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Nicetas Choniates Concerning the Statues of Constantinople destroyed by the Crusaders
Reprinted from J.F. Michaud The History of the Crusades Vol. 3
Translated from the French by W. Robson (New York: Armstrong, 1881), 435-441.
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The Latins manifested that love of gold which characterizes their nation, by thinking of a new species of plunder, till that time unknown to all the former spoilers of this city of cities. After opening the coffins of the emperors which are in the Heroum, erected near the magnificant Church of the disciples of Jesus Christ, they pillaged them all during the night; and, in violation of the laws of equity, they took away all the ornaments in gold, pearls, and precious transparent stones, which had so long remained untouched in that sacred place.
Having found, likewise, the body of the Emperor Justinian, still perfect and undecomposed, after the lapse of so many years, this spectacle struck them with admiration; but they paid no more respect, on that account, to the ornaments with which the body had been buried.
It may be affirmed that the Occidentals spared neither the living nor the dead, and beginning with God and his servants, they made all, indifferently, sensible to the effects of their impiety. A short time after, they bore away from the great church that veil which was valued at many thousand silver minae, and which was ornamented with thick golden embroidery. But as even all these riches could not satisfy the boundless cupidity of these barbarians, they cast their eyes upon the bronze statues, and consigned them to the flames The Juno of bronze, which stood in the Square of Constantine, was taken to pieces and sent...
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...to the melting house, to be transformed into staters [coins worthtwo shillings and fourpence each]; so large was this statue that the head was as much as four pairs of oxen could draw to the palace.
After the Juno, they took down from its base a group of Paris and Venus; the shepherd offering the goddess the golden apple of discord.
Whoever beheld without admiration that square obelisk of bronze, the height of which was almost equal to that of the loftiest columns? Upon it were sculptured all the birds which, in Spring, make the air resound with their melodious concerts, the labors of husbandmen, musical instruments, bleating sheep, and bounding lambs. The sea there spread forth its waves, with vast numbers of fish, part of which were taken alive, and the rest, bursting through the nets, were plunging back into their watery home. Naked cupids, sporting by twos and threes, pelting each other with apples, and indulging in the wildest gambols. At the top of this square obelisk, which terminated in a pyramidal form, was placed a female figure, which turned with the least breath of wind; whence she was called Anemodoulos (that is to say, the slave of the winds). This work, of admirable beauty, was likeways melted, as was a colossal statue, which stood in the place of Taurus, and represented a man on horseback in heroic costume. This figure, whose base was a trapezeium, was said by some to be Joshua, because his hand was extended towards the declining sun, and that he seemed to be commanding it to stay its course. But most persons thought it was intended for Bellerophon, the hero born and brought up in the Peloponnesus, mounted upon Pegasus; for the horse had no bridal , and it is thus Pegasus is represented, striking, at will, the plain with his hoof, and, whether flying or running, disdaining to submit to his rider. There was an ancient tradition, which was preserved to our times, and known to everybody, that under the left forefoot of this horse, was concealed the figure of a man, representing, according to some a Venetian, and according to others, some other enemy from the West, bearing a Roman name, or else it was a Bulgarian. Efforts had often been made to render this foot so firm and so solid that it might not be possible to discover what was said to be hidden beneath it. When this horse and his rider were taken to pieces to be melted, the figure was really found concealed under the foot of the horse; it was clothed in a mantle, much in appearance like one of wool; but the Latins, troubling themselves very little about the predictions concerning it, cast it also into the fire. Many other statues and admirable works, standing in the Hippodrome, shared the same...
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...fate, and were destroyed by these barbarians, who, incapable of admiration for the beautiful, converted all these master-pieces into coin, and annihilated monuments which had cost so much, for the sake of such an inconsiderable amount of money. They broke to pieces a Hercules, reclining upon an osier-basket (or mattress) , covered by a lion's skin, the head of which had, even in the bronze, so terrible an aspect, that it appeared about to roar, and spread terror among the idle multitude who stopped to look at it. The hero was seated, without quiver, bow, or club; his right arm and leg were stretched out to their full length, whilst his left leg was bent; placing his left elbow on his knee, he raised his forearm, and with an air of sadness, reposed his head upon the palm of his hand. he appeared to deplore his destiny, and to be thinking over with indignation the troubles to which Eurystheus constrained him, from jealousy, and not from necessity. His chest and shoulders were broad, his hair curly, his thighs large, his arms muscular, and his height was such as Lysimachus might, upon conjecture, have assigned to the true Hercules. This bronze Hercules was his first and last work; it was so large that the cord which went around his thumb was long enough for a common man's girdle, and that with which his leg was measured was equal in length to the height of a man. They did not, however, fail to annihilate such a Hercules, these men who had seperated courage from the virtues allied to it, who attributed it to themselves particularly, and professed to esteem it above everything! They took away the ass with his pack-saddle, walking and braying, with the ass driver following him, which Caesar Augustus had caused to be placed at Actium or Nicopolis, in Grecce, to perpetuate the rememberance of his having gone out one night to observe the army of Antony, and having met with this man, of whom he asked who he was, and whither he was going, the man answered his name was Nico, and that of his ass Nicander, and that he was going to Caesar's army. Neither could they keep their hands from the hyena, and the wolf which suckled Remus and Romulus; they melted this precious monument of the Roman nation for the sake of some paltry pieces of copper coin. They destroyed, in the same manner, the man contending with a lion; an hippopotamus of the Nile, the body of which ended in a tale covered with scales; the elephant shaking his trunk; the sphynxes, whose upper parts were those of women of rare beauty, but who, below, resembled fearful and horrid animals; those sphynxes were the more admirable from appearing to be able to walk, and at the same time to fly, and to dispute the palm of swiftness with the largest birds. A horse without a bridle, pricking up his ears and neighing; a tamed bull, walking with...
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...slow, heavy steps; and Scylla, that ancient monster, a woman to the waist, with her long neck, her large breasts, and an air full of cruelty; her inferior parts divided, to form those animals which attacked the vessels of Ulysses, and devoured several of his companions.
There was, likewise, in the Hippodrome, a bronze eagle, a wonderful monument of the magic art of Apollonius of Tyana. Being at Byzantium, he was implored to put an end to the trouble the inhabitants endured from the bites of serpents. Having recourse to his criminal arts, in which he had been instructed by demons and men initiated in their wicked mysteries, he placed upon a column an eagle which could not be looked upon without pleasure and which drew passers-by to stop and contemplate it, as the songs of the Syrens fascinated those who listened to the them. His wings were extended as if he were about to fly; but the folds of a serpent, which he held in his talons, impeded his efforts. The reptile stretched out its head as if to reach the wings of the bird; but its efforts were in vain; for, pierced by the claws of the eagle, its ardour relaxed, so that it appeared rather to be about to sleep or die than to fasten on the wings of the eagle. Thus the serpent was breathing its last sigh, and its venom was exhaling with it; whilst the eagle, with a haughty glance, and actually appearing to utter cries of victory, endeavored to raise the serpent, and bear it away into the heavens with him, all which was expressed by the eagle's superb look, and the death of the serpent. It might almost be said, in seeing the serpent thus forced to slacken its flexible folds, and forgo its venomous bites, that it drove away, by its example, other serpents from Byzantium, and exhorted them to conceal themselves in their holes. And this was not all that rendered the figure of this eagle admirable; for it indicated, very correctly to the eye of an instructed spectator, the twelve hours of the day, by twelve lines traced upon its wings, when the rays of the sun were not veiled by clouds.
What shall I say of the Helen, with arms whiter than snow, with small delicate feet, and a bosom of alabaster? Of Helen, who brought all Greece together against Troy, who occasioned the ruin of that city, who from the Trojan shores, passed to those of the Nile, and thence at length returned to Lacedaemon? Was she able to subdue these inexorable men, and soften these hearts of iron? She had not the power; she, whose beauty charmed every spectator, whose robing was magnificent, who, although of bronze, was full of delicious languor, and who, even to her tunic, her veil, her diadem, and her elegantly arranged hair, appeared to respire the very spirit of voluptuousness. Her tunic was of a fabric more delicate than the tissues...
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...of Arachne; her veil was of the most admirable workmanship; the diadem which encircled her brow, glittered with the brilliancy of gold and precious stones; and her floating tresses, agitated by the wind, were gathered together behind, and descended to her legs. Her lips, slightly seperated, like the cup of a rose, appeared ready to breath soft and pleasant words, whilst her inexressibly sweet smile seemed, in a manner, to meet the spectator, and fill him with delicious emotion. But language cannot describe or transmit to posterity the charm of her look, the arch so exquisitely marked of her eyebrows, or the graces which adorned her person. But thou, Helen, daughter of TTyndarus, lovely with natural beauty, work of the Loves, object of the cares of Venus, the most admirable gift of nature, the prize of victory proposed to Greeks and Trojans, where is the Nepenthe, that remedy against sadness, which the wife of Thoas remitted to thee? Where are those philters which none can resist? Why didst thou not employ them as formerly? But I see how it was. Thy inevitable destiny was to become the prey of the flames, thou, whose image alone had power to kindle the flames of love in the hearts of all who beheld thee. Perhaps I may say, that these descendants of Aeneas condemned thee to the fire, to avenge in thy own person Ilium, consumed by the fires which thy loves had created. But the fury of gold which possessed the Latins, and led them to annihilate in every spot the most beautiful master-pieces of art, is beyond my power of imagining or describing. But I may venture to say this; they seperate themselves from their wives, and yield them to the embraces of others for a few oboles; they are incessantly occupied in plunder, or in games of chance; they put on armour, and fight with each other, with a senseless and furious ardour, and not with a prudent, regulated valour; expose all they possess as the prize for victory, without excepting the young brides who have given them the pleasures of paternity, or even their own lives, a treasure so dear and valuable to all other men, and for the preservation of which there is nothing they will not undertake. -- Barbarians even, without letters, know and repeat these verses upon theee, Helen; -- "It is just that both Greeks and Trojans should undergo long misfortunes for the woman whose beauty equals that of immortal goddesses."
There stood upon a column another woman of singular beauty, apparently in the period of brilliant youth, whose hair descended in tresses on each side of her face, and was fastened behind; she occupied a situation but slightly elevated, so that she could be touched by the hand. In the right hand, although the arm had no support, this statue bore a horseman, whose horse she held by...
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...one foot, and that apparently as easily as a cup of wine is carried. This horseman, of a manly, noble bearing, clothed in his cuirass, and with booted legs, seemed actually to breathe war. The horses ears were raised as if he heard the sound of the trumpet, his head elevated, his look fiery, and the ardour painted in his eyes denoted his impatience for the course; his feet, prancing in the air, seemed springing forward with a warlike bound.
After this statue, next to the eastern boundary of the Quadriges, called of the yellow faction, were placed statues of charioteers, examples and models of the art of skillfully driving a chariot. They appeared almost, by the dispostion of their hands, to warn charioteers, not to loosen the reins on approaching the boundary; but to hold the horse with a tight hand whilst turning, and to make a sharp and continual use of the whip, so as to keep as close to the boundary as possible, and leave the the unskillful rival charioteer, to make too wide a sweep, and lose the advantage, even with the best horses.
I will only add one particularity, for I have not understaken to describe everything. That which excited remarkable pleasure and admiration, was a stone basis, upon which was placed an animal in bronze, which might have been taken for an ox, but that its tail was too small; like the oxen of Egypt, it had not long dowlaps, and its hoofs were not cloven. It crushed within its jaws, almost to the point of stifling it, another animal, whose body was bristling with scales, so pointed, that although of brinze, they would wound those who ventured to touch them; this animal was supposed to be a basilisk, and the creature it had seized, an aspick; but by others one was said to be an ox from the banks of the Nile, and the other a crocodile. For my part, I will not undertake to reconcile these opinions; I will content myself with saying that they were engaged in a most astonishing contest, and inflicted serious wounds upon each other; for sometimes the more strong, sometimes the more weak, they were at the same time conquerors and conquered. The animal, which many supposed to be a basilisk, was all swolled from head to feet, and the poison circulating throughout its body, and flowing through all its members, gave it a colour greener than that of frogs, -- a colour of death. It was upon its knees, with languishing eyes, and appeared to have lost all strength and vigour. It might have been believed even, that it had long been dead, had not its hind legs, at least, still stood firmly under it. The other animal which it held in its jaws, still waved its tail a little, and opened its long mouth under the pressure of the teeth which held and stifled it. It appeared to use its utmost efforts to escape from the teeth and jaws which held...
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...it so tenaciously, but could not succeed; for its body was fast between the jaws, and transpierced by the teeth of its enemy from the shoulders and the fore-feet to the part next to the tail. It was thus they died, the one by the other; the combat was mutual; the vengeance reciprocal, the victory equal, and the death common. For my part, I believe I may remark on this subject, that it is not only in effigy, or among fierce and strong animals, that beings wicked and fatal to man thus inflict a mutual death upon each other; but that we often see nations, which bring war to the Romans, destroy each other; which is an effect of the power of Christ, who disperses nations that are friends to war, who holds blood in horror, and shows the just marching against the aspick and the basilisk, and trampling under foot the lion and the dragon.
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