he reign of Alexius Comnenus. * Note: On this column (says M. von
Hammer) Constantine, with singular shamelessness, placed his own statue
with the attributes of Apollo and Christ. He substituted the nails of
the Passion for the rays of the sun. Such is the direct testimony of
the author of the Antiquit. Constantinop. apud Banduri. Constantine was
replaced by the "great and religious" Julian, Julian, by Theodosius. A.
D. 1412, the key stone was loosened by an earthquake. The statue fell
in the reign of Alexius Comnenus, and was replaced by the cross.
The Palladium was said to be buried under the pillar. Von Hammer,
Constantinopolis und der Bosporos, i. 162.--M.]

[Footnote 47: Tournefort (Lettre XII.) computes the Atmeidan at four
hundred paces. If he means geometrical paces of five feet each, it was
three hundred toises in length, about forty more than the great circus
of Rome. See D'Anville, Mesures Itineraires, p. 73.]

[Footnote 48: The guardians of the most holy relics would rejoice if
they were able to produce such a chain of evidence as may be alleged
on this occasion. See Banduri ad Antiquitat. Const. p. 668. Gyllius de
Byzant. l. ii. c. 13. 1. The original consecration of the tripod
and pillar in the temple of Delphi may be proved from Herodotus and
Pausanias. 2. The Pagan Zosimus agrees with the three ecclesiastical
historians, Eusebius, Socrates, and Sozomen, that the sacred ornaments
of the temple of Delphi were removed to Constantinople by the order of
Constantine; and among these the serpentine pillar of the Hippodrome is
particularly mentioned. 3. All the European travellers who have visited
Constantinople, from Buondelmonte to Pocock, describe it in the same
place, and almost in the same manner; the differences between them are
occasioned only by the injuries which it has sustained from the Turks.
Mahomet the Second broke the under jaw of one of the serpents with a
stroke of his battle axe Thevenot, l. i. c. 17. * Note: See note 75, ch.
lxviii. for Dr. Clarke's rejection of Thevenot's authority. Von
Hammer, however, repeats the story of Thevenot without questioning its
authenticity.--M.]

[Footnote 48a: In 1808 the Janizaries revolted against the vizier
Mustapha Baisactar, who wished to introduce a new system of military
organization, besieged the quarter of the Hippodrome, in which stood
the palace of the viziers, and the Hippodrome was consumed in the
conflagration.--G.]

[Footnote 49: The Latin nam