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BYZANTINE CONSTANTINOPLE
BYZANTINE CONSTANTINOPLE
Map of Constantinople in 1422. Ἐγὼ δὲ ὧς μητέρα φιλῶ καὶ γὰρ ἐγενόμην πὰρ᾽ αὐτῇ καὶ ἐτράφην ἐκεῖσε, καὶ οὐ δύναμαι περὶ αὐτὴν ἀγνωμονῆσαι. Emperor Julian , Epistle 58 ....
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PREFACE.
PREFACE.
In the following pages I venture to take part in the task of identifying the historical sites of Byzantine or Roman Constantinople, with the view of making the events of which that city was the theatre more intelligible and vivid. The new interest now taken in all related to the Byzantine world demands a work of this character. The attention I have devoted, for many years, to the subject has been sustained by the conviction that the Empire of which New Rome was the capital defended the higher li
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BYZANTINE CONSTANTINOPLE. CHAPTER I. THE SITE OF CONSTANTINOPLE—THE LIMITS OF BYZANTIUM.
BYZANTINE CONSTANTINOPLE. CHAPTER I. THE SITE OF CONSTANTINOPLE—THE LIMITS OF BYZANTIUM.
Without attempting any elaborate description of the site occupied by Constantinople, such as we have in Gyllius’ valuable work on the topography of the city, [1] it is necessary to indicate to the reader, now invited to wander among the ruins of New Rome, the most salient features of the territory he is to explore. The city is situated at the south-western end of the Bosporus, upon a promontory that shoots out from the European shore of the straits, with its apex up stream, as though to stem the
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Interior Arrangements of the City of Constantine.
Interior Arrangements of the City of Constantine.
The work of altering Byzantium to become the seat of government was commenced in 328, and occupied some two years, materials and labourers for the purpose being gathered from all parts of the Empire. Workmen skilled in cutting columns and marble came even from the neighbourhood of Naples, [119] and the forty thousand Gothic troops, known as the Fœderati, lent their strength to push the work forward. [120] At length, on the 11th of May, A.D. 330, [121] the city of Constantine, destined to rank am
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The Inner Wall. Τὸ κάστρον τὸ μέγα:[186] Τὸ μέγα τεῖχος.[187]
The Inner Wall. Τὸ κάστρον τὸ μέγα:[186] Τὸ μέγα τεῖχος.[187]
The Inner Wall was the main bulwark of the capital. It stood on a higher level than the Outer Wall, and was, at the same time, loftier, thicker, and flanked by stronger towers. In construction it was a mass of concrete faced on both sides with blocks of limestone, squared and carefully fitted; while six brick courses, each containing five layers of bricks, were laid at intervals through the thickness of the wall to bind the structure more firmly. The wall rises some 30-½ feet above the present e
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The Inner Terrace. Ὁ Περίβολος.[194]
The Inner Terrace. Ὁ Περίβολος.[194]
The Inner Embankment, or Terrace, between the two walls was 50 to 64 feet broad. It was named the Peribolos, and accommodated the troops which defended the Outer Wall....
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The Outer Wall. Τὸ ἔξω τεῖχος:[195] τὸ ἔξω κάστρον:[196] τὸ μικρόν τεῖχος.[197]
The Outer Wall. Τὸ ἔξω τεῖχος:[195] τὸ ἔξω κάστρον:[196] τὸ μικρόν τεῖχος.[197]
The Outer Wall is from 2 to 6-½ feet thick, rising some 10 feet above the present level of the peribolos, [198] and about 27-½ feet above the present level of the terrace between the Outer Wall and the Moat. Its lower portion is a solid wall, which retains the embankment of the peribolos. The upper portion is built, for the most part, in arches, faced on the outer side with hewn blocks of stone, and is frequently supported by a series of arches in concrete, and sometimes, even, by two series of
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The Outer Terrace. Τὸ ἔξω παρατείχιον.[202]
The Outer Terrace. Τὸ ἔξω παρατείχιον.[202]
The embankment or terrace between the Outer Wall and the Moat is some 61 feet broad. While affording room for the action of troops under cover of the battlement upon the scarp of the Moat, [203] its chief function was to widen the distance between the besiegers and the besieged....
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The Moat. Τάφρος: σοῦδα.[204]
The Moat. Τάφρος: σοῦδα.[204]
The Moat is over 61 feet wide. Its original depth, which doubtless varied with the character of the ground it traversed, cannot be determined until excavations are allowed, for the market-gardens and débris which now occupy it have raised the level of the bed. In front of the Golden Gate, where it was probably always deepest, on account of the importance of that entrance, its depth is still 22 feet. The masonry of the scarp and counterscarp is 5 feet thick, and was supported by buttresses to wit
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The Golden Gate.
The Golden Gate.
The Theodosian Walls were pierced by ten gates, and by several small posterns. Of the former, some led only to the different parts of the fortifications, serving exclusively the convenience of the garrison. These may be styled Military Gates. Others connected the capital, moreover, with the outside world by means of bridges thrown across the Moat, [210] and constituted the Public Gates of the city. The two series followed one another in alternate order, the military entrances being known by numb
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CHAPTER V. THE GATES IN THE THEODOSIAN WALLS—continued.
CHAPTER V. THE GATES IN THE THEODOSIAN WALLS—continued.
The entrance between the thirteenth and fourteenth towers to the north of the Golden Gate was the Second Military Gate, τοῦ Δευτέρου. [287] Its identity is established by its position in the order of the gates; for between it and the Fifth Military Gate, regarding the situation of which there can be no doubt, [288] two military gates intervene. It must therefore be itself the second of that series of entrances. Hence, it follows that the quarter of the city known as the Deuteron (τὸ Δεύτερον) wa
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CHAPTER VI. REPAIRS ON THE THEODOSIAN WALLS.
CHAPTER VI. REPAIRS ON THE THEODOSIAN WALLS.
The maintenance of the bulwarks of the city in proper order was naturally a matter of supreme importance, and although the task was sometimes neglected when no enemy threatened, it was, on the whole, attended to with the promptitude and fidelity which so vital a concern demanded. There was little occasion for repairs, it is true, on account of injuries sustained in the shock of war, for until the invention of gunpowder the engines employed in battering the walls were either not powerful enough,
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CHAPTER VII. THE PALACE OF THE PORPHYROGENITUS.
CHAPTER VII. THE PALACE OF THE PORPHYROGENITUS.
The ruined Byzantine palace, commonly styled Tekfour Serai, beside the Porta Xylokerkou was the Imperial residence, known as the Palace of the Porphyrogenitus (τὰ βασίλεια τοῦ Πορφυρογεννήτου: οἱ τοῦ Πορφυρογεννήτου οἶκοι), [428] and formed an annex to the great Palace of Blachernæ, which stood lower down the hill. It is true, Gyllius supposed it to be the Palace of the Hebdomon, and his opinion, though contrary to all the evidence on the subject, has been generally accepted as correct. But the
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CHAPTER VIII. THE FORTIFICATIONS ON THE NORTH-WESTERN SIDE OF THE CITY, BEFORE THE SEVENTH CENTURY.
CHAPTER VIII. THE FORTIFICATIONS ON THE NORTH-WESTERN SIDE OF THE CITY, BEFORE THE SEVENTH CENTURY.
At the Gate of the Xylokerkus, or the Kerko Porta, the Theodosian Walls come to an abrupt termination, and the line of defence from that point to the Golden Horn is continued by fortifications which, for the most part, did not exist before the seventh century. Along the greater portion of their course these bulwarks consisted of a single wall, without a moat; but at a short distance from the water, where they stand on level ground, they formed a double wall, which was at one time protected by a
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CHAPTER IX. THE WALL OF THE EMPEROR MANUEL COMNENUS.
CHAPTER IX. THE WALL OF THE EMPEROR MANUEL COMNENUS.
According to Nicetas Choniates, [467] a portion of the city fortifications was erected by the Emperor Manuel Comnenus. Tower of the Wall of the Emperor Manuel Comnenus. The historian alludes to that work when describing the site upon which the Crusaders established their camp in 1203, and from his account of the matter there can be no doubt regarding the portion intended. The Latin camp, says Nicetas, [468] was pitched on the hill which faced the western front of the Palace of Blachernæ, and whi
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The Palace of Blachernæ. Τὸ ἐν Βλαχέρναις Βασίλειον, Παλάτιον.
The Palace of Blachernæ. Τὸ ἐν Βλαχέρναις Βασίλειον, Παλάτιον.
Until the site of the Palace of Blachernæ is excavated, little can be added to the information which Du Cange [494] and Paspates [495] have collected respecting that Imperial residence, from the statements made on the subject by writers during the Byzantine period. If the quarter of Egri Kapou, on the western spur of the Sixth Hill, was included in the Fourteenth Region of the city, the Palace of Blachernæ appears first as the palace which, according to the Notitia , adorned that Region. [496] I
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NOTE.
NOTE.
Two or three additional passages which bear upon the question under discussion may be noticed, notwithstanding their vagueness. The statement of Phrantzes (p. 252 ), among others, that in the siege of 1453 the charge of the palace and all about it was entrusted to Minotto, the Baillus of the Venetian colony, might be employed in favour of the view that the “turres Avenides” which Leonard of Scio associates with the Xylo Porta, and assigns to Jerome and Leonardus de Langasco, could not be the tow
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CHAPTER XI. INMATES OF THE PRISON OF ANEMAS.
CHAPTER XI. INMATES OF THE PRISON OF ANEMAS.
Michael Anemas, the first to occupy the prison, and from whom it obtained its name, [543] was a descendant of Emir Abd-el-Aziz ben Omar ben Choaib, known in Byzantine history as Courapas, and famous as the defender of Crete, when Nicephoras Phocas wrested that island from the Saracens, in the reign of Romanus II. [544] Upon the return of the victorious troops to the capital, the Emir and his family were carried to Constantinople to grace the triumph with which the success of Nicephorus was celeb
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The Bridge across the Golden Horn.
The Bridge across the Golden Horn.
The earliest mention of a bridge across the Golden Horn is found in the Notitia . [598] It was situated in the Fourteenth Region, and, like the bridge across the Tiber, was a wooden structure, “pontem sublicium.” This was superseded by a bridge of stone, [599] which Justinian the Great constructed in 528, “so that one might pass,” as the Paschal Chronicle [600] expresses it, “from the opposite side (ἀπὸ τῆς ἀντι πέραν) to the all-happy city.” The new building went by various names in the course
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CHAPTER XIII. THE SEAWARD WALLS.
CHAPTER XIII. THE SEAWARD WALLS.
Owing to the unique maritime position occupied by Constantinople, the defence of the shores of the capital was a matter of secondary importance. So long as the Empire retained the command of the sea, a city accessible by water only through the narrow defiles of the Hellespont and the Bosporus had little reason to apprehend a naval attack. This immunity was, it is true, seriously affected when the Saracens and the Republics of Italy became great sea-powers. Still, even then, the situation of the
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Gates.
Gates.
At a short distance to the east of the Xylo Porta a breach in the wall marks the site of a gateway named by the Turks Kutchuk Aivan Serai Kapoussi—“the Small Gate of Aivan Serai.” [659] It stands at the head of a short street leading southwards to the site of the famous Church of the Theotokos of Blachernaæ, while to the north is the landing of Aivan Serai Iskelessi, which accommodates this quarter of the city. Here, probably, was the Porta Kiliomenè (Κοιλιωμένη Πόρτα), [660] at which the empero
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The Basilikè Pylè.
The Basilikè Pylè.
Before concluding the study of the Harbour Walls we must recur to the question which presented itself at an earlier stage of our inquiries, but was reserved for consideration at the close of this chapter, as more favourable to an intelligent and thorough discussion of the subject. Where was the Basilikè Pylè which Byzantine historians, after the Restoration of the Empire, associate with this line of the city’s bulwarks? Was it, as some authorities maintain, at Balat Kapoussi, [842] or, as others
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The Route taken in carrying the Turkish Ships across the Hills from the Bosporus to the Golden Horn.
The Route taken in carrying the Turkish Ships across the Hills from the Bosporus to the Golden Horn.
Owing to the conflicting statements of contemporary historians on the subject, the precise route followed in carrying the Sultan’s ships, across the hills, from the Bosporus to the Golden Horn, is not fully settled. So far, indeed, as the point at which the ships reached the Golden Horn is concerned, there can be little, if any, room for doubt, though the historians differ even on that matter. The most reliable testimony, however, and the configuration of the territory on the northern side of th
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NOTE.
NOTE.
According to Leonard of Scio (p. 920), the distance over which the Turkish ships were conveyed was seventy stadia, “ad stadia septuaginta trahi biremes.” This statement involves so many questions which are difficult, if not impossible, to decide, that it affords no assistance in determining where the ships crossed the hills. The archbishop’s account of the Sultan’s action is given in the following words: “Quare ut coangustaret circumvalleratque magis urbem, jussit invia æquare; exque colle, supp
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CHAPTER XVI. THE WALLS ALONG THE SEA OF MARMORA.
CHAPTER XVI. THE WALLS ALONG THE SEA OF MARMORA.
The fortifications extending along the Sea of Marmora [884] from the Acropolis (Seraglio Point) to the southern extremity of the land walls consisted of a single wall flanked, according to Bondelmontius, by 188 towers—a line of defence some five miles in length. Almost everywhere along their course these fortifications stood close to the water’s edge, making it almost impossible to land troops at their foot, and giving them only the comparatively easy task of repelling an attack upon them with s
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Harbour of the Bucoleon.
Harbour of the Bucoleon.
The Harbour of the Bucoleon was attached to the Great Palace [989] (τὸ τοῦ παλατίου νεώριον ἑν τῷ Βουκολέοντι) for the convenience of the emperor, who in a city like Constantinople would have frequent occasion to move to and fro by water. Its name was derived from a marble group of a Lion and a Bull upon the harbour’s quay, the lion being represented with his left foot upon a horn of the bull, in the act of twisting his victim’s head round to get at the throat. [990] The harbour, partly artifici
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Harbour of the Kontoscalion (τὸ Κοντοσκάλιον).
Harbour of the Kontoscalion (τὸ Κοντοσκάλιον).
Another harbour on the Marmora side of the city was the Harbour of Kontoscalion. The first reference to the Kontoscalion occurs in the Anonymus, [1101] in the eleventh century, but the harbour acquired its greatest importance after 1261, when it was selected by Michael Palæologus to be the dockyard and principal station of the Imperial navy. Here the emperor thought his fleet could lie more secure from attack, and in a better position to assail an enemy, than in any other haven of the city. For
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Harbour of Eleutherius and Theodosius.
Harbour of Eleutherius and Theodosius.
According to the Notitia , [1112] Constantinople possessed a harbour called Portus Theodosianus, in the Twelfth Region of the city. As that Region comprised within its limits the shore of the Sea of Marmora at the southern base of the Seventh Hill, the Harbour of Theodosius must have been found at Vlanga Bostan, where the basin of a very ancient harbour, now filled in and converted into market-gardens, is distinctly visible. There can be little doubt that this harbour was also the one which went
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The Harbour of the Golden Gate.
The Harbour of the Golden Gate.
Another harbour on this side of the city was the Harbour of the Golden Gate (ὁ λιμὴν τῆς Χρυσῆς), [1132] in the bay to the west of the entrance of that name. This is implied in the statement of Ducas, that during the siege of 1453 the right wing of the Turkish army extended southwards from the Gate of St. Romanus to the Harbour of the Golden Gate. [1133] On the occasion of a triumph celebrating a victorious campaign in Asia Minor, the harbour presented an animated scene; for the spoils and priso
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The Harbour of Kaisarius and the Neorion at the Heptascalon.
The Harbour of Kaisarius and the Neorion at the Heptascalon.
Before concluding this account of the city harbours on the Sea of Marmora, a point of some importance remains to be settled. Byzantine historians speak of the Harbour of Kaisarius, and of the Neorion at the Heptascalon, on the southern shore of the city. Now, as traces of an additional harbour to those already mentioned, on this side of the city, may be disputed, the question presents itself: Have the Harbour of Kaisarius and the Neorion at the Heptascalon disappeared, or were they one or other
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Note on the Locality where the Ancient Harbour Wall, discovered in 1819, was found.
Note on the Locality where the Ancient Harbour Wall, discovered in 1819, was found.
The Patriarch Constantius, our sole informant on the subject, refers to this discovery twice; first, in his work on Ancient and Modern Constantinople (Κωνσταντινιὰς Παλαιὰ τε καὶ Νεωτέρα), published in 1844; secondly, in a letter, dated April 12, 1852, which is found in the collection of his minor works (Συγγραφαὶ αἱ Ἐλάσσωνες), and which was addressed to Mr. Scarlatus Byzantius, upon the publication of that gentleman’s work on the history and antiquities of the city. In that letter the patriarc
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CHAPTER XIX. THE HEBDOMON.
CHAPTER XIX. THE HEBDOMON.
The Hebdomon (τὸ Ἕβδομον, “Septimum”) was a suburb of Constantinople, situated on the Egnatian Road, at the distance of seven miles from the centre of the city. It obtained its name, as so many villages and towns on the great Roman highways did, [1184] from the number of the milestone beside which it stood (ἐν τῷ Ἑβδόμῳ Μιλίῳ), and holds a noteworthy place in history on account of its military associations and its connection with the Court of Constantinople. Considerable interest attaches to it
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CHAPTER XX. THE ANASTASIAN WALL.
CHAPTER XX. THE ANASTASIAN WALL.
Some notice, however brief, may here be taken of the wall erected by the Emperor Anastasius I. to increase the security of the capital, and at the same time to protect from hostile incursions the suburbs and a considerable tract of the rich and populous country, outside the Theodosian Walls. This additional line of defence, consisting of a wall twenty feet thick flanked by towers, stood at a distance of forty miles to the west of the city, and was carried from the shore of the Sea of Marmora to
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