www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Show about Constantinople

I just saw an advertisement on the History Channel for a show about Constantinople. It is part of its "Ancient Marvels" series. It will explore the city beneath the present level of Istanbul. (The clip I saw showed a man on a small boat floating through the underground remains of the hippodrome.)

It will be shown in the U.S. tonight (2 March 2006) at 8 p.m. (Eastern Standard Time).

I don't know about other times or other locations. Perhaps you can find them if you check your TV provider or the History Channel website. http://www.historychannel.com/

-- John

Hi John,

I just saw it. It was fascinating. Many awesome ruins lie beneath the new city of Istanbul and are only just now being discovered, documented and/or appreciated by modern Turkish archeologists...I guess it must be difficult to appreciate the history of a civilization who, though you habitate its land, you have no real connection to historically, ethnically, or religiously.

In Christ,
Alice

Dear Alice you said:

"I guess it must be difficult to appreciate the history of a civilization who, though you habitate its land, you have no real connection to historically, ethnically, or religiously."

I say:

Don't tell that to the Turks. They consider themselves the inheritors as well as the true occupants of the land.

Now that can be true in some ways, after all some Byzantines, (Eastern Romans) did convert, and others were taken into the harem or forcefully recruited into the Janissaries.

What difference though! The pathetic thing is seeing all that art and beauty in ruins. Thank heaven we still have Rome with all it's grandeur, as well as Revenna. I wonder though, if the time might come that our Lord might not be as merciful as He has been, and all that beauty that still exists in Italy, might be taken away.

As for the ruins in Constantinople, they were unbelievable. The Hippodrome was the length of five footballs fields, and the original palace was overwhelming. The Romans sure knew how to build. I heard that the composition they used for concrete, was rediscovered only recently.

I felt that there was one mistake in the presentation. One of the archiologists said that the Hippodrome fell apart because of the religiousity of the people. I doubt it, after all it was built by Constantine the Great, and he certainly was a Christian...or at least his mother Helen was.

It probably fell out of use in the same way everything else did...loss of wealth and population after the 4th Crusade. I think that Constantinople at it's height had almost a million inhabitants, and before the Turks conquered it, only about forty or so thousand. I might be wrong of course, since I'm depending on a faulty memory.

The size of the cisterns were unbelievable. Really precautionary in case of a siege. I have an exagerated map of Constantinople from an old edition of National Geographic, and just love to study it. It shows in large scale the most outstanding buildings, etc.

There is one story I came across once. It seems that when Constantine the Great was outlining his New Rome, one of his men asked: Don't you think it's big enough? He answered: I will stop when the angel in front of me stops.

Of course this is not something we'll hear in our 'enlightened' secular history books. Instead they'll state how he knew that Rome would lose it's power, and how the East will get more powerful, and so on and so on. Well I guess we can choose whichever version we like. As for me, I like the one where he's following the angel.

As for the current name 'Istanbul', it derives from the Greek 'is tin polis, which means to the city or in the city. The 'city' of course means Constantinople, (City of Constantine). It ceased to be Roman after the Emporor Justinian, when the language changed from Latin to Greek...something that was bound to happen when one considers that the original city was the Greek Byzantium. Yet the Greeks today, (especially those with an Eastern mentality), still like to refer to themselves as 'Romans' (Romaii).

Zenovia

Ran into two remarkable circumlocutions in Constantinople - first was a large outdoor stall (on the Grand Rue de Pera) selling photographs of "Old Istanbul". I was with some Greek friends, and we had great difficulty in refraining from bursting out into loud, rude horse laughs. Second was a notice that some pundit or other was giving a public lecture on "The Pre-Islamic History of Turkey" - luckily I was indoors when that particular Turkish Delight came to my attention, so I could laugh to my heart's content.

Incognitus

Dear Icognitus,

So you mentioned stall! Well, many, many years ago, when I visited Constantinople, I noticed some antique looking religious objects that a peddlar was selling. While looking at a specific one, the peddlar motioned 'no', and pointed to another one. He basically was telling me that all were fake with the exception of that one. It was a bronze tryptich in a deplorable condition.

Well, who was I to question a peddlar, who had nothing to gain if I purchased that one or another. So I bought it for about $8.00.

Well, everyone laughed of course, telling me I was taken for a ride...as I worked scraping off the corrosion. Well even the 'expert' at the Met. in N.Y. said it was undoubtably fake when I mentioned it was from a peddlar. But fortunately I had another icon to show her so she was willing to look at it. She thought I was trying to sell them, so I won't mention her dirty looks. after all she was Russian and undoubtably Orthodox.

Well it turned out that the tryptich was Russian and from the early 19th century. I couldn't help but think of the poor Russian soldier that must have had it on him during some war.

Zenovia

I missed the 8 p.m. broadcast, so I stayed up to watch the rebroadcast at midnight last night. I managed to stay awake through the first half . . . then, alas, the couch claimed me . But, what I saw was impressive -- especially that *huge* underground resevoir.

-- John