of this _Chrysotriclinium_ by Historians, who wrote just before the taking of _Constantinople_ by the _Turks_, and all the Inhabitants both knew the Name, and the Place where it stood. But the People are since fallen into such an Aversion to Learning, and a Disrelish of what is ingenious and Polite, that they rather chuse to embrace a voluntary Ignorance, and treat every Thing that is curious with Indignity and Contempt. _The End of the Second Book._ [Illustration: Page decoration] [Illustration: Page Header Decoration] THE ANTIQUITIES OF CONSTANTINOPLE. BOOK III. CHAP. I. _Of several Places in the fifth Ward, and the second Hill; of the_ Neorium; _of the Port nam’d the_ Bosporium; _of the_ Strategium, _and the_ Forum _of_ Theodosius. It was impossible for me to discover from the _Ancient Description of the Wards_, that the fifth _Ward_ stood on the North Side of the second Hill, and in a Plain at the Bottom of it, and that it descended jointly with the fourth Ward from the Ridge of the _Promontory_ to the Bay call’d _Ceras_, although the Author takes Notice that a great part of it fell down in winding Descents into the Bosom of a Plain. For this Description of it is no less agreeable to other Wards. Nor could I find out its Situation from any Buildings remaining in it, or from the Information of the most ancient Inhabitants. All the Light I could get was from the Situation of the _Phosphorian_ or, as some call it, the _Bosphorian_ Port, and the _Stairs_ of _Chalcedon_, which do not take that Name, because they are built in the Eastern Part of the City facing _Chalcedon_, for they stand full North; and so it is call’d the _Bosphorian_ Port, not from the Sea of _Bosporus_, but from a depraved Custom of the People, who pronounce it so; whereas, according to the Authorities of _Stephanus_ and _Eustathius_, they ought to call it the _Phosphorian_ Port. For these Writers assert, that it took its Name from hence; _viz._ that when _Philip_ of _Macedon_ besieged _Byzantium_, and his Soldiers were digging a Passage under Ground into the Town, the Moon, which is call’d _Phosphora_, shone out in its full Brightness, and discover’d the Stratagem; so that the _Byzantians_, the Siege being raised, call’d it the _Phosphorium_. But as they give some Reason why it may be thought the same Haven, though under different Names, yet are they silent as to its Situation, whether it stood on the Eastern, Northern, or Southern Side of the City; though it is reasonable to believe, if we consider the Situation of the Stairs of _Chalcedon_, which the _Ancient Description of the Wards_ places in the same _Ward_ with the _Bosphorian_ Haven, that it stood on the South Side of the City, and not on the East Side, although it directly faces _Chalcedon_. For the Force and Rapidity of the _Bosporus_ makes it very difficult to sail from _Chalcedon_ to the Eastern and Southern Parts of _Constantinople_; but ’tis an easy Passage to those who sail