CONSTANTINOPLE. 75 
There is nothing- either grand or beautiful in chap. 
^ ® II. 
the remains of the Brazen Column, before men- v..»v— — ^ 
tioned, consisting of the bodies of three serpents mxaxT 
twisted spirally together. It is about twelve 
feet in height: being hollow, the Turks have 
filled it with broken tiles, stones, and other 
rubbish. But in the circumstances of its his- 
tory, no relic of antient times can be more 
interesting. It once supported the golden tripod 
at Delphi, which the Greeks, after the battle of 
Platcea, found in the camp of Mardonius. This 
fact has been so well ascertained, that it will 
probably never be disputed. '' The guardians 
*' of the most holy relics," says Gibbon^, " would 
*' rejoice, if they were able to produce such a 
*' chain of evidence as may be alleged upon this 
" occasion." Its original consecration in the 
temple of Delphi is proved from Herodotus 
and Pausanias; and its removal to Constan- 
tinople, by ZosiMus, EusEBius, Socrates 
EccLESiASTicus, and Sozomen*. Thevenot 
relates the story of the injury done to the head 
of one of the serpents by the battle-axe of 
(3) Vol. II. c. 17. NoteW. 
(4) See Cyllius {lib. ii. c. 13. Topog. Co7ist) The three heads 
remaiued in his time ; for he describes them as placed in a triangular 
form, rising high upon the shaft of tlie column. According to Euse- 
Mus, it was a representation of the serpent Python. 
