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 length of the original city was measured from the Porta Aurea on the
west to the sea on the east. Unfortunately, a serious difference of
opinion exists regarding the particular gate intended by the Porta
Aurea. There can be no doubt, however, that the sea at the eastern end
of the line of measurement was the sea at the head of the promontory;
for only by coming to that point could the full length of the city be
obtained. Consequently, if we take the head of the promontory for our
starting-point of measurement, and proceed westwards to a distance of
14,075 feet, we shall discover the extent of the city of Constantine in
that direction. This course brings us to the same result as the figures
of Zosimus—to the neighbourhood of the Cisterns of Mokius and Aspar.
Turning next to the breadth of the city, we find that the only portion
of the promontory across which a line of 6150 feet will stretch from sea
to sea lies between the district about the gate Daoud Pasha Kapoussi,
beside the Sea of Marmora on the south, and the district about the
Stamboul head of the inner bridge on the north; elsewhere the promontory
is either narrower or broader. Hence the southern and northern
extremities of the land wall of Constantine terminated respectively, as
stated above, in these districts.
From these figures we pass to the localities and structures by which
Byzantine writers have indicated the course of Constantine’s wall.
On the side of the Sea of Marmora the wall extended as far west as the
Gate of St. Æmilianus (πόρτα τοῦ ἁγίου Αἰμιλιανοῦ), and the adjoining
church of St. Mary Rhabdou (τῆς ἁγίας θεοτόκου τῆς Ῥάβδου).[45] That
gate is represented by Daoud Pasha Kapoussi, which stands immediately to
the west of Vlanga Bostan.[46]
In crossing from the Sea of Marmora to the Golden Horn, over the
Seventh, Fourth, and Fifth Hills, the line of the fortifications was
marked by the Exokionion; the Ancient Gate of the Forerunner; the
Monastery of St. Dius; the Convent of Icasia; the Cistern of Bonus; the
Church of SS. Manuel, Sabel, and Ishmael; the Church, and the Zeugma, or
Ferry, of St. Antony in the district of Harmatius, where the
fortifications reached the harbour.[47] To this list may be added the
Trojan Porticoes and the Cistern of Aspar.
[Illustration: Map of Byzantine Constantinople.]