The Forum of the Ox (, , meaning "the Ox") was a public square () in the city of

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

(today's

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

). Used also as a place for public executions and torture, it disappeared completely after the end of the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived History of the Roman Empire, the events that caused the ...

Location

The Forum lay along the southern branch of the Mese Odós (the main street of the city), in the valley of the Lycus creek, between the seventh and the third hills of Constantinople. Administratively, it was included in the eleventh ''Regio'' of the city, and its site is today located in the neighborhood of Aksaray.

History

This square was possibly part of

Constantine the Great Constantine I (27 February 27222 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was a Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337 and the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity. He played a Constantine the Great and Christianity, pivotal ro ...

's original city plan design;Müller-Wiener (1977), p. 253 like the other fora of Constantinople, it was certainly built sometime in the 4th century. The name of the square originated from a large, hollow bronze statue representing the head of an ox.Janin (1964), p. 69 The statue, brought to Constantinople from

Pergamum Pergamon or Pergamum ( or ; ), also referred to by its modern Greek form Pergamos (), was a rich and powerful ancient Greek city in Aeolis. It is located from the modern coastline of the Aegean Sea on a promontory on the north side of the river ...

Asia Minor Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

, was used both as a furnace and a device implementing the brazen bull torture: people were closed inside the ox, which then was heated until they suffocated and burned. During the first

persecution of Christians The persecution of Christians can be historically traced from the first century of the Christian era to the present day. Christian missionaries and converts to Christianity have both been targeted for persecution, sometimes to the point ...

in Asia Minor under

Emperor The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), mother/grandmother (empress dowager/grand empress dowager), or a woman who rules ...

Domitian Domitian ( ; ; 24 October 51 – 18 September 96) was Roman emperor from 81 to 96. The son of Vespasian and the younger brother of Titus, his two predecessors on the throne, he was the last member of the Flavian dynasty. Described as "a r ...

(r. 81–96) the Ox, still in Pergamum, was used to execute Saint Antipas. According to the ''

Patrologia Latina The ''Patrologia Latina'' (Latin for ''The Latin Patrology'') is an enormous collection of the writings of the Church Fathers and other ecclesiastical writers published by Jacques Paul Migne between 1841 and 1855, with indices published betwe ...

'', in the reign of Julian, the Apostate (r. 361–363) many Christians were burned inside the Bull, and at that time already moved to Constantinople.Janin (1964), p. 70 In 562 the Forum, at that time surrounded by warehouses and workshops, burned down. The body of the usurper

Phocas Phocas (; ; 5475 October 610) was Eastern Roman emperor from 602 to 610. Initially a middle-ranking officer in the East Roman army, Roman army, Phocas rose to prominence as a spokesman for dissatisfied soldiers in their disputes with the cour ...

(r. 602–610) was also incinerated in the ox's head following his deposition. According to some sources,

Heraclius Heraclius (; 11 February 641) was Byzantine emperor from 610 to 641. His rise to power began in 608, when he and his father, Heraclius the Elder, the Exarch of Africa, led a revolt against the unpopular emperor Phocas. Heraclius's reign was ...

(r. 610–641) melted the statue to mint coins needed to pay his army for his war against the Persians. However, this is not certain since executions using the Ox continue to be attested after Heraclius's reign, for example, when

Justinian II Justinian II (; ; 668/69 – 4 November 711), nicknamed "the Slit-Nosed" (), was the last Byzantine emperor of the Heraclian dynasty, reigning from 685 to 695 and again from 705 to 711. Like his namesake, Justinian I, Justinian II was an ambitio ...

(r.685-695; 705–711) let burn in the Ox the two Patricians Theodoros and Stephanos, both involved in a failed plot against him. The same Emperor enlarged and adorned the square.Mamboury (1953), p. 74 During the

Byzantine Iconoclasm The Byzantine Iconoclasm () are two periods in the history of the Byzantine Empire when the use of religious images or icons was opposed by religious and imperial authorities within the Ecumenical Patriarchate (at the time still comprising the ...

, Saint Theodosia (d. 729) and Saint Andrew of Crete (d. 766), both defenders of icon veneration, were executed in the square. The former was executed by having a ram's horn hammered through her neck.Van Millingen (1912), p. 168

Architecture

The position of the Forum Bovis is known thanks to the work ''

De Ceremoniis The or (fully ) is the conventional Latin name for a Greek book of ceremonial protocol at the court of the Byzantine emperors in Constantinople. Its Greek title is often cited as ("Explanation of the Order of the Palace"), taken from the work' ...

'', written by Emperor

Constantine VII Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (; 17 May 905 – 9 November 959) was the fourth Byzantine emperor of the Macedonian dynasty, reigning from 6 June 913 to 9 November 959. He was the son of Emperor Leo VI and his fourth wife, Zoe Karbonopsina, an ...

Porphyrogenitus (r. 913–959). He writes that the two imperial processions starting from the Great Palace and directed each year respectively to the Churches of Saint Mary of the Spring and Saint Mocius transited through the square. Based on this information, the Forum should be located in the modern neighborhood of Aksaray. The Forum had a rectangular plan with sides 250 m and 300 m long. According to one source, in the 1950s its shape was still recognizable as a space limited to the north by 7–8 meters high terraces. According to others, the square should be located south-southeast of the Ottoman Murat Pasha Mosque. In the Byzantine Age, the square was surrounded by

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cu ...

es adorned with

bas-relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

s and niches with statues. Particularly noteworthy among them was a group representing Constantine the Great and his mother Helena jointly holding a gilded silver cross, a composition that became very popular in

Byzantine art Byzantine art comprises the body of artistic products of the Eastern Roman Empire, as well as the nations and states that inherited culturally from the empire. Though the empire itself emerged from the decline of Rome, decline of western Rome and ...

. Near the Forum lay also the ''Palace of Eleutherios'' (named so since it lay in the Byzantine community of ''ta Eleutheriou'' and overlooked the harbour of the same name on the

Sea of Marmara The Sea of Marmara, also known as the Sea of Marmora or the Marmara Sea, is a small inland sea entirely within the borders of Turkey. It links the Black Sea and the Aegean Sea via the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits, separating Turkey's E ...

), built by Empress

Irene Irene is a name derived from εἰρήνη (eirēnē), Greek for "peace". Irene, and related names, may refer to: * Irene (given name) Places * Irene, Gauteng, South Africa * Irene, South Dakota, United States * Irene, Texas, United States ...

(r. 775–797), and a bath erected by the Patrician Nicetas in the reign of Theophilos (r. 813–842). The Forum Bovis was well connected with other important parts of the city: the Mese, heading east, connected the Forum with the Forum Amastrianum and the Forum Tauri. In the westerly direction, the same road started to climb the seventh hill, reaching the Forum of Arcadius and the plateau of Xeropholos. Finally, the Mese crossed the

Theodosian Walls The Walls of Constantinople (; ) are a series of defensive wall, defensive stone walls that have surrounded and protected the city of Constantinople (modern Fatih district of Istanbul) since its founding as the new capital of the Roman Empire b ...

at the

Golden Gate The Golden Gate is a strait on the west coast of North America that connects San Francisco Bay to the Pacific Ocean. It is defined by the headlands of the San Francisco Peninsula and the Marin Peninsula, and, since 1937, has been spanned by ...

. This part of the road corresponds to the modern Istanbul roads ''Çerrahpaşa Caddesi'' and ''Kocamustafapaşa Caddesi''. Two other paths connected the square with the gates of St. Romanus (modern Topkapı) and Pege (modern Silivri kapı). The Forum's location has not yet been excavated. The quarter where the Forum lay was never hit by the large fires which ravaged Istanbul in the 19th and 20th centuries.Müller-Wiener (1977), p. 254 In 1956, during the works for the construction of ''Millet'' and ''Vatan Caddesi'', the two large roads which cross historic Istanbul, two pillars two meters high and having a base 3 m x 4 m wide were found outside the south wall of the Murat Pasha Mosque. These pillars, possibly belonging to a

triumphal arch A triumphal arch is a free-standing monumental structure in the shape of an archway with one or more arched passageways, often designed to span a road, and usually standing alone, unconnected to other buildings. In its simplest form, a triumphal ...

, were most probably part of the Forum. Moreover, single constructive elements were also found

in situ is a Latin phrase meaning 'in place' or 'on site', derived from ' ('in') and ' ( ablative of ''situs'', ). The term typically refers to the examination or occurrence of a process within its original context, without relocation. The term is use ...

during these excavations. In 1968–71, during the roadworks to build the Aksaray road interchange southeast of the Pertevniyal Valide Sultan Mosque, no remains of the square have been found.

References

Sources

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ox, Forum of the Fora of Constantinople