera and Galata. The etymology of the former is obvious; tha

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modern Greek miles each of seven stadia, or 660, sometimes onl

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asures ascertained, we find that those famous cities filled the great but not incredible circumference of about twenty-five

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al squares of 50 French toises, the former conta