| Transcript |
8 CONSTANTINOPLE AND ITS ENVIRONS ;
preservation, and highly finished. It represents a female with a profusion of long hair,
which has given rise to various conjectures; some affirming it to be part of the statue
of the empress Helena, who, with her husband, rebuilt the fortress. It seems, however,
a better specimen than could be executed during the total decay of the arts of that
period, and displays a boldness of design belonging to a more perfect age of Grecian skill.
It is therefore with greater probability supposed to represent Smyrna, the heroic Amazon,
who, according to Pliny, founded the city, and conferred on it her own name.
On the slope of the hill on one side, are the ruins of a stadium, or theatre. The stones
were formerly removed to erect a khan, and displayed under the foundation of the walls,
the cells where those wild beasts were confined, with which the early Christians were
compelled to fight, as St. Paul, " after the manner of men," at Ephesus. To this fate,
St. Polycarp, the first Christian bishop, was condemned. He was the disciple of
St. John, and appointed by him to superintend his church of Smyrna. He proceeded to
Rome, at the age of one hundred and four, to confer with the Christians of that city
about some subjects of controversy, which even then divided the infant church; and
on his return he was, by the order of the emperor, thrown to the beasts of this theatre,
and devoured, for the recreation of the assembled people of one of the most opulent and
polished cities of the heathen world: some, however, say he was burned alive. The
persecution of Christians has distinguished this church of the Apocalypse even in modern
times. In the year 1770, after the defeat of the Turkish fleet, orders wrere given by the
pasha to retaliate on the Greeks of Smyrna. Armed men were let loose on them at five
o'clock on Sunday morning, who rushed into their houses, and the churches where
they were assembled, and in five hours one thousand five hundred Greeks were sacrificed
in cold blood. In the year 1822, similar cruelties were perpetrated. The massacre of
Scio extended to Smyrna. For several days the Greeks were hunted out, and brought,
as they were seized, to a spot below the ascent of the hill, as to a favourite place for
immolation. Eight hundred were here murdered, and their putrid remains were left for
a long time tainting the air, and spreading pestilence among their executioners.
In the front ground of our illustration is a bridge thrown over the mouth of the
Meles, where it debouches into the harbour. Over it is constantly passing an uninterrupted current of caravans, bearing merchandise, indicating the immense commercial
intercourse of the city. It is known, that eight hundred laden camels a da)r, cross the
Meles at this one point. Beside the bridge, is a tree, noted as the instrument of the
summary justice of the Turks. When a suspected delinquent is seized in the neighbourhood, he is dragged to it, and immediately hung up to one of the branches. |
