Meanwhile Constantine, though powerless, had been well treated, and had married Helena, the daughter of Romanus. On the deposition of his colleague, the people gave willing aid to Constan tine s cause ; and having banished his brothers-in-law, he became emperor in reality. Though wanting in strength of will, Constantine had intelligence and many other good qualities, and his reign on the whole was not unsatisfactory. (See Greek Empire.) He was poisoned by his son Romanus in 959. Constantine was a painter and a patron of art, a literary man and a patron of literature; and herein consists his real import ance. Unable as he was to sift out the really important from the unimportant, and the credible from the incredible, it is yet from his pages that we gain the only knowledge of any extent which we possess of his time. He is the author of several works of considerable size:—1. Ilept rwv Oe/jidrtav, an account of the provinces (tkemala) of the empire ; 2. De Administrando Imperio, an account of the condition of the empire, and an exposition of the author s view of government, written for the use of his son Romanus ; it also contains most valuable information as to the condition and history of various foreign nations with which the Eastern empire had been brought into connection, as tlio Arabs, Iberians, Armenians, and the tribes north of tho Danube—the Russians, Bulgarians, Hungarians, Chazars, and Patzinacitse ; 3. "Everts r!}; fiao-iXctov ra^ew?, which describes the customs of tho Eastern Church and court ; 4. A life of Basilius I., his grandfather; 5. Two treatises on warfare, of which his father Leo was perhaps part or sole author. The FewTroviKa, a treatise on agriculture with which his name is connected, is generally supposed to have been executed at his command by Bassus Cassianus ; and under his patronage many other works—including collections of the ancient historians (of which fragments are extant), lives of saints, and treatises on medicine were compiled. Several Latin translations of the works of Constantine have been made, and his com plete works were published at Leyden, 1617, and Paris,
1711.CONSTANTINE PAVLOVICH (1779-1831), second son of the Czar Paul I. of Russia, was born at St Petersburg on the 8th May 1779. His name was chosen by his grandmother, the Empress Catherine, on account, it was believed, of the tradition according to which an emperor Constantine was to reign at Constantinople. At the age of seventeen the prince was married to the Princess Juliana of Saxe-Coburg, but after four years a separation took place. In all affairs connected with the army Constantine took the intensest interest. In 1799 he served in Italy, and he gained distinction at the battle of Austerlitz (1805) by the admirable order in which he retreated. He also served throughout the rest of the war with France, but never held supreme command. In the end of 1815 he was appointed generalissimo of the army of Poland. His rule was marked by an unreasonable severity, which produced deep and general discontent; buthe introduced the strictest discipline. Though not nominally head of the Government, Constan tino s influence was very considerable ; and it was all employed in support of arbitrary principles. He abo lished the liberty of the press, and any literary man or student who expressed any opinion obnoxious to him was immediately thrown into prison. On the other hand he did much to carry out many material improvements. In 1820, having fallen in love with a Polish lady, he obtained through the influence of the emperor, his brother, a decreo of the Holy Synod permitting him to marry the lady; and in return ho signed a paper resigning all claim to the succession to tho throne. On the death of the Czar Alexander in December 1825, Nicholas, Constantine's younger brother, and after him heir to the throne, refused to allow himself to be crowned; but Constantine remained true to his promise, and, though a conspiracy of the officers of the army in favour of a constitution took place, and the conspirators proclaimed Constantine czar, he per sisted in supporting his brother, at whose coronation ho appeared to take the oath of homage. After this Con- stantine s power in Poland became greater than before ; his system of espionage and arbitrary government was moro harshly put in force, and arrests without any specified charge became more common. At length in 1830, that year of revolutions, the general hatred of Russia burst into a rebellion. Some of the conspirators entered the prince s palace at Warsaw ; but, the Polish guard remaining faithful, he escaped. He was, however, forced to release all Polish political prisoners, and to declare his intention of not calling in the Russian army to attack Poland. His Polish guard now requested liberty to rejoin the rest of the army. After granting permission, he withdrew it, and the guard deserted him. He was, nevertheless, allowed to reach the frontier in safety. In the consequent war Constantine took no important part, and after a time even the inferior command which he held was taken from him. The czar refused to allow him to live near St Petersburg, and the place of his residence was fixed at the little town of Bialystok, on the border line of Poland and Lithuania. He died on the 27th June of the following year (1831).
CONSTANTINOPLE, the capital of Turkey and of the Ottoman empire, is situated at the junction of the Bosphorus and the Sea of Marmora, in 41 16" N. lat. and 28 59 14" E. long. It may be said to stand upon two promon tories rather than upon two continents, since the quarter now called Galata was reckoned in the time of Arcadius tho 13th Region, whereas Kadikeui (Chalcedon) and Iskudar or Scutari (Chrysopolis), situated on the opposite coast of Asia Minor, have been always distinct cities. The promontories on which the capital lies are divided the one from the other by the last and largest of those inlets which cut the western shore of the channel known as the Bosphorus. This inlet is a large and important harbour, running from east to north west, capable of floating 1200 ships. It curls up in a course of little more than four miles to the foot of the hills which, joining the heights on either side, seern to form a vast amphitheatre, till it meets the united volume of two streams—the Cydaris and Barbysus of the ancients—the two whelps of the oracle,—
| “ | Bless'd they who make that sacred town their home, |
| By Pontus mouth upon the shore of Thrace, | |
| There where two whelps lap up the ocean foam, | |
| Where hind and fish find pasture at one place.” |
form and its fulness, been called the Golden Horn. It ia " like a stag s horn," Strabo says, " for it is broken into wavy creeks like so many branches, into which the fish pelamys (Tr^Xa/xvs) running is easily snared." In former times this fish was, and at the present day might be, a source of rich revenue—ever from time immemorial rushing down from the Sea of Azoff and the Black Sea, and when it approaches the white rock, on which stands the Maiden s (miscalled Leandcr s) Tower, glancing off it, and shooting straight into the Horn, but never enriching the rival city on the coast of Asia—Chalcedon, " the City of the Blind." If the figure of a stag s horn resembles the harbour, that of an ancient drinking-horn would represent the general form of Constantinople proper—the Seraglio point being turned inward like the sculptured mouth-piece. On this knot the Megarian city stood gathered about its Acropolis, and occupying the easternmost hill on the verge of Europe. Constantine aimed at building his new capital, after the old, on seven hills; his wish was fulfilled—not at first,
however, but a century after its dedication;—and he wished