Interior Arrangements of the City of Constantine.
The work of altering Byzantium to become the seat of government was commenced in 328, and occupied some two years, materials and labourers for the purpose being gathered from all parts of the Empire. Workmen skilled in cutting columns and marble came even from the neighbourhood of Naples,[[119]] and the forty thousand Gothic troops, known as the Fœderati, lent their strength to push the work forward.[[120]]
At length, on the 11th of May, A.D. 330,[[121]] the city of Constantine, destined to rank among the great capitals of the world, and to exert a vast influence over the course of human affairs, was dedicated with public rejoicings which lasted forty days.[[122]]
The internal arrangements of the city were determined mainly by the configuration of its site, the position of the buildings taken over from Byzantium, and the desire to reproduce some of the features of Rome.
The principal new works gathered about two nuclei—the chief Gate of Byzantium and the Square of the Tetrastoon.
Immediately without the gate was placed the Forum, named after Constantine.[[123]] It was elliptical in shape, paved with large stones, and surrounded by a double tier of porticoes; a lofty marble archway at each extremity of its longer axis led into this area, and in the centre rose a porphyry column, bearing a statue of Apollo crowned with seven rays. The figure represented the founder of the city “shining like the sun” upon the scene of his creation. On the northern side of the Forum a Senate House was erected.[[124]]
The Tetrastoon was enlarged and embellished, receiving in its new character the name “Augustaion,” in honour of Constantine’s mother Helena, who bore the title Augusta, and whose statue, set upon a porphyry column, adorned the square.[[125]]
The Hippodrome was now completed,[[126]] to become “the axis of the Byzantine world,” and there, in addition to other monuments, the Serpent Column from Delphi was placed. The adjoining Thermæ of Zeuxippus were improved.[[127]] An Imperial Palace,[[128]] with its main entrance on the southern side of the Augustaion, was built to the east of the Hippodrome, where it stood related to the race-course very much as the Palace of the Cæsars on the Palatine was related to the Circus Maximus. There, at the same time, it commanded the beautiful view presented by the Sea of Marmora, the Prince’s Islands, the hilly Asiatic coast, and the snow-capped Bythinian Olympus. Eusebius, who saw the palace in its glory, describes it as “most magnificent;”[[129]] while Zosimus speaks of it as scarcely inferior to the Imperial Residence in Rome.[[130]]
On the eastern side of the Augustaion rose the Basilica,[[131]] where the Senate held its principal meetings. It was entered through a porch supported by six splendid columns of marble, and the building itself was decorated with every possible variety of the same material. There also statues of rare workmanship were placed, such as the Group of the Muses from Helicon, the statue of Zeus from Dodona, and that of Pallas from Lindus.[[132]]
According to Eusebius, Constantine adorned the city and its suburbs with many churches,[[133]] the most prominent of them being the Church of Irene[[134]] and the Church of the Apostles.[[135]] The former was situated a short distance to the north of the Augustaion, and there, as restored first by Justinian the Great, and later by Leo III., it still stands within the Seraglio enclosure, now an arsenal of Turkish arms.
The Church of the Apostles, with its roof covered with tiles of gilded bronze, crowned the summit of the Fourth Hill, where it has been replaced by the Mosque of the Turkish Conqueror of the city.
There, also, Constantine erected for himself a mausoleum, surrounded by twelve pillars after the number of the Apostles;[[136]] and in the porticoes and chapels beside the church most of Constantine’s successors and their empresses, as well as the patriarchs of the city, found their last resting-place in sarcophagi of porphyry or marble. Whether Constantine had any part in the erection of St. Sophia is extremely uncertain. Eusebius is silent regarding that church; Socrates ascribes it to Constantius. Possibly Constantine laid the foundations of the famous sanctuary.
Among other churches ascribed to the founder of the city are those dedicated, respectively, to St. Mokius, St. Acacius, St. Agathonicus, and to Michael the Archangel at Anaplus (Arnaoutkeui), on the Bosporus.[[137]] There is no doubt that in the foundation of New Rome, Constantine emphasized the alliance of the Empire with the Christian Church. “Over the entrance of his palace,” says Eusebius, “he caused a rich cross to be erected of gold and precious stones, as a protection and a divine charm against the machinations and evil purposes of his enemies.”[[138]]
Three streets running the length of the city formed the great arteries of communication.[[139]]
One started from the south-western end of the palace enclosure, and proceeded along the Sea of Marmora to the Church of St. Æmilianus, at the southern extremity of the land wall. At that point was the Harbour of Eleutherius,[[140]] on the site of Vlanga Bostan, providing the city with what Nature had failed to supply—a harbour of refuge on the southern coast of the promontory.
Another street commenced at the south-eastern end of the palace grounds (Tzycanisterion), and ran first to the point of the Acropolis along the eastern shore of the city, passing on the way the theatre and amphitheatre of Byzantium. Near the latter Constantine built the Mangana, or Military Arsenal.[[141]] The street then proceeded westwards along the Golden Horn, past the Temples of Zeus and Poseidon, the Stadium, the Strategion, and the principal harbours of the city, to the Church of St. Antony in the quarter of Harmatius. In the Strategion an equestrian statue of Constantine was placed, and a pillar bearing the edict which bestowed upon the city the name of New Rome, as well as the rights and privileges of the elder capital.[[142]]
The third street started from the main gate of the palace, and proceeded, first, from the Augustaion to the Forum of Constantine. On reaching the Third Hill it divided into two branches, one leading to the Porta Aurea and the Exokionion, the other to the Church of the Holy Apostles and the Gate of the Polyandrion. This was the main artery of the city, and was named the Mesè (Μεσὴ) on account of its central position. Porticoes built by Eubulus, one of the senators who accompanied Constantine from Rome, lined both sides of the Mesè, and one side of the two other streets, adding at once to the convenience and beauty of the thoroughfares. The porticoes extending from the Augustaion to the Forum of Constantine were particularly handsome.[[143]] Upon the summit of all the porticoes walks or terraces were laid out, adorned with countless statues, and commanding views of the city and of the surrounding hills and waters. Thus, the street scenery of Constantinople combined the attractions of Art and Nature.
The water-supply of the new capital was one of the most important undertakings of the day.[[144]] While the water-works of Byzantium, as improved by Hadrian, continued to be used, they were extended, to render the supply of water more abundant. What exactly was done for that purpose is, however, a matter of conjecture.[[145]]
To the construction of the aqueducts, porticoes, and fortifications of New Rome sixty centenaria of gold (£2,500,000) were devoted.[[146]]
The health of the city was consulted by building sewers far underground, and carrying them to the sea.[[147]]
With the view of drawing population to the new city, Constantine made the wheat hitherto sent from Egypt to Rome the appanage of Constantinople, and ordered the daily free distribution of eighty thousand loaves.[[148]] The citizens were, moreover, granted the Jus Italicus,[[149]] while, to attract families of distinction the emperor erected several mansions for presentation to Roman senators.[[150]] House-building was encouraged by granting estates in Pontus and Asia, on the tenure of maintaining a residence in the new capital.[[151]]
Furthermore, in virtue of its new dignity, the city was relieved from its subordination to the town of Heraclea,[[152]] imposed since the time of Septimius Severus, and the members of the public council of New Rome were constituted into a Senate, with the right to bear the title of Clari.[[153]]
For municipal purposes the city was divided, like Rome, into Fourteen Regions,[[154]] two of them being outside the circuit of the fortifications, viz. the Thirteenth, which comprised Sycæ (Galata), on the northern side of the Golden Horn, and the Fourteenth, constituting the suburb of Blachernæ, now the quarters of Egri Kapou and Aivan Serai.
CHAPTER III.
THE THEODOSIAN WALLS.
The enduring character of the political reasons which had called the new capital into being, and the commercial advantages which its unique position commanded, favoured such an increase of population, that before eighty-five years had elapsed, the original limits of Constantinople proved too narrow for the crowds gathered within the walls.
So numerous were the inhabitants already in 378, that the Goths, who then appeared before the city after the defeat of the Roman arms at Adrianople, abandoned all hope of capturing a stronghold which could draw upon such multitudes for its defence.[[155]]
The Land Walls of Constantinople.
Three years later, Athanaric[[156]] marvelled at the variety of peoples which poured into the city, as they have ever since, like streams from different points into a common reservoir. Soon the corn fleets of Alexandria, Asia, Syria, and Phœnicia, were unable to provide the city with sufficient bread.[[157]] The houses were packed so closely that the citizens, whether at home or abroad, felt confined and oppressed, while to walk the streets was dangerous, on account of the number of the beasts of burden that crowded the thoroughfares. Building-ground was in such demand that portions of the sea along the shores of the city had to be filled in, and the erections on that artificial land alone formed a considerable town.[[158]] Sozomon goes so far as to affirm that Constantinople had grown more populous than Rome.[[159]]
This increase of the population is explained, in part, by the attractions which a capital, and especially one founded recently, offered alike to rich and poor as a place of residence and occupation. The ecclesiastical dignity of the city, when elevated to the second rank in the hierarchy of the Church, made it, moreover, the religious centre of the East, and drew a large body of ecclesiastics and devout persons within its bounds. The presence and incursions of the Goths and the Huns south of the Danube drove many of the original inhabitants of the invaded districts for shelter behind the fortifications of the city, and led multitudes of barbarians thither in search of employment or the pleasures of civilized life.
Then, it must be remembered that no capital is built in a day.
To make the city worthy of its name involved great labour, and demanded an army of workmen of every description. There were many structures which Constantine had only commenced; the completion of the fortifications of the city had been left to Constantius; Julian found it necessary to construct a second harbour on the side of the Sea of Marmora; Valens was obliged to improve the water-works of the city by the erection of the fine aqueduct which spans the valley between the Fourth and Fifth Hills. And how large a number of hands such works required appears from the fact that when the aqueduct was repaired, in the ninth century, 6000 labourers were brought from the provinces to Constantinople for the purpose.[[160]]
Under the rule of the Theodosian dynasty the improvement of the city went forward with leaps and bounds. Most of the public places and buildings enumerated by the Notitia, were constructed under the auspices of that House, and transformed the city. A vivid picture of the change is drawn by Themistius,[[161]] who knew all the phases through which Constantinople had passed, from the reign of Constantius to that of Theodosius the Great. “No longer,” exclaims the orator, as he viewed the altered appearance of things around him, “is the vacant ground in the city more extensive than that occupied by buildings; nor are we cultivating more territory within our walls than we inhabit; the beauty of the city is not, as heretofore, scattered over it in patches, but covers its whole area like a robe woven to the very fringe. The city gleams with gold and porphyry. It has a (new) Forum, named after the emperor; it owns Baths, Porticoes, Gymnasia; and its former extremity is now its centre. Were Constantine to see the capital he founded he would behold a glorious and splendid scene, not a bare and empty void; he would find it fair, not with apparent, but with real beauty.” The mansions of the rich, the orator continues, had become larger and more sumptuous; the suburbs had expanded; the place “was full of carpenters, builders, decorators, and artisans of every description, and might fitly be called a work-shop of magnificence.” “Should the zeal of the emperor to adorn the city continue,” adds Themistius, in prophetic strain, “a wider circuit will be demanded, and the question will arise whether the city added to Constantinople by Theodosius is not more splendid than the city which Constantine added to Byzantium.”
The growth of the capital went on under Arcadius, with the result that early in the reign of his son, the younger Theodosius, the enlargement of the city limits, foreseen by Themistius, was carried into effect.
But this extension of the boundaries was not made simply to suit the convenience of a large population. It was required also by the need of new bulwarks. Constantinople called for more security, as well as for more room. The barbarians were giving grave reasons for disquiet; Rome had been captured by the Goths; the Huns had crossed the Danube, and though repelled, still dreamed of carrying their conquests wherever the sun shone. It was, indeed, time for the Empire to gird on its whole armour.
Fortunately for the eastern portion of the Roman world, Anthemius, the statesman at the head of the Government for six years during the minority of Theodosius II., was eminently qualified for his position by lofty character, distinguished ability, and long experience in the public service. When appointed Prætorian Prefect of the East, in 405, by the Emperor Arcadius, Chrysostom remarked that the appointment conferred more honour on the office than upon Anthemius himself; and the ecclesiastical historian Socrates extols the prefect as “one of the wisest men of the age.”[[162]] Proceeding, therefore, to do all in his power to promote the security of the State, Anthemius cleared the Balkan Peninsula of the hostile Huns under Uldin, driving them north of the Danube. Then, to prevent the return of the enemy, he placed a permanent flotilla of 250 vessels on that river, and strengthened the fortifications of the cities in Illyria; and to crown the system of defence, he made Constantinople a mighty citadel. The enlargement and refortification of the city was thus part of a comprehensive and far-seeing plan to equip the Roman State in the East for the impending desperate struggle with barbarism; and of all the services which Anthemius rendered, the most valuable and enduring was the addition he made to the military importance of the capital. The bounds he assigned to the city fixed, substantially, her permanent dimensions, and behind the bulwarks he raised—improved and often repaired, indeed, by his successors—Constantinople acted her great part in the history of the world.
The erection and repair of the fortifications of a city was an undertaking which all citizens were required to assist, in one form or another. On that point the laws were very stringent, and no rank or privilege exempted any one from the obligation to promote the work.[[163]] One-third of the annual land-tax of the city could be drawn upon to defray the outlay, all expenses above that amount being met by requisitions laid upon the inhabitants. The work of construction was entrusted to the Factions, as several inscriptions on the walls testify. In 447, when the Theodosian fortifications were repaired and extended, the Blues and the Greens furnished, between them, sixteen thousand labourers for the undertaking.[[164]]
The stone employed upon the fortifications is tertiary limestone, brought from the neighbourhood of Makrikeui, where the hollows and mounds formed in quarrying are still visible. The bricks used are from 1 foot 1 inch to 1 foot 2 inches square, and 2 inches thick. They are sometimes stamped with the name of their manufacturer or donor, and occasionally bear the name of the contemporary emperor, and the indiction in which they were made. Mortar, mixed with powdered brick, was employed in large quantities, lest it should dry without taking hold,[[165]] and bound the masonry into a solid mass, hard as rock.
The wall of Anthemius was erected in 413,[[166]] the fifth year of Theodosius II., then about twelve years of age, and is now represented by the inner wall in the fortifications that extend along the west of the city, from the Sea of Marmora to the ruins of the Byzantine Palace, known as Tekfour Serai. The new city limits were thus placed at a distance of one mile to one mile and a half west of the Wall of Constantine.
This change in the position of the landward line of defence involved the extension likewise of the walls along the two shores of the city; but though that portion of the work must have been included in the plan of Anthemius, it was not executed till after his day. As we shall find, the new seaboard of the capital was fortified a quarter of a century later, in 439, under the direction of the Prefect Cyrus, while Theodosius II. was still upon the throne.
The bulwarks of Anthemius saved the city from attack by Attila. They were too formidable for him to venture to assail them.
But they suffered soon at the hands of the power which was to inflict more injury upon the fortifications of Constantinople than any other foe. In 447, only thirty-four years after their construction, the greater portion of the new walls, with fifty-seven towers, was overthrown by a series of violent earthquakes.[[167]] The disaster was particularly inopportune at the moment it occurred, for already in that year Attila had defeated the armies of Theodosius in three successive engagements, ravaged with fire and sword the provinces of Macedonia and Thrace, and come as near to Constantinople as Athyras (Buyuk Tchekmedjè). He had dictated an ignominious treaty of peace, exacting the cession of territory south of the Danube, the payment of an indemnity of 6000 pounds of gold, and the increase of the annual tribute paid to him by the Eastern Empire from 700 pounds of gold to 2100.
The crisis was, however, met with splendid energy by Constantine, then Prætorian Prefect of the East, and under his direction, as Marcellinus Comes affirms, the walls were restored in less than three months after their overthrow.[[168]] But besides restoring the shattered bulwarks of his predecessor, Constantine seized the opportunity to render the city a much stronger fortress than even Anthemius had made it. Accordingly, another wall, with a broad and deep moat before it, was erected in front of the Wall of Anthemius, to place the city behind three lines of defence. The walls were flanked by 192 towers, while the ground between the two walls, and that between the Outer Wall and the Moat, provided room for the action of large bodies of troops. These five portions of the fortifications rose tier above tier, and combined to form a barricade 190-207 feet thick, and over 100 feet high.[[169]]
As an inscription[[170]] upon the fortifications proclaimed, this was a wall indeed, τὸ καὶ τεῖχος ὄντως—a wall which, so long as ordinary courage survived and the modes of ancient warfare were not superseded, made Constantinople impregnable, and behind which civilization defied the assaults of barbarism for a thousand years.
Portion of the Theodosian Walls (Between the Gate of the Deuteron and Yedi Koulè Kapoussi).
Three inscriptions commemorating the erection of these noble works of defence have been discovered. Two of them are still found on the Gate Yeni Mevlevi Haneh Kapoussi (Porta Rhousiou), one being in Greek, the other in Latin, as both languages were then in official use. The former reads to the effect that “In sixty days, by the order of the sceptre-loving Emperor, Constantine the Eparch added wall to wall.”
† ΗΜΑΣΙΝ ΕΞΗΚΟΝΤΑ ΦΙΛΟΣΚΗΠΤΡΩ ΒΑΣΙΛΗΙ †
ΚΩΝΣΤΑΝΤΙΝΟΣ ΥΠΑΡΧΟΣ ΕΔΕΙΜΑΤΟ ΤΕΙΧΕΙ ΤΕΙΧΟΣ †
The Latin legend is more boastful: “By the commands of Theodosius, in less than two months, Constantine erected triumphantly these strong walls. Scarcely could Pallas have built so quickly so strong a citadel.”
THEODOSII JUSSIS GEMINO NEC MENSE PERACTO †
CONSTANTINUS OVANS HAEC MOENIA FIRMA LOCAVIT
TAM CITO TAM STABILEM PALLAS VIX CONDERET ARCEM †[[171]]
The third inscription has disappeared from its place on the Porta Xylokerkou, but is preserved in the Greek Anthology.[[172]] It declared that, “The Emperor Theodosius and Constantine the Eparch of the East built this wall in sixty days.”
ΘΕΟΔΟΣΙΟΣ ΤΟΔΕ ΤΕΙΧΟΣ ΑΝΑΞ ΚΑΙ ΥΠΑΡΧΟΣ ΕΩΑΣ
ΚΩΝΣΤΑΝΤΙΝΟΣ ΕΤΕΥΞΑΝ ΕΝ ΗΜΑΣΙΝ ΕΞΗΚΟΝΤΑ
The shortness of the time assigned to the execution of the work is certainly astonishing. Perhaps the statement of the inscriptions will appear more credible if understood to refer exclusively to the second wall, and if we realize the terror which the Huns then inspired. The dread of Attila, “the Scourge of God,” might well prove an incentive to extraordinary performance, and strain every muscle to the utmost tension.
But the question of the time occupied in the reconstruction of the walls is not the only difficulty raised by these inscriptions. They present a question also as regards the official under whose direction that work was executed. For according to them, and Marcellinus Comes, the superintendent of the work was named Constantine.[[173]] Theophanes and subsequent historians, on the other hand, ascribe the undertaking to the Prefect Cyrus.[[174]] This is a serious discrepancy, and authorities are not agreed in their mode of dealing with it. Some have proposed to remove the difficulty by the simple expedient of identifying Constantine and Cyrus;[[175]] while others maintain a distinction of persons, and reconcile the conflicting statements by understanding them to refer, respectively, to different occasions on which the walls were repaired.[[176]]
Cyrus was one of the most conspicuous figures in the history of the city during the reign of Theodosius II.[[177]] On account of his talents and integrity he held the office of Prætorian Prefect, and that of Prefect of the City, for four years, making himself immensely popular by the character of his administration. During his prefecture, in 439, the new walls along the shores of the city were constructed. The fires and earthquakes, moreover, which devastated Constantinople in the earlier half of the fifth century, afforded him ample opportunity for carrying out civic improvements, and he was to be seen constantly driving about the city in his chariot to inspect the public buildings in course of erection, and to push forward their completion. Among other works, he restored the great Bath of Achilles, which had been destroyed in the fire of 433.[[178]] To him also is ascribed the introduction of the practice of lighting the shops and streets of the capital at night.[[179]] He was, moreover, a man of literary tastes, and a poet, who counted the Empress Eudoxia, herself a poetess, one of his admirers.[[180]] In the competition between Greek and Latin for ascendency as the official language of the Government, he took the side of the former by issuing his decrees in Greek, a practice which made the conservative Lydus style him ironically, “Our Demosthenes.”[[181]]
But in the midst of all his success, Cyrus remained self-possessed and sober-minded. “I do not like Fortune, when she smiles much,”[[182]] he was accustomed to say; and at length the tide of his prosperity turned. Taking his seat one day in the Hippodrome, he was greeted with a storm of applause. “Constantine,” the vast assembly shouted, “founded the city; Cyrus restored it.” For a subject to be so popular was a crime. Theodosius took umbrage at the ovation accorded to the renovator of the city, and Cyrus was dismissed from office, deprived of his property, forced to enter the Church, and sent to Smyrna to succeed four bishops who had perished at the hands of brigands. Upon his arrival in that city on Christmas Day he found his people ill-prepared to receive him, so indignant were they that a man still counted a heathen and a heretic should have been appointed the shepherd of their souls. But a short allocution, which Cyrus delivered in honour of the festival, disarmed the opposition to him, and he spent the last years of his life in the diocese, undisturbed by political turmoils and unmolested by robbers.
Returning to the question of the identity of Cyrus with the Prefect Constantine above mentioned, the strongest argument in favour of that identity is the fact that, commencing with Theophanes, who flourished in the latter part of the eighth century, all historians who refer to the fortification of the city under Theodosius II. ascribe the work to Cyrus. That they should be mistaken on this point, it may be urged, is extremely improbable. On this view, the occurrence of the name Constantine instead of Cyrus in the inscriptions and in Marcellinus Comes, is explained by the supposition that the former name was the one which Cyrus assumed, as usual under such circumstances, after his conversion to the Christian faith.[[183]] But surely any name which Cyrus acquired after his dismissal from office could not be employed as his designation in documents anterior to his fall. Perhaps a better explanation is that Cyrus always had both names, one used habitually, the other rarely, and that the latter appears in the inscriptions because more suited than the former to the versification in which they are cast. This, however, does not explain why Marcellinus Comes prefers the name Constantine.
On the other hand, the proposed identification of Cyrus and Constantine is open to serious objections. In the first place, not till the eighth century is the name of Cyrus associated with the land walls of Constantinople. Earlier historians,[[184]] when speaking of Cyrus and extolling his services, say nothing as to his having been concerned in the fortification of the city in 447.
In the next place, the information of Theophanes and his followers does not seem based upon a thorough investigation of the subject. These writers ignore the fact that under Theodosius II. the land walls were built on two occasions; they ascribe to Cyrus everything done in the fifth century in the way of enlarging and fortifying the capital, and are silent as regards the connection of the great Anthemius with that work.
The only Byzantine author later than the fifth century who recalls the services of Anthemius is Nicephorus Callistus,[[185]] and even he represents Cyrus as the associate of that illustrious prefect. If such inaccuracies do not render the testimony of Theophanes and subsequent historians worthless, they certainly make one ask whether these writers were not misled by the great fame of Cyrus on the ground of other achievements, and especially on account of his share in building the walls along the shores of the city in 439, to ascribe to him a work which was really performed by the more obscure Constantine.
The Inner Wall.
Τὸ κάστρον τὸ μέγα:[[186]] Τὸ μέγα τεῖχος.[[187]]
The Inner Wall was the main bulwark of the capital. It stood on a higher level than the Outer Wall, and was, at the same time, loftier, thicker, and flanked by stronger towers. In construction it was a mass of concrete faced on both sides with blocks of limestone, squared and carefully fitted; while six brick courses, each containing five layers of bricks, were laid at intervals through the thickness of the wall to bind the structure more firmly.
The wall rises some 30-½ feet above the present exterior ground-level, and about 40 feet above the level within the city, with a thickness varying from 15-½ feet near the base to 13-½ feet at the summit. The summit had along its outer edge a battlement, 4 feet 8 inches high, and was reached by flights of steps, placed generally beside the gates, and set at right angles to the wall, upon ramps of masonry.
The ninety-six towers, now battered and ruined by weather, war, and earthquakes, which once guarded this wall, stood from 175 to 181 feet apart, and were from 57 to 60 feet high, with a projection of 18 to 34 feet. As many of them are reconstructions and belong to different periods, they exhibit various forms and different styles of workmanship. Most of them are square; others are hexagonal, or heptagonal, or octagonal.
While their structure resembles that of the wall, they are nevertheless distinct buildings, in compliance with the rule laid down by military engineers, that a tower should not be bound in construction with the curtain of the wall behind it.[[188]] Thus two buildings differing in weight could settle at different rates without breaking apart along the line of junction. As an additional precaution a relieving arch was frequently inserted where the sides of the tower impinged on the wall.[[189]]
A tower was usually divided by wooden or vaulted floors into two chambers. Towers with three chambers, like the Tower of Basil and Constantine at the southern extremity of the wall, and the Soulou Kaleh beside the Lycus, were rare. The lower chamber was entered from the city through a large archway. Occasionally, it communicated also with the terrace between the two walls by a postern, situated as a rule, for the sake of concealment or easier defence, at the angle formed by the tower and the curtain-wall. Upon these entrances the chamber depended for light and air, as its walls had few, if any, loopholes, lest the tower should be weakened where most exposed to missiles.
Generally, the lower chamber had no means of communication with the story above it; at other times a circular aperture, about 7-½ feet in diameter, is found in the crown of the vaulted floor between the chambers.
Portion of the Theodosian Walls (From Within the City).
The lower portion of a tower had evidently little to do directly with the defence of the city, but served mainly as a store-room or guard-house. There, soldiers returning home or leaving for the field were allowed to take up their temporary quarters.[[190]] The proprietors of the ground upon which the towers stood were also allowed to use them,[[191]] but this permission referred, doubtless, only to the lower chambers, and that in time of peace.
The upper chamber was entered from the parapet-walk through an arched gateway, and was well lighted on its three other sides by comparatively large windows, commanding wide views, and permitting the occupants to fire freely upon an attacking force. Flights of steps, similar to the ramps that led to the summit of the wall, conducted to the battlemented roof of the towers. There, the engines that hurled stones and Greek fire upon the enemy were placed;[[192]] and there, sentinels watched the western horizon, day and night, keeping themselves awake at night by shouting to one another along the line.[[193]]
The Inner Terrace.
Ὁ Περίβολος.[[194]]
The Inner Embankment, or Terrace, between the two walls was 50 to 64 feet broad. It was named the Peribolos, and accommodated the troops which defended the Outer Wall.
The Outer Wall.
Τὸ ἔξω τεῖχος:[[195]] τὸ ἔξω κάστρον:[[196]] τὸ μικρόν τεῖχος.[[197]]
The Outer Wall is from 2 to 6-½ feet thick, rising some 10 feet above the present level of the peribolos,[[198]] and about 27-½ feet above the present level of the terrace between the Outer Wall and the Moat. Its lower portion is a solid wall, which retains the embankment of the peribolos. The upper portion is built, for the most part, in arches, faced on the outer side with hewn blocks of stone, and is frequently supported by a series of arches in concrete, and sometimes, even, by two series of such arches, built against the rear. Besides strengthening the wall, these supporting arches permitted the construction of a battlement and parapet-walk on the summit, and, moreover, formed chambers, 8-½ feet deep, where troops could be quartered, or remain under cover, while engaging the enemy through the loophole in the western wall of each chamber.
The towers which flanked this wall[[199]] were much smaller than those of the inner line. They are some 30 to 35 feet high, with a projection of about 16 feet beyond the curtain-wall. They alternate with the great towers to the rear, thus putting both walls more completely under cover. It would seem as if the towers of this line were intended to be alternately square and crescent in shape, so frequently do these forms succeed one another. That this arrangement was not always maintained is due, probably, to changes made in the course of repairs.
Each tower had a chamber on the level of the peribolos, provided with small windows. The lower portion of most of the towers was generally a solid substructure; but in the case of square towers it was often a small chamber reached from the Outer Terrace through a small postern, and leading to a subterranean passage running towards the city. These passages may either have permitted secret communication with different parts of the fortifications, or formed channels in which water-pipes were laid.
Notwithstanding the comparative inferiority of the Outer Wall, it was an important line of defence, for it sheltered the troops which engaged the enemy at close quarters. Both in the siege of 1422,[[200]] and in that of 1453,[[201]] the most desperate fighting occurred here.
The Outer Terrace.
Τὸ ἔξω παρατείχιον.[[202]]
The embankment or terrace between the Outer Wall and the Moat is some 61 feet broad. While affording room for the action of troops under cover of the battlement upon the scarp of the Moat,[[203]] its chief function was to widen the distance between the besiegers and the besieged.
The Moat.
Τάφρος: σοῦδα.[[204]]
The Moat is over 61 feet wide. Its original depth, which doubtless varied with the character of the ground it traversed, cannot be determined until excavations are allowed, for the market-gardens and débris which now occupy it have raised the level of the bed. In front of the Golden Gate, where it was probably always deepest, on account of the importance of that entrance, its depth is still 22 feet. The masonry of the scarp and counterscarp is 5 feet thick, and was supported by buttresses to withstand the pressure of the elevated ground on either side of the Moat. The battlement upon the scarp formed a breastwork about 6-½ feet high.
At several points along its course the Moat is crossed by low walls, dividing it into so many sections or compartments. They are generally opposite a tower of the Outer or Inner Wall, and taper from the base to a sharp edge along the summit, to prevent their being used as bridges by an enemy. On their southern side, where the ground falls away, they are supported by buttresses.
Dr. Paspates[[205]] was the first to call attention to these structures, and to him, also, belongs the credit of having thrown some light upon their use. They were, in his opinion, aqueducts, and dams or batardeaux, by means of which water was conveyed to the Moat, and kept in position there. But this service, Dr. Paspates believed, was performed by them only in case of a siege, when they were broken open, and allowed to run into the Moat. At other times, when no hostile attack was apprehended, they carried water across the Moat into the city, for the supply of the ordinary needs of the population.
That many of these structures, if not all, were aqueducts admits of no doubt, for some have been found to contain earthenware water-pipes, while others of them still carry into the city water brought by underground conduits from the hills on the west of the fortifications; and that they were dams seems the only explanation of the buttresses built against their lower side, as though to resist the pressure of water descending from a higher level.
Aqueduct Across the Moat of the Theodosian Walls.
Coin of the Emperor Theodosius II. (From Du Cange.)
Certainly Dr. Paspates’ view has very much in its favour. It is, however, not altogether free from difficulties. To begin with, the idea that the Moat was flooded only during a siege does not agree with the representations of Manuel Chrysolaras and Bondelmontius on that point. The former writer, in his famous description of Constantinople, speaks as if the Moat was always full of water. According to him, it contained so much water that the city seemed to stand upon the sea-shore, even when viewed from the side of the land.[[206]] The Italian traveller describes the Moat as a “vallum aquarum surgentium.”[[207]]
Are these statements mere rhetorical flourishes? If not, then water must have been introduced into the Moat by some other means than by the aqueducts which traverse it, for these, as Dr. Paspates himself admits, ordinarily took water into the city. Unfortunately, it is impossible, under present circumstances, to examine the Moat thoroughly, or to explore the territory without the city to discover underground conduits, and thus settle the question at issue. One can only ask, as a matter for future investigation, whether, on the view that the Moat was always flooded, the water required for the purpose was not brought by underground conduits that emptied themselves a little above the bed of the Moat. The mouth of what appears to be such a conduit is seen in the counterscarp of the Moat immediately below the fifth aqueduct to the south of Top Kapoussi. If water was brought thus to the elevation of Top Kapoussi and Edirnè Kapoussi, sufficient pressure to flood the rest of the Moat would be obtained.
But, in the next place, it must be added that objections can be urged against the opinion that the Moat was flooded even in time of war. The necessary quantity of water could ill be spared by a city which required all available water for the wants of its inhabitants, especially at the season of the year when sieges were conducted. Then, there is the fact that in the accounts we have of the sieges of the city, all contemporary historians are silent as to the presence of water in the Moat, notwithstanding frequent allusions to that part of the fortifications.
Furthermore, there are statements which imply the absence of water in the Moat during a siege. Pusculus, for instance, giving a minute account of the measures adopted in 1453 to place the city in a state of defence, refers to the deepening of the Moat, but says nothing about water in it. “Fossaque cavant, atque aggere terræ educto, muros forti munimine cingunt.”[[208]] If water had been introduced into the Moat on this occasion, Pusculus could hardly have ignored the fact.
Again, in the Slavic account of the last siege of the city we are informed that the Greeks opened mines through the counterscarp of the Moat, to blow up the Turks who approached the fortifications: “Les assiégés pendant le jour combattaient les Turcs, et pendant la nuit descendaient dans les fossés, perçaient les murailles du fossé du côté des champs, minaient la terre sous le mur à beaucoup d’endroits, et remplissaient les mines de poudre et de vases remplis de poudre.”[[209]] If such action was possible, there could be no water in the Moat.