Pierre Gilles

“ Altho’ it be not thy Fate, O Constantinople, to endure a thousand Years, but to be totally demolish’d, yet this ought to be no Occasion of Grief to thee, but the Cause of Joy; for thou shalt rise again from thy Ruines more beautiful, and more enlarg’d. For thou shalt be destroyed, ev’n to the Advantage of those who shall destroy thee. ”

“ The Night-Owl was an Emblem of the Depth of Prudence and Conduct; for Wisdom dives into the Secrets and Darknesses of Nature. I wish the divine Palladium may guard all those, who shall in future Times attempt the same Travels as I have done, and pray that they may be defended, as I have been, by that good Providence, and that heavenly Wisdom, the Wisdom of the Father, which amidst all the Treacheries and Insults of a barbarous People, and the almost incredible Dangers of a long Voyage, did not only support and strengthen, but did animate, enliven, and refresh me. ”

“ But to describe Constantinople in a more easy and comprehensive Manner, I will give the Reader a particular Account of all its Hills and Vales, which indeed make a very lovely and agreeable Prospect. For the six Hills which shoot from the Promontory, (and which for their Likeness you might call Brothers) stand in so regular an Order, that neither of them intercepts the Prospect of the other; so that as you sail up the Bay, you see them all hanging over it in such a manner, that quite round the City you see before you both Sides of every one of them. ”

“ This Tract of Land was at least a hundred Roman Paces broad. For at present, between the Hill and the Bay, there is a Plain to be seen of an equal, if not of a larger Breadth; because, in such a Length of Time, it is widen’d, as may be observ’d daily, by the Abundance of Filth and Nastiness, which is cast about it. To make it subside at the Bottom, the Inhabitants have fix’d wooden Troughs upon Piles, which they drive into the Earth by an Engine, much like a Rammer. By this Means the Plain upon the Shore is enlarg’d, and made more commodious for Havens. ”

“ This Spring, to this Day, constantly flows, and is drank with great Devotion by the Greeks, who hold all Springs, near their Churches, to be sacred. There’s nothing of the Church remaining at present, tho’ Procopius takes Notice of it. Justinian, says he, built two Churches to the Virgin Mary, before the Walls of the City one in the Blachernæ, the other in a Place call’d Πηγὴ, where there is a large Wood of Cypresses, a verdant Meadow, and a delightful Garden, which produces a great Store of fine Fruit, and where there is also a gentle Spring, which affords very good drinking Water. ”

“ Since therefore Constantinople is the Fortress of all Europe, both against the Pyrates of Pontus, 12and the Savages of Asia, was the never so effectually demolish’d, as to all Appearance, yet would she rise again out of her Ruins to her former Grandeur and Magnificence. With what Fury did Severus pursue this City, even to an entire Subversion? And yet when he cool’d in his Resentments against these People, he recollected with himself, that he had destroy’d a City which had been the common Benefactress of the Universe, and the grand Bulwark of the Eastern Empire. ”

“ The Western Side of the Hill, as to its Declivities, is like the Eastern. The Northern Side of it has several Descents: For a lesser Hill, shooting from the Ridge of this Hill, is five hundred Paces high, the lower most three hundred of which fall so precipitately, that the Buildings which stand upon them, are all under-propp’d, the two hundred Paces above them fall with an easy Descent. The Descents on this Side of the Hill, the farther they lie from the Plain on the Sea Shore, the more are they lengthen’d by a sideling Fall, which rises on the Eastern Side of the Hill. ”

“ There is a two-leav’d Iron Gate which lets you into the first Court, the Leaves of it, when opened, stand at twenty Paces Distance. The Porters or Capoochees stand always upon Duty at these Gates. Just above them the Hill rises up to a smooth Level with the Ridge of the Promontory. The Porch or Gate-house is lined on each Side with glittering Armour, and shines, as do also the Jambs of the Gate with rich Marble. Over the Porch there rises a square Building cover’d with Lead, as are all the other Edifices of the Palace. ”

“ We are flying to the Assistance of Constantine. Beings of a heavenly Nature may be allow’d to triumph, and there’s an Ambition which becomes them. This noble Army of Spirits who descended from above, were sent down by Omnipotence itself, and gloried that they fought for you. But I shall add nothing farther of our Author, and shall only observe, that some Historians take Notice, that this large Cross was plac’d upon a gilded Column in the Philadelphium,186 which was the Poets College, and, as the following Inscription shews, was built near the Porphyry Pillar. ”

“ If he extends his Prospect over the Seas, he views a moving Scene of Ships passing and repassing before him; some sailing from the Hellespont, or the Black Sea, others again coming into his Port from all the Coasts of the Propontis, while other Vessels at the same time are sailing up and down the Bay of Ceras, where there are also abundance of Wherries and small Boats always oaring from Side to Side. And if he looks below him, he has the agreeable Pleasure of beholding the three Sides of the first Hill, dressed with Trees, Flowers and Plants of all Kinds. ”

“ It is observable, that Constantinople does not contain more Bays of Building, as it is situate upon Hills, than it would if it were built upon a Plain; because you cannot so conveniently build upon a Declivity, as you can upon a Level. Nor does the Reason equally hold good, as to the Number of its Houses, and the Number of its Inhabitants. For Constantinople can contain more Men as it is seated upon Hills, than it could if it were seated on a Plain. ”

“ I shall not mention at present, that almost all the Buildings of Constantinople are low, and made out of the Ruines, which the Fire and Earthquakes had spar’d; that many of them are not two Story high, rebuilt with rough Stones, or with burnt, and sometimes unburnt Bricks. I omit also the Houses of Galata, built by the Genoese. The Greeks who profess Christianity, have lost their six hundred Churches, and have not one left, of any Note, except the Church belonging to the Monastery, where their Patriarch dwells. ”

“ However ’tis plain from this Passage of Sozomen, that those Historians are grievously in the wrong, who say, that this Church was built in Memory of St. Anastasia, a Roman Saint. In my Treatise of the Thracian Bosporus, I have shewn, that on the North Side of the third Hill there rise some Rocks from the lowermost Eminencies of it, which were call’d Scironides, by those who first transplanted a Colony from Megara and Corinth, to Byzantium. These Rocks were so call’d, because of the Resemblance they bear to the Scironides, which grow between Corinth and Megara. ”

“ Thus far only we can guess from the Rules and Usuage of Architecture, that the Theatre, and Forum of Honorius, stood at the Bottom of the Hill upon a Plain, where Theatres are generally built, as I frequently observ’d in my Travels thro’ Greece. There was standing a Forum, in a Level Ground, (near to the Haven, where is now built a Caravansera, in the Ruines of a Church dedicated to St. Michael) when first I came to Constantinople. This Forum was well supply’d with Water by an ancient subterraneous Aqueduct. In short, there is nothing to be seen at present of old Sycæ. ”

“ From hence it is, that although Constantinople seems as it were by Nature form’d for Government, yet her People are neither under the Decencies of Education, nor any Strictness of Discipline. Their Affluence makes them slothful, and their Pride renders them averse to an open Familiarity, and a generous Conversation ”

“ THE third Valley, which lies between the third and the fourth Hill, seems to be a double Valley; for in the Middle of it, it rises high, which makes it doubtful whether it be a part of the Valley, or the Promontory. That the Height of it is a part of the Valley, seems plain from the Height of the Arches, which reach from one Side of the Valley to the other; and it may be look’d upon to be the Ridge of the Promontory, from the Descent of the extreme Parts of it falling to the right and left, on each Side of the Promontory. ”

“ Sophia, as it now appears. THE Walls and Roof of this Church are built with Brick. The Inside of the Walls of the Church are incrusted with elegant Marble of several Kinds. All its Materials are the most valuable Productions of Nature, so that the Prospect of it employs the Thoughts of the Spectator with Delight and Admiration. The Roof of it is a surprizing Piece of gilded Mosaick Work, which reflects such a Lustre upon the Eye, that even the Barbarians who behold it, are wonderfully taken with the Sight of it. ”

“ The Women, with Osier Baskets ty’d to a Rope, angle for them out of the Windows, and the Fishermen with bare Hooks take a sort of Fish of the Tunny Kind, in such Quantities, as are a competent Supply to all Greece, and a great part of Asia and Europe. But not to recount the different Kinds of Fish they are stock’d with, they catch such Multitudes of Oysters, and other Shell Fish, that you may see in the Fish Market every Day, so many Boats full of them, as are a Sufficiency to the Grecians, all their Fast-Days, when they abstain from all sorts of Fish which have Blood in them. ”

“ Woods of an unmeasurable Length, extending themselves from the Propontis beyond Colchis, a more than forty Days Journey, contribute to her Stores so that she does not only supply the neighbouring Parts with Timber for building Ships and Houses, but even Ægypt, Arabia and Africa, partake in the inexhaustible Abundance; while she, of all the Cities in the World, cannot lie under the want of Wood of any Kind, under which, even in our Time, we have observed the most flourishing Cities, both of Europe and Asia, sometimes to have fallen. ”

“ The Latines call it a Stadium. But there’s no such Place to be found in the Wards of the City, unless it be the Stadium in the Fourth Ward, which is omitted in the Summary View of the City. Cedrinus, in his Life of Leo Magnus, mentions this Tetrapylum. Evagrius in the twenty eighth Chapter of his third Book tells us, that it was built by the Senator Mammianus, in the Reign of Zeno. He built, says he, two stately Portico’s of exquisite Workmanship, and beautify’d them with a neat glossy Marble. As to the Tetrapylum built by Mammianus, there are not, as Gyllius tells us, the least Remains of it. ”

“ The divine Providence has with so much Wisdom consulted the Preservation of its Inhabitants, even to future Ages, that a long Tract of Land, in the Nature of a Promontory, full of Windings and Harbours in its Sides, facing the Chaps of the Black-Sea, narrow in Breadth, is strongly fortified by the Sea. The Isthmus, the only Part of the City not bounded by the Sea, is at the same Time strengthened with a double Wall with numerous Towers on its Ramparts. ”

“ Hirene, or the Empress Hirena, I cannot tell. I find among the Monuments of antient Learning, that there were three Churches at Constantinople dedicated to St. Hirena. The first was called the Old Church of St. Hirena, which, as Socrates writes, was built by Constantine the Great, and stood near the Church of St. Sophia. The second, I am now speaking of, stood on the third Hill; and the third, as Procopius says, was built by Justinian, at the Mouth of the Bay called Ceras, or Cornu, and was called the Church of St. Hirena the Martyr. ”

“ The present State of Constantinople, I mean as to the Meanness and Poverty of its Buildings, is attested by all those, who have either seen, or wrote concerning it; so that ’tis not Now to be compar’d with it self, as it stood in its Antient Glory. The Turks have such an Aversion to all that is curious in Learning, or magnificent in Architecture, or valuable in Antiquity, that they have made it a Piece of Merit, for above 200 Years, to demolish, and efface every thing of that Kind ”

“ Here ’tis that the Seraglio stands. On that part of the Plain which lies to the East, stands the Merchants Forum, a Caravansera, and the Sepulchre of Bajazet the Emperor. On the South Side of it is an open Area, round which stand the Booksellers Shops. On that part of it which lies Northward, stand the Works which the Emperour Solyman is now building, namely his Tomb, a Caravansera, and a magnificent and expensive Mosque. They are built not only upon the natural Situation of the Ground there, but also upon artificial Foundations. ”

“ This Oracle or Prophecy, says Zosimus, truly fore-tells, tho’ in an Ænigmatical Manner, all the Calamities which would befall the Bythinians, by Reason of an excessive Tribute which had been demanded of them, and presignifies also their speedy Subjection to the Empire of Constantinople. And tho’ this did not happen till a long Time after, yet let no Man from thence infer, that the Time of the Accomplishment of the Prediction was expired before it came to pass. For all Time is but for a Moment with God, who is eternal. ”

“ Eustathius assures us, that it was anciently called Antonina from Antoninus Bassianus, the Son of Severus Cæsar, but that it passed under that Name no longer than his Father liv’d, and that many Years after it was call’d New Rome, and Constantinople, and Anthusa, or Florentia, by Constantine the Great; upon which Account it is call’d by Priscian New Constantinopolitan Rome. It was foretold by the Oracle, that its Inhabitants should be a successful and flourishing People, but a constant Course of Prosperity did not always attend them. ”