CONSTANTINOPLE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 160, 23 November 1912, Page 2 (Supplement)

CONSTANTINOPLE

CITY OF THE SEVEN HILLS. C A PITA L 0 F TWO EMPIRES. (By "Eareyc," in the Wellington Post). "The scone which is spread out before the wanderer, as he stands upon the dusky mountain of Bulgurlhu (in Asia), with the town of Scutari immediately at his feet, and the city of Constantinople mapped gut in the' distance in its frame of clear and pellucid water is one which throughout his after-life, be it of what duration it may, he can never cease to remember. He looks down into the mysterious gardens of the Serai Bournon, far above the glittering Propontius, along the shores of the Bosphorus. into the Golden Horn, upon St. Sophia's gleaming dome; on the seven hills of the Imperial city, the gloomy remains of the Seven Towers, the ancient walls of Byzantium, the modern palaces of the Sultans, the fair islands of the Sea of Marmora and the far-off and snow-crested Mount Olympus. lording it over the fertile plains of Broussa." —Julia Pardoe, in "Beauties of the Bosphorus." This Scutari is not the one which figures daily in the cable messages. The Asiatic Scutari, though separated by a mile of sea Erom the capital, is included in the groups of towns which form the modern Constantinople. This Scutari is chiefly garrisoned by the dead. Here is the world's most impressive cemetery where countless cypress trees make a gloomy panoply of death. Always the grove grows. The Moslems have a belief that some day their race will be pushed from Europe, and therefore their dead are buried on Asiatic ground, preferably at Scutari. The Turkish custom is to set a cypress at the head and foot of each grave. Constantinople, City of the Seven Hills. City of the Three Seas, the Golden City, was the last bulwark of the Roman Empire as it will he the last for the Ottoman in Europe. The choice of this natural citadel as the capital of Home's declining Empire was not original in Constantini' the Great, son of the Emperor Constantius. who died 011 English ground, York (Eboracum) when leading an army against' the I'icts and Scots; but Constantine's genius perfected the plan which a predecessor sketched. It was a master-stroke of triple strategy—political, commercial, and religious—that turned old Byzantium into Mew Rome. To this day the chief Patriarch of the Greek Church styles himself "Archbishop of Constantinople, Xew Rome."

Constantino found much in Byzantium to make the nucleus of a splendid city, to defy Asia's restless hordes. Here were theatres, baths, fountains and monuments, including the granite column (of which a large remnant is still visible) on I.he promontory, commemorating the victory of Claudius fiothieus over the Goths at Xissa in A.ll 2011. Here was the great Hippodrome (now the At Meidan) where the livzantiue public had a keen delight in chariot races and other pastimes (including executions and martyrdoms). The last tragedy mi that historic ground was in IS2U. when the Sultan Mahmud 11. decided to rid himself of his troublesome Imperial Guard, the lierce Janissaries, by massacre. Some of them rallied in the At.,Meidan. and those who survived the lead and -iteel of the destroyers were hanged on a plane tree, which was afterwards known as the Tree of Groans. In A.D. 328 Constantine started the enlargement of Uyzantium. and on May 11, 330, "New Iconic" was ready lor the official opening ceremonies. The old town was a closely walled spaee of only about a square mile in area. The western wall was only aboui. a utile distant from the eastern foot of t lie promontory. (Jonstantine's wall took in a new strip, between two and a-half and three miles wide, and the fortifications were advanced another mile out ward in 413. during the reign of Theodosiu> 11. This is the double wall of whielt the picturesque ltiins. including the Castle of the Seven Towers, abutting 1 lie waters of Marmora, command the modern t'ook admiral inn. by the aid of the guide-book c aml the eieerone. In addition, walls ran along the I'ropontis and the (iolden Horn, and thus the

es'pitnl was siM-ui-'dy eucloseil again-l t!»«• assaults of centuries, bv civil and foreign foes. The pillaging Avars iried a siege in end i';i iled. The S.>>•.>•• :i . mad" Si 1' MUolls . ■ !l'o it ; to lirea. k i hroil'jh ill i»7:*-it77 and again in 718. lm 1 -ihvays the wa lis won. Nearly a en' nry 'a iit in B!.*S I lie ilnlear- also found ilie "done too thick. fi l i' Xcw loinie ,va.s founded. d : d ('onof ihe fourth ( 'l'll -a-ie. ,1(1,1-1;. ! ... '

-iege in linn, under H,.. |)«. :l"iiri.-,. Dandalo. Mis lie-, work,.! into tli" (iid.ii-n Horn, ami liie I.ai ill allies bat-le-reil down a part of the wall in i lie PI: Ina r 1)11:1 Her. norl li-wes| of liv .-it <•, Tiln , ( Uil-.l all iuoiiie li. e.:n;e Ihe -., at of a I. : i in Kienire till lit; I. ii • a i. was reco \ i -1' i l ll hv ill-' Creeks, with" til" aid of I lie (lenoese (the Venetians' strong comiii'Teial rivals), for thi- .-erivce Cieuoese merchants wnv given {lie town of (Jala ia. on the northern side of (he Horn. 'l'his (hey foi'lilied strongly and became troublesome neighbors of (lie (Ireeks. tlalala. is now the commercial centre of Constantinople, and the adjoining I'era (iermed 'inlidel Ilill" bv the Ottomans! is 111" residential ijiiarter of foreigners. "• • ;,, caie »>; ilie embassies and fa-Oiion-e.hlc hob's.

]iy Christian invitation the Alosieni set his foot in Europe. When the Emperor Andronicus 111. died in 1341, his heir was John Pala'cologus. a minor. The supreme power was coveted by t'autacuzenns, mayor of the palace, who looked to Asia for aid. lie -aw there a strong, man, Orkhan, sou of Othm.ui (orOsman), from whom the Ottoman Empire dates. Cantaeuzcmis offered a bribe, his daughter Theodora, to Orkhan, who sent his son Suleiman Pasha across the l.iosphorns with an irresistible army, which worked havoc as far as the Balkans. Tiy this expedition the Turks got much booty, and learned the weakness of the Greeks. Naturally Suleiman had a desire to return. fe 1355 he landed and seized Kallipolis (Gallilpoli), which iie used as a base for further conquests, Suleiman was accidentally killed, and his younger brother Murad succeeded Orkhan. Murad captured Hadrianopolic (Adrianople) and in 13GT he made it his capital.

After Murad came a mighty soldier, Bayezid (or Bajazet), surnamed El Ilderim, ''The lightning," from the destructive rapidity of his movements. His great ambition was the conquest of Constantinople, which he began in 1305. Part of his plan was the building of Anatoli Hissar (the Tower of Asia), on the east side of the Bosphorus, about seven'miles from the city. He was interrupted later 011 by the terrible Timur (Tamerlane), whose Tartar legions vanquished Bayezid. This warrior's task was completed by his grandson, Mohammed 11., the Conqueror, in 1453. He buijt Rumeli Hissar (the Tower of Europe!), opposite the Tower of Asia, divided by only half a mile of water. It is said that this work was done in forty days by 6000 men, toiling day and night. Thus Mohammed was able to easily blockade the narrow Bosphorus (only about half a mile wide between the forts) , especially as he had a powerful fleet to aid him. At Rumeli Hissar a huge cannon was cast, and other large engines of destruction were made. The Turks advanced to the ramparts spanning the valley of the river Lycus (or Sweet Waters), whieh flows into the end of the Golden Horn. The besiegers had an army variously estimated from 200,000 to 300,000. and they had before them thick tiers of stone anrt thin ranks of men. Dissension was rampant in the .city. The last of the Emperors, Constantino Paleologns. could have received aid from the west by an appeal to the Pope, but a bitter anti-Catholic spirit was in the Greeks at that time, and they preferred to face the Turks without help by the Pope's agency. Historians say that Constantine had no more than 8000 trustworthy fighting men in his corrupt capital, and with these he made a valiant stand. For many days the Turks battered at the ramparts in that valley of the Lycus, and on the fiftythird day of the siege. May 29, 1453, a breach was made. A Turkish host surged through like an avalanche, and overwhelmed the defenders. Constantine fell fighting, ant) the last vestige of the Roman Empire passed away with the last of the Emperors. The Genoese in Galata, who had remained neutral, surrendered to Mohammed, who granted them comfortable terms.

Since 1453 the sign of the Crescent, a symbol borrowed by ithe Turks from the Byzantine creed, the worship of Diana, has been over Constantinople. Just as the Roman Empire, which once counted nearly the, whole of- the known world within its confines, dwindled to the walls of Constantinople, so the once mighty Ottoman Empire, which reached from Vienna to India, and down into Africa, has shrunk to a fragment of its greatness in the days of Suleiman the Magnificent, grandson of Mohammed 11., the Conqueror.