10 CONSTANTINOPLE. 
CHAP, necessary to seek for information further than 
V,. i..y- ..' in the documents which he has afforded, to 
prove that Christians, and not Turks, have been 
the principal agents in destroying the statues 
and the pubhc buildings with which Constan- 
tinople, in different ages, was adorned'. The 
havoc was begun by the Romans themselves, 
even so early as the time of Constantine the 
Great: and it was renewed, at intervals, in 
consequence of the frequent factions and dis- 
sentions of the inhabitants'. The city, such as 
it was, when it came into the possession of the 
Turks, has been by them preserved, with fewej 
alterations than took place while it continued in 
the hands of their predecessors. It does not 
however appear, that the changes produced, 
either by the one or by the other, have in 
any degree affected that striking resemblance 
which it still bears to the antient cities of 
the Greeks. 
(0 See the curious extract from Nicetas the Chonial, in the Appendix 
to the last Section of Part II. of these Travels. 
(2) Prjmum Imperatores dissentientes, deinde incendia creberrini4, 
non moJo fortuita, sed etiam ab hostibus tarn externis, quam dissidentibus 
Tariarum fictionum partibus jacta, &c Neque 
modo ab hostibus antiqua monumenta eversa sunt, sed etiam ab Impeja- 
toribus etiam Constantinopoli amicissimis, inter quos primus Constantinus 
Magnus, quem Eusebius scribit templa deorum dirais:>e, vestiUuM vas- 
tasse, tecta detraxisse, eorura statuas aereas sustulisse, quibus tot saeculis 
gloriabantur." Ibid tom.l. p. 427. ed, Far. 1711. 
