Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/680

  palace of the "Thousand and One Pillars," is now perfectly dry. The other still existing as a cistern, and called the Subterranean Palace, may be described as an underground lake, with an arched roof to cover it, supported on 336 marble pillars.



From the throne, seated upon which the emperor viewed the games of the Circus, a winding staircase called cochlea descended to the palace. This was a magnificent building, covering a great extent of ground, on the banks of the Propontis, between the Hippodrome and the church of S. Sophia, now the Seraglio. The baths of Zeuxippus, the site of which it is difficult to fix, as, while history seems to connect them with S. Sophia and the palace, the original plan places them on the other side of the city, near the harbour, were so embellished by Constantine with statues of marble and bronze, that they became came famed as the most beautiful in the world. These statues were brought from their local sanctuaries to adorn the squares and baths of Constantinople,—the Athene of Lyndus, the Muses of Helicon, the Amphitrite of Rhodes, the Pan which was consecrated by the Greeks after the defeat of Xerxes. Theodosius the younger pulled down the Dioscuri, who overlooked the Hippodrome. It was reserved