The Word which in the Original Inscription is wrote δέρκεαι, _Zonaras_ writes δέρκεται. ’Tis easy to discover from these Verses, that the Palace of _Sophia_ was not seated near the _Bosporus_, but without the Walls of the City, waich is attested by _Cedrinus_, and many other Historians, in their Descriptions of the _hard Frost_, which happen’d in the Reign of _Leo Copronymus_, by which the _Bosporus_ was frozen so hard, that whosoever had a mind to pass over from the Palace of _Sophia_ to the City, or from _Chrysopolis_ to the Church of St. _Mamas_, or repass to _Galata_ on the Shore of the _Bosporus_, might cross over the Ice without the least Danger. The Port of _Sophia_, before it was call’d the Port of _Julian_, seems to me to be the same, which was formerly called the _Neorium_, and which the _ancient Description of the Wards_ places in the same _Ward_ with the _Hippodrom_; but whether it be one, or either of these, it is now fill’d up; or if it was that Port which stands West of the Church of _Bacchus_, ’tis now almost demolish’d, and enclosed with a Wall. There is only a small Part of it remaining, which is a standing Water, where the Women wash their Linnen. The People tell you, that they have seen some Three-Oar’d Gallies which have been sunk there. ’Tis call’d at present by the Inhabitants _Caterga limena_, or the Port of the Three-Oar’d Gallies; whether it be the same Port, which is standing on the East of the Church of _Bacchus_, near the Gate of the City call’d _Porta Leonis_, which Name it took either from a Lion near it, which was carved in Stone, or from the Emperor _Leo_, who, they tell you, had a Palace there, I shall not determine. _Nicephorus_, an Historian of modern Date, tells us, that an Emperor of _Constantinople_, when besieged by the People of _Italy_, summoned a Multitude of Smiths into the _Morion_, which ran round the _Hippodrom_. I could never discover at _Constantinople_ the Place which was called the _Pyctacia_; yet I cannot but take Notice from _Cedrinus_, and other modern Historians, that in the Place which they called the _Pyctacia_, there was a Pillar which supported the Statue of _Leo_ the Emperor, the Consort of _Verina_. This Statue, as some write, was erected by his Sister _Euphemia_, a Lady of great Wisdom and Continency, near her own House, where _Leo_ every Week, used to pay her a Visit. All Persons who laboured under Afflictions of any Kind, laid their Petitions to the Emperor, upon the Steps of this Pillar. The Apparitors took them up, and when the Emperor waited upon his Sister, they presented them to him. _Budæus_ says, that the _Pyctacia_, or as he calls them, the _Pystacia_, were Briefs; though I see no Reason why they may not also be called Petitions. For as _Pyctium_ signifies a Book, I do not see why _Pyctacium_ may not signify any smaller Writing. The _Greeks_ at present generally call their Letters _Pyctacia_. In an History written