Page:Constantinople by Brodribb.djvu/60

 carried a golden image of the Fortune of the city—a distinct relic this of the old Roman religion—in which such a divinity was acknowledged. He was asked by some of his attendants—as moving at the head of a long procession he was marking out boundaries which seemed to denote a city of unusual dimensions—where he meant to halt, and replied, "When He who goes before me thinks fit to stop." "The incident," Gibbon remarks, "is characteristic and probably true." The city, indeed, was greatly enlarged, though not carried to its future extent, and embracing Galata or Pera. It was still confined to the region south of its harbour. New fortifications, however, were substituted for the old, and these, though not at the time completed, were designed to enclose five out of seven hills of the city. The work was well executed, as is plainly attested by existing remains, which can be traced along about four miles from the harbour to the Sea of Marmora. It was natural that Constantine should wish New Rome to be in most respects a copy of the old city. There must be a forum and a circus, and porticoes, baths, and aqueducts. Although Constantine built several Christian churches, the city must have had a thoroughly pagan aspect, as it was richly adorned with the statues of gods and goddesses from all parts of Greece and Asia. It could be said by Jerome that the dedication of Constantinople involved the stripping bare of almost every city in the world. Still, all the efforts of Constantine failed to make his city equal to Rome in size, population, and grandeur.