- Forum Arcadii
The Forum of Arcadii, or Arcadius Forum, was built by the Emperor Flavius
Arcadius in the city ofConstantinople , nowIstanbul . Built in 403, it was the last forum before reaching the Constantine city walls and the Golden Gate in a line of forums, including the Theodosian Forum, the Constantinian Forum, the Bovis Forum, and the Amastriani Forum, built westward from the city center along the Mese. [Necipoglu, Nevra. "Byzantine Constantinople: Monuments, Topography and Everyday Life". Leiden, Koninklijke, 2001. p31.]The forum was later converted to a bazaar by the Ottomans, referred to as the "Avrat Pazarı" or "Woman Bazaar", which was used for the auctioning of female slaves, otherwise known as 'Cariye', who technically during the period had a completely different social status than regular slaves.
The Arcadius column found in the center of the forum was decorated with spiral bands of sculpture in bas relief representing the triumphs of the emperor, like Trajan's column in Rome. At the top of the column, which was more than 50m high, there was an enormous Corinthian capital surmounted by an equestrian statue of Arcadius, placed there in 421 by his son, Theodosius II. This statue was eventually toppled from the column and destroyed during an earthquake in 704. The column itself remained standing for another thousand years until it was deliberately demolished in 1715, when it appeared to be in immanent danger of collapsing on the neighboring houses. Now all that remains are the mutilated base and some fragments of sculpture from the column which are on display in the Archaeological Museum, in Istanbul. [Hilary Sumner-Boyd, John Freely "Strolling through Istanbul, a guide to the city", ISBN 975-413-045-0]
References
External links
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hl47rZ_AEuE] , Video of present day condition
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