Constantinople: The Story of the Old Capital of the EmpireHutton, William Holden
History
Constantinople: The Story of the Old Capital of the Empire
Hutton, William Holden
Istanbul (Turkey)
this were two harbours, the Harbour of Julian or S. Sophia, and that
of the Kontoscolion, where the gate is now called Koum Kapoussi.
Within this is the Armenian quarter with its patriarchate. Next comes
Yeni Kapoussi, the new gate, where began the ancient harbour now
silted up, called the harbour of Eleutherius (Vlanga Bostan).
The next gate was called that of S. Æmilianus, now Daoud Pasha
Kapoussi, which ended the walls of Constantine along the shore. The
next is the πόρτα τοῦ Ψαμαθᾶ, Psamathia Kapoussi, named, as is the
quarter, after the sand thrown up on the beach. The next, Narli
Kapoussi, the Pomegranate gate, is that which gave admission to the
monastery of the Studium. Here on the Decollation of S. John Baptist,
August 29, the Emperor was received by the abbat and conducted in
state to the church to attend the Eucharist of the day. On the tower
close by is an inscription recording its reparation by Manuel
Comnenus. Beyond was the church and monastery of Diomed, on whose
steps Basil the Macedonian slept when he first came to Constantinople
a homeless wanderer. The wall ends with the famous Mermer Kuleh.
Perhaps this was at one time the prison of S. Diomed, where Pope
Martin I. was placed in 654, and Maria Comnena, mother of Alexius II.,
was imprisoned by Andronicus Comnenus. Traces of a two-storeyed
building still exist behind this magnificent tower which so splendidly
ends the sea-walls.
* * * * *
[Illustration: THE MARBLE TOWER AT S.W. CORNER OF THE WALLS]
So we turn northwards and enter upon the famous defences, so long the
bulwarks of the Empire.
Something has already been said about the building of the Theodosian
walls. It has been seen that Anthemius who ruled as Prætorian prefect
during the minority of the Emperor Theodosius II. enlarged and
refortified the city, and that "the bounds he assigned to the
city, fixed substantially her permanent dimensions, and behind the
bulwarks he raised--improved and often repaired, indeed, by his
successors--Constantinople acted her great part in the history of the
world." Repaired by Constantine, then holding the office that had been
held by Anthemius, thirty-four years after the first construction,
"this was a wall, indeed, τὸ καὶ τεῖχος ὄντως[62]--a wall which, so
long as ordinary courage survived, and the modes of ancient warfare
were not superseded, made Constantinople impregnable, and behind which
civilization defied the assaults of barbarism for a thousand years."
The walls stretch now from the marble tower to a short distance beyond
the Palace of the Porphyrogenitus. Originally they went further, but,
as will be seen, they were superseded by newer fortifications beyond
that point.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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