The Antiquities of Constantinople: With a Description of Its Situation, the Conveniencies of Its Port, Its Publick Buildings, the Statuary, Sculpture, Architecture, and Other Curiosities of That CityGilles, Pierre
History
The Antiquities of Constantinople: With a Description of Its Situation, the Conveniencies of Its Port, Its Publick Buildings, the Statuary, Sculpture, Architecture, and Other Curiosities of That City
Gilles, Pierre
Istanbul (Turkey) -- Antiquities; Istanbul (Turkey) -- Description and travel; Turkey -- Antiquities
I had been at a Loss to discover the eleventh _Ward_, (which, tho’
the _ancient Description_ of the _Wards_ mentions to have been wider
in Compass than the Tenth, and in no Part of it bounded by the Sea;
as also that it partly consisted of a Level, and partly of a rising
Ground) unless the Author had subjoin’d, that it contain’d also
the Church of the _Apostles_, And tho’ at present there’s nothing
remaining of that Church, yet I was inform’d by some ancient People of
_Constantinople_, who told me, that they remembred it stood upon the
Back of the fourth Hill; which fell upon a Hill of the third Valley,
near the _Sadlers Shops_, and the Sepulchre of _Mahomet_ the Emperor.
I observe from hence, that the eleventh _Ward_ was Part on the Top of
the same Hill, and Part on the North Side of it. I shall shew by what
follows, that this _Ward_ reach’d to the _Land-Wall_ of the City, which
divided the Eleventh, from the fourteenth _Ward_, and which was also
itself divided from the City by an intermediate Space of Land. I shall
convince the Reader presently, that this _Ward_ was situate on the
sixth Hill, without the Walls of the City, and was afterwards wall’d
round by _Theodosius_ the _Less_. The Walls built by _Constantine_
are said to have reach’d as far as the Churches of St. _Anthony_, and
St. _Mary_, who was call’d _Rabdos_, and from thence to have risen to
a _Land-Wall_ call’d _Exacionion_, which took its Name from hence,
_viz._ That without the _Land-Wall_ there stood a Pillar, on which was
erected the Statue of _Constantine_ the _Great_. Some modern Writers
will have it, that he built a Church which he dedicated to the _Holy
Trinity_ in a Place call’d the _Exacionion_, now call’d the Church of
the _Apostles_; for, if I am not mistaken, the Walls of _Constantine_
were built upon the Borders of the fourth and fifth Hill, near the
_Exacionion_, _Cedrinus_ writes, that the Walls of the City, the
beautiful Churches, the fine Houses seated in the _Exacionion_ were
thrown down by a dreadful Earthquake. They tell us in other Places,
tho’ not consistently with themselves, that there were _Portico’s_
which reach’d from the _Miliarium_ to the Street call’d _Taurus_, and
to the Gates of St. _John_ the _Baptist’s_ Church near the _Hippodrom_,
which are more than a thousand _Roman_ Paces distant from the Church of
the _Apostles_, and as far from the Walls of the City which were built
by _Constantine_, as may be gather’d from the following Passage of
_Sozomen_. _Theodosius_, says this Author, _leading his Army against_
Eugenius, _went a Mile out of the City to the Church of St._ John,
_which he had built in the_ Hepdomum. This _Hepdomum_ was a Part of
the Suburbs of the City, but is now enclos’d within the Walls, as
will appear when I come to speak of it. If the Pillar from whence the
_Exacionion_ took its Name, was the same with that high Pillar which
stood on the Top of the fifth Hill, and was seen not long since at a
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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