Page 52 - WINE DINE AND TRAVEL MAGAZINE FALL 2023 DISCOVERING TURKEY

MILION OF CONSTANTINOPLE AND THE NIKA REVOLT OF 532

On the way to join our Basilica Cistern tour,
we passed an ordinary-looking hunk of stone
just outside the entrance. Countless visitors
have walked by it without realizing it is one of
Turkey’s most significant Roman artifacts. Re-
member the saying - All roads lead to Rome.
During the 4th century, when the capital of the
Roman Empire moved to Constantinople, all
roads led to this rock. It was the zero mile-
stone, the benchmark for measuring distances
within the empire.
Once it was part of a monumental building
known as Milion, erected in the city's heart
and decorated with statues of the emperors.
Now it is all that remains of that landmark, a
fragment excavated in the 1960s.
In our travels, we have witnessed the darker
passions of sports fans. Throughout the world,
crazed mobs, inflamed by games won or lost,
pummel spectators in the stands or parking
lots. We were in Buenos Aires several years
ago when berserk River soccer team fans at-
tacked fans of their cross-town rival, Boca Ju-
niors.
We were surprised to learn Istanbul fans
proved even more dangerous over a thousand
years ago. The Nika riots in January 532 were
sparked by a dispute between two chariot rac-

52 WINE DINE & TRAVEL MAGAZINE FALL 2023