4. Hippodrome

The Hippodrome was a large stadium which served as the social and cultural center of the city and was used for sporting events, entertainment, imperial ceremonies, and other public and political events.

To be truly historically accurate, the Hippodrome would not have looked like or been used in 1350 (when your historical character visited it) in the way we describe in this lesson (which presents the Hippodrome in around the 10th century). In the sack of Constantinople in 1204 the Hippodrome was looted, and it was never restored and used again in the later Byzantine period in the way it was during the empire's glory days. Nonetheless, since it is so iconic a part of Constantinople and the civic life of the medieval Roman empire we were compelled to make it one of our Seven Wonders, even if we are being just a bit anachronistic or a-historical!

The class slide show presentation is here.

Presentación en Español.

For more on the key images from the presentation, click to the right.

Flying over the Hippodrome: