lthy and
temperate, the soil fertile, the harbor secure and capacious; and the
approach on the side of the Continent was of small extent and easy
defence. The Bosporus and the Hellespont may be considered as the two
gates of Constantinople; and the prince who possessed these important
passages could always shut them against a naval enemy and open them to
the fleets of commerce. The preservation of the eastern provinces may,
in some degree, be ascribed to the policy of Constantine, as the
barbarians of the Euxine, who in the preceding age had poured their
armaments into the heart of the Mediterranean, soon desisted from the
exercise of piracy and despaired of forcing this insurmountable barrier.

When the gates of the Hellespont and Bosporus were shut, the capital
still enjoyed within their spacious enclosure every production which
could supply the wants or gratify the luxury of its numerous
inhabitants. The sea-coasts of Thrace and Bithynia, which languish under
the weight of Turkish oppression, still exhibit a rich prospect of
vineyards, of gardens, and of plentiful harvests; and the Propontis has
ever been renowned for an inexhaustible store of the most exquisite
fish, that are taken in their stated seasons, without skill and almost
without labor. But when the passages of the straits were thrown open for
trade, they alternately admitted the natural and artificial riches of
the north and south, of the Euxine, and of the Mediterranean. Whatever
rude commodities were collected in the forests of Germany and Scythia,
as far as the sources of the Tanais and the Borysthenes; whatsoever was
manufactured by the skill of Europe or Asia; the corn of Egypt, and the
gems and spices of the farthest India, were brought by the varying winds
into the port of Constantinople, which for many ages attracted the
commerce of the ancient world.

The prospect of beauty, of safety, and of wealth, united in a single
spot, was sufficient to justify the choice of Constantine. But as some
decent mixture of prodigy and fable has, in every age, been supposed to
reflect a becoming majesty on the origin of great cities, the Emperor
was desirous of ascribing his resolution, not so much to the uncertain
counsels of human policy as to the infallible and eternal decrees of
divine wisdom. In one of his laws he has been careful to instruct
posterity that, in obedience to the commands of God, he laid the
everlasting foundations of Constantinople: and though