48. The guardians of the most holy relics would rejoice if
they were able to produce such a chain of evidence as may be
alleged on this occasion. See Banduri ad Antiquitat. Const.
p. 668. Gyllius de Byzant. l. ii. c. 13. 1. The original
consecration of the tripod and pillar in the temple of
Delphi may be proved from Herodotus and Pausanias. 2. The
Pagan Zosimus agrees with the three ecclesiastical
historians, Eusebius, Socrates, and Sozomen, that the sacred
ornaments of the temple of Delphi were removed to
Constantinople by the order of Constantine; and among these
the serpentine pillar of the Hippodrome is particularly
mentioned. 3. All the European travellers who have visited
Constantinople, from Buondelmonte to Pocock, describe it in
the same place, and almost in the same manner; the
differences between them are occasioned only by the injuries
which it has sustained from the Turks. Mahomet the Second
broke the under jaw of one of the serpents with a stroke of
his battle-axe. Thevenot, 1. i. c. 17.