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
Hence, it follows that the quarter of the city known as the Deuteron (τὸ
Δεύτερον) was the district to the rear of this gate. This fact can be
proved also independently by the following indications. The district in
question was without the Walls of Constantine;[289] it lay to the west
of the Exokionion, the Palaia Porta, and the Cistern of Mokius;[290] it
was, on the one hand, near the last street of the city,[291] the street
leading to the Golden Gate, and, on the other, contained the Gate
Melantiados,[292] now Selivri Kapoussi.[293] Consequently, it was the
district behind the portion of the walls in which the gate before us is
situated. This in turn supports the identification of the gate as that
of the Deuteron. It is the finest and largest of the military gates, and
may sometimes have served as a public gate in the period of the Empire,
as it has since.
Of the churches in the Deuteron quarter, the most noted were the Church
of the SS. Notarii, attributed to Chrysostom,[294] and the Church of St.
Anna, a foundation of Justinian the Great.[295] Others of less
importance were dedicated respectively to St. Timothy,[296] St.
George,[297] St. Theodore,[298] and St. Paul the Patriarch.[299]
The next public entrance (Selivri Kapoussi) is situated between the
thirteenth and fourteenth towers north of the Gate of the Deuteron. Its
present name appears shortly before the Turkish Conquest (πύλη τῆς
Σηλυβρίας),[300] and alludes to the fact that the entrance is at the
head of the road to Selivria; but its earlier and more usual designation
was the Gate of the Pegè, _i.e._ the Spring (Πύλη τῆς Πηγῆς),[301]
because it led to the celebrated Holy Spring (now Baloukli), about half
a mile to the west. This name for the entrance is found in the
inscription placed on the back of the southern gateway tower, in
commemoration of repairs made in the year 1433 or 1438.[302]
The gate possessed considerable importance owing to its proximity to the
Holy Spring,[303] which, with its healing waters and shrines, its
cypress groves, meadows, and delightful air, formed one of the most
popular resorts in the neighbourhood of the city.[304] There the
emperors had a palace and hunting park, to which they often retired for
recreation, especially in the spring of the year. On the Festival of the
Ascension the emperor visited the “Life-giving Pegè” in state, sometimes
riding thither through the city, at other times proceeding in his barge
as far as the Marmora extremity of the walls, and then mounting horse
for the rest of the way.[305] But in either case, the Imperial _cortége_
came up to this gate, and was received there by the body of household
troops called the Numeri. It was on returning from such a visit to the
Pegè that the Emperor Nicephorus Phocas was mobbed and stoned, as he
rode from the Forum of Constantine to the Great Palace beside the
Hippodrome.[306]