OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

235

The conqueror' gazed with satisfaction andwonder on the strange, though splendid appear-ance of the domes and palaces, so dissimilarfrom the style of Oriental architecture. In thehippodrome, or almeidan, his eye was attractedby the twisted column of the three serpents;and, as a trial of his strength, he shattered withhis iron mace, or battle-axe, the under-jaw ofone of these monsters/ which, in the eye of theTurks, were the idols or talismans of the city.At the principal door of St. Sophia, he alightedfrom his horse, and entered the dome; and suchwas his jealous regard for that monument of hisglory, that on observing a zealous mussulmanin the act of breaking the marble pavement, headmonished him with his scymetar, that, if thespoil and captives were granted to the soldiers,the public and private buildings had been re-served for the prince. By his command themetropolis of the Eastern church was formedinto a mosch : the rich and portable instrumentsof superstition had been removed; the crosseswere thrown down; and the walls, which werecovered with images and mosaics, were washedand purified, and restored to a state of nakedsimplicity. On the same day, or on the ensuing'Friday, the muezin, or crier, ascended the mostlofty turret, and proclaimed the ezan , or publicinvitation in the name of God and his prophet;the imam preached; and Mahomet the second

* See the Turkish Annals, p. 329, and the Pandects of Leunclavius,p. 448.

1 I have had occasion (vol. iii, p. 22) to mention this curious relic ofGrecian antiquity.

CHAP.

LXVIII.