CONSTANTINOPLE
301
CONSTANTINOPLE
Tispected celibacy, freed it from legal disadvantages,
M'Ui;ht to elevate morality, and punished with great
^^\l-^ity the olTenccs against morals which the pagan
\\ ■ >r,sliip had encouraged. He brought up his children
as Christians. Thus his life became more and more
t 'liristian, and thus gradually turned away from the
frcble syncretism which at times he seemed to favour.
Tlif God of the Christians was indeed a jealous God
w ho tolerated no other gods beside him. The Church
rciuld never acknowledge that she stood on the same
jilane with other religious bodies; she conquered for
ii. rself one domain after another.
I 'iiiistantine himself preferred the company of I lirisiian bishops to that of pagan priests. The em- i ' r i)r frequently invited the bishops to court, gave iliiiii the use of the im])erial postal service, invited ill. Ill to his table, called them his brothers, and when liny had suffered for the Faith, kissed their scars. \\ liile he chose bishops for his counsellors, they, on ill' other hand, often requested his intervention — '• a. shortly after 313, in the Donatist dispute. For niaiiy years he worried himself with the Arian trouble, and in this, it may be said, he went beyond the limits f>f the allowable, for example, when he dictated whom Afhanasius should atlmit to the Church and whom he was to exclude. Still he avoided any direct interfer- ence with dogma, and only sought to carry out what the proper authorities — the sjTiods — decided. When he appeared at an oecumenical council, it was not so much to influence the deliberation and the decision as to show his strong interest and to impress the heathen. He banished bishops only to avoid strife and discord, that is, for reasons of state. He oppo.sed Athanasius because he was led to believe that Athanasius desired to detain the corn-ships which were intended for Con- stantinople; Constan tine's alarm can be understood when we bear in mind how powerful the patriarchs eventually became. When at last he felt the ap- proach of death he received baptism, declaring to the bishops who had assembled around him that, after the example of Christ, he had desired to receive the saving seal in the Jortlan, but that God had ordained otherwise, and he would no longer delay baptism. Laying aside the purple, the emperor, in the white robe of a neophj'te, peacefully and almost joyfully awaited the end.
Of Constantine's sons the eldest, Constantine II, showed decided leanings to heathenism, and his coins bear many pagan emblems ; the second and favourite son, Constantius, was a more pronounced Christian, but it was Arian Christianity to which he adhered. Constantius was an unwavering opponent of paganism ; he closed all the temples and forbade sacrifices under pain of death. His maxim was: "Cesset superstitio; sacrificiorum aboleatur insania" (Let superstition cease; let the folly of .sacrifices be abolished). Their successors had recourse to religiovis persecution against heretics and pagans. Their laws (Cod. Tlieod., XVI, v) had an vmfavourable influence on the Middle Ages and were the basis of the much-abused Inquisition. (See Per.secdtion.s; Con'.st.\ntinople; Roman Empibe.)
Bdkckhardt, Die Zrit Con. d. Gr. (l.st ed., Basle, 1S53; 2nd ed.. LeipziK. 18801; Keim, Der Ueberlrill Con.d. Or.zumChris- tentum (Zurich, 1862); Flasch, Con. d. Gr. als erster christlicher Kaiser (Wiirzburg. 1.S91): Seuffert, Conslanlijis Gesetze und dot Chrislenlum (Wurzburg, 1891); Funk in Tiibing. theol. Quartalschnfl (1896); Gorhes in ZcUschrift fur wuisenschafll. TAeoi. (1887-88); Seeck, i6id. (1890); ScmiL.T7.F., Geschichte d. Untergange.1 des grifch.-riim. Heidentums (1887-92), II; Seeck, GtKhichte des Uni/*rganoe.f der antiken Well (1897-1901), 11; SoLTAU, Das Fortleben dc.t Heidentums in rfcr attchrisUichen Kirche (1906); Grupp, KuUurgeachichte dcr mm. Kaiscrzeit (1902-04). 11; Madden. Chrislian Emblems on the Cmns ot ComlarUine I. the Great (London, 1877-78) ; Bnis.si t.u. T.n Cm- vertion de Conetaniin in Reviie des Deux \t.>',.!..< l^^^;) LXXVI. 51-72; de Broglie (Catholic). £'A , nmiain OK /F<»iVr/e (18.50: 1867). I. 11; Fir I M Constaniine the Great in Heroes of the Xations .^' >■ \ p ■, \ rk 190S); BoRY, History of the Later Roman Empire (London. 1889), I; Finlay. A History of Greece from its Conquest by the ijoimin*, ed. TozER (0.icford, 1877). GeoRQ GrDPP.
Constantinople (Gr. KwvaTamLvoiTroKis, city of Con-
stantine), capital, formerly of the Byzantme, now
of the Ottoman, Empire.
The Modern City.— It occupies one of the most beautiful and advantageous sites in the world, uniting as it does Europe with Asia and putting in communi- cation the Black Sea and all Southern Russia with the great(?r part of Europe and Asia, and even with distant America. It is surrounded by water on all sides ex- cept the west, which is protected by walls. Its sea front is about eight miles in length. The air is generally pure, and the climate very temperate. Constanti- nople forms a special district (sanitary cordon) divided into three principal sections, two in Europe and one in Asia. The two European sections are Stamboul (ancient Byzantium), whose subiu-bs border the Sea of Marmora; Galata and Pera, more or less European- ized quarters, with many villages rising in rows along the green Ixills that look down on the Golden Horn and the Bosporus. The Asiatic section is Scutari (Turk. Uskudar; Chrysopolis) and Kadi-Keui (Chalcedon), with their extensive suburbs on the Asiatic shore of the Bosporus, the pleasant coasts of the Gulf of Nico- media, and the Isles of the Princes. The city is di- vided into ten quarters or circles, each with its own municipality. The population is estimated (1908) at 1,200,000 inhabitants, four-fifths of whom are in \'m- rope. There are about 600,000 Turks or other Mu.ssul- mans; the remainder include, in order of numerical importance, Greeks, Armenians, Jews, and foreigners of various nationalities.
The Bosporus separates Europe from Asia; it is about eighteen miles long and varies in width from about half a mile to a mUe and a half. The Golden Horn separates Stamboul from Galata and Pera, ex- tends inland for about four and one-half miles, and ends abruptly at the Valley of the Sweet Waters be- yond Eyoub. Two wooden bridges unite Galata with Stamboul, which latter section is mostly inhabited by Turks, and still preserves its ancient ramparts with their towers and gates. The chief monuments of the city are: St. Sophia, the magnificent church built in the first half of the sixth century by the Emperor Justinian, now a mo,sque; about 2000 other mo.sques (e. g. the Suleimanieh, the Ahmedieh, the Bayazidieh, Mohammed's mosque, etc.); many ancient churches; beautiful fountains; imposing "turbfe", or tombs of sultans and other great personages ; the Seraskierat or war office, with its enormous tower; the Tcharshi, or bazaar (more than 10,000 merchants); Yedi-Kouleh or the Seven Towers Castle, where ambassadors and other men of note were often imprisoned ; the palace of the public debt; the large postoffice; the old se- raglio of the sultans. The imperial museum has a remarkable collection of sarcophagi and another of cimeiform texts. In the Galata section the Genoese Tower (over 150 feet) attracts attention, as in Pera the residences of the ambassadors. Beyond, on the Eiu'opean shore of the Bosporus are the large palaces of Dolma-Baghtehe and Tcheragan, also the Yildiz Kiosk, the residence of the reigning sultan. On the Asiatic shore are the palace of Beylerbey, many beau- tiful mosques, and the great Mussulman cemetery at Scutari, the Selinii(-h barracks (largest in the W'orld), the magnificent new school of medicine, quite close to which is the little port of Haidar-Pasha, whence starts the railway line to Bagdad.
Early Hlstory of Byzantium. — Constantinople was founded c. C.W B. c. by a Greek colony from Me- gara; the site was then occupied by the Thraeian vil- lage of Lygos. The chief of the Megarian expedition was Byzas, after whom the city was naturally called Byzantion (Lat. Byzantium). Despite its perfect situation, the colony did not prosper at first; it suf- fered much during the Medic wars, chiefly from the satraps of Darius and Xerxes. Later on, its control was disputed by Lacedaemonians and Athenians; for
