The Statues of Constantinople

Description

From its foundation by Constantine the Great in 324, Constantinople housed a great number of statues which stood in the city on streets and public places, were kept in several collections and in the Hippodrome. Almost all of them, except a number of newly made statues of reigning emperors, were ancient objects which had been brought to the city from other places. Many of these statues were later identified with other persons than those they actually represented, or received an allegorical, sometimes even an apocalyptical interpretion. When the Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade conquered the city in 1204, almost all statues of Constantinople were destroyed or looted. Cover Title page Copyright page The Statues of Constantinople Contents 1 Introduction 2 ‘Shining like the Sun upon the Citizens’: Constantine’s Statue on the Forum 3 Other Statues of Emperors on Triumphal Columns 4 Of Emperors and Elephants 5 Constantine Helios as Charioteer 6 The Forum of Constantine 7 The Servant of the Wind 8 The Rider on the Tauros 9 The Place of Brotherly Love 10 Empress Helena and the Lord of Amastris 11 The Ox of Bronze 12 Three-Headed Statues 13 Exakionion and Golden Gate 14 Prophecies of the Future 15 Testing Chastity 16 Collections of Statues 16.1 Hagia Sophia 16.2 The baths of Zeuxippos 16.3 The Palace of Lausos 17 Statues in the Hippodrome 17.1 The Skylla 17.2 The ‘bath attendant’ 17.3 Hippopotamus vs. crocodile 17.4 The boar of bronze and Herakles 17.5 Emperors, pagan gods, and animals 17.6 Niketas Choniates and the statues of the Hippodrome 17.7 The apocalyptical Hippodrome 18 The Statues of Constantinople in the Late Byzantine Age Bibliography