Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/256

 238 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAl'. omit some rites which savoured too strongly of their ^^^^ ' pagan origin, yet he was anxious to leave a deep im- pression of hope and respect on the minds of the spec- tators. On foot, with a lance in his hand, the emperor himself led the solemn procession, and dii'ccted the line which was traced as the boundary of the destined ca- pital ; till the growing circumference was observed with astonishment ];)y the assistants, who at length ventured to observe, that he had already exceeded the most am- ple measure of a great city. " I shall still advance," replied Constantine, " till he, the invisible guide who marches before me, thinks proper to stop ^" Without presuming to investigate the nature or motives of this extraordinary conductor, we shall content ourselves with the more humble task of describing the extent and limits of Constantinople ^. Extent. In the actual state of the city, the palace and gardens of the seraglio occupy the eastern promontory, the first of the seven hills, and cover about one hundred and fifty acres of our own measure. The seat of Turkish jealousy and despotism is erected on the foundations of a Grecian republic : but it may be supposed that the Byzantines were tempted by the conveniency of the harbour to extend their habitations on that side beyond the modern limits of the seraglio. The new walls of Constantine stretched from the port to the Propontis across the enlarged breadth of the triangle, at the dis- tance of fifteen stadia from the ancient fortification; and with the city of Byzantium they enclosed five of the seven hills, which, to the eyes of those who ap- proach Constantinople, appear to rise above each other with handfuls of earth, which each of the settlers brought from the place of his birth, and thus adopted his new country. f Philostorgius, 1. ii. c. 9. This incident, though borrowed from a sus- pected writer, is characteristic and probable. s See in the Memoires de I'Academie, tom. xxxv. p. 747 — 758. a disser- iation of M. d'Anville on the extent of Constantinople. He takes the plan inserted in the Imperium Orientale of Banduri as the most complete ; but, by a series of very nice observations, he reduces the extravagant proportion of the scale, and instead of nine thousand five hundred, determines the cir- cumference of the city as consisting of about seven thousand eight hundred French toises.