CONSTANTINOPLE. 
"CONSTANTINO'PLE, a city of Europe, and capital 
of the Turkifh empire, anciently called Byzantium ; for 
the hiftory of which fee vol. iii. p. 569. Its name was 
changed to Conftantinople by the emperor Conftantine, 
who made it the feat of the Roman empire in the Eafh ; 
the Turks call it IJlambottt, or the Fertile Place. The 
harbour lies to the north, which is convenient and large, 
and of ealy approach from the Black Sea on one fide, 
and from the Mediterranean on the other. It was con- 
• fecrated with great folcmnity as the feat of the eaflcrn 
•empire of Rome, in the year 330 ; when it was called 
Roma Nova, on account of its _greatnefs, which feemed to 
rival Rome. It continued the refidence of the Chriftian 
emperors in the eaft, until the year 1453, when it was 
befieged and taken by Mohammed If. emperor of the 
Turks; and from that time to the prefent it has remain¬ 
ed the capital of the Ottoman dominions. 
The fituation of Conflantinople is unrivalled in point of 
-local advantages ; but the climate t-o thofeof northern na¬ 
tions isccertainly unfavourable. The latitude is forty-one 
and a half degrees north ; longitude 46. 40. gait. of Ferro. 
During the lummermonths notliingcanexceed the ferenity 
of the Iky and the foftncfs of the air ; but, in other parts 
of tlie year, the fudden tranfitions from heat to cold, as 
the two feas gain alternate dominion, affert certain con- 
flitutions very feverely. The city Hands on the eaflern 
extremity of Europe, near the Blache Sea, on a point of 
the main land projecting towards Alia, and in the ancient 
country of Thrace. The fite forms an unequal triangle, 
refembling a harp, and the total circumference may be 
twelve or fourteen Engliih miles, including a furface of 
about 2000 acres, furrounded by walls, and defended on 
two Tides by the fea, and the harbour, formerly called 
the Horn of Byzantium, now called the Golden Horn. 
Knolles, in his Hiftory of the Turks, mentions Conftan- 
tinople as follows : “ This noble city, of all others molt 
fitly feated for the empire of the world,' and with great 
majeltv overlooking both Europe and Alia, is accounted 
to Hand in the height of forty-three degrees, uponYeven little 
hills of eafy afcent.” And the I* ron de Tott, in his 
Memoirs, writes, “ If the ambition of governing the uni- 
verfe fearched for a fituation the moll favourable for 
eltablilhing a capital of the world, Conftantinople would 
undoubtedly have the preference ; liquated between two 
Teas, this city would form at once the center for the 
molt ufeful productions and the molt ftourilhing com¬ 
merce.” Not lefs than 400,000 inhabitants are numbered 
in the whole capital ; but in this eltimation mult be in¬ 
cluded the fuburbs of Galata, Pera, Tophana, and Scu¬ 
tari. Two hundred thoufand are Turks, one hundred 
thoufand .Greeks, and the remainder Jews, Armenians, 
and Franks^ of all the European nations. Amonglt the 
-former, it is aflerted that population is much on the de¬ 
cline; for there are few cities in which can be found fo 
many young men unmarried. The inhabitants are per¬ 
petually changing, and the ravages of the plague are re- 
lupplied by fettlers from other parts of the empire ; yet 
with no people is longevity more common or extended, 
nor health more coriftant, than with the Turks. 
From earthquakes, and the violence of the fea, frequent 
demolitions have happened, which have been repaired 
by Theodofius II. Leo. III. and Theophilus; in the 
reign of the former, fifty-eight towers were thrown down, 
which were fpeedily rebuilt. The great wall from the 
feven towers to the harbour is four miles long, with a 
triple fortification eighteen feet diftant from each other, 
ftudded with lofty towers of every ftiape, embattled upon 
deep’brackets, many of which have infcriptions of mar¬ 
ble or iron, particularifmg the builder or date. There 
are five gates, with.Hone bridges over the fofs, which is 
twenty-five feet wide, of which, Topkapeffi, the Porta 
Sancti Romani, though the molt ruinous, is the molt re¬ 
markable, as that where the Turks efterted their en¬ 
trance, and the emperor Conftantine Paleologus was 
fiain. No part of Gibbon’s elegant hiftory will be read 
V ol. V. No. 258. 
117 
wlih’more ftriking effort either at Rome or Conftanti.no- 
ple, than his narrative of this molt calamitous, fiege. 
With its heroic circumftances imprelfed on the mind, as 
we furvey alternately the vaft ramparts of the Mahome- 
dans on one fide, and the fallen towers of the imperial 
city on the other, we are divided between admiration of 
fuch ftupendous efforts of barbarous‘ Valour, and cem- 
miferstion of an empire expiring at the fame moment, 
with its amiable and magnanimous mufter. See the ar¬ 
ticle Turkey. 
The porta aurea was a triumphal arch, built by Theo¬ 
dofius, upon his defeat of Maximus, and, befides the 
ftatue of victory of gilded bronze placed on it, was pro- 
fufely ornamented with beaten gold. When Mahomed 
II. in 1458, made the fortrefs and prifon of the Seven 
Towers, he caufcd it to be walled up. Several gates 
have infcriptions ; none are legible excepting thqt on one 
fide of the Mevlanah-yeni-kapy. Around the golden 
gate are columns of granite, and fragments of marble, 
Itill retaining much elegance of workmanfltip. A great 
road runs in a parallel direction with the wall, and af¬ 
fords a ftriking view, ahnoft for the whole extent of this 
-vaft ftrurture, which is diverfified by pirturefque ruin, 
and trees growing in the fofs, of great beauty and variety. 
The reticulated brick-work obfervable in the walls of 
Rome was a mode of building in ufe during the confu- 
lar times, when thofe of Byzantium were compofcd of 
granite, fo compact and folid as to appear to be all of 
one piece. Thofe of Conflantinople, ererted by the 
emperors, confift of alternate courfes of the large flat 
brick and ftone, of twice their depth, and the internal 
arcades and rooms in the toweis, are all of the former 
material, and molt curious conftrurtion. Befide the na¬ 
tural confequences of time, and the force of earthquakes, 
thefe works have fuftained no lefs.than feven memorable 
lieges fince their prefent form; and it is furprifing that 
they now appear fo perfect. At the fouthern termina¬ 
tion, near the fea, Hands a caftle called by the Turks 
Yeddikuli, the feven towers, firft founded by the Greek 
emperors, who gave it a name of the fame import. In 
1458, Mohammed II. rebuilt a great part, with the addi¬ 
tion of timed to four ancient towers, and appropriated 
it as a place of fafety for his treafures, and as a Hate pri¬ 
fon. The laft perlon of rank confined there was the 
Ruffian envoy, at the commencement of the war in 1784. 
Three of the feven towers were thrown down by the 
terrible earthquake in 1768, and have not been reftored. 
The name of the feven towers originated in an echo, 
which was communicated to feven towers of the ancient 
wall. The fortrefs was probably"built by John Zimitzes 
in 1000, and continued by Bafil II. and Conftantine VIII. 
in 1030, though there is much uncertainty refperting its 
firft conftrurtion. Towers were added by Manuel Com- 
ne-nus in 1182. The external appearance of this fortrefs 
is exceedingly ugly ; for the towers, which are vaft oc¬ 
tagons, are finilhed by conical roofs, which degrade 
them to the refemblance of windmills. 
Two objerts in Conflantinople have long engaged the 
curiofity of European nations ; the feraglio, and the 
church of Santa Sophia, much the more, perhaps, be- 
caufe Chriitians fee them with difficulty. Seraglio is a 
word compofcd by the Franks from ferai, a palace. It 
is a curious fart, that the academy de la Critfca, in their 
dirtionary, have derived it from the verb ferrare, to lock 
tip. In the ages of tlie Greek empire the extreme point 
of the promontory, which is fa-id to have been the en¬ 
tire fite of the old city of Byzantium, was appropriated 
principally to the prielts of the church of Santa Soph;a ; 
but when Mahommed II. in a great meafure re-modelled 
the city, he judicioully chofe thisfpot for his imperial pa¬ 
lace. In 1478, he finilhed an inclofure with lofty walls 
of four miles circuit, with eight gates and twq large 
courts, beyond which, for ftrangers, no circumftance cars 
obtain admittance. Succeflive fultans have made great 
additions, io that the whole fpace is now irregularly co¬ 
il h vered 
