1919] History of the City of Constantinople i')i5 



WEEKLY EVENING MEETING, 



Friday, April 4, 1919. 



Sir Ja:vies Crichton-Browne, J.P. M.D. LL.D. D.Sc. F.R.S., 

 Treasurer and Vice-President, in the Chair. 



Professor Frederic Harrisox, D.C.L. D.Litt. LL.D. 



History of the City of Constantinople." 

 658 B.C.— 1919 A.D. 



[Summary.] 



Until our own age historians ignored, if they did not deny, the 

 services to mankind which the Roman Empire on the Bosphorus 

 secured to the West during the eleven centuries which separate the 

 first Constantine from the last. For 1100 years Constantinople stood 

 a veritable Rock of Ages to preserve the continuity of ancient civili- 

 zation, the organism of government in peace and war, the tradition 

 of the arts, the literature and science of the world, the power of 

 Eastern Christendom. It drove back Persians, Saracens, Ottomans, 

 and between the attacks of these tremendous enemies incessant 

 onslaughts from Goths, Huns, Avars, Russians, Bulgars, the pirates 

 of the Mediterranean, and swarms of barbarous races. 



Finlay, as Lord Morley says, " first unfolded what the Byzantine 

 Empire was." In 1855 Professor Freeman took up the cause. 

 Professor Bury then founded a School of Byzantine Literature. 

 Lord Bryce, Professor Oman, Sir Edwin Pears, Sir Thomas Jackson 

 have illustrated the art and literature of Byzantine ages. 



The Eastern Roman Empire lasted in time for 1120 years, and 

 in space once reached from Spain to the Caspian Sea. The Turkish 

 Empire has ruled from Constantinople for 466 years, and once 

 extended from the Upper Danube to the Red Sea and the Persian 

 Gulf. Constantinople indeed has been a historic city for 2577 years, 

 and has been the continuous seat of Empire for 1589 years. During 

 the Middle Ages it was the largest, most civilised, most artistic and 

 lettered city in Europe. As Gibbon says, it was formed by Nature 

 to be the centre and capital of a great power. It was the first groat 

 example of " Sea-Power," because it held the straits both north and 

 south which protect the city and its spacious harbours. It has still, 

 by consent of ancients and moderns, the most fascinating site and 



* A full Report of the Discourse appears in " The Fortnightly Review " 

 for June. 1919. 



