TURKEY ISTANBUL - HIPPODROME

THE HIPPODROME; THE SITE OF ENTERTAINMENT AND REBELLION, VICTORIES AND MASSACRES:

The Hippodrome, with its final seating capacity of 100,000 people is located s in the square facing the Sultan Ahmet Mosque and its construction was commenced by Septimus Sever in the beginning of the 3^rd century AD. However, it was not completed until the reign of Constantine, who made ISTANBUL his capital and the most prominent city of his time and who constantly strove to make it greater and more beautiful than Rome.

 During the Byzantine Period the Hippodrome was the stage for the rivalry between the Blues and Greens, Factions who were engaged in passionate struggles to support their own racers, like our present day sports fan. Three of the important monuments of the Hippodrome are still standing. They are the “Dikilitas” (Obelisk), the “Yilanli Sutun” ( Serpentine Column ) and the “ Orme Sutun” ( Walled Obelisk). 

These monuments were erected on the central spine of the race track. Visitors should also be reminded that the monument to Porfirius, the legendary champion of those races, can today be seen at Istanbul Archaeological Museum. Let us take a closer look at these monuments.

From the Ayasofya end of the square the first monument is the Dikilitas( Obelisk), which was brought from Egypt with great difficulty and erected only after months of effort by an army of workers. It hieroglyphs were deciphered as late as the 18^th centry; before that , during the Ottoman and Byzantine periods, the signs carved on the obelisk were believed to quell evil spirits and spells.When the inscription were deciphered, it was understood that the obelisk was commissioned by the Pharaoh Thumosis III of Egypt  in the year 1550  BC. 

The original obelisk was actually far taller than what is seen at the present time since more than half of it was cut off in order to place in on a cargo vessel available at the time and so much effort that the Emperor Theodosius., who succeeded in the task in 390, had an inscription carved on the huge cubic base of the erected obelisk, saying that despite its having presented a challenge for so many years, it had finally submitted to the will of Emperor Theodsius. The inscription also stated how it had been erected over a period of 32 days and contained depictions of that heroic feat. Other carvings on the base depict the chariot races and life and wars of Theodosius.

The Orme Sutun (Walled Obelisk) is across the square and between them stands the smaller bronze monument which is known as Yilanli Sutun (Serpentine Column) . Yilanli Sutun as originally erected in the Temple of Apollo at Delphi in the 5^th century BC to commemorate a victory against the Persian army and it was made by melting weapons and armour captured in the war. It was originally a leg that consisted of serpents coiled over each other and at the top each serpent’s head was separated to form a tripod to hold a vessel where an eternal flame was kept burning for the memory of the war.

The vessel had long disappeared and the serpent heads collapsed. The reason why Constantine brought the monument to Istanbul is interesting. The widespread belief of the period was that the monument, consisting of serpents, had a mystical power to keep Istanbul safe from snakes and vermin infestation. While the serpents’ necks and heads have not survived to our day, part of one head was found during excavations and can be seen at the Istanbul Archaeological Museums.

The Orme Sutun (Walled Obelisk) is the last of the extant monuments. 

It was commissioned by the Emperor Constantine VII in 944 and as its name suggests, it was made of courses of masonry. When it was completed it supported bronze sphere and the marks of fixing studs in the masonry indicate that the obelisk was fully clad with bronze plaques depicting the wars of Emperor Basileus I of Macedonia. During the Latin occupation between 120 and 1261 those plaques were removed and melted down to make weapons, bronze goods and to mint money.

The Hippodrome was not always a place where the people were entertained and where joyous cries could be heard. The bloodiest uprisings of history, the mass punishment of rebels and the massacre of thousands of people also took place there. The infamous Nika Revolt, when many Byzantine monuments including Aysofya were set alight in 532, was put down in the bloodiest manner there and thousands were killed on the terraces and track of the Hippodrome. The square also played an important role in the Yenicero (Janissary) revolts and many were executed there.

The southern tip of the Hippodrome has survived to the present day. Just looking at that part enables us to realize how grandiose it once was. Despite being devastated during the Byzantine Period, the Ottomans gave it a new lease of life by organizing the state festivities there, so it continued to serve as the place of public entertainment. Various games and shows were staged there and the monuments of the Hippodrome were depicted in Ottoman miniature paintings. 

Entertainments were also shown in the miniature paintings, for example the high tightropes set between the obelisks for rope walkers, horse riders performing stunts before the Yilanli Sutun and tradesmen and artisan guilds displaying their rades on carts in a procession during the festivities. The miniature paintings also show that the Chariot Races of Bzantium was replaced with cirit (the jeered, a horseback team game where the aim was to score hits with a blunt wooden javelin on the other team’s riders).