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
Another gate was the Porta Atalou (Πόρτα Ἀτάλου).[105] It was adorned
with the statue of Constantine the Great and the statue of Atalus, after
whom the gate was named. Both monuments fell in the earthquake of 740.
The presence of the statue of the founder of the city upon the gate, the
fact that the damage which the gate sustained in 740 is mentioned in
close connection with the injuries done at the same time to the Column
of Arcadius on the Xeropholos,[106] and the lack of any proof that the
gate stood in the Theodosian Walls, are circumstances which favour the
view that it was an entrance in the Wall of Constantine. From its
association with the Xerolophos one would infer that the Gate of Atalus
was situated on the Seventh Hill, in a position corresponding to one of
the later Theodosian gates on that eminence.
That the Palaia Porta—Isa Kapoussi, beside the Mosque Isa Kapou
Mesdjidi—was a Constantinian gate is beyond dispute.[107] But a
difficult, and at the same time important, question occurs in connection
with it. Was it the Porta Aurea mentioned in the _Notitia_ as the gate
from which the length of the city was measured? What renders this a
difficult question is the fact that the Porta Aurea of the Theodosian
Walls—the celebrated Golden Gate which appears so frequently in the
history of the city, and which is now incorporated in the Turkish
fortress of the Seven Towers (Yedi Koulè), under the name Yedi Koulè
Kapoussi—was already in existence when the _Notitia_ was written.[108]
That being the case, the presumption is in favour of the opinion that
the Golden Gate at Yedi Koulè is the Porta Aurea to which the _Notitia_
refers; and this opinion has upon its side the great authority of Dr.
Strzygowski.[109] On the other hand, the distance from the Porta Aurea
to the sea, as given by the _Notitia_, does not correspond to the
distance between Yedi Koulè and the head of the promontory, the latter
distance being much greater. To suppose that this discrepancy is due to
a mistake which has crept into the figures of the _Notitia_ is possible;
but the supposition is open to more than one objection. In the first
place, such a view obliges us to assume a similar mistake in the figures
which that authority gives for the breadth of the city, seeing they do
not accord with the breadth of the city along the line of the Theodosian
Walls. But even if this objection is waived, and the possibility of a
double error admitted in the abstract, the hypothesis of a mistake in
the figures before us is attended by another difficulty, which cannot be
dismissed so easily. How comes it that figures condemned as inaccurate
because they do not accord with the size of Constantinople under
Theodosius II., prove perfectly correct when applied to the dimensions
of the city under its founder? How come these figures to agree
completely with what we learn regarding the length and breadth of the
city of Constantine from other data on that subject? This cannot be an
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