about those Places, where but a few Years since very magnificent Temples were standing, and so very censorious are they, as to condemn those that do. However, that I might not pass away my Time uselessly, while I was in Expectation of Remittances from my Royal Master, for purchasing all the ancient _Manuscripts_ I could meet with, I made it my Business, by all the Marks of Antiquity I was capable of observing, to make what Discoveries I could. In my Description of the ancient Monuments, I shall observe the same Method I did in the Description of the Hills. I shall consider them in the Order the Hills stand, or as I find them in the different _Wards_ of the City; which, like _Old Rome_, was divided into fourteen _Wards_. CHAP. II. _Of the Ancient Monuments of the first_ Hill, _and of the first_ Ward _of the City_. The first Hill, which _Pliny_ sometimes calls _Chrysoceras_, and sometimes _Auri Cornu_, (though this was a Mistake, as appears from what I have wrote concerning the _Thracian Bosporus_) _Dionysius_ a _Byzantian_ calls the _Promontory_ of the _Bosporus_. _There are two Reasons assigned_, says he, _why ’tis call’d the_ Promontory _of the_ Bosporus; _the one is, as some say, because a Cow stung with a Gad-Bee forded over it. Others more fabulously report, that_ Io, _the Daughter of_ Inachus, _being changed into a Cow, swam across it, when she went into_ Asia. The same Author, speaking of a Place call’d _Semystra_, tells us, that _Byzantium_ had been founded there, had not a Raven snatched a Part of the Sacrifice, they offer’d upon their landing, out of the Fire, and carry’d it to the _Promontory_ of the _Bosporus_. This they look’d upon as a Token from the Gods, that they should found their City there. The same Writer, speaking in another Place of a _Promontory_ call’d _Metopum_, opposite to the first Hill of _Constantinople_, this _Promontory_, he adds, faces the City, and lies directly against the _Promontory_ of the _Bosporus_; and the same Author informs us, that a little above the _Promontory_ of the _Bosporus_, there was an Altar erected to _Minerva_, who was call’d _Ecbasia_, or _Egressoria_, because those who transplanted the Colony hither, sally’d out from thence, with a Bravery equal to those, who fight for their Countrey. We might also call her _Ecbateria_, under which Name, as _Hesychius_ reports, _Diana_ was worshipped in _Siphnus_. He adds farther, that upon the same _Promontory_ stood the old Temple of _Neptune_, and below it, upon the Plain, that the _Byzantian_ Youth exercised themselves in Horse-racing, driving the Chariot, Wrestling, and other Martial Sports; and lastly, that at the Foot of the _Promontory_ stood a Bay call’d _Ceras_, which had three Havens, fortify’d with three Cittadels, and high Sand-banks, upon it stood the Castle of _Byzantium_, of which _Xenophon_ takes Notice, when he tells us, that the Men under his Command, having forc’d their