8 - FALLING WATER

Summary

As a permanent memorial to their success the citizens of Orcistus had inscribed their petition and the letters from Constantine on a large pillar that may have served as the pedestal for a statue of the emperor. Initially this monument had been erected to announce the autonomy of the city, warn off neighboring cities, and publicize the generosity of Constantine. It also commemorated the city's surprising good fortune. At a time when it was difficult to expect even a reply from imperial magistrates who were overwhelmed with requests, somehow this small city had received not one, but two favorable responses directly from the emperor himself.

Then the pillar faded into obscurity for well over a millennium, until Richard Pococke stumbled upon it during a trip through central Asia Minor in the late winter and early spring of 1740. In a large plain “of a very barren white clay” he discovered some ruins and a few inscriptions, “one of them in Latin … of the time of Constantine.” Almost a century later William Hamilton returned to the site and found the pillar again, but this time being used as a cornerstone in a new dam for a watermill. Because it was upside-down and under the falling water, he could read only enough of the inscription to confirm it was the one published by Pococke.