Page:LA2-NSRW-1-0523.jpg



CONSTANTINOPLE

447

CONSTANTINOPLE

rivals, Maximian and Maxentius, father and son. The father took refuge in Marseilles, and, when about to be given up by the people, killed himself. The son gathered a large army, but Constantine, quickly crossing the Alps by the Mt. Cenis pass, worsted him twice, and utterly crushed him in the battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312. It is asserted that Constantine, while on the march and near the Alps, saw a flaming cross in the sky, with the inscription: "By this, conquer." During the rout Maxentius was forced off the bridge and drowned. The night before the battle, it is said, Constantine saw a vision, in which he was told to place the monogram of the name of Christ on his soldiers' shields. In this way the standard of the cross came (after 323) to be borne by the Roman soldiers; and a year later, the eastern emperor, Licinius, joined with Constantine in granting Christians freedom of worship and the rights of Roman citizens. That Constantine became a Christian himself at this time is doubtful; but during his reign Christianity was made the state-religion, the heathen temples were closed, and toward the end of his life the great emperor was baptized. Linicius, now sole ruler in the east, was next conquered and put to death, and in 330 the western emperor, now sole master of the Roman world, made Byzantium his capital, changing its name to Constantinople, the city of Constantine. He died on May 22, 337. Constantine founded a complex political system that exists among civilized nations to-day. He first separated the civic from the military and the spiritual functions. He gave the system of government a new structure and a new power that still survive in the political constitutions of the European nations. He endowed Christianity for the first time with the worldly power which for 15 centuries has made it the strongest of social agencies.

Constantinople, capital of the Turkish empire, called Stamboul by the Turks, was formerly the ancient town of Byzantium and capital of the Byzantine or Eastern Empire. A colony from Megara settled it about 658 B. C., and its commanding position caused it to be fought for by Persians, Gauls, Greeks and Romans. In the fourth century Philip of Macedon lay siege to it, but was driven off by an Athenian army. The story is that the Macedonians' whereabouts was discovered by a crescent which shone out in the sky; so, ever since, a crescent has been the badge of the city. In 330 A. D. Constantine was so taken with its fine site that he made it his capital, giving it his own name, by which it is now known. Of the 26 sieges and eight captures it has suffered, that by the crusaders in 1204 was the worst, when all that was beautiful in the city, the church-treasures and even the bodies of the dead were

plundered. In 1453 Constantinople fell before the conquering Turk and has never been besieged since, chiefly, in modern times, because of the renown of the Ottoman empire and, later still, because of the jealousy of the European powers, which would not allow any one of them to capture the prize of the Bosporus.

Stamboul or Constantinople proper stands on the site of old Byzantium, south of the Golden Horn, a creek five miles long, half a mile broad and deep enough to float near to the shore the Turkish ironclads. The 14 miles of walls first built by Constantine still encompass the city. Stamboul, like Rome, has its seven hills, where over 200 beautiful mosques and countless chapels rise from a mass of tumble-down, ill-smell-

ing wooden houses and long rows of picturesque bazars. There are many suburbs, including Eyyub, where is the mosque in which every sultan must gird on the sword of Osman before he ascends the throne. No Christian is allowed to approach the holy place. The trade of Constantinople is large and mostly in the hands of Europeans. There are 20 miles of fortifications along the Bosporus. Railroads now connect Constantinople with Paris and other European cities and also with towns in Asia Minor. Population, 1,200,000.

Constitution, The, or Old Ironsides. A famous American naval vessel. A 44-gun frigate of 1576 tons, she was launched Sept. 20, 1797. She took part in the operations against the pirates in the Mediter-