October 30, 1915. 
LAND AND WATER 
THE STORY OF CONSTANTINOPLE. 
By Sir Ed 
EVERY reader knows that the object of tlie 
Expedition to the Dardanelles is the capture 
and occupation of Constantinople. One of 
the aims of the Germans in forcing the Turks 
to join them was to obtain possession of it for 
themselves. A strong case might be made out to sliow 
that the Kaiser Mith his Ministers have long enter- 
tained the hope of either annexing Asia Minor 
altogether or at least of taking the Turks under their 
protection as a semi-independent State. It was with tiiis 
idea that Abdul Hamid was flattered into granting the 
concession for a railway from the Bosphorus to Bagdad ; 
that the Kaiser paid two visits to Constantinople ; that 
at Damascus he waved his sword and boasted that he 
w-as the protector of the Sultan and of all Moslems. It is 
notorious that Prince Bismarck was opposed to any such 
design, which he regarded as a foolish dream, but for 
my purpose it is at least interesting as showing the im- 
portance which in the twentieth century is attached to 
Constantinople. The Kaiser, in memory of his visit to 
Constantinople, built on the famous Hippodrome a com- 
memorative monument, which stands in a line with the 
obelisk commemorating the victories of the Great 
Theodosius, with another brought from Egypt in the 
time of Theophilus and with a third object more in- 
teresting to all Europeans, the bronze column set up by 
the Greeks at Delphi in commemoration of their great 
victories over the Persians in the fifth century B.C. 
The Great Hippodrome. 
Everyone remarked when the new monument was set 
up that the Kaiser appeared to place himself in line with 
the great rulers of the Eastern Empire. For what is 
the City of Constantinople, and what do the scenes of the 
great Hippodrome where he has placed his monument 
recall ? The festival in 330 a.d. celebrated the founda- 
tion of New Rome, the name given to the old Greek town 
of Byzantium, and commemorated the establishment of 
Christianity as the religion of the Empire and made the 
city, which the world has preferred to call by the 
Emperor's name, Constantinople, the capital of tlie 
Roman Empire. Its founder had ransacked the ancient 
world for its adornment. The Palladium had been 
brought from the banks of the Tiber to form a mascot 
for the city. The bronze column recalled the glories of 
Greece seven centuries earlier. 
Less than a century after Constantine's death the 
great Emperor Theodosius had completed a set of con- 
quests which were indicated by columns in the city, and 
of which one, still standing on the Hippodrome, was 
covered with bronze plates recording his triumphs. Two 
centuries after Constantine the triumphs of Belisarius 
had aroused the enthusiasm of the population. Under 
the reign of the great Justinian the city and empire had 
made wonderful progress. The drying up of the roads 
between Egypt and the Persian Gulf enabled Justinian, 
" the Road and Bridge Maker," to divert the trade from 
the East to the West through new roads made from 
Bagdad to the Bosphorus. The Hippodrome was 
intimately associated with the life of this great emperor. 
Under him, and quite near to it, where now the Seras- 
kerat exists, were the famous Law Courts. The jurists 
of his time gave to the whole civilised world the ir ost 
perfect system of law which it had yet seen. The church 
of Sancta Sophia, almost adjoining the Hippodrome, 
and declared by Ferguson to be, as to its interior, for 
the exterior has never been completed, tlie most perfect 
specimen of Christian architecture yet produced, was 
built by Justinian. The Nika riots were on this great 
historical site. 
In the Palace immediately beneath the Hippo- 
drome Justinian's famous wife, Theodora, commencing 
her career as an actress in this very placSj, attracted the 
win Pears. 
attention of tlie young Prince wlio sul^sequently 
ascended tlie throne. It was in the Palace adjoining it 
that, when her husband's courage failed, and he pro- 
posed flight from the raging factions of the Blues and 
Greens, Theodora, like Lady Macbeth, screwed her 
husband's courage to the sticking point, and finished 
by declaring that for herself, having worn Imperial 
purple, she would never don anything inferior. If she 
were to die " the Empire would be a glorious winding- 
sheet." It was here that constant fights took place 
between the Blues and the Greens, ending by two famous 
generals, Narses and Belisarius, surrounding the build- 
ing and destroying the enemies of order. 
Latin Crusaders. 
It was here that, in 1203-4, t'l^ Latin Crusaders, 
faithless to their vow, receiving the strongest denuncia- 
tion of Pope Innocent III., collected the treasures 
from the churchesand palaces of the city and heaped them 
up for distribution. It was here, after the city had spent 
its strength in resisting twenty invasions from Asia that 
the young Mahomet rode in triumph to Sancta Sophia, 
and, according to popular tradition, struck off one of the 
heads of the three serpents which supported the tripod 
of the column of Delphi. It was an ambition worthy ot 
a great conqueror for the Kaiser to commemorate hi^i- 
self in the place which for 1,100 years had so many great 
associations. Surely it was a little too previous. 
Now, let it be said in justice to the Turks that they 
did not destroy many monuments. They were actually 
less barbarous in their manner of dealing with the city 
than were the Christian soldiers from the West whom 
Innocent denounced. Mahomet II. claimed that Sancta 
Sophia belonged to him, and he or his successors made 
a similar claim for every Christian church in Constanti- 
nople. That the Turks have a long story of churches 
and other monuments destroyed is beyond doubt, but in 
Constantinople they respected the churches, the wliole 
of which, with one quite insignificant exception, were 
converted into mosques. 
The historj' of the city since its capture in 1453 is a 
lamentable story. The Turks were a military horde of 
nomads. Their ruler was almost of necessity a military 
despot. The Christian population, especially in the 
capital, had been so terribly reduced in numbers that 
opposition was powerless before the disciplined Janis- 
saries and the ruthless hands of the Moslem horde. 
Differences of race and language, perhaps, above all, of 
religion, increased the hostility betv.een the conquerors 
and vanquished. When a Sultan ascended the throne, 
as sometimes happened, full of the arrogance of ignorance 
and of religious fanaticism, the Christians had bad limes. 
Men of Common Sense. 
There was always amongst the conquerors a number 
of men of common sense and with a love of justice. Their 
common sense showed them the value of an industrious 
population, although Christian, and of their contribu- 
tions to the State. Hundreds of Greeks and Armenians 
were swept in from remote parts of the empire to popu- 
late the desolated city. The sense of justice was, 
perhaps, tlie most prominent in the priestly or ulema 
class, and not a few instances are on record of such men 
opposing the common sense and sense of justice to the 
arbitrary and fanatical wishes of tlie Sultan. 
Let me give one instance. Wiien Sultan Solim, the 
son of Mahomet the Conqueror, proposed to put all 
Christians in the capital to death unless they accepted 
Islam, and to convert all their churches into mosques, 
the Grand Vizier recognised the folly of such a measure, 
and the cliief judge of tlie Sacred Court agreed with 
him as to its injustice. The Patriarch, as head of by far 
the largest Christian community, lieard of the proposal 
with dismay, and was greatly alarmed. The Grand 
15 
