"... The Circus, or Hippodrome, was a stately building of
about four hundred paces in length and one hundred in
breadth. The space between the two _metae_, or goals, was
filled with statues and obelisks, and we may still remark a
very singular fragment of antiquity--the bodies of three
serpents twisted into one pillar of brass. Their triple
heads had once supported the golden tripod which, after the
defeat of Xerxes, was consecrated in the temple of Delphi by
the victorious Greeks. The beauty of the Hippodrome has been
long since defaced by the rude hands of the Turkish
conquerors; but, under the similar appellation of Atmeidan,
it still serves as a place of exercise for their horses.
From the throne whence the emperor viewed the Circensian
games a winding staircase descended to the palace, a
magnificent edifice, which scarcely yielded to the residence
of Rome itself, and which, together with the dependent
courts, gardens, and porticoes, covered a considerable
extent of ground upon the banks of the Propontis between the
Hippodrome and the church of St.
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