Byzantine Churches in Constantinople

PREFACE.

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IN the following pages, I venture to take part in the task of identifying the historical sites of Byzantine or Roman Constantinople, with the view of making the events of which that city was the theatre more intelligible and vivid. The new interest now taken in all related to the Byzantine world demands a work of this character.

The attention I have devoted, for many years, to the subject has been sustained by the conviction that the Empire of which New Rome was the capital defended the higher life of mankind against the attacks of formidable antagonists and rendered eminent service to the cause of human welfare. This is what gives to the archaeological study of the city its dignity and importance.

Only a portion of my subject is dealt with in the present volume—the walls of the city, which were the bulwarks of civilization for more than a thousand years, and the adjoining sites and monuments memorable in history.

While availing myself, as the reader will find, of the results obtained by my predecessors in this field of research, I have endeavoured to make my work a fresh and independent