Byzantine Constantinople, the walls of the city and adjoining historical sites — John Shaqi
Byzantine Constantinople, the walls of the city and adjoining historical sitesVan Millingen, Alexander
Philosophy
Byzantine Constantinople, the walls of the city and adjoining historical sites
Van Millingen, Alexander
Istanbul (Turkey); Istanbul (Turkey) -- Antiquities
Dr. Strzygowski has suggested that the Cistern of Bonus stood near Eski
Ali Pasha Djamissi,[89] on the northern bank of the valley of the Lycus,
and to the south-west of the Mosque of Sultan Mehemet.[90] No traces of
a cistern have been found in that locality, but the conjecture satisfies
the requirements of the case so far as the proximity of that site to the
line of Constantine’s wall and to the Church of the Holy Apostles is
concerned. Why that position should have been selected for a summer
palace is, however, not apparent.
We have said that the Constantinian Wall, upon leaving the Cistern of
Aspar, turned sharply to the north-east, and made for the shore of the
Golden Horn by running obliquely across the ridge of the Fifth Hill.
This view of the case is required, first, in order to keep the breadth
of the city within the limits assigned by the _Notitia_; and, secondly,
by the statement of the same authority that the Eleventh Region—the
Region at the north-western angle of the Constantinian city—did not
extend to the shore of the Golden Horn: “Nulla parte mari sociata
est.”[91] For this statement implies that the fortifications along the
northern front of that Region stood at some distance from the water. But
the northern slope of the Fifth Hill is so precipitous, and approaches
so close to the Golden Horn that the only available ground for the
fortifications on that side of the city would be the plateau of the
Fifth Hill, where the large cistern beside the Mosque of Sultan Selim is
found.
(_g_) The church dedicated to the three martyr brothers, SS. Manual,
Sabel, and Ishmael, must likewise have been on the Fifth Hill; for it
stood where the wall began its descent (κατήρχετο)[92] towards the
Golden Horn. This agrees with the statement of the _Synaxaria_ that the
church was situated beside the land wall of Constantine, upon
precipitous ground, and near the Church of St. Elias at the Petrion.[93]
(_h_) As to the district of Harmatius, named after Harmatius, a
prominent personage in the reign of Zeno,[94] it must be sought in the
plain bounded by the Fifth, Fourth, and Third Hills, and the Golden
Horn, the plain known in later days as the Plateia, (Πλατεῖα). To that
plain the fortifications of Constantine would necessarily descend from
the Fifth Hill, in proceeding on their north-eastern course to the
Golden Horn; and there also the figures of the _Notitia_ require the
northern end of the walls to terminate. Doubtless in the time of
Constantine the bay at this point encroached upon the plain more than at
present.
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