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To this account of the successive circuits of Byzantium until the time of Constantine, may be added a rapid survey of the internal arrangements and public buildings of the city after its restoration by Severus.[34]

A large portion of the Hippodrome, so famous in the history of Constantinople, was erected by Severus, who left the edifice unfinished owing to his departure for the West. Between the northern end of the Hippodrome and the subsequent site of St. Sophia was the Tetrastoon, a public square surrounded by porticoes, having the Thermæ of Zeuxippus upon its southern side.

In the Acropolis were placed, as usual, the principal sanctuaries of the city; the Temples of Artemis, Aphrodite, Apollo, Zeus, Poseidon, and Demeter. Against the steep eastern side of the citadel, Severus constructed a theatre and a Kynegion for the exhibition of wild animals, as the Theatre of Dionysius and the Odeon were built against the Acropolis of Athens.

At a short distance from the apex of the promontory rose the column, still found there, bearing the inscription Fortunæ Reduci ob devictos Gothos, in honour of Claudius Gothicus for his victories over the Goths. To the north of the Acropolis was the Stadium;[35] then came the ports of the Prosphorion and the Neorion, and in their vicinity the Strategion, the public prison,[36] and the shrine of Achilles and Ajax.[37] The aqueduct which the Emperor Hadrian erected for Byzantium continued to supply the city of Severus.[38]

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