Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/678

 and the circuit rather less than 13 M. P. The Sycae, or fig trees, formed the thirteenth region beyond the harbour, and were much embellished by Justinian. The suburb of Blachernae was not taken into the city till the reign of Heraclius. Constantine had been most anxious to have his capital frequented: he summoned senators from Rome, and, according to the vague expression of Eusebius, drained other cities in its behalf, yet its population never became considerable when compared with ancient Rome, and modern capitals. By far the larger part of the inhabitants were Christians, but these were not estimated by Chrysostom (In Act. Apost. hom. xi. vol. 9. p. 108) at more than 100,000.

Were it even possible in any form which could be useful to the reader to trace the fortunes of the Lower Empire, within the limited space of an article like this, a sketch of Byzantine history would not fall within the province of a work, which confines itself to the age of Grecian and Roman civilisation. But as the topography of the city can hardly be understood without some knowledge of the facts of the history being presupposed, it has been thought advisable to subjoin a short summary of the most memorable events connected with Constantinople itself.

The city of Constantine, the birth of an elder and effete age, has throughout its long history borne the stamp of its parentage, and displayed the vices of its original conformation. The position of the Byzantine empire is unique; geographically it was European, but nationally it reflected the Oriental type of character. It had indeed Roman blood, but the people who had sprung from the loins of Mars, and were suckled by the she-wolf, gave it little but their name. It did not speak their tongue, and was completely severed from the old republican associations and free spirit which still survived the fall of Roman liberty. The despotism of the court of Constantinople could not endure even the forms of free institutions, and the relics of municipal privileges which inherited from Rome have had so much influence in moulding the law and constitution of modern Europe. The Caesar of the East was the counterpart of his Moslem conqueror, and the change from the Proto Sebast to the Sultan would have been one simply of name, had it not been for the superior energy and virtues of the first Osmanli princes. The one like the other had his viziers, his janissaries, his slaves, and his eunuchs alternately cajoling and tyrannizing over prince and people. Through the dreary monotony of the history of the Eastern empire, so deficient in moral and political interest, there are always coming into view the characteristic features of Asiatic tyranny:—the domestic treason,—the prince born in the purple,—the unnatural queen-mother,—the son or the brothers murdered or blinded,—the sudden revolutions of the throne,—the deposition of the sovereign, but the government remaining the same,—and the people careless as to who or what their tyrant might be. Every thing by which a people can outwardly show what is within—literature, art, and architecture, displays the influence of the East. The literature learned, artificial, florid, but deficient in elegance and grace, and without a spark of genius to illumine it. The art but the figure of their ceremonial life, deficient in all deep and sincere feeling, and showing,under the hardness of the shape, and the sameness of the expression, the dull and slavish constraint to which it was subject. A purer faith had indeed freed the later Greeks from the degradation of the seraglio, had given an impulse to intellectual development, and infused a sense of the responsibilities of power to which their Ottoman conquerors were strangers. But even Christianity failed to reconcile the conflicting elements and hostile influences of the East and West, and was itself penetrated by an admixture of Oriental thought and sentiment. And in later times, after the severance of Constantinople from the Latin Communion, the rest of Europe had no sympathy for what was considered an alien creed. Standing in this isolated position on the very outposts of Western civilisation, and cut off from that by differences of language, manners, and religion, Constantinople, unable to comprehend but rather despising that vigorous Teuton stock upon which the elder races were engrafted, did not incorporate any of those elements which have gone to make up the aggregate of modern Europe; while, on the other hand, it is difficult to trace the slight reaction that the Greek empire has had upon the West, till its fall, when it contributed so mainly to the revival of letters and the modern spirit, by the dispersion of ancient literature and culture. Up to A.D. 1204, Constantinople remained the capital of the E., or Lower Roman Empire: in that year it was captured by "the blind old Dandolo" and the French. From A.D. 1204 to 1261 it became the seat of the Latin Empire, and on the morning of the 25th of July, 1261, reverted to the undisputed possession of the Greeks.

On the 29th of May, 1453, Constantine XIII., the last of the Palaeologi, fell upon the walls of his capital, with the words,. Since that period it has been looked up to by the people of the East as the seat of the supreme temporal and spiritual power, and the Sultan has become the heir of the Caesars.

More cannot be done here than enumerate a few of the leading events of which Constantinople itself has been the theatre during this long period of its existence. It would be unnecessary to refer those who wish to know more on this subject to the masterly work of Gibbon. Le Beau (Histoire du Bas Empire) is a writer less known, and though deficient in criticism, his work contains much information. The notes appended by St. Martin, the well-known Oriental scholar, will be found eminently useful. The History of the Iconoclast Princes can be read in Schlosser (Geschichte de Bilder-Stürmenden Kaiser).

The empire of the East began with the reign of Arcadius, A.D. 395. Justinian, A.D. 527—595, has the honour of being considered the second founder of Constantinople. In the fifth year of his reign the factions of the Circus and the memorable sedition of the Nika almost laid the city in ashes. A description of the buildings with which the emperor adorned his ruined capital is reserved for the topography of the city. In 616 Chosroes maintained his camp for ten years in the presence of the city. In 626 Heraclius delivered it from the Persians and Avars. In 668—675, the Arabs for the first time besieged Constantinople, but, baffled by the strength of the walls, and the strange effects of the Greek fire, fell to the number of 30,000 men. In the second siege, 716—718, they were again compelled to retreat. In 865 the