Читать книгу Byzantine Constantinople, the walls of the city and adjoining historical sites онлайн
18 страница из 107
Nor was the territory without the walls entirely unoccupied. From statements found in Dionysius Byzantius, and from allusions which later writers make to ruined temples in different quarters of Constantinople, it is evident that many hamlets and public edifices existed along the shore of the Golden Horn, and in the valleys and on the hills beyond the city limits. Blachernæ was already established beside the Sixth Hill; Sycæ, famous for its figs, occupied the site of Galata; and the Xerolophos was a sacred hill, crowned with a temple of Zeus.[39]
Inscription from the Stadium of Byzantium. (From Broken Bits of Byzantium, by kind permission of Mrs. Walker.)
CHAPTER II.
THE CITY OF CONSTANTINE—ITS LIMITS—FORTIFICATIONS—INTERIOR ARRANGEMENT.
ssss1
In the year 328 of our era, Constantine commenced the transformation of Byzantium into New Rome by widening the boundaries of the ancient town and erecting new fortifications.
On foot, spear in hand, the emperor traced the limits of the future capital in person, and when his courtiers, surprised at the compass of the circuit he set himself to describe, inquired how far he would proceed, he replied, “Until He stops Who goes before me.”[40] The story expresses a sense of the profound import of the work begun on that memorable day. It was the inauguration of an epoch.