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
A church dedicated to St. Antony was found in this part of the city by
the Archbishop of Novgorod, when he visited Constantinople at the close
of the eleventh century. He reached it after paying his devotions in the
Church of St. Theodosia, the Church of St. Isaiah, and the Church of St.
Laurentius,[95] sanctuaries situated in the plain before us; the first
being now the Mosque Gul Djami, near Aya Kapou,[96] while the two last
are represented, it is supposed, respectively, by the Mosque of Sheik
Mourad and the Mosque of Pour Kouyou, further to the south.[97] The
Archbishop places the Church of St. Antony on higher ground than the
Church of St. Laurentius, apparently a short distance up the slope of
the Fourth Hill, a position which St. Antony of Harmatius may well have
occupied.
(_i_) The locality known as the Zeugma, or Ferry of St. Antony, stood,
naturally, beside the shore. If it cannot be identified with Oun-Kapan
Kapoussi, where one of the principal ferries across the Golden Horn has
always stood, it must, at all events, have been in that neighbourhood.
(_j_) With the result thus obtained regarding the course of the
Constantinian Wall, may now be compared the statement of the _Paschal
Chronicle_ upon the subject. According to that authority the old land
wall of the city crossed the promontory from the Gate of St. Æmilianus,
upon the Sea of Marmora, to the district of the Petrion, upon the Golden
Horn.[98] This statement is of great importance, because made while the
wall was still standing; and it would on that account have been
considered sooner, but for certain questions which it raises, and which
can be answered more readily now than at a previous stage of our
inquiries. The Chronicler makes the strange mistake of supposing that
the wall which he saw stretching from sea to sea was the wall built
originally for the defence of Byzantium by Phedalia, the wife of Byzas.
Unfortunately, Byzantine archæologists were not always versed in
history.
Setting aside, therefore, the Chronicler’s historical opinions, and
attending to the facts under his personal observation, we find him
entirely agreed with the Anonymus as regards the point at which the
southern extremity of the Wall of Constantine terminated.
For the Gate of St. Æmilianus, by which the former authority marks that
extremity, stood close to the Church of St. Mary Rabdou, the indication
given by the latter.[99]