Hippodrome (Constantinople)

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Location of the hippodrome in ancient Constantinople
Hippodrome square with a view of the Sultan Ahmed Mosque on a painting by Johann Martin Bernatz , 19th century
The hippodrome today, with the brick obelisk in the foreground
View of the south stand ( Sphendone ) of the hippodrome as it is today
The looped column in the middle of the hippodrome, in the background the obelisk Thutmose III. (Obelisk of Theodosius)
Bronze Quadriga (in Venice since 1204 )
The front of the German fountain

The hippodrome was the horse racing track in ancient Constantinople . It was the sporting and social center of the capital of the Byzantine Empire . Located in the same place today in the Turkish city of Istanbul of Sultan Ahmed Square ( Turkish Sultanahmet Meydanı ; Ottoman ات ميداني At Meydanı ), on which only a few elements of the historical complex can be seen.

The word “hippodrome” is derived from the Greek words ἵππος / hippos (“horse”) and δρόμος / dromos (“way, path”). Horse and chariot races were popular pastimes in the ancient world, and hippodromes were common structures in Greek, Roman and Eastern Roman cities. Since the facility in Constantinople had a spina , it is a Roman circus , not a Greek hippodrome .

history

The first hippodrome was built at a time when the city was still a mediocre city in the Roman province of Thracia under the name Byzantion , Latin Byzantium . After the destruction in the course of the civil war against his throne rival Pescennius Niger in 195, the Roman emperor Septimius Severus rebuilt Byzantium a little later, expanded the perimeter of the walls and equipped the city with an arena for chariot races, the completion of which was set in 203 becomes.

In 324, Emperor Constantine I decided to move the seat of government from Rome to Byzantium , which he renamed Constantinopolis , "City of Constantine"; the official inauguration took place on May 11, 330. Under Constantine, "his" city experienced a significant expansion of its area and was provided with some new buildings, including the new construction of the racecourse. Constantine's Hippodrome was 429 meters long and 119 meters wide and offered space for around 100,000 spectators. According to the model of the Circus Maximus in Rome, it was located in the immediate vicinity of the imperial palace so that the ruler could comfortably attend the events.

The racetrack was in the shape of an elongated U; the emperor's tribune, the Kathisma , on the roof of which a bronze emperor statue may have sat enthroned in a quadriga , was roughly in the middle of the eastern side. The Quadriga was kidnapped by the Venetians as spoils of war during the fourth crusade in 1204 , and their horses are now copies on St. Mark's Basilica in Venice , while the copper originals are in the Museo di S. Marco. The racetrack was adorned with numerous other bronze works, most of which stood on the center line, the Euripos, Latin spina : They not only showed famous horses and charioteers, but also various mythological scenes and a Heracles fighting a lion. Only one of them has survived, the serpent column that was brought from Delphi to Constantinople (see below).

In the time of the Eastern Roman Empire, the hippodrome was the social center of the city. Large amounts of money were wagered on the horse races and the city was split up into camps that cheered the circus parties of the blues ( venetoi ), greens ( prasinoi ), reds ( rousioi ) or whites ( leukoi ); however, the latter two teams lost their importance over time and became part of the supporters of the Blue and Green. The competition between these last two parties and their supporters often mixed with political and religious rivalries, some of which led to riots or even developed into civil wars. The most serious was the Nika uprising of 532, which allegedly killed up to 30,000 people: In its course, the audience loudly articulated their opposition to Emperor Justinian I (527-565) and chose a counter-emperor, but loyal troops could use it General Belisarius finally suppressed the uprising.

Constantinople never recovered from the effects of the Fourth Crusade . Although the Eastern Roman Empire lasted until 1453, the hippodrome was no longer used and fell into disrepair. The Ottomans , who conquered Constantinople in 1453 and made it the capital of their empire, showed no interest in horse racing; as a result, the hippodrome was slowly being forgotten. However, it was never built over to any significant extent, but its place was repeatedly used for celebrations, some of which are documented graphically. Today there are still remnants of the Sphendone, the semicircle in the south in the form of the brick masonry interior structure that has been stripped of its stone exterior.

Monuments in the hippodrome

In order to put his new residence city in a suitable light, Constantine brought works of art to Constantinople from all parts of the empire, but especially from the east. Among them was the rest of the Plataiai sacrificial altar , which was erected to celebrate the victory of the Greeks over the Persians in the Battle of Plataiai in 479 BC. Was made. The work of art was removed from the Temple of Apollo in Delphi and placed again in the center of the hippodrome. Most of it was destroyed during the Fourth Crusade, the only remainder is part of the base, a column in a looped shape, the serpentine column .

Another emperor who furnished the hippodrome with art treasures was Theodosius I (379–395). He had an obelisk brought from Egypt to Constantinople and erected in the center of the racetrack in 390. The pink granite obelisk of Theodosius originally stood in the Temple of Karnak in Luxor and was built during the reign of Thutmose III. around 1490 BC Built in BC. Today the obelisk is only 19.59 meters high. It broke even before it was straightened, which required a change of plan. Originally it was more than 32 meters high, as big as the Lateran Obelisk , which today stands in front of the Lateran Basilica in Rome . The obelisk stands on a marble base, which was made anew after it was broken and placed on the original base. Even after 3,500 years, the monument is still in astonishingly good condition.

The lower marble plinth bears the building inscription of the city prefect Proc (u) lus in a shorter Greek and a longer Latin version: while the first text speaks of a time of 32 days for the erection, the second adds the prostration of an opposing emperor as the reason for the Addition of the obelisk as a victory mark; this means the victory over Magnus Maximus in Italy in 388. The four reliefs on the upper base show events at the imperial court that serve the glory of Theodosius and his family: The emperor and his sons Arcadius and Honorius follow the events with dignitaries, soldiers of their bodyguards and servants, with the main characters sitting in the imperial tribune. Most important for propaganda purposes is the north-western relief, which shows the offering of gifts by two delegations from foreign nations, the Persians on the left and the Germans on the right, probably the Visigoths ; Theodosius's wife, Galla, also sits here in the imperial box . On the northeast side of the lower plinth the scene of the erection of the obelisk was carved. Particularly interesting are the images of technical objects such as winches, ropes and a kind of “slide” on which the obelisk was moved to the place of installation. The obelisk was erected by lifting the slender end and rotating it around supports under its base. The opposite relief shows a horse race.

The rest of the bronze serpent column is also preserved on site. This column was originally erected by 31 Greek cities to commemorate the Battle of Plataiai in front of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi : It is a column made up of three intertwined serpents, the heads of which once carried a tripod , a symbol of the cult of Apollo. Constantine I probably had the monument brought to Constantinople in 330. The tripod with its golden bowl was stolen during the Fourth Crusade and has been lost ever since. The heads of the snakes have been chopped off or fallen off, but one of them was found on the site of the Janissary Dressage House in the mid-19th century . It is exhibited in the Istanbul Archaeological Museum .

Before the Egyptian obelisk reached Constantinople, the stone-built obelisk was already there. This was originally covered with gold plates, which were also stolen during the Fourth Crusade. The stone core stands as the southernmost monument on the square of the hippodrome.

German travelers described the place in the 16th century:

“Weytter is a big place between Constantinapol, not far from Agia Sophia, hot in front of the Turkish Ippodromi and now in the Turkish Athmedan. […] Alda is still a tall four-chain pillar […]. What beautiful stones were by heart, they were all torn down, were cast from metal inside, it looks like something woody and small. [...] Alda is also a high four eketter obeliscus ader stain from ainem stukhe, [...] on which there are four figures and cages, and the others an ewle, and also an eagle. […] Obgemeltter stain is set on another braittern fus […]. Mer is a high, poured, copper-free sewle on the obstandem place Athmedan, digkher than a gaping one. It is twisted threefold like 3 snakes and overhead there are three snakes walking upside down with open mouths; nothing is written about it. "

- Hans Dernschwam

“On the registered racing course, however, there are a number of old monuments, first listed as an old high column of masonry stones, which has fallen into disrepair with age. Accordingly, an obeliscus or pyramis, that is a high, pointed column, which is at the top in a roof shape, made of beautiful marble, over 40 elbows high, from a single piece, standing on four cubes of ore. Carved into it half an inch deep, Literae Hieroglyphicae. […] Furthermore, an earthly column stands in the intended place, one and a half men high and three spans thick, sinuous dryfach, on top with three snake heads, not far from the reported pyramid. It is said of this serpent-column that no serpent can come into town for its sake. But when Mahomet [ie Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror] took the city of Constantinople and visited it, he met this cast snake and knocked off the lower part of the head with his Busigan [ie bozdoğan , iron mace]. "

The hippodrome today

Today's Sultan Ahmed Square is about two meters higher than the former racetrack. The remaining monuments described above protrude from depressions in the park-like structure.

At the northern end of the square is the German Fountain ( Alman Çeşmesi ) or Kaiser Wilhelm Fountain, an octagonal, roofed fountain in the style of a neo-renaissance mixed with elements of the Hagia Sophia furnishings. It was erected on behalf of the German government in memory of Kaiser Wilhelm II's second visit to Constantinople in 1898 from parts made in Germany that had been brought there by ship; It was inaugurated on January 27, 1901, the emperor's birthday.

The hippodrome has never been the subject of systematic archaeological excavations, but some sporadic excavations took place in the 20th century under British and German leadership. Part of the south curve was exposed in the 1980s when houses built above it were demolished.

In 1993, during construction work for a toilet facility near the Sultan Ahmed Mosque, rows of seats and columns were discovered: They can be seen today in the garden of the same mosque.

Terrorist attack in January 2016

On January 12, 2016, at least ten people were killed in a terrorist attack on Sultan Ahmed Square , the majority of whom were Germans .

literature

  • Hippodrome. A Stage for Istanbul's History (exhibition catalog), Istanbul 2010, ISBN 978-975-9123-70-3
  • Gilbert Dagron: L'hippodrome de Constantinople. Jeux, peuple et politique . Gallimard, Paris 2011 (Bibliothèque des histoires).
  • Armin Wirsching: Transporting and erecting obelisks in Egypt and Rome . 3rd ext. Edition. Books on Demand , Norderstedt 2013, ISBN 978-3-8334-8513-8 .

Web links

Commons : Hippodrome of Constantinople  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Franz Babinger (ed.): Hans Dernschwam's diary of a trip to Constantinople and Asia Minor (1553/55). According to the original in the Fugger archive. 2nd Edition. Duncker and Humblot, Berlin / Munich 1986, p. 99 f.
  2. ^ Salomon Schweigger: To the court of the Turkish sultan . Edition Leipzig, 1986, p. 125 f.
  3. ^ Istanbul assassin from the IS terrorist militia. (No longer available online.) In: Neue Luzerner Zeitung . January 12, 2016, archived from the original on January 13, 2016 ; accessed on January 13, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.luzernerzeitung.ch

Coordinates: 41 ° 0 ′ 23 "  N , 28 ° 58 ′ 33"  E