Byzantine Constantinople, the walls of the city and adjoining historical sites
John Stuart Mill · en
The palace at Tchatlady Kapou answers, moreover, to the description
which Procopius gives of the Palace of Hormisdas, the residence of
Justinian, as near SS. Sergius and the Great Palace.[1024] Its position
agrees also with the statement of John of Ephesus that the Palace of
Hormisdas was below the great Imperial residence.[1025] Again, the style
of the capitals and other pieces of marble, which have fallen from the
palace at Tchatlady Kapou into the water, resemble the sculptured work
in the Church of SS. Sergius and Bacchus, erected by Justinian. And
lastly, the palace at this point was regarded as the Palace of Justinian
when Bondelmontius visited the city in 1422. “Beyond Condoscali (Koum
Kapoussi),” says that traveller, as he proceeds eastward, along the
Marmora shore of the city, “was the very large Palace of Justinian upon
the city walls” (“Ultra fuit supra mœnia amplissimum Justiniani
Palatium”).
All this being the case, it seems unavoidable to conclude that the
Palace and Harbour of Hormisdas were the Palace and Harbour of the
Bucoleon, under an earlier name. The circumstance that the palaces are
distinguished by the Anonymus presents, after all, no serious
difficulty, but the reverse; for, as a matter of fact, there are two
palatial buildings on the bay east of Tchatlady Kapou, at a distance of
some 110 yards from each other, and on different levels. One of the
buildings, probably the lower, might be the Palace of Hormisdas; the
other, on higher ground, and nearer the gate—may be the palace to which
the Anonymus referred as the Bucoleon.
It is in keeping with this view of the subject to find that the terms
“Palace of Hormisdas,” “Port of Hormisdas,” are not employed by
Byzantine authors to designate an Imperial residence or harbour, after
the name Bucoleon came into vogue.
The earliest writer who refers to the Harbour of the Bucoleon is the
Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus,[1026] in the tenth century. Later
writers,[1027] it is true, employ the name when speaking of events which
occurred in the reign of Michael I., and in that of Theophilus, in the
course of the ninth century. But whether these writers do so because the
name was contemporary with the events narrated, or because, when the
historians wrote, it was the more familiar appellation for the scene of
those events, is uncertain. Should the former supposition be preferred,
it was early in the ninth century that the term “Bucoleon” first
appeared.
On the other hand, the last author who alludes to the Palace of
Hormisdas is the historian Theophanes, who died in 818. The passage in
which the allusion is found refers, indeed, to matters which transpired
in the seventh century, viz. to the execution of a certain David,
Chartophylax of (the Palace of) Hormisdas, in the reign of Phocas. But
the historian could hardly have described an official position in terms
not still familiar to his readers.[1028]