The Antiquities of Constantinople. Gilles Pierre

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СКАЧАТЬ Paces in Circumference. The Walls of it, which are made of squared Free-stone, are still remaining; and the Ground where it stands, is now turn’d into a Garden.

      Thus is it that I have laid before the Reader a Plan or Description of the Situation of the City of Constantinople, by which means the Situation of the Wards of that City will be more easily discovered. I hope I shall not be thought to have dwelt too long on this Subject, since a verbal Delineation of it is the most concise way of coming to the Knowledge of it. For although Constantinople, by reason of the Eminency of its Situation, affords a most agreeable Prospect at the remotest Distance, yet thus to particularize the several Parts of the City, leads the Reader into a more exact and more expeditious Insight into it, than any other Method of Information whatsoever.

      Chap. XIX.

      Of the Walls of the City

      THE Walls of Constantinople, in some Places, are built with squared Free-stone, in others with rough Stone, and in many Places with an Intermixture of Brick and Stone together. The Walls on the Land Side are double, secured with a large Ditch five and twenty Paces broad. One of the Walls is carry’d somewhat farther than the Length of the Ditch, and is very strongly fortified. These Walls stand at eighteen Foot Distance from each other. The inward Wall is very lofty, and more than twenty Foot in Thickness, upon which are built two hundred and fifty Towers with Steps, facing the Continent. The outward Wall is not above half as big, but has the same Number of Towers. As to the Nature of its Fortification, the Ground that takes up the Distance between the Ditch and the outward Wall, is higher than the adjoining Side of the Ditch, and the Ground between the two Walls is higher than that. The Countrey opening without the Walls is not incumber’d with Buildings, and is partly hilly, and partly upon the Level, but chiefly upon the latter, so that you have a delightful Prospect over the Fields before you, and a very extensive View all about you: And there is no Doubt to be made, but that Constantinople might be made a terrible strong Place. The Walls which run round the Sea, are not so high as the Land Walls; they are a plain Building, but very thick, and well guarded with Towers. On the Side of the Bay Ceras, they are about fifty Paces distant from the Shore. On the Side of the Bosporus and the Propontis, they are built upon the Shore, except where they are discontinu’d by some Port or Landing-place. Zonaras relates, that Theophilus the Emperor not only repaired, but raised these Walls higher, after they had been much impair’d by Time, and the Dashings of the Sea. This is also confirm’d to us down even to the present Age; for in many Places of them, I observ’d the Name of Theophilus the Emperor was cut in very large Characters. The Emperor Nicephorus was hated by his People for levying a Tax upon them, which was call’d Diceraton, for repairing these Walls. I learn from the Constitutions of Justinian, that in his Time the Walls were commonly call’d the old and the new Walls, where he decrees, That a larger Fee shall be paid the Bearers, and those who attend a Corpse beyond the new Walls of the City. What I would observe from hence is, that the old Walls which were built by Constantine, and that the new Walls which were built by Theodosius the Less, were both standing in the Reign of Justinian. The Walls of old Byzantium I have described in the Beginning of this Book; and as to the Condition they were in formerly, we may learn more fully from Herodian, who writes, that Byzantium was inclosed with a very large and a very strong Wall, made of square Stones of a great Size, so artfully cemented, that it was look’d upon as one compacted Piece of Work. This is also confirm’d by the Authority of Pausanias, who tells us, That he never saw the Walls of Babylon, or of Memnon, nor ever heard of any Person who had seen them: But the Walls of Byzantium and Rhodes, says he, are accounted exceeding strong; and yet the Walls which inclose Messene are stronger than these. ’Tis recorded by some Historians, that the Athenians kept their Treasury at Byzantium, because it was a well fortify’d Place. Whether those Walls which the Author of the Ancient Description of the Wards calls the double Walls are the same which we see at Constantinople at present, or whether they were built by Theodosius, I leave it to the Judgment of the Reader. Thus far I shall give my Opinion, viz. That they do not seem to me to be entirely the same Walls which that Author describes. For he places the Church of the Apostles in a Ward which is near to the Walls of the City, and places the fourteenth Ward without the Walls of the City, which at present, if not all of it, at least the best part of it, is within the Walls. I would add, that Theodosius the Less, who reign’d before Justinian, does not place the Blachernæ within the Walls of the City, and yet I have the Authority of Procopius, that these were apart of the Suburbs in the Time of Justinian, tho’ at present they are enclosed within the Walls, as were also the seven Towers, and the Church which was built by Stadius, (or rather Studius) who was afterwards Consul.

      Chap. XX.

      Of the Gates of Constantinople, and the seven Towers of Old Byzantium

      THE Walls on the Side of the Continent have six Gates; one within the Palace of Constantine, another, which is call’d the Adrianopolitan Gate, and a third on the Brow of the seventh Hill. Besides these, there is the Porta Aurea or Gilded Gate, the Gate of Selymbria or Rhegium, and the Gate of the seven Towers. On the Side of the Bay Ceras is the Gate of the Blachernæ, at present call’d Xyloporta, seated near the third Angle of the City. There are also the Gates call’d Cynigos, or Porta Palatina, Phanaria, Agia, Porta Jubalica, Farinaria, Lignaria, Seminaria, Piscaria, the Gate of the Neorium, and the Gate of Demetrius, which stands on the Ridge of the first Hill. On the Side of the Propontis there are about five; every one of which has Stairs, or a Landing-place, and a Haven for Ships, besides the Gates of the Imperial Palace. There is also the Porta Stercoraria, Leonina, Condescala, two of which stand at the Foot of the seventh Hill. Those which have been principally taken Notice of by Historians, are the Gates of Cynigos, Rhegium and Xylocerum, also the Gate of Eugenius, the Porta Aurea, that call’d Myriandros, the Porta Condescala, and Porta Carsiana. In old Byzantium there was the Thracian Gate. For we are told by Dion, that the seven Towers reach’d from the Thracian Gate to the Sea, which Cedrinus tells us was the Bay Ceras. If any one spoke any thing in the first of these Towers, it immediately flew to the second, and so through all the rest, so that you might hear the Voice distinctly repeated in every one of them. Pliny tells the very same Story of Cyzicus. In that City, says he, near the Thracian Gate there are seven Towers, which multiply the Voice by Repetition, or Reiteration, more than seven times. This, he adds, was look’d upon by the Grecians as somewhat miraculous, and was call’d the Echo. I never found any Mention made of the Thracian Gates in any Historian but in Pliny, though it is not altogether improbable, that there were such Gates there; for Apollonius, in the first Book of his Argonauticks, mentions the Thracian Haven in Cyzicus; and Plutarch is very express, that near this City there was a Street call’d the Thracian Street. This is also attested not only by some more modern Writers of Constantinople, but also by Dion and Xenophon; the latter of whom writes, That when Alcibiades appear’d before the Town, the Byzantians open’d the Thracian Gates to him of their own Accord.

      Chap. XXI.

      Of the long Walls

      THE Suburbs and Fields adjoining were inclosed with Walls of such an immoderate Length, that they extended themselves from the City to the Distance of a two Days Journey. They were built by Anastasius the Emperor to prevent the Incursions of the Scythians and Bulgarians, reach’d from the Black Sea to the Propontis, were forty thousand Paces remote from the City, and twenty Roman Foot in Breadth. These Walls were often taken and batter’d by the barbarous Nations, but repair’d by Justinian; and that the Soldiers СКАЧАТЬ