st, a feeble copy. Hagia Sophia justified its founder
in declaring, "I have surpassed thee, O Solomon!" and during seven
centuries after Justinian his successors had each attempted to add to
its wealth and its decoration. Yet this, incomparably the most
beautiful church in Christendom, at the opening of the thirteenth
century was stripped and plundered of every ornament which could be
carried away. It appeared to the indignant Greeks that the very stones
would be torn from the walls by these intruders, to whom nothing was
sacred.

Around the Great Church were other objects which could be readily
converted into bronze, and the destruction of which was irreparable.
The immense hippodrome was crowded with statues. Egypt had furnished
an obelisk for the centre, Delphi had given its commemoratory bronze
of the victory of Plataea. Later works of pagan sculptors were there in
abundance, while Christian artists had continued the traditions of
their ancestors. The cultured inhabitants of Constantinople
appreciated these works of art and took care of them. In giving a list
of the more important of the objects which went to the melting-pot,
Nicetas again and again urges that these works were destroyed by
barbarians who were ignorant of their value. Incapable of appreciating
either their historical interest or the value with which the labor of
the artist had endowed them, the crusaders knew only the value of the
metals of which they were composed.

The emperors had been buried within the precincts of the Church of the
Holy Apostles, the site of which was afterward chosen by Mahomet II
for the erection of the mosque now called by his name. Their tombs,
beginning with that of Justinian, were ransacked in the search for
treasure. It was not until the palaces of the nobles, the churches,
and the tombs had been plundered that the pious brigands turned their
attention to the statues, A colossal figure of Juno, which had been
brought from Samos, and which stood in the forum of Constantine, was
sent to the melting-pot. We may judge of its size from the fact that
four oxen were required to transport its head to the palace. The
statue of Paris presenting to Venus the apple of discord followed. The
Anemodulion, or "Servant of the Winds," was a lofty obelisk, whose
sides were covered with bas-reliefs of great beauty, representing
scenes of rural life, and allegories depicting the seasons, while the
obelisk was surmounted by a female figure w