Byzantine Empire Hippodrome of Constantinople - Sultanahmet

The Great Hippodrome of the Byzantine Empire.

The Hippodrome of Constantinople was a horse-racing track that was the sporting and social centre of Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire and the largest city in Europe. Today it is a square named Sultanahmet Meydani in the Turkish city of Istanbul, with only a few fragments of the original structure surviving.



The word hippodrome comes from the Greek hippos ('ιππος), horse, and dromos (δρομος), path or way. Horse racing and chariot racing were popular pastimes in the ancient world and hippodromes were common features of Greek cities in the Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine eras.

History and use


Although the Hippodrome is usually associated with Constantinople's days of glory as an imperial capital, it actually predates that era. The first Hippdrome was built when the city was called Byzantium (Byzantion in Greek), and was a provincial town of moderate importance. In 203 the Emperor Septimius Severus rebuilt the city and expanded its walls, endowing it with a hippodrome, an arena for chariot races and other entertainments.



In 324, the Emperor Constantine the Great decided to move the seat of the government from Rome to Byzantium, which he renamed Nova Roma (New Rome). This name failed to impress and the city soon became known as Constantinople, the City of Constantine. Constantine greatly enlarged the city, and one of his major undertakings was the renovation of the Hippodrome. It is estimated that the Hippodrome of Constantine was about 150 metres long and 130 metres wide. Its stands were capable of holding 100,000 spectators.

The race-track at the Hippodrome was U-shaped, and the Emperor's box, with four bronze statues of horses on its roof, was located at the eastern end of the track. These horses, which were cast in the 5th century BC and brought from Greece, were looted during the Fourth Crusade in 1204 and installed on the façade of St Mark's Basilica in Venice. The track was lined with other bronze statues of famous horses and chariot drivers, none of which survive.

Throughout the Byzantine period, the Hippodrome was the centre of the city's social life. Huge amounts were bet on chariot races, and the whole city was divided between fans of the Blue (Venetii) and Green (Prasinoi) chariot racing teams. The two other racing teams, the Reds (Rousioi) and the Whites (Leukoi), gradually weakened and were absorbed by the two major factions. Frequently rivalry between Blues and Greens became mingled with political or religious factions, and riots which sometimes amounted to civil wars broke out in the city between them. The most severe of these was the Nika riots of 532, in which 30 000 people were said to have been killed.

Constantinople never really recovered from its sack during the Fourth Crusade and even though the Byzantine Empire survived until 1453, the Hippodrome was not rebuilt and did not regain its former glory. The Ottoman Turks, who captured the city in 1453 and made it the capital of the Ottoman Empire, were not interested in racing and the Hippodrome was gradually forgotten, although the site was never actually built over.

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[aaronsummers100]

The marble was needed to build the mosques. What a stupid thing to do. A magnificent hippodrome torn down, what a shame. If these were the Turks with their original nomadic culture they would have respect for nature and beauty but did not have any left after forcefully converted to Islam.

[kyriacos40]

@nickpafras The one thing I notice with Islam,is the lost of culture, language,history, when countrys convert into Islamic ones.I find this very sad because I like diversity, and to think,Syria,Egypt,Persia,these­'s countrys lost some of thier identiy when they converted.I would have loved to see these's countrys restore thier language,culture and so forth that defines them who they were back in the days when they were glorious.I am sorry,but Islam takes away a countrys character & identiy.

[bennihana123]

Sailing to Sarantium brought me here

[Justinian43]

@iordanisdanis it's liked saying the united states split in two, the west (california, arizona, new mexico, etc.) survived but was populated by hispanic people, so would we call that the united states of mexico? NO! The empire never fell until 1461 officially (trebizond)

[Justinian43]

@4rchdru1d repaired? more like built new stuff out of the old that was meant to be preserved, you don;t see people taking the pyramids apart now do you?

[Justinian43]

@omeryildirim803506 and?? did the turks preserve the city?? NO! It;s a miracle the hagia sophia wasn't taken apart or used to store gunpowder....

[Justinian43]

it's pathetic how constantinople was lost by these turks, did you know there was a beautiful church built during the macedonian dynasty, and want to guess how it dissapeared? these idiots decided to use the church as storage for gunpowder, and guess what, one night it exploded. Why??? What did the romans do to the muslims to be so destructive?? Seriously, and the shame behind the marble excuse from the hippodrome is that those mosques look like pathetic copies of the hagia sophia!

[omeryildirim803506]

@aaronsummers100

What a stupid of you dump, it is not Islam and Turks but it was the cruisade 4th which torn down and ruined the city. It was already a ruined city once Turks came and Turks enriched the city with their own culture. You should read more about the city.

[4rchdru1d]

Crusaders pillage and runsacked the city as written in books and scrolls also mentioned in umberto eco's book when turks entered the city it was already in ruins its artifacts were destroyed or stolen, turks restore and repaired the city study history before commenting on something!

[Lhein33]

@AndreHiltre I didn't get it, sorry... :/

[AndreHiltre]

@Lhein33 Dummy.

[Lhein33]

@AndreHiltre 1. During the mass conversion to Christianity, there was no catholicism (i.e. papism) but the Catholic Church (Orthodox Church, don't confuse the terms). Papism arose later.

2. Christians didn't destroy the temples. Christians prefered to convert the pagan temples into churches & they had the right to do so; they were the same men (or the sons of those) who had built the temples, so now that they had changed religion they could do to their temples whatever they wanted.