August 2020
The column was dedicated on May 11, 330 AD, with a mixture of Christian and pagan ceremonies. In Constantine's day the column was at the centre of the Forum of Constantine (today known as Çemberlitaş Square), an oval forum situated outside the city walls in the vicinity of what may have been the west gate of Antoninia. On its erection, the column was 50 meters tall, constructed of several cylindrical porphyry blocks. The exact number of porphyry blocks is disputed, but common figures range from seven, up to as many as eleven. The column was surmounted by a statue of Constantine, probably nude, wearing a seven-point radiate crown and holding a spear and orb.
(Wikipedia)
Constantine's memorial column may have been the grandest ever constructed in the whole of the Roman Empire. Its original height was the same as the Colosseum and the Pantheon in Rome. The very fact that it has survived city sackings, fires, earthquakes, and two changes in religion speaks to its staying power. The column was located prominently along the old Mese odos. the road connecting "New Rome" with "Old Rome". Today the column's address is still on the main road in the old part of European Istanbul.
The column actually looks awful. After everything it has been through, not much more remains than a column of old stones held together by a metal straight-jacket. However, even the residents of modern Istanbul still pay homage to the city's founder. The Ottomans were second-generation interlopers in spite of their long reign. Constantine built Istanbul - no one else. History has not nearly been as kind to the remnants of Rome in Istanbul, unfortunately.
Early Christians converted or destroyed most of the Roman temples. The city grew and redeveloped. It had numerous fires and earthquakes. It survived the First Crusade where it was sacked by fellow Christians. The Ottomans came and slowly made the city into their own image (which was beautiful). Roman Constantinople was almost all erased save a wall here or a foundation there and a few buried cisterns [see: Cistern of Theodosius]. Maybe one of the reasons that everyone forgets the Roman empire continued in the East for centuries is that there is very little left of it to remind us.
The Column of Constantine stands in memory of a Roman emperor who changed history and the world's trajectory. Nothing is left of his city, not even its name - but his column silently reminds us of the past.
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