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
In corroboration of this conclusion two additional facts may be cited.
First, the Church of St. Mokius, the sanctuary accorded to the Arians
for their extra-mural services in the Exokionion, stood on the Seventh
Hill,[61] for it was on the road from the Sigma to the Forum of
Arcadius,[62] and gave name to the large ancient cistern, the Tchoukour
Bostan, to the north-west of the Forum.[63]
In the next place, the district on the Seventh Hill to the west of Avret
Bazaar (Forum of Arcadius) and beside the cistern of Mokius, still
retains the name Exokionion under a Turkish form, its actual name, Alti
Mermer, the district of “the Six Columns,” being, evidently, the Turkish
rendering of Hexakionion, the popular Byzantine alias of Exokionion.[64]
The Exokionion, therefore, was on the Seventh Hill. Accordingly, the
Wall of Constantine crossed that hill along a line to the east of the
quarter of Alti Mermer.
(_b_) The next landmark, the Ancient Gate of the Forerunner (Παλαιὰ
Πόρτα τοῦ Προδρόμου), elsewhere styled simply the Ancient Gate (Παλαιὰ
Πόρτα),[65] furnishes the most precise indication we have of the
position of Constantine’s wall. It was a gate which survived the
original fortifications of the city, as Temple Bar outlived the wall of
London, and became known in later days as the Ancient Gate, on account
of its great antiquity. Its fuller designation, the Ancient Gate of the
Forerunner,[66] is explained by the fact that a church dedicated to the
Baptist was built against the adjoining wall. Conversely, the church was
distinguished as the Church of the Forerunner at the Ancient Gate (τὴν
Παλαιὰν).[67] Manuel Chrysolaras places the entrance to the west of the
Forum of Arcadius, and describes it as one of the finest monuments in
the city.[68] It was so wide and lofty that a tower or a full-rigged
ship might pass through its portals. Upon the summit was a marble
portico of dazzling whiteness, and before the entrance rose a column,
once surmounted by a statue. When Bondelmontius visited the city, in
1422, the gate was still erect, and is marked on his map of
Constantinople as Antiquissima Pulchra Porta.[69] It survived the
Turkish Conquest, when it obtained the name of Isa Kapoussi (the Gate of
Jesus), and held its place as late as 1508. In that year it was
overthrown by a great earthquake. “Isa Kapoussi,” says the Turkish
historian Solak Zadè, who records the occurrence, “near Avret Bazaar,
which had been in existence for 1900 years (_sic_), fell and was
levelled to the ground.”[70] But the shadow of the name still lingers
about the site. A small mosque to the west of Avret Bazaar bears the
name Isa Kapoussi Mesdjidi,[71] while the adjoining street is called Isa
Kapoussi Sokaki. The mosque is an ancient Christian church, and probably
bore in its earlier character a name which accounts for its Turkish
appellation.