[The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon]@TWC D-Link book
The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

CHAPTER XVII: Foundation Of Constantinople
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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 name Cochlea was adopted by the Greeks, and very frequently occurs in the Byzantine history.

Ducange, Const.i.c.l, p.
104.] [Footnote 50: There are three topographical points which indicate the situation of the palace.1.The staircase which connected it with the Hippodrome or Atmeidan.2.A small artificial port on the Propontis, from whence there was an easy ascent, by a flight of marble steps, to the gardens of the palace.3.The Augusteum was a spacious court, one side of which was occupied by the front of the palace, and another by the church of St.Sophia.] [Footnote 51: Zeuxippus was an epithet of Jupiter, and the baths were a part of old Byzantium.


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