orth and to the south of the city, could be
rendered impassable to hostile fleets approaching from either direction,
while on the landward side the line of defence was so short that it
could be strongly fortified, and held against large numbers by a
comparatively small force. Nature, indeed, cannot relieve men of their
duty to be wise and brave, but, in the marvellous configuration of land
and sea about Constantinople, nature has done her utmost to enable human
skill and courage to establish there the splendid and stable throne of a
great empire.

Byzantium, out of which Constantinople sprang, was a small,
well-fortified town, occupying most of the territory comprised in the
two hills nearest the head of the promontory, and in the level ground at
their base. The landward wall started from a point near the present
Stamboul custom-house, and reached the ridge of the 2nd hill, a little
to the east of the point marked by Chemberli Tash (the column of
Constantine). There the principal gate of the town opened upon the
Egnatian road. From that gate the wall descended towards the Sea of
Marmora, touching the water in the neighbourhood of the Seraglio
lighthouse. The Acropolis, enclosing venerated temples, crowned the
summit of the first hill, where the Seraglio stands. Immediately to the
south of the fortress was the principal market-place of the town,
surrounded by porticoes on its four sides, and hence named the
Tetrastoon. On the southern side of the square stood the baths of
Zeuxippus, and beyond them, still farther south, lay the Hippodrome,
which Septimius Severus had undertaken to build but failed to complete.
Two theatres, on the eastern slope of the Acropolis, faced the bright
waters of the Marmora, and a stadium was found on the level tract on the
other side of the hill, close to the Golden Horn. The Strategion,
devoted to the military exercises of the brave little town, stood close
to Sirkedji Iskelessi, and two artificial harbours, the Portus
Prosforianus and the Neorion, indented the shore of the Golden Horn,
respectively in front of the ground now occupied by the station of the
Chemins de Fer Orientaux and the Stamboul custom-house. A graceful
granite column, still erect on the slope above the head of the
promontory, commemorated the victory of Claudius Gothicus over the Goths
at Nissa, A.D. 269. All this furniture of Byzantium was appropriated for
the use of the new capital.

[Illustration: CONSTANTINOPLE (Map)