Byzantine Constantinople, the walls of the city and adjoining historical sites
John Stuart Mill · en
Lib. v. c. ix.; Migne, _Patrologia Latina_, vol. cxxxvi.
Footnote 1041:
_Le Palais Impérial de Consple._, p. 210.
Footnote 1042:
_Op. cit._, p. 545.
Footnote 1043:
Still, the Palaces of the Bucoleon may have been protected by a
special enclosure, although the historians do not refer to it
particularly.
In the garden of a Turkish house to the north of the lower palace, a
portion of a Byzantine wall, about 130 feet in length and 40 feet
high, is found standing. It was discovered, when walls and houses in
the neighbourhood were demolished for the construction of the
Roumelian Railway, and was then pierced by a very large vaulted
gateway, over 18 feet high, supported by four great marble columns.
Gate and columns have disappeared. If produced southwards, the wall
would join the tower at the eastern end of the lower palace; while if
produced northwards, the wall would abut against the retaining wall of
the terrace on which the Mosque of Sultan Achmet and its courtyards
are built. The wall is pierced with loopholes, facing _east_, and
behind them a passage runs along the rear of the wall, through arches
occurring at intervals.
Dr. Paspates (p. 120) regarded the wall as part of the Peridromi of
Marcian (see Labarte, _Le Palais Impérial de Consple._, p. 214),
attached to the Great Palace. But this view of its character is not
consistent with the fact that the loopholes look eastwards. That fact
indicates that the wall belonged to the Palaces of the Bucoleon which
stood to the rear. The gate in the wall, likewise, shows that these
palaces were separated from the area of the Great Palace. May the wall
not have turned westwards, at its present northern extremity, to
protect the Palaces of the Bucoleon along the north, and then
southwards, to connect with the city wall at Tchatlady Kapou, and
protect the palaces on the west? This, with the city wall along the
southern front of the palaces, would put them within a fortified
enclosure of their own.
Footnote 1044:
Theophanes Cont., p. 393.
Footnote 1045:
Leo Diaconus, v. p. 87; Cedrenus, vol. ii. p. 375.
Footnote 1046:
Nicetas Chon., pp. 169, 170.
Footnote 1047:
Anna Comn., iii. p. 137.
Footnote 1048:
Lib. xx. c. 23.
Footnote 1049:
_Conquête de Consple._, c. li. E.
Footnote 1050:
_Ibid._, c. lv.
Footnote 1051:
_Conquête de Consple._, c. li.
Footnote 1052:
_Ibid._, c. liii.
Footnote 1053:
_Ibid._, c. lv.
Footnote 1054:
Ville-Hardouin, c. lviii.
Footnote 1055:
_Ibid._, c. cvi.
Footnote 1056:
_Ibid._, c. liii., lv.
Footnote 1057:
_Ibid._, c. lv. The position assigned by Labarte to the Palace of
Bucoleon, at Ahour Kapoussi, explains his interpretation of the
statements of Ville-Hardouin.
Footnote 1058:
_Le Palais Impérial de Consple._, p. 201. Labarte quotes Luitprandi
Antapodosis, lib. v. s. 21, ap. Pertz., _Mon. Germ. Hist._, t. v. p.
333.
Footnote 1059: