Braindroppings

These are some nice pics Khodadad! Thanks for sharing them. :) I like Emperor Hadrian too. When I went to Italy with my High School Latin teacher, two of my favorite places were the Pantheon and Hadrian's Villa. If I remember correctly, Hadrian built the fountains of Tivoli too. They were really something to see! I have a whole bunch of Italy pics on slides. I should try and get those transferred to a CD sometime so that I could upload a few to my blog.

I watched an entire documentary on the building of the walls of Constantinople. They were the strongest ever built in the ancient world. Armys could not breach them, but several big earthquakes did.

Were the Cathedral Cisterns used as a setting during the filming of James Bond "From Russia with Love"? I remember James and the Turkish spy in a boat in a big old cistern.

Was Constantinople conquered by Vikings in the 9th century or were they just bad boys who snuck into the Hagia Sophia like gang members marking their turf?

In the fresco with Constantine and Justinian, perhaps Justinian is depicted as older to claim some degree of superiority of Constantine, like greater wisdom, for example.

Thanks David... I am in Antioch now and hopefully will upload some pictures from here as well. Looks like a magnificent city...

Viking did not conquer Cnpl., no one really ever did until the Ottomans in 1453. The Viking inscription was made by Norse mercenaries of the Byzantine army (Byzantines called them the "Varangians"). They were probablytoo bored standing around as guards for the emperor, listening to mass in Greek (which they probably did not understand), so, carving your name seemed to be the best antidote!:P

I don't know about James Bond and the Cistern... and I agree with your idea about Justinian and Constantine...