The Sun.
London, England, 1821-12-13 00:00:00

No. LII.

CONSTANTINOPLE and der BOSPOROS ; i. e. Constan-
tinople and the Bosphorus; a Topographical and Histori-
cal Description, by Mr. de Hammer. 2 vols. Bvo. Vienna,
1821.

The attention of Europe has been for the last
eight mouths directed towards the town of Con-
stantine. Will it continue the capital of the
,Sultans ? Will it again become the throne of the
Caesars of the East ? These are the questions
repeatedly asked by the impatiently curious, for
whom the natural march of events is not suffi-
ciently rapid. The more calm observer inquires
what are the means of military defence of this
capital, the obstacles to be encountered, and the
advantages which the victor may derive from its
possession. In all these points a view a good
topography of Constantinople is required by those
who take an interest in the affairs of Greece ;
and who does not take an interest in them ?

We have already a number of works describ-
ing Constantinople with more or less detail.—
Without including the general relations of tra-
vels in Turkey, from the erudite and judi-
cious Busbecq to the eloquent and sprightly
Choiseul-Goullier, we have learned and metho-
dical topographical accounts of the capital alone.
Gyllius led the way, and still continues after the
lapse of two centuries a model. Ducange col-
lected with singular carefulness the passages of
the Byzantine writers relating to it ; but, in con-
sequence of not having been on the spot, he did
not always apply them very justly. Banduri
opened fresh sources. Grelot, Bull, Dallaway,
Murhard, and others, are interesting, when they
speak of what they saw ; but their Greek and
Byzantine erudition is sometimes only second
hand. Besides these topographical accounts we
have the works of authors who have applied
themselves exclusively to the examination of a
particular object. Thus Toderini has visited the
libraries, Sestini has collected the plants of the
neighbourhood, Andreossy has studied the phy-
sical geography, Castellan and Pertusier have
seized with spirit the most animated scenes of
life ; and lastly the superb views of Melling and
the plans of Kauffer, finished by Barbie du Bo-
cage, enable us, as it were, to row at our will
on the waves of the Bosphorus, or wander amid
the cypresses and the plantations which adorn its
banks.

Mr. de Hammer, who resided nearly five years
at Constantinople with a diplomatic character,
has had it in his power, in examining the asser-
tions of his predecessors, to correct more than
one, and to fill up the blanks in different rela-
tions. He has taken from the Byzantine a consi-
derable number of passages which had been ne-
glected by former writers, and which explain se-
veral important localities. lie possessed, more-
over, the advantage of consulting in the original
language the writings of Turks on topography
and geography ; for, very different from other
Orientals, the Turks write on these subjects
with a degree of precision and clearness which
render their testimony on the localities of
their country very instructive. With so many
advantages, Mr. de Hammer has been able to
give a work in a great measure new, on a sub-
ject which seemed to be exhausted.
The historical researches of the author re-
•spocting the sieges of Constantinople, apprize us
that this city has been besieged twenty-four,
and taken six times, viz.: by Alcibiades,
the Emperor Severus, and the Emperor Con-
stantine, by the Crusaders under the Doge Dan-
dolo, the Greeks under Michael Paleologus, and
the Turks under Mahomet 11. No very correct
ideas are in general entertained as to the conse-
quences of these different sieges. It was Severus
who destroyed the temples and other monuments
of ancient Byzantium ; he razed the walls, and

placed the city, like a simple suburb, under the '
municipal authority of Perinthus *. Ancient
Byzantium was however too populous, too rich,
and too important a city to continue in this state
of humiliation. Severus himself rebuilt the walls,
considering it with reason as the proper bulwark
of the Roman Empire against the neighbouring
nations of the Black Sea and the Euphrates. This
was appreciating justly its value; but to make
it the capital of the empire, thus to displace the
central public strength, and to exile the govern-
ment into a province, not far distant from the
frontiers, in the midst of people unaccustomed to
the language and manners of the Romans, was
by no means the true intention of Severus, and
was indeed preparing the decline of the state.
Constantine nearly doubled the extent of an-
cient Byzantium ; but it is erroneous to suppose
that this town then occupied only the present
seat of the seraglio, for it extended over a space
four times greater. The walls of Constantine,
which are extremely solid, and the aqueducts
of 'Valens, are the finest works of Christian
Byzantium ; for the churches, palaces, columns,
and statues, the whole ensemble of the new
capital, as respects the arts, seems to have
remained infinitely below even what might
have been expected from a degenerate ago. This
whimsical taste for detached columns, surmounted
by statues, long continued to prevail; and as
each Emperor and Empress ardently desired to
see his or her image elevated in the air, these
monuments of bad taste multiplied so rapidly that
solidity and magnificence were obliged to be
abandoned. Of all the divinities of Pagan anti.
quity, Fortune alone obtained the privilege of
having statues in the midst of a Christian town :
she was considered probably as an allegorical
being ; no where else has she exercised suc des-
potic power ; the imperial statues have been
thrown down one after the other, and dragged
ignominiously through the streets ; even those of
the Virgin have been destroyed by the hands of
the infidels ; but Fortune remains standing in a
corner of the Seraglio and awaits new masters.
Well informed men have long known that it was
not the Turks, under Mahomet 11, who most con-
tributed to ruin the edifices, monuments, and li-
braries of Constantinople. The great destruction
dates from the capture of the city by the Crusaders.
Mr. de Hammer describes with energy the exces-
ses committed by the ignorant and ferocious war-
riors of Western Europe ; they went so far as to
insultand mutilate the images of the Holy Virgin,
which, doubtless, they did not recognize, on ac-
count of some differences in the Costume. After
this trait, we shall not be astonished at the de-
struction of the libraries, which up to that fatal
period. still contained many precious remains of
classic antiquity. The town became a desart
under the Latin Emperors, and when the G reeks
re-conquered it, they had no longer the means of
restoring it ; so that Mahomet 11. found it in a
most ruinous condition. The ruins therefore of
the ancient edifices of the town of Constantine
possess nothing of that impression of fallen gran-
deur, still majestic in its fall, that the monu-
ments of Rome present to us. The predominant
architecture at Constantinople is Turko Moorish,
and after a fugitive glance over its mosques, its
minarets and kiosks, we should fancy it a mo-
dern town founded by Mussulmans.
General Andr6ossy has described with pecu-
liar care the aqueducts of Constantinople, yet, he
could not possibly know all the historic details
relative to the reservoirs or bends which Mr. de
Hammer derived from the Turkish writer Tche-
lebi-Zade. The principal reservoirs are about
three or four hours journey from the walls of the
town in the forest of Belgrade. and consequently
an enemy's army occupying the European shores
of the Bosphorus, and encamping at the place
called the Walk of Szceet Waters, would deprive
the immense population of this capital of one of
its primary wants.
No person has yet been able to draw a topo-
graphical plan of the interior of the Winter Se-
raglio; and though the sketches given by Mel-
ling, and other ancient travellers, appear correct
in a general point of view, it is very possible
that the inaccessible apartments would present
unknown details of great interest. Who can say
that these very extensive apartments do not con-
tain some remains of the private library of the
Byzantine Emperors ? Mr. de Hammer has
given a small topographical plan of the Summer
Seraglio, a palace which, in spite of the irregu-
larity of the whole, must be a delightful resi-
dence, on account of its beautiful situation oppo-
site the entrance of the Bosphorus.
Our learned author does not confine himself to
topographical researches, necessarily dry, but
has interspersed his work with many amusing
anecdotes on the manners of the different classes
of the inhabitants of Constantinople. He does
justice to the character of the unfortunate Greeks,
doubly injured by able slanderers and weak pa-
negyrists. " The Greeks," he says, " still ex-
" hibit that mixture of vices and of brilliant qua-
" lilies which we discover in every page of
" ancient history. They retain the spirit of
" liberty, the taste and ingenuity of their ances-
" tors. . . . Those who accuse them of false-
" hood and treachery are most frequently dull
" minds, who, not possessing themselves an acute
" and active understanding, confound finesse with
" falsehood, and ability with treachery."

We discover in this Observation the able aut;►or
of the Memoir on the politics of the Comneni.
Mr. de Hammer in this Memo►r has demonstrated
that the prejudices of Europeans against the
Greeks are to be attributed to the extreme igno-
rance and credulity of the Crusaders. If these

• A town of Thrace on the rropontis, anciently surnamed
Mygdonica.

One of the most original chapters of this de-
scription of Constantinople is the table of -six
hundred corporations, which have a legal exist-
ence in this capital. This classification of the
different kinds of arts and trades is minute,
but occasionally very amusing. The tribe of
physicians,_ for instance, contains eight corpora-
tions, among which we observe that of the makers
of liquorice juice, and that of the manufacturers
of cosmetics. Frequently the Turks bring toge-
ther into the same tribe criminals and thief-
takers, &c. Thus their second tribe comprizes
twelve corporations, among which are execu-
tioners, police-officers, bankrupts, cut-purses,
. . . . We dare not continue this strange nomen-
clature.

It seems that several of these corporations, al-
though represented in a solemn procession which
passes before the seraglio, only exist in name,
and as a species of allegorical beings ; for, it is
scarcely possible to suppose that the law would
recognize a corporation of cut-purses, and another
of pirates. This table alone deserves an analysis
which we have not been able to give it, and ne
would therefore recommend the work of 11. de
liauuner to the attention of the public.

COURT OF ASSIZES, PARIS, DEC. 8.