Byzantine Constantinople, the walls of the city and adjoining historical sites — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
Byzantine Constantinople, the walls of the city and adjoining historical sites
John Stuart Mill · en
The new land wall, we shall find, crossed the promontory[41] along a
line a short distance to the east of the Cistern of Mokius on the
Seventh Hill, (the Tchoukour Bostan, west of Avret Bazaar), and of the
Cistern of Aspar at the head of the valley between the Fourth and Sixth
Hills, (the Tchoukour Bostan on the right of the street leading from the
Mosque of Sultan Mehemet to the Adrianople Gate). The southern end of
the line reached the Sea of Marmora somewhere between the gates known
respectively, at present, as Daoud Pasha Kapoussi and Psamathia
Kapoussi, while its northern extremity abutted on the Golden Horn, in
the neighbourhood of the Stamboul head of the inner bridge. At the same
time the seaward walls of Byzantium were repaired, and prolonged to meet
the extremities of the new land wall.
That this outline of the city of Constantine is, substantially, correct,
will appear from the information which ancient writers have given on the
subject.
(_a_) According to Zosimus,[42] the land wall of the new capital was
carried fifteen stadia west of the corresponding wall of Byzantium. The
position of the latter, we have already seen, is marked, with sufficient
accuracy for our present purpose by the porphyry Column of Constantine
which stood close to the main gate of the old Greek town.[43] Proceeding
from that column fifteen stadia westwards, we come to a line within a
short distance of the reservoirs above mentioned.
(_b_) In the oldest description of Constantinople—that contained in the
_Notitia_[44]—the length of the city is put down as 14,075 Roman feet;
the breadth as 6150 Roman feet. The _Notitia_ belongs to the age of
Theodosius II., and might therefore be supposed to give the dimensions
of the city after its enlargement by that emperor. This, however, is not
the case. The size of Constantinople under Theodosius II. is well known,
seeing the ancient walls which still surround Stamboul mark, with slight
modifications, the wider limits of the city in the fifth century. But
the figures of the _Notitia_ do not correspond to the well-ascertained
dimensions of the Theodosian city; they fall far short of those
dimensions, and therefore can refer only to the length and breadth of
the original city of Constantine. To adhere thus to the original size of
the capital after it had been outgrown is certainly strange, but may be
explained as due to the force of habit. When the _Notitia_ was written,
the enlargement of the city by Theodosius was too recent an event to
alter old associations of thought and introduce new points of view. “The
City,” proper, was still what Constantine had made it.