The Column of Justinian was a Roman triumphal column erected in

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

by the

Byzantine emperor The foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, which Fall of Constantinople, fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Only the emperors who were recognized as legitimate rulers and exercised s ...

Justinian I Justinian I (, ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was Roman emperor from 527 to 565. His reign was marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renovatio imperii'', or "restoration of the Empire". This ambition was ...

in honour of his victories in 543. It stood in the western side of the great square of the

Augustaeum The ''Augustaion'' () or, in Latin language, Latin, ''Augustaeum'', was an important ceremonial square in ancient and medieval Constantinople (modern Istanbul, Turkey), roughly corresponding to the modern ''Aya Sofya Meydanı'' (Turkish language, ...

, between the

Hagia Sophia Hagia Sophia (; ; ; ; ), officially the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque (; ), is a mosque and former Church (building), church serving as a major cultural and historical site in Istanbul, Turkey. The last of three church buildings to be successively ...

and the Great Palace, and survived until 1509, its demolition by the Great earthquake of ConstantinopleSemavi EYİCE. Yabancıların Gözünden Bizans İstanbul'u which affected other historical places as well.

Description and history

The column was made of brick, and covered with brass plaques.Kazhdan (1991), p. 232 The column stood on a marble pedestal of seven steps, and was topped by a colossal bronze

equestrian statue An equestrian statue is a statue of a rider mounted on a horse, from the Latin ''eques'', meaning 'knight', deriving from ''equus'', meaning 'horse'. A statue of a riderless horse is strictly an equine statue. A full-sized equestrian statue is a ...

of the emperor in triumphal attire (the "dress of

Achilles In Greek mythology, Achilles ( ) or Achilleus () was a hero of the Trojan War who was known as being the greatest of all the Greek warriors. The central character in Homer's ''Iliad'', he was the son of the Nereids, Nereid Thetis and Peleus, ...

" as

Procopius Procopius of Caesarea (; ''Prokópios ho Kaisareús''; ; – 565) was a prominent Late antiquity, late antique Byzantine Greeks, Greek scholar and historian from Caesarea Maritima. Accompanying the Roman general Belisarius in Justinian I, Empe ...

calls it), wearing an antique-style

muscle cuirass In classical antiquity, the muscle cuirass (), anatomical cuirass, or heroic cuirass is a type of cuirass made to fit the wearer's torso and designed to mimic an idealized male human physique. It first appears in late Archaic Greece and became wi ...

, a plumed helmet of

peacock Peafowl is a common name for two bird species of the genus '' Pavo'' and one species of the closely related genus '' Afropavo'' within the tribe Pavonini of the family Phasianidae (the pheasants and their allies). Male peafowl are referred t ...

feathers (the '' toupha''), holding a ''

globus cruciger The for, la, globus cruciger, cross-bearing orb, also known as ''stavroforos sphaira'' () or "the orb and cross", is an Sphere, orb surmounted by a Christian cross, cross. It has been a Christian Church, Christian symbol of authority since the M ...

'' on his left hand and stretching his right hand to the East.Procopius,
De Aedificiis
', I.2.1–11 There is some evidence from the inscriptions on the statue that it may actually have been a reused earlier statue of

Theodosius I Theodosius I ( ; 11 January 347 – 17 January 395), also known as Theodosius the Great, was Roman emperor from 379 to 395. He won two civil wars and was instrumental in establishing the Nicene Creed as the orthodox doctrine for Nicene C ...

Theodosius II Theodosius II ( ; 10 April 401 – 28 July 450), called "the Calligraphy, Calligrapher", was Roman emperor from 402 to 450. He was proclaimed ''Augustus (title), Augustus'' as an infant and ruled as the Eastern Empire's sole emperor after the ...

.Majeska (1984), p. 239 The column survived intact until late Byzantine times, when it was described by

Nicephorus Gregoras Nicephorus Gregoras (; Greek: , ''Nikēphoros Grēgoras''; c. 1295 – 1360) was a Byzantine Greek astronomer, historian, and theologian. His 37-volume ''Roman History'', a work of erudition, constitutes a primary documentary source for th ...

, as well as by several Russian pilgrims to the city. The latter also mentioned the existence, before the column, of a group of three bronze statues of "pagan (or

Saracen upright 1.5, Late 15th-century German woodcut depicting Saracens ''Saracen'' ( ) was a term used both in Greek and Latin writings between the 5th and 15th centuries to refer to the people who lived in and near what was designated by the Rom ...

) emperors", placed on shorter columns or pedestals, who kneeled in submission before it. These apparently survived until the late 1420s, but were removed sometime before 1433. The column itself is described as being of great height, 70 meters according to

Cristoforo Buondelmonti Cristoforo Buondelmonti () was an Italian Franciscan priest, traveler, and was a pioneer in promoting first-hand knowledge of Greece and its antiquities throughout the Western world. Biography Cristoforo Buondelmonti was born around 1385 into an ...

. It was visible from the sea, and once, according to Gregoras, when the ''toupha'' fell off, its restoration required the services of an acrobat, who used a rope slung from the roof of the

By the 15th century, the statue, by virtue of its prominent position, was actually believed to be that of the city's founder,

Constantine the Great Constantine I (27 February 27222 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was a Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337 and the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity. He played a Constantine the Great and Christianity, pivotal ro ...

. Other associations were also current: the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

antiquarian Cyriacus of Ancona was told that it represented

Heraclius Heraclius (; 11 February 641) was Byzantine emperor from 610 to 641. His rise to power began in 608, when he and his father, Heraclius the Elder, the Exarch of Africa, led a revolt against the unpopular emperor Phocas. Heraclius's reign was ...

. It was therefore widely held that the column, and in particular the large ''globus cruciger'', or "apple", as it was popularly known, represented the city's '' genius loci''.Finkel (2006), p. 53 Consequently, its fall from the statue's hand, sometime between 1422 and 1427, was seen as a sign of the city's impending doom.Majeska (1984), p. 240 Pierre Gilles, a French scholar living in the city in the 1540s, gave an account of the statue's remaining fragments, which lay in the Topkapi Palace, before being melted to make cannons: The appearance of the statue itself with its inscriptions is preserved, however, in a 1430s drawing made by Giovanni Dario at the behest of Cyriacus of Ancona.

References

Sources

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External links

3D reconstruction at the ''Byzantium 1200'' project
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Column Of Justinian 6th-century establishments in the Byzantine Empire Buildings and structures completed in the 6th century

Justinian Justinian I (, ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was Roman emperor from 527 to 565. His reign was marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renovatio imperii'', or "restoration of the Empire". This ambition was ...

Equestrian statues in Turkey Buildings and structures demolished in the 16th century 543 establishments Cultural depictions of Justinian I Statues of monarchs 6th-century sculptures Outdoor sculptures in Istanbul