BEAUTIES OF THE BOSPHORUS. 66
PLATE: THE COLUMN OF THEODOSIUS.
THE SERAI BOURNOU.
"A rich confusion form'd a disarray
In such sort, that the eye along it cast
Could hardly carry any thing away,
Object on object flashed so bright an fast:
A dazzling mass of gems, and gold, and glitter,
Magnificently mingled in a litter."
BYRON.
The celebrated Serai Bournou, occupying the obtuse point of the triangle on which Constantinople is built, boasts, as perhaps its greatest peculiarity, that it was once in itself a city. The ancient Byzantium was founded in the year A. C. 660, by a Lacedemonian colony; and a portion of the original walls are actually standing at this day, and still serve to separate the palace gardens from the public street. The mouldering but solid masonry which now girdles the Imperial residence of the Caliphs, once belted a city; and the groves and alleys that are to-day scantily traversed by slaves, eunuchs, and women, were in times of old thickly peopled with an active, busy, and enterprising population.
Byzantium, enriched by the first Constantine, and made the key-stone of a new Empire, and the capital of a second Rome - Byzantium, where a hundred of his august race feasted and governed in their turn, and which was ultimately lost to Christendom by the last and bravest of the line - is now a mere Moslem palace, where the echoes of the war-trumpet, and the neighing of the war-steed, have been replaced by the twanging of the lute, and the voices of women; even its ancient name is never heard, and its broad sun-lighted honours have been exchanged for silence and mystery.
It is asserted by historians that the capital of Byzantium was formerly enriched with columns and statues, and that monuments, now no longer in existence, were profusely collected within its walls: be that as it may, the only remnant of classic antiquity now remaining is a stately column of marble, formed of huge blocks piled upon each other to the height of ninety feet, and standing upon a raised square platform, or terrace, planted with trees, in an outer court of the palace; and known as the Column of Theodosius;