The Golden Gate.
The Theodosian Walls were pierced by ten gates, and by several small posterns.
Of the former, some led only to the different parts of the fortifications, serving exclusively the convenience of the garrison. These may be styled Military Gates. Others connected the capital, moreover, with the outside world by means of bridges thrown across the Moat,[[210]] and constituted the Public Gates of the city. The two series followed one another in alternate order, the military entrances being known by numbers, the public entrances by proper names. Both were double gateways, as they pierced the two walls. The inner gateway, being the principal one, was guarded by two large towers, which projected far beyond the curtain-wall to obtain a good flank fire, and to command at the same time the outer gateway. Thus also the passage from the area between the gateways to the peribolos, on either side, was rendered exceedingly narrow and capable of easy defence. In view of its great importance, the outer gateway of the Golden Gate also was defended by two towers, projecting from the rear of the wall towards the city.
For the sake of security against surprise the posterns were few in number, and occurred chiefly in the great wall and its towers, leading to the peribolos. It is rare to find a postern in a tower of the Outer Wall opening on the parateichion.
Proceeding northwards from the Sea of Marmora, there is a postern immediately to the north of the first tower of the Inner Wall. It is an arched entrance, with the laureated monogram “ΧΡ.” inscribed above it.
The handsome gateway between the seventh and eighth towers north of the Sea of Marmora, Yedi Koulè Kapoussi, is the triumphal gate known, from the gilding upon it, as the Porta Aurea. Its identity cannot be questioned, for the site and aspect of the entrance correspond exactly to the description given of the Golden Gate by Byzantine historians and other authorities.
Plan of the Golden Gate
It is, what the Porta Aurea was, the gateway nearest the Sea of Marmora,[[211]] and at the southern extremity of the Theodosian Walls,[[212]] constructed of marble, and flanked by two great marble towers.[[213]] Beside its outer portal, moreover, were found the bas-reliefs which adorned the Golden Gate, and upon it traces of an inscription which expressly named it the Porta Aurea are still visible. The inscription read as follows:
HAEC LOCA THEVDOSIVS DECORAT POST FATA TYRANNI.
AVREA SAECLA GERIT QVI PORTAM CONSTRVIT AVRO.
The history of our knowledge of this inscription is curious. There is no mention made of the legend by any writer before 1453, unless Radulphus de Diceto alludes to it when he states that in 1189 an old resident of the city pointed a Templar to certain words upon the Golden Gate, foretelling the capture of Constantinople by the Crusaders.[[214]] And of all the visitors to the city since the Turkish Conquest, Dallaway is the only one who speaks of having seen the inscription in its place.[[215]]
The inscription is cited first by Sirmondi[[216]] and Du Cange,[[217]] the former of whom quotes it in his annotations upon Sidonius Apollonius, as furnishing a parallel to that poet’s mode of spelling the name Theodosius with a v instead of an o for the sake of the metre. How Sirmondi and Du Cange, neither of whom ever visited Constantinople, became acquainted with the inscription does not appear.
Matters remained in this position until 1891, when the attention of Professor J. Strzygowski[[218]] was arrested by certain holes in the voussoirs of the central archway, both on its western and eastern faces. The holes are such as are found on stones to which metal letters are riveted with bolts.
Here, then, was conclusive evidence that the Porta Aurea had once borne an inscription, and here, Professor Strzygowski divined, was also the means by which the genuineness of the legend given by Sirmondi and Du Cange could be verified. Accordingly, a comparison between the arrangement of the holes on the arch and the forms of the letters in the legend was instituted. As several of the original voussoirs of the arch had been removed and replaced by others without holes in them, the comparison could not be complete; but so far as it was possible to proceed the correspondence was all that could be desired. Where H, for example, occurred in the inscription, the holes on the archway are arranged thus, ::; where an A stood, the holes are placed thus, ∴; where V came, their position is ∵; and so on, to an extent which verifies the inscription beyond dispute. Thus, also, it has been ascertained that the letters were of metal, probably gilt bronze, and that the words “Haec loca Thevdosivs decorat post fata Tyranni” stood on the western face of the arch, while the words “Avrea saecla gerit qvi portam constrvit avro” were found on the opposite side.
The preservation of the inscription is a matter of very great importance, for it furnishes valuable and interesting information as to the circumstances under which the Porta Aurea was erected. From the fact that the entrance is found in the Theodosian Walls it is natural to infer that the Porta Aurea was a contemporaneous building, and that the emperor extolled in the inscription is Theodosius II. But that inference is precluded by the statement that the arch was set up after the suppression of a usurper, post fata tyranni. For Theodosius II. was not called to suppress the usurpation of his imperial authority at any time during his reign, much less in 413, when the Wall of Anthemius, in which the Porta Aurea stands, was built. On the other hand, Theodosius the Great crushed two serious attempts to dispute his rule, first in 388, when he defeated Maximus, and again in 395, when he put down the rebellion of Eugenius. Hence, as Du Cange first pointed out, the Porta Aurea is a monument erected in the reign of Theodosius the Great, in honour of his victory over one of the rebels above mentioned. It could not, however, have been designed to commemorate the defeat of Eugenius, seeing that Theodosius never returned to Constantinople after that event, and died four months later in the city of Milan. It must, therefore, have been reared in honour of the victory over Maximus, a success which the conqueror regarded with feelings of peculiar satisfaction and pride, celebrating it by one triumphal entry into Rome, in the spring of 389, and by another into Constantinople, when he returned to the eastern capital in 391.[[219]] Accordingly, the Porta Aurea was originally an Arch of Triumph, erected some time between 388 and 391, to welcome Theodosius the Great upon his return from his successful expedition against the formidable rebellion of Maximus in the West. It united with the Column of Theodosius in the Forum of Taurus, and the Column of Arcadius in the Forum on the Xerolophus, and the Obelisk in the Hippodrome,[[220]] in perpetuating the memory of the great emperor’s warlike achievements.
In corroboration of the date thus assigned to the monument, it may be added that the only Imperial statue placed over the Porta Aurea was that of Theodosius the Great, while the group of elephants which formed one of the ornaments of the gate was supposed to represent the elephants attached to the car of that emperor on the occasion of his triumphal entry into the city.[[221]]
There is, however, an objection to this view concerning the age of the Porta Aurea, which, whatever its force, should not be overlooked in a full discussion of the subject. The inscription describes the monument as a gateway, “Qui portam construit auro.”[[222]] But such a designation does not seem consistent with the fact that we have here a building which belongs to the age of Theodosius the Great, when the city walls in which the arch stands did not exist, as they are the work of his grandson. How could an isolated arch be, then, styled a gateway? Can the difficulty be removed by any other instance of a similar use of the term “Porta”? Or is the employment of the term in the case before us explained by the supposition that in the reign of Theodosius the Great the city had spread beyond the Constantinian Wall, and reached the line marked by the Porta Aurea, so that an arch at that point was practically an entrance into the city? May not that suburban district have been protected by some slight fortified works? Or was the Porta Aurea so named in anticipation of the fulfilment of the prediction of Themistius, that the growth of the city under Theodosius the Great would ere long necessitate the erection of new walls?[[223]] Was it built in that emperor’s reign to indicate to a succeeding generation the line along which the new bulwarks of the capital should be built?
The Porta Aurea was the State Entrance into the capital,[[224]] and was remarkable both for its architectural splendour and its military strength. It was built of large squared blocks of polished marble, fitted together without cement, and was flanked by two great towers constructed of the same material. Like the Triumphal Arch of Severus and that of Constantine at Rome, it had three archways, the central one being wider and loftier than those on either side.
The gates glittered with gold,[[225]] and numerous statues and other sculptured ornaments were placed at suitable points.[[226]]
The Golden Gate (Inner).
Of these embellishments the following are mentioned: a cross, which was blown down by a hurricane in the reign of Justinian;[[227]] a Victory, which fell in an earthquake in the reign of Michael III.;[[228]] a crowned female figure, representing the Fortune of the city;[[229]] a statue of Theodosius the Great, overthrown by the earthquake at the close of the reign of Leo the Isaurian;[[230]] a bronze group of four elephants;[[231]] the gates of Mompseuesta, gilded and placed here by Nicephorus Phocas, as a trophy of his campaign in Cilicia.[[232]] At the south-western angle of the northern tower the Roman eagle still spreads its wings; the laureated monogram “ΧΡ” appears above the central archway on the city side of the gateway; and several crosses are scattered over the building.
In later days, when taste had altered, the scene of the Crucifixion was painted within one of the lateral archways, while the Scene of the Final Judgment was represented in the other.[[233]] Traces of frescoes are visible on the inner walls of the southern archway, and suggest the possibility of its having been used as a chapel.
The whole aspect of the gateway must have been more imposing when the parapet on the towers and on the wall over the arches was intact, and gave the building its full elevation.
Two columns crowned with graceful capitals adorned the outer gateway, while the wall north and south was decorated with twelve bas-reliefs, executed with considerable skill, and representing classical subjects. Remains of the marble cornices and of the pilasters which framed the bas-reliefs are still found in the wall, and from the descriptions of the slabs given by Manuel Chrysolaras, Gyllius, Sir Thomas Roe, and others, a fair idea of the nature of the subjects treated can be formed.[[234]] Six bas-reliefs were placed on either side of the entrance, grouped in triplets, one above another, each panel being supported by pilasters, round or rectangular.
On the northern slabs the subjects pourtrayed were: Prometheus tortured; a youth pursuing a horse, and trying to pull off its rider; a satyr, between a woman with a vessel of water behind her, and a savage man, or Hercules, holding a whip; Labours of Hercules (on three slabs).
The bas-reliefs to the south were of superior workmanship, and represented: Endymion asleep, a shepherd’s lute in his hand, with Selene and Cupid descending towards him; Hercules leading dogs; two peasants carrying grapes; Pegasus and three female figures, one of them attempting to hold him back; the fall of Phaëthon; Hercules and a stag.[[235]]
As the Porta Triumphalis of Constantinople, the Golden Gate was the scene of many historical events and imposing ceremonies.
So long as the inauguration of an emperor upon his accession to the throne was celebrated at the Hebdomon (Makrikeui), it was through the Golden Gate that a new sovereign entered his capital on the way to the Imperial Palace beside St. Sophia. Marcian (450),[[236]] Leo I. (457),[[237]] Basiliscus (476),[[238]] Phocas (602),[[239]] Leo the Armenian (813),[[240]] and Nicephorus Phocas (963),[[241]] were welcomed as emperors by the city authorities at this portal.
Distinguished visitors to the Byzantine Court, also, were sometimes allowed to enter the city by this gate, as a mark of special honour. The Legates of Pope Hormisdas were met here upon their arrival on a mission to Justin I.:[[242]] here, in 708, Pope Constantine was received with great ceremony, when he came to confer with Justinian II.:[[243]] and here, in the reign of Basil II., the Legates of Pope Hadrian II. were admitted.[[244]] Under Romanus Lecapenus, the procession which bore through the city to St. Sophia the Icon of Christ, brought from Edessa, entered at the Porta Aurea.[[245]]
It was, however, on the return of an emperor to the city after a victorious campaign that the Porta Aurea fulfilled its highest purpose, and presented a brilliant spectacle of life and splendour.
Through this triumphal arch came Theodosius the Great, after his defeat of Maximus;[[246]] by it Heraclius entered the capital to celebrate the success of his Persian expeditions;[[247]] through it passed Constantine Copronymus, after the defeat of the Bulgarians;[[248]] Theophilus, on two occasions, after the repulse of the Saracens;[[249]] Basil I., after his successes at Tephrice and Germanicia;[[250]] Zimisces, after his victories over the Russians under Swiatoslaf;[[251]] Basil II., after the slaughter of the Bulgarians;[[252]] and, for the last time, Michael Palæologus, upon the restoration of the Greek Empire in 1261.[[253]]
It would seem that, in accordance with old Roman custom, victorious generals, below Imperial rank, were not allowed to enter the city in triumph through this gate. Belisarius,[[254]] Maurice,[[255]] Nicephorus Phocas, before he became emperor,[[256]] and Leo his brother,[[257]] celebrated their respective triumphs over the Vandals, Persians and Saracens, in the Hippodrome and the great street of the city.[[258]]
The Golden Gate (Outer).
An Imperial triumphal procession[[259]] was marshalled on the plain in front of the Golden Gate,[[260]] and awaited there the arrival of the emperor, either from the Hebdomon or from the Palace of Blachernæ. The principal captives, divided into several companies, and guarded by bands of soldiers, led the march. Next followed the standards and weapons and other spoils of war. Then, seated on a magnificent white charger, came the emperor himself, arrayed in robes embroidered with gold and pearls, his crown on his head, his sceptre in his right hand, his victorious sword by his side. Close to him rode his son, or the Cæsar of the day, another resplendent figure of light, also on a white horse. Upon reaching the gate the victor might, like Theophilus, dismount for a few moments, and falling thrice upon his face, humbly acknowledge the Divine aid to which he owed the triumph of his arms. At length the Imperial cortège passed through the great archway. The civic authorities came forward and did homage, offering the conqueror a crown of gold and a laurel wreath, and accepting from him a rich largess in return; the Factions rent the air with shouts—“Glory to God, who restores our sovereigns to us, crowned with victory! Glory to God, who has magnified you, Emperors of the Romans! Glory to Thee, All-Holy Trinity, for we behold our Emperors victorious! Welcome, Victors, most valiant sovereigns!”[[261]] And then the glittering procession wended its way to the Great Palace, through the dense crowds that packed the Mesè and the principal Fora of the city, all gay with banners, flowers, and evergreens.
Sometimes the emperor, as in the case of Heraclius,[[262]] rode in a chariot instead of on horseback; or the occupant of the triumphal car might be, as on the occasion of the triumph of Zimisces, the Icon of the Virgin.[[263]] Michael Palæologus entered the city on foot, walking as far as the Church of St. John Studius before he mounted his horse.[[264]] On the occasion of the second triumph of Theophilus, the beautiful custom was introduced of making children take part in the ceremonial with wreaths of flowers.[[265]]
But besides serving as a State entrance into the city, the Porta Aurea was one of the strongest positions in the fortifications.[[266]] The four towers at its gateways, the deep moat in front, and the transverse walls across the peribolos on either hand, guarding approach from that direction, constituted a veritable citadel. Cantacuzene repaired it, and speaks of it as an almost impregnable acropolis, capable of being provisioned for three years, and strong enough to defy the whole city in time of civil strife.[[267]] Hence the great difficulty he found in persuading the Latin garrison which held it on his behalf, in 1354, to surrender the place to his rival John VI. Palæologus.
The Golden Gate, therefore, figures also in the military annals of Constantinople. In the reign of Anastasius I. it was the object of special attack by Vitalianus at the head of his Huns and Bulgarians.[[268]] Repeated attempts were made upon it by the Saracens in the siege of 673-675.[[269]] Crum stood before it in the reign of Leo the Armenian, and there he invoked the aid of his gods against the city, by offering human sacrifices and by the lustration of his army with sea-water in which he had bathed his feet.[[270]] His demand to plant his spear in the gate put an end to the negotiations for peace. In 913 the Bulgarians, under their king Simeon, were again arrayed before the entrance.[[271]] Here, also, in 1347, John Cantacuzene was admitted by his partisans.[[272]]
John Palæologus, upon receiving the surrender of the gate foolishly dismantled the towers, lest they should be turned against him, in the fickle political fortunes of the day.[[273]] He did not, however, carry the work of destruction so far as to be unable to use the position as an “acropolis” when besieged, in 1376, by his rebellious son, Andronicus.[[274]] Later, when Sultan Bajazet threatened the city, an attempt was made to restore the towers, and even to increase the strength of this point in the fortifications.[[275]] With materials taken from the churches of All Saints, the Forty Martyrs, and St. Mokius, the towers were rebuilt, and a fortress extending to the sea was erected within the city walls, similar to the Castle of the Seven Towers constructed afterwards by Mehemet the Conqueror, in 1457. Upon hearing of this action, Bajazet sent peremptory orders to John Palæologus to pull down the new fortifications, and compelled obedience by threatening to put out the eyes of Manuel, the heir to the throne, at that time a hostage at Brousa. The humiliation affected the emperor, then seriously ill, so keenly as to hasten his death. Subsequently, however, probably after the defeat of Bajazet by Tamerlane at Angora, the defences at the Golden Gate were restored; for the Russian pilgrim who was in Constantinople between 1435 and 1453 speaks of visiting the Castle of the Emperor Kalo Jean.[[276]]
In 1390, Manuel II., with a small body of troops, entered the city by this gate and drove away his nephew John, who had usurped the throne.[[277]] During the siege of 1453 the gate was defended by Manuel of Liguria with 200 men, and before it the Sultan planted a cannon and other engines of assault.[[278]]
Between the second and third towers to the north of the Golden Gate is an entrance known at present, like the Porta Aurea, also by the name Yedi Koulè Kapoussi. Dr. Paspates thinks it is of Turkish origin.[[279]] It has certainly undergone repair in Turkish times, as an inscription upon it in honour of Sultan Achmet III. testifies; but traces of Byzantine workmanship about the gate prove that it belongs to the period of the Empire;[[280]] and this conclusion is supported by the consideration that, since the Porta Aurea was a State entrance, another gate was required in its immediate neighbourhood for the use of the public in this quarter of the capital. Hence the proximity of the two gateways.
Regarding the name of the entrance opinions differ. Some authorities regard the gate as the Porta Rhegiou (Ῥηγίου), the Gate of Rhegium,[[281]] mentioned in the Greek Anthology.[[282]] But this identification cannot be maintained, for the Porta Rhegiou was one of two entrances which bore an inscription in honour of Theodosius II. and the Prefect Constantine, and both those entrances, as will appear in the sequel, stood elsewhere in the line of the fortifications.[[283]]
Yedi Koulè Kapoussi. (By kind permission of Phenè Spiers, Esq., F.S.A.)
The gate went, probably, by the designation of the Golden Gate,[[284]] near which it stands, just as it now bears the name given to the latter entrance since the Turkish Conquest. A common name for gates so near each other was perfectly natural; and on this view certain incidents in the history of the Golden Gate become more intelligible. For instance: when Basil, the founder of the Macedonian dynasty, reached Constantinople in his early youth, a homeless adventurer in search of fortune, it is related that he entered the city about sunset through the Golden Gate, and laid himself down to sleep on the steps of the adjoining Monastery of St. Diomed.[[285]] If the only Golden Gate were the Porta Aurea strictly so called, it is difficult to understand how the poor wayfarer was admitted by an entrance reserved for the emperor’s use; whereas the matter becomes clear if that name designated also an adjoining public gate. Again, when the historian Nicetas Choniates,[[286]] accompanied by his family and some friends, left the city five days after its capture by the Crusaders in 1204, he made his way out, according to his own statement, by the Golden Gate. In this case also, it does not seem probable that the captors of the city would have allowed a gate of such military importance as the Porta Aurea to be freely used by a company of fugitives. The escape appears more feasible if the Golden Gate to which Nicetas refers was the humbler entrance in the neighbourhood of the Porta Aurea.
CHAPTER V.
THE GATES IN THE THEODOSIAN WALLS—continued.
The entrance between the thirteenth and fourteenth towers to the north of the Golden Gate was the Second Military Gate, τοῦ Δευτέρου.[[287]] Its identity is established by its position in the order of the gates; for between it and the Fifth Military Gate, regarding the situation of which there can be no doubt,[[288]] two military gates intervene. It must therefore be itself the second of that series of entrances.
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]]
The gate is memorable in history as the entrance through which, in 1261, Alexius Strategopoulos, the general of Michael Palæologus, penetrated into the city,[[307]] and brought the ill-starred Latin Empire of Constantinople to an end. For greater security the Latins had built up the entrance; but a band of the assailants, aided by friends within the fortifications, climbed over the walls, killed the drowsy guards, broke down the barricade, and flung the gates open for the restoration of the Greek power. By this gate, in 1376, Andronicus entered, after besieging the city for thirty-two days, and usurped the throne of his father, John VI. Palæologus.[[308]] In the siege of 1422 Sultan Murad pitched his tent within the grounds of the Church of the Pegè;[[309]] while during the siege of 1453 a battery of three guns played against the walls in the vicinity of this entrance.[[310]]
There is reason to think that the gate styled Porta Melantiados (Μελαντιάδος)[[311]] and Pylè Melandesia (Μελανδησία),[[312]] should be identified with the Gate of the Pegè. Hitherto, indeed, the Porta Melantiados has been identified with the next public gate, Yeni Mevlevi Haneh Kapoussi;[[313]] but that view runs counter to the fact that the Porta Melantiados stood in the Deuteron,[[314]] whereas the next public gate was, we shall find, in the quarter of the city called, after the Third Military Gate, the Triton (τὸ Τρίτον).[[315]] Unless, therefore, the Porta Melantiados is identified with the Gate of the Pegè, it cannot be identified with any other entrance in the Theodosian Walls.
The Gate of the Pegè.
That the Gate of the Pegè had originally another name is certain, since the Holy Spring did not come into repute until the reign of Leo I.,[[316]] nearly half a century after the erection of the Wall of Anthemius. And no other name could have been so appropriate as the Porta Melantiados, for the road issuing from the gate led to Melantiada, a town near the Athyras[[317]] (Buyuk Tchekmedjè) on the road to Selivria. The town is mentioned in the Itinerary of the Emperor Antoninus as Melantrada and Melanciada, at the distance of nineteen miles from Byzantium; and there on different occasions the Huns, the Goths,[[318]] and the Avars[[319]] halted on their march towards Constantinople.
At the gate Porta Melantiados, Chrysaphius, the minister and evil genius of Theodosius II., was killed in 450 by the son of John the Vandal, in revenge for the execution of the latter.[[320]] It has been suggested that the Mosque of Khadin Ibrahim Pasha within the gate stands on the site of the Church of St. Anna in the Deuteron.[[321]] It may, however, mark the site of the Church of the SS. Notarii, which stood near the Porta Melantiados.
The Third Military Gate is but a short distance from the Gate of the Pegè, being situated between the fourth and fifth towers to the north. To the rear of the entrance was the quarter called the Triton (τὸ Τρίτον),[[322]] and, more commonly, the Sigma (Σίγμα);[[323]] the latter designation being derived, probably, from the curve in the line of the walls immediately beyond the gate. What precisely was the object of the curve is not apparent. One authority explains it as intended for the accommodation of the courtiers and troops that assembled here on the occasion of an Imperial visit to the Pegè.[[324]] But the Theodosian Walls were built before the Pegè came into repute;[[325]] and the visits of the emperors to the Holy Spring were not so frequent or so important as to affect the construction of the walls in such a manner.
In the quarter of the Sigma stood a column, bearing the statue of Theodosius II., erected by Chrysaphius.[[326]] And there, in the riot of 1042, the Emperor Michael Calaphates and his uncle Constantine were blinded, having been dragged thither from the Monastery of Studius, where they had sought sanctuary.[[327]]
The most noted churches in the quarter were dedicated respectively to the Theotokos,[[328]] St. Stephen, and St. Isaacius.[[329]] The site of the first is, in the opinion of Dr. Paspates, marked by the remains of an old Byzantine cistern off the street leading from the Guard-house of Alti Mermer to the Mosque of Yol Getchen.[[330]]
The Gate of Rhegium.
The next public gate, Yeni Mevlevi Haneh Kapoussi, situated between the tenth and eleventh towers north of the Third Military Gate, was known by two names, Porta Rhegiou (Ῥηγίου),[[331]] the Gate of Rhegium, and Porta Rhousiou (τοῦ Ῥουσίου),[[332]] the Gate of the Red Faction. That it bore the former name is established by the fact that the inscription in honour of Theodosius II. and the Prefect Constantine, which was placed, according to the Anthology, on the Gate of Rhegium, is actually found on the lintel of this entrance.[[333]] The name alluded to Rhegium (Kutchuk Tchekmedjè), a town twelve miles distant, upon the Sea of Marmora, whither the road leading westward conducted.
The title of the gate to the second name rests partly upon the consideration that the name cannot be claimed for any other entrance in the walls, and partly upon the fact that two circumstances connected with the gate can thus be satisfactorily explained. In the first place, the seven shafts employed to form the lintel, posts, and sill of the gateway are covered with red wash, as though to mark the entrance with the colour of the Red Faction. Secondly, on the northern face of the southern gateway-tower is an inscription, unfortunately mutilated, such as the Factions placed upon a structure in the erection of which they were concerned. The legend as preserved reads thus: “The Fortune of Constantine, our God-protected Emperor triumphs....”
† ΝΙΚΑ Η ΤΥΧΗ
ΚΩΝΣΤΑΝΤΙΝΟΥ ΤΟΥ ΘΕΟ
ΦΥΛΑΚΤΟΥ ΗΜΩΝ ΔΕΣΠΟΤΟΥ
† †
The missing words with which the inscription closed were at some date intentionally effaced, but analogy makes it exceedingly probable that they were ΚΑΙ ΡΟΥΣΙΩΝ, “and of the Reds.”[[334]]
The number of inscriptions about this entrance is remarkable, five being on the gateway itself, and two on its southern tower. Of the former those commemorating the erection of the Theodosian fortifications in 447 are of special importance and interest;[[335]] another records the repair of the Outer Wall under Justin II. and his Empress Sophia.[[336]] Indistinct traces of the fourth are visible on the southern side of the gateway; while the fifth, too fragmentary to yield a meaning, is on the tympanum, arranged on either side of a niche for Icons,[[337]] for the gates of the city were, as a rule, placed under the ward of some heavenly guardian. This gate was closed with a portcullis.
The Fourth Military Gate stood between the ninth and tenth towers to the north of the Porta Rhousiou. The northern corbel of the outer gateway is an inscribed stone brought from some other building erected by a certain Georgius.[[338]]
The Gate of St. Romanus.
The Gate of Charisius.
Top Kapoussi, between the sixth and seventh towers north of the Fourth Military Gate, is the Gate of St. Romanus (πόρτα τοῦ Ἁγίου Ρωμάνου)[[339]] so named after an adjoining church of that dedication. Its identity may be established in the following manner: According to Cananus,[[340]] the Gate of St. Romanus and the Gate of Charisius stood on opposite sides of the Lycus. The Gate of St. Romanus, therefore, must have been either Top Kapoussi, on the southern side of that stream, or one of the two gates on the stream’s northern bank, viz. the walled-up entrance at the foot of that bank, or Edirnè Kapoussi upon the summit. That it was the gate on the southern side of the Lycus is clear, from the statements of Critobulus and Phrantzes,[[341]] that in the siege of 1453 the Turkish troops which invested the walls extending from the Gate of Charisius (Edirnè Kapoussi) to the Golden Horn were on the Sultan’s left, i.e. to the north of the position he occupied. But the tent of the Sultan was opposite the Gate of St. Romanus.[[342]] Hence, the Gate of Charisius was one of the gates to the north of the Lycus, and, consequently, the Gate of St. Romanus stood at Top Kapoussi, to the south. In harmony with this conclusion is the order in which the two gates are mentioned by Pusculus and Dolfin when describing the positions occupied by the defenders of the walls from the Sea of Marmora to the Golden Horn. Proceeding from south to north in their account of the defence, these writers place the Gate of St. Romanus before, i.e. to the south of, the Gate of Charisius.[[343]]
The Church of St. Romanus must have been a very old foundation, for it is ascribed to the Empress Helena. It claimed to possess the relics of the prophet Daniel and of St. Nicetas.[[344]]
The entrance between the second and third towers north of the Lycus, or between the thirteenth and fourteenth towers north of the Gate of St. Romanus, is the Fifth Military Gate, the Gate of the Pempton (τοῦ Πέμπτου).[[345]] It is identified by the fact that it occupies the position which the Paschal Chronicle assigns to the Gate of the Pempton; namely, between the Gate of St. Romanus and the Gate of the Polyandrion—one of the names, as we shall find,[[346]] of Edirnè Kapoussi.
Some authorities[[347]] have maintained, indeed, that this entrance was the Gate of Charisius. But this opinion is refuted by the fact that the Gate of Charisius, as its whole history proves, was not a military gate, but one of the public gates of the city.[[348]] Furthermore, the author of the Metrical Chronicle and Cananus expressly distinguish the Gate of Charisius from the gate situated beside the Lycus.[[349]]
To the rear of the entrance was the district of the Pempton, containing the Church of St. Kyriakè and the meadow through which the Lycus flows to the Sea of Marmora. The meadow appears to have been a popular resort before the Theodosian Walls were built, if not also subsequently. Here, about the time of Easter, 404, the Emperor Arcadius came to take exercise on horseback, and here he found three thousand white-robed catechumens assembled. They proved to be persons who had recently been baptized by Chrysostom, in the Thermæ Constantianæ, near the Church of the Holy Apostles, notwithstanding his deposition on account of his quarrel with the Empress Eudoxia. Arcadius was extremely annoyed by the encounter, and ordered his guards to drive the crowd off the ground.[[350]]
While riding down one of the slopes of the Lycus valley, in 450, Theodosius II. fell from his horse and sustained a spinal injury, which caused his death a few days later. The Gate of the Pempton was probably the entrance through which the dying emperor was carried on a litter from the scene of the accident into the city.[[351]]
The next public gate, Edirnè Kapoussi, between the eighth and ninth towers to the north of the Fifth Military Gate, was named the Gate of Charisius (τοῦ Χαρισίου). The name, which appears in a great variety of forms, occurs first in Peter Magister,[[352]] a writer of Justinian’s reign, and was derived, according to the Anonymus, from Charisius, the head of the Blue Faction, when the Theodosian Walls were built.[[353]] While some authorities, as already intimated, have attached this name to the Gate of the Pempton, others have supposed that it belonged to the entrance now known as Egri Kapou.[[354]] This, as will be shown in the proper place, is likewise a mistake.[[355]]
The grounds on which the Gate of Charisius must be identified with the Edirnè Kapoussi are these:[[356]] From the statements of Cananus and Critobulus, already considered in determining the position of the Gate of St. Romanus,[[357]] it is clear that the Gate of Charisius was one of the two gates on the northern bank of the Lycus; either the gate at the foot of that bank or Edirnè Kapoussi upon the summit. That it was not the former is clearly proved by the fact that Cananus and the Metrical Chronicle, as already cited, distinguished the Gate of Charisius from the entrance beside the Lycus. The Gate of Charisius was, therefore, Edirnè Kapoussi, the gate on the summit of the bank.
Again, the Gate of Charisius was, like Edirnè Kapoussi, at the head of the street leading to the Church of the Holy Apostles. This is evident from the circumstance that when Justinian the Great, returning to the city from the West, visited on his way to the palace the tomb of the Empress Theodora at the Holy Apostles’, he entered the capital by the Gate of Charisius instead of by the Golden Gate,[[358]] because the former entrance led directly to the Imperial Cemetery near that church.
To these arguments may be added the fact that near the Gate of Charisius was a Church of St. George,[[359]] the guardian of the entrance, and that a Byzantine church dedicated to that saint stood immediately to the south-east of Edirnè Kapoussi as late as the year 1556, when it was appropriated by Sultan Suleiman for the construction of the Mosque of Mihrimah. At the same time the Greek community received by way of compensation a site for another church to the north-west of the gate, and there the present Church of St. George was built to preserve the traditions of other days.[[360]] Lastly, like Edirnè Kapoussi, the Gate of Charisius stood at a point from which one could readily proceed to the Church of the Chora (Kahriyeh Djamissi), the Church of St. John in Petra (Bogdan Serai), and the Palace of Blachernæ.[[361]]
Another name for the Gate of Charisius was the Gate of the Polyandrion, or the Myriandron (Πόρτα τοῦ Πολυανδρίου, τοῦ Μυριάνδρου), the Gate of the Cemetery. This follows from the fact that whereas the respective names of the three gates in the walls crossing the valley of the Lycus are usually given as the Gate of Charisius, Gate of the Pempton, the Gate of St. Romanus, we find the first name omitted in a passage of the Paschal Chronicle referring to those entrances, and the Gate of the Polyandrion mentioned instead.[[362]] Evidently, the Gate of Charisius and the Gate of the Polyandrion were different names for the same gate.
The latter designation was peculiarly appropriate to an entrance on the direct road to the Imperial Cemetery. Probably a public cemetery stood also outside the gate, where a large Turkish cemetery is now situated, and that may have been another reason for the name of the gate.[[363]]
With the portion of the walls between the Gate of St. Romanus and the Gate of Charisius, memorable historical events are associated which cannot be passed over without some notice, however brief.
On account of its central position in the line of the land fortifications, this part of the walls was named the Mesoteichion (Μεσοτείχιον).[[364]] It was also known as the Myriandrion,[[365]] on account of its proximity to the Gate of Polyandrion; the portion to the south of the Lycus being further distinguished as the Murus Bacchatareus,[[366]] after the Tower Baccaturea near the Gate of St. Romanus.[[367]]
View Across the Valley of the Lycus (Looking North).
Owing to the configuration of the ground traversed by the Mesoteichion, it was at this point that a besieging army generally delivered the chief attack. Here stood the gates opening upon the streets which commanded the hills of the city; here was the weakest part of the fortifications, the channel of the Lycus rendering a deep moat impossible, while the dip in the line of walls, as they descended and ascended the slopes of the valley, put the defenders below the level occupied by the besiegers. Here, then, for Constantinople was the “Valley of Decision”—here, in the armour of the city, the “heel of Achilles.”
In the siege of 626 by the Avars, the first siege which the Theodosian Walls sustained, the principal attack was made from twelve towers which the enemy built before the fortifications extending from the Gate of Charisius to the Gate of the Pempton, and thence to the Gate of St. Romanus.[[368]]
Upon the Gate of Charisius attempts were made: by Justinian II. and his allies for the recovery of his throne in 705;[[369]] by Alexius Branas against Isaac Angelus in 1185;[[370]] by John Cantacuzene in 1345[[371]] and through it the Comneni entered in 1081, by bribing the German guards (Nemitzi) at the gate, and wrested the sceptre from the hand of Nicephorus Botoniates.[[372]]
In 1206, during the struggle in which the Latins, soon after their capture of the city, involved themselves with Joannicus, King of Bulgaria, a raid was made upon the Gate of St. Romanus and the adjacent quarter by Bulgarian troops encamped near the capital.[[373]] In 1328 the gate was opened to admit Andronicus III. by two partisans, who stupefied the guards with drink, and then assisted a company of his soldiers to scale the walls with rope ladders.[[374]] In 1379 John VI. Palæologus and his son Manuel, after effecting their escape from the prison of Anemas, and making terms with Sultan Bajazet, entered the city by this gate, and obliged Andronicus IV. to retire from the throne he had usurped.[[375]]
But it was in the sieges of the city by the Turks that this portion of the walls was attacked most fiercely, as well as defended with the greatest heroism. Here in 1422 Sultan Murad brought cannon to bear, for the first time, upon the fortifications of Constantinople. His fire was directed mainly at an old half-ruined tower beside the Lycus; but the new weapon of warfare was still too weak to break Byzantine masonry, and seventy balls struck the tower without producing the slightest effect.[[376]]
In the siege of 1453 this portion of the walls was assailed by Sultan Mehemet himself with the bravest of his troops and his heaviest artillery, his tent being pitched, as already stated, about half a mile to the west of the Gate of St. Romanus.[[377]] At the Murus Bacchatareus fought the Emperor Constantine, with his 400 Genoese allies, under the command of the brave Guistiniani, who had come to perform prodigies of valour “per benefitio de la Christiantade et per honor del mundo.” The three brothers, Paul, Antony, and Troilus, defended the Myriandrion, “with the courage of Horatius Cocles.”
As the struggle proceeded two towers of the Inner Wall and a large portion of the Outer Wall were battered to pieces by the Turkish cannon. The enemy also succeeded in filling the moat at this point with earth and stones, to secure an unobstructed roadway into the city whenever a breach was effected.
On the other hand, Giustiniani repaired the breach in the Outer Wall by the erection of a palisade, covered in front with hides and strengthened on the rear by a rampart of stones, earth, branches, and herbage of every description, all welded together with mortar, and supported by an embankment of earth. Between this barricade and the Inner Wall he furthermore excavated a trench, to replace to some extent the moat which had been rendered useless; and to maintain his communications with the interior of the city he opened a postern in the great wall.
Against these extemporized defences assault after assault dashed in all its strength and fury, only to be hurled back and broken. Meanwhile, more and more of the Inner and Outer Walls fell under the Turkish fire, and the Sultan decided to make a general attack at daybreak on the 29th of May. The onset upon the Mesoteichion, directed by the Sultan in person, was, however, repeatedly repelled, and the day threatened to go against the assailants, when a Turkish missile struck Giustiniani and forced him to leave the field. His soldiers refused to continue the struggle, abandoned their post, and disheartened their Greek comrades. The Sultan, perceiving the change in the situation, roused his janissaries to make a supreme effort. They swept forward, carried the barricade, filled the trench behind it with corpses of the defenders, and passing over, poured into the doomed city through every available opening. Some made their way through the breach in the great wall, others entered by the postern which Giustiniani had opened,[[378]] while others cut a path through the heap of dead bodies which blocked the Gate of Charisius. The heroic emperor refused to survive his empire, and found death near the Gate of St. Romanus.[[379]] And through that gate, about midday, the Sultan entered, the master of the city of Constantine. It was the close of an epoch.
The next Theodosian gate stands between the last tower in the Outer Wall to the north of the Gate of Charisius and the old Byzantine Palace now called Tekfour Serai. In its present condition the entrance pierces only the Outer Wall; for the Inner Wall terminates abruptly a little to the south of the palace, having been broken away, probably when that edifice was erected. By way of compensation the Outer Wall was then raised higher and built thicker, and flanked by a large tower.
According to its place in the order of the gates, this entrance should be the Sixth Military Gate; and the smallness of its dimensions is in keeping with this view. But as it led to a Circus built of timber beside the Church of St. Mamas without the walls, it was styled Porta Xylokerkou (Ξυλοκέρκου),[[380]] Gate of the Wooden Circus, or more briefly, Kerko Porta (Κερκόπορτα),[[381]] the Gate of the Circus.
In support of this identification there is first the fact that the Gate of the Xylokerkus, like the gate before us, was an entrance in the Walls of Theodosius, for it bore an inscription, which has unfortunately disappeared, in honour of that emperor and the Prefect Constantine, similar to the legend on the Porta Rhegiou.[[382]] In the next place, the Gate of the Xylokerkus, like the entrance before us, was in the vicinity of the Gate of Charisius, and below a palace[[383]] (Tekfour Serai).
The (So-Called) Kerko Porta.
The history of the gate has an interest of its own. When the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa was at Philippopolis, on his way to the Holy Land at the head of the Third Crusade, the prevalent suspicion that he had designs upon the Byzantine Empire found expression in the prophecy of a certain Dositheos, a monk of the Monastery of St. John Studius, that the German emperor would capture Constantinople, and penetrate into the city through this entrance. Thereupon, with the view of averting the calamity and preventing the fulfilment of the prophecy, Isaac Angelus ordered the gate to be securely built up.[[384]] In 1346 the partisans of John Cantacuzene proposed to admit him into the city by breaking the gate open, after its long close.[[385]]
But what gives to the Kerko Porta its chief renown is the part which, according to Ducas, it played in the catastrophe of 1453, under the following circumstances. A large portion of the Outer Wall, at the Mesoteichion, having been overthrown by the Turkish cannon, the besieged were unable to issue from the city to the peribolos without being exposed to the enemy’s fire. In this extremity some old men, who knew the fortifications well, informed the emperor of a secret postern long closed up and buried underground, at the lower part of the palace, by which communication with the peribolos might be established.[[386]] This was done, to the great advantage of the Greeks. But on the last day of the siege, while the enemy was attempting to scale the walls with ladders at several points, a band of fifty Turkish nobles detected the newly opened entrance, rushed in, and mounting the walls from the interior of the city, killed or drove off the defenders on the summit. Thus a portion of the fortifications was secured against which scaling-ladders could be applied without any difficulty, and soon a considerable Turkish force stood on the Inner Wall, planted their standards on the towers, and opened a rear fire upon the Greeks, who were fighting in the peribolos to prevent the Turks from entering at the great breach. The cry rose that the city was taken, whereupon an indescribable panic seized the Greeks, already disheartened by the loss of Giustiniani, and, abandoning all further resistance, they fled into the city through the Gate of Charisius, many being trampled to death in the rout. The emperor fell at his post; and the Turks poured into the city without opposition.[[387]] The fate of Constantinople was thus scaled by the opening of the Kerko Porta.
But here a difficulty occurs. In one very important particular the Kerko Porta, as described by Ducas, does not correspond to the character of the entrance with which it has been identified. The gate which the historian had in mind led to the peribolos, the terrace between the two Theodosian walls, whereas the gate below Tekfour Serai opens on the parateichion, the terrace between the Outer Wall and the Moat. This discrepancy may, however, be removed to some extent by supposing that under the name of the Kerko Porta. Ducas referred to the postern which Dr. Paspates[[388]] found in the transverse wall built across the northern end of the peribolos, where the Inner Wall of Theodosius terminates abruptly a little to the south of Tekfour Serai. The postern was discovered in 1864, after some houses which concealed it from view had been destroyed by fire. It was 10-½ feet high by 6 feet wide, and although the old wall in which it stood has been, for the most part, pulled down and replaced by a new construction, the outline of the ancient postern can still be traced. Such an entrance might be buried out of sight, and be generally forgotten; and to open it, when recalled to mind in 1453, was to provide the defenders of the city with a secret passage, as they hoped, to the peribolos and the rear of the Outer Wall, where the contest was to be maintained to the bitter end.
The suggestion of Dr. Paspates that this was the entrance at which the incidents recorded by Ducas occurred may, therefore, be accepted. But, from the nature of the case, an entrance in such a position could not have been, strictly speaking, the Gate of the Circus, and to call it the Kerko Porta was therefore not perfectly accurate. That was, properly, the name of the gate below Tekfour Serai. Still, the mistake was not very serious, and, under the circumstances, was not strange. Two entrances so near each other could easily be confounded in the report of the events in the neighbourhood, especially when the postern in the transverse wall had no special name of its own. Dr. Mordtmann[[389]] thinks that the postern near the Kerko Porta was the one which Giustiniani, according to Critobulus,[[390]] opened in the Inner Wall to facilitate communication with the peribolos. The latter postern, however, is represented as near the position occupied by Giustiniani and the emperor, while the former is described as far from that point.[[391]]
CHAPTER VI.
REPAIRS ON THE THEODOSIAN WALLS.
The maintenance of the bulwarks of the city in proper order was naturally a matter of supreme importance, and although the task was sometimes neglected when no enemy threatened, it was, on the whole, attended to with the promptitude and fidelity which so vital a concern demanded. There was little occasion for repairs, it is true, on account of injuries sustained in the shock of war, for until the invention of gunpowder the engines employed in battering the walls were either not powerful enough, or could not be planted sufficiently near the fortifications, to produce much effect. Most of the damage done to the walls was due to the action of the weather, and, above all, to the violent and frequent earthquakes which shook Constantinople in the course of the Middle Ages.
The charge of keeping the fortifications in repair was given to special officers, known under the titles, Domestic of the Walls (ὁ Δομέστικος τῶν Τειχέων),[[392]] Governor of the Wall (Ἄρχων τοῦ Τείχους),[[393]] Count of the Walls (Κόμης τῶν Τειχέων).[[394]]
(1) The earliest record of repairs is, probably, the Latin inscription on the lintel of the inner gateway of the Porta of the Pempton. It reads:
PORTARUM VALID † DO FIRMAVIT LIMINE MUROS
PUSAEUS MAGNO NON MINOR ANTHEMIO.
The age of the inscription cannot be precisely determined, but the employment of Latin, the Gothic form of the D in the word valido, the allusion to Anthemius, and the situation of the legend upon the Inner Wall, taken together, point to an early date.
Inscriptions on the Gate of Rhegium.
From the statement of the inscription it would seem that soon after the erection of the wall by Anthemius, either this gate or all the gates in the line of the new fortifications had to be strengthened. The only Pusæus known in history who could have presumed to compare himself with Anthemius was consul in 467, in the reign of Leo I.[[395]] There may, however, have been an earlier personage of that name.
(2) A considerable portion of the Inner Wall (τὰ ἔσω τείχη) was injured by an earthquake in 578, the fourth year of the reign of Zeno;[[396]] but no record of the repairs executed in consequence of the disaster has been preserved.
(3) The frequent shocks of earthquake felt in Constantinople during the reign of Justinian the Great damaged the walls on, at least, three occasions; in 542 and 554, when the injury done was most serious in the neighbourhood of the Golden Gate;[[397]] and again in 558, when both the Constantinian and the Theodosian Walls were rudely shaken, the latter suffering chiefly in the portion between the Golden Gate and the Porta Rhousiou.[[398]] So great was the damage sustained by the city and vicinity on the last occasion that for thirty days the emperor refused to wear his crown.
(4) An inscription on the Gate Rhousiou commemorates the restoration of the Outer Wall in the reign of Justin II. Whether the work was rendered necessary by some particular accident does not appear; but a wall so slight in its structure would naturally need extensive repair when a century old.
With Justin the inscription associates the Empress Sophia, noted for her interest in the public works of the day, and also names Narses and Stephen, as the officials who had charge of the repairs. The latter officer is otherwise unknown. Narses, who held the offices of Spatharius and Sacellarius, superintended also the restoration of the Harbour of Julian in the same reign.[[399]] Subsequently he was sent, with large funds, on a mission to the Avars to persuade them to raise the siege of Sirmium. But the ship which carried the money was totally wrecked on the way, and Narses took the misfortune so much to heart that he fell ill and died.[[400]]
The inscription in honour of Justin was to the following effect:[[401]]
† ΑΝΕΝΕΩΘΗ ΤΟ ΠΡΟΤΕΙΧΙΟΜΑ ΤΟΥ ΘΕΟΔΟΣΙΑΚΟΥ
ΤΕΙΧΟΥΣ ΕΠΙ ΙΟΥΣΤΙΝΟΥ ΚΑΙ ΣΟΦΙΑΣ ΤΩΝ ΕΥΣΕΒΕΣΤΑΤΩΝ
ΗΜΩΝ ΔΕΣΠΟΤΩΝ ΔΙΑ ΝΑΡΣΟΥ ΤΟΥ
ΕΝΔΟΞΟΤΑΤΟΥ ΣΠΑΘΑΡΙΟΥ ΚΑΙ ΣΑΚΕΛΛΑΡΙΟΥ ΚΑΙ
ΣΤΕΦΑΝΟΥ ΑΝΗΚΟΝΤΟΣ ΕΙΣ ΥΠΟΥΡΓΙΑΝ ΔΟΥΛΟΣ
ΤΩΝ ΕΥΣΕΒΑΣΤΑΤΩΝ ΔΕΣΠΟΤΩΝ †
“The Outwork of the Theodosian Wall was restored under Justin and Sophia, our most pious Sovereigns, by Narses, the most glorious Spatharius and Sacellarius, and Stephen, who belonged to the service, a servant of the most pious Sovereigns.”
(5) The next repairs on record were executed early in the eighth century, in view of the formidable preparations made by the Saracens for a second attack upon Constantinople. Anastasius II. then strengthened the land walls, as well as the other fortifications of the city;[[402]] and thus contributed to the signal repulse of the enemy in 718 by Leo the Isaurian, at that great crisis in the history of Christendom.
(6) Repairs were again demanded in 740, in the reign of Leo the Isaurian, owing to the injuries caused by a long series of earthquakes during eleven months. So extensive was the work of restoration required, that to provide the necessary funds Leo was obliged to increase the taxes.[[403]]
Several inscriptions commemorating the repairs executed by that emperor, in conjunction with his son and colleague Constantine Copronymus, have been found upon towers of the Inner Wall.
(a) One stood on the seventh tower north of the Sea of Marmora:
† ΛΕΩΝ ΣΥΝ ΚΩΝΣΤΑΝΤΙΝΩ ΣΚΗΠΤΟΥΧΟΙ ΤΟΝΔΕ
ΗΓΕΙΡΑΝ ΠΥΡΓΟΝ ΤΩΝ ΒΑΘΡΩΝ ΣΥΜΠΤΩΘΕΝΤΑ †
“Leo with Constantine, wielders of the sceptre, erected from the foundations this tower which had fallen.”
(b) Another was placed on the ninth tower north of the Golden Gate, in letters formed of brick:
ΙΣ | ΧΣ
—--|-—-
ΝΙ | ΚΑ
ΛΕΩΝΤΟΣ ΚΑΙ ΚΩΝΣΤΑΝΤΗΝΟΥ ΜΕΓΑΛΟΝ
ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΝ ΚΑΙ ΑΥΤΟΚΡΑΤΩΡΩΝ ΠΟΛΛΑ ΤΑ ΕΤΗ
“Many be the years of Leo and Constantine, Great Kings and Emperors.”
Tower of the Theodosian Walls (With Inscription in Honour of the Emperors Leo III. and Constantine V.).
(c) A similar inscription was found on the third tower north of the Second Military Gate:
† ΛΕΟΝΤΟΣ ΚΑΙ ΚΩΝΣΤΑΝΤΙΝΟΥ †
ΜΕΓΑΛΩΝ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΝ ΚΑΙ ΑΥΤΟΚΡΑΤΩΡΩΝ ΠΟΛΛΑ ΤΑ ΕΤΗ
(d) On the second tower north of the Gate of the Pegè was an inscription similar to that on the seventh tower north of the Sea of Marmora. The raised letters are beautifully cut on a band of marble:
Inscription.
[Illustration]
(e) The ninth tower north of the same gate bore two inscriptions. The higher was in honour, apparently, of an Emperor Constantine; the lower reads:
† ΝΙΚΑ Η ΤΥΧΗ ΛΕΟΝΤΟΣ ΚΑΙ ΚΩΝΣΤΑΝΤΙΝΟΥ ΤΩΝ
ΘΕΩΦΥΛΑΚΤΩΝ ΔΕΣΠΟΤΩΝ ΚΑΙ ΗΡΙΝΗΣ ΤΗΣ ΕΥΣΕΒΕΣΤΑΤΗΣ
ΗΜΩΝ ΑΥΓΟΥΣΤΗΣ
“The Fortune of Leo and Constantine, the God-protected Sovereigns, and of Irene, our most pious Augusta, triumphs.”
If this inscription belongs to the reign of Leo the Isaurian, the Empress Irene here mentioned must be Irene, the first wife of Constantine Copronymus. In that case Maria, the wife of Leo himself, must have been dead[[404]] when the repairs which the inscription commemorates were executed. Irene was married to Constantine in 732, and died in 749 or 750.
It is possible, however, that the inscription should be assigned to the reign of Leo IV. and Constantine VI., so different is it from the inscriptions which belong undoubtedly to the time of Leo the Isaurian. If so, the empress named is the famous Irene who blinded her son, usurped his throne, restored the use of Icons, and gave occasion for the revival of the Roman Empire in the West by Charlemagne.
Below the inscription several monograms are found.
Monograms.
(f) There is an interesting inscription, in letters of brick, constituting a prayer for the safety of the city, on the fourth tower north of the Gate Rhousiou:
ΧΡΙΣΤΕ Ω ΘΕΟΣ ΑΤΑΡΑΧΟΝ ΚΑΙ ΑΠΟΛΕΜΟΝ ΦΥΛΑΤΤΕ
ΤΗΝ ΠΟΛΙΝ ΣΟΥ ΝΙΚΑ ΤΟ ΜΕΝΟΣ ΤΩΝ ΠΟΛΕΜΙΩΝ
“O Christ, God, preserve Thy city undisturbed, and free from war. Conquer the wrath of the enemies.”
It is the utterance of the purpose embodied in the erection of the splendid bulwarks of the city, and might have been inscribed upon them at any period of their history. It has been assigned to Constantine IX., when sole ruler after the death of Basil II. (1025-1028);[[405]] but the employment of brick in the construction of the letters favours the view that the legend belongs to the reign of Leo the Isaurian.
(7) Fragments of inscriptions recording repairs by Michael II. and his son Theophilus have been found in the neighbourhood of the Gate of Charisius (Edirnè Kapoussi).[[406]] These emperors were specially distinguished for their attention to the state of the fortifications along the shores of the city, but it would have been strange if sovereigns so concerned for the security of the capital had entirely neglected the condition of the land walls.
(8) The earthquake of 975, towards the close of the reign of Zimisces,[[407]] left its mark upon the walls of the city, and two inscriptions commemorate the repairs executed in consequence by his successors, Basil II. and Constantine IX.
One of the inscriptions is on the huge, pentagonal, three-storied tower at the junction of the land walls with the defences along the Sea of Marmora. The legend reads:
Legend
“Tower of Basil and Constantine, faithful Emperors in Christ, pious Kings of the Romans.”
The device
ΙΣ | ΧΡ
————————
ΝΙ | ΚΑ
is found over two windows in the northern side of the tower.
The other inscription is on the northern gateway-tower of the Gate of the Pegè:
† ΠΥΡΓΟΣ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΟΥ ΚΑΙ ΚΩΝΣΤΑΝΤΙΝΟΥ ΕΝ
ΧΡΙΣΤΩ ΑΥΤΟΚΡΑΤΟΡΩΝ †
“Tower of Basil and Constantine, Emperors in Christ.”
Possibly the two following inscriptions on the northern side of the southern tower of the Gate Rhousiou refer to the same emperors:[[408]]
“The Fortune of Constantine, our God-protected Sovereign, triumphs.”
The second inscription is mutilated, but manifestly refers to repairs in the reign of Basil:
† ΑΝΕΝΕΩΘΗ ΕΠΙ ΑΥ ...
ΤΑΤΟΥ Λ ...
ΤΟΡΟΣ ΤΟΥ ΒΑΣΙΛΕ
ΕΝ ΙΝ ΙΑ †
(9) An inscription on the fourth tower from the Sea of Marmora records repairs by the Emperor Romanus:
“Romanus, the Great Emperor of all the Romans, the Most Great, erected this tower new from the foundations.”
As four emperors bore the name Romanus, it is not certain to which of them reference is here made. The fact that earthquakes occurred in the reign of Romanus III. Argyrus, first in 1032, and again in 1033,[[409]] is in favour of the view that the inscription was in his honour.
Diagram Showing the Interior of a Tower in the Theodosian Walls.
(10) During the period of the Comneni, particular attention was given to the state of the fortifications by Manuel Comnenus,[[410]] and by Andronicus I. Comnenus.[[411]] As will appear in the sequel, the former was concerned mainly with the defences in the neighbourhood of the Palace of Blachernæ, beyond the Theodosian Walls. The interest of Andronicus in the matter was roused by fear lest the Normans, who had captured and sacked Thessalonica in 1185, would advance upon the capital. After making a minute inspection of the walls in person, Andronicus ordered the immediate repair of the portions fallen into decay, as well as the removal of all houses whose proximity to the fortifications might facilitate escalade.
(11) Under the Palæologi, the Walls of Theodosius, after their long service of eight centuries, demanded frequent and extensive restoration, in view of the dangers which menaced them.
Hence, on the recovery of Constantinople from the Latins in 1261, Michael Palæologus, fearing the Western Powers would attempt to regain the place, took measures to put the fortifications in a proper state of defence. His chief attention was devoted to the improvement of the bulwarks guarding the shores of the city, as those most exposed to attack by the maritime states of Europe, but he did not overlook the land walls.[[412]]
(12) In 1317, general repairs were again undertaken by Andronicus II. Palæologus, with money bequeathed by his wife, the Empress Irene, who died in that year.[[413]] The only indication, however, of the fact is now found beyond the Theodosian lines.[[414]]
(13) The Theodosian Walls were injured once more by the great earthquake of October, 1344, during the minority of John VI. Palæologus.[[415]] The disaster occurred when the struggle between Apocaucus and Cantacuzene for the control of affairs was at its height, and the ruin of the fortifications made the position of the former, who then held the city, extremely critical, seeing his rival was preparing to besiege him. Apocaucus proceeded, therefore, to reconstruct the fallen bulwarks with the utmost despatch and thoroughness. The Inner Wall and the Outer Wall were repaired from one end of the line to the other, and the parapet along the Moat was raised to the height of a man;[[416]] proceedings which made this the most extensive restoration of the Theodosian Walls since 447. It was completed in January 1345, before Cantacuzene appeared to attack the capital.
(14) Mention has already been made of the repair of the Golden Gate by Cantacuzene, and the erection of a fortress behind that entrance by John VI. Palæologus, the prototype of the Turkish Castle of the Seven Towers.[[417]]
(15) The last restoration of the Theodosian bulwarks, on an extensive scale, was undertaken by John VII. Palæologus, (1425-1448), the Outer Wall being the portion principally concerned in the matter.
Evidently the task proved difficult, for the numerous inscriptions which celebrate the achievement bear dates extending from 1433-1444, and show that the work proceeded slowly, and with frequent interruptions, due, doubtless, to the low state of the Imperial exchequer. The letters of the legends are incised on small marble slabs, and are filled with lead, exhibiting poor workmanship both in form and arrangement.
One of the inscriptions was placed on the outer tower nearest the Sea of Marmora:[[418]]
ΙΩΑΝ
ΧΩ ΑΥΤΟ
ΚΡΑΤΟΡΟΣ ΤΟΥ
ΠΑΛΑΙΟΛΟΓΟΥ.
“(Tower) of John Palæologus, Emperor in Christ.”
A similar inscription is on the second outer tower north of the Golden Gate:
“(Tower) of John Palæeologus, Emperor in Christ; in the year 1444.”
Another is on the fifth outer tower north of the Second Military Gate:
ΙΩΑΝΝΟΥ ΕΝ ΧΩ
ΑΥΤΟΚΡΑΤΟ
ΡΟΣ ΤΟΥ ΠΑΛΑΙΟΛΟΓΟΥ
ΚΑΤΑ ΜÉΝΑ
ΙΟΥΝΙΟΥ ΤΟΥ
ΜΗ ΕΤΟΥΣ (6948).
“(Tower) of John Palæologus, Emperor in Christ; in the month of June of the year 1440.”
On the twelfth tower north of the same gate is a fractured slab which bore the legend:
† ΙΩ ΕΝ ΧΩ ΑΥΤΟΚΡΑΤΟΡΟΣ ΤΟΥ ΠΑΛΑΙΟΛΟΓΟΥ
ΚΑΤΑ ΜΗΝΑ ΑΠΡΙΛΙΟΥ ΤΟΥ ΜΒ ΕΤΟΥΣ (6942).
“(Tower) of John Palæologus, Emperor in Christ; in the month of April of the year 1434.”
Traces of similar inscriptions appear on the first and second towers north of the Gate of the Pegè; while on the third tower in that direction are the words:
ΙΩΟΥ ΕΝ ΧΩ ΑΥΤΟ
ΚΡΟΤΟΡΟΣ ΤΟΥ ΠΑΛΑΙΟΛΟΓΟΥ ΚΑΤΑ ΜΗΝΑ ΙΑΝΟΥ
ΑΡΙΟΝ ΤΟΥ
ΜΖ ΕΤΟΥΣ (6947).
“(Tower) of John Palæologus, Emperor in Christ; in the month of January of the year 1839.”
An inscription to the same effect stood on the first and the second towers north of the Third Military Gate. On the third tower beyond the entrance was the legend:
ΙΩ ΕΝ ΧΩ
ΑΥΤΟΚΡΑ
ΤΟΡΟΣ ΤΟΥ ΠΑΛΑΙ
ΛΟΓΟΥ ΚΑΤΑ ΜΗΝΑ ΟΚΤΟΒ
ΤΟΥ Μ ΕΤΟΥΣ (6946).
“(Tower) of John Palæologus, Emperor in Christ; in the month of October of the year 1438.”
On the outer tower, now demolished, opposite the Porta of the Pempton, was an inscription from which we learn the great extent of the repairs undertaken in this reign.[[419]] That work comprised the whole of the Outer Wall:
† ΑΝΕΚΑΙΝΙΣΕ ΤΟ ΚΑΣΤΡΟΝ ΟΛΟΝ ΙΩ ΧΩ ΑΥ
ΤΟΚΡΑΤΩΡ Ο ΠΑΛΑΙΟΛΟΓΟΣ ΕΤΕΙ ΜΑ (6941).
“John Palæolous, Emperor in Christ, restored the whole fortification; in the year 1433.”
Approximate Section and Restoration of The Walls of THEODOSIVS the Second.
In the course of the repairs made at this time, the Gate of the Pegè was restored at the expense of Manuel Bryennius Leontari, as an inscription high up on the back of the southern tower of the gate proclaims:[[420]]
† ΑΝΕΚΑΙΝΙΣΘΗ Η
ΘΕΟΣΟΣΤΟΣ ΠΥΛΗ ΑΥΤΗ
ΤΗΣ ΖΩΟΔΟΧΟΥ ΠΗΓΗΣ ΔΙΑ
ΣΥΝΔΡΟΜΗΣ ΚΑΙ ΕΞΟΔΟΥ ΜΑ
ΝΟΥΗΛ ΒΡΥΕΝΝΙΟΥ ΤΟΥ ΛΕ
ΟΝΤΑΡΙ ΕΠΙ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΑΣ
ΤΩΝ ΕΥΣΕΒΕΣΤΑΤΩΝ (or ΕΥΣΕΒΩΝ) ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΝ
ΙΩΑΝΝΟΥ ΚΑΙ ΜΑΡΙΑΣ
ΤΩΝ ΠΑΛΑΙΟΛΟΓΩΝ
ΕΝ ΜΗΝΙ ΜΑΙ
ΕΝ ΕΤΕΙ Μ (or Α) (6946 or 6941).
“This God-protected gate of the Life-giving Spring was restored with the co-operation and at the expense of Manuel Bryennius Leontari, in the reign of the most pious sovereigns John and Maria Palæologi; in the month of May, in the year 1438 (or 1433).”
Approximate Elevation and Restoration of The Walls of THEODOSIVS the Second.
The Empress Maria who is mentioned in the inscription was the daughter of Alexius, Emperor of Trebizond, and the third wife of John VII. Palæologus, from 1427-1440.[[421]] Manuel Bryennius Leontari was probably the Bryennius Leontari who defended the Gate of Charisius in the siege of 1453.[[422]]
To the same reign, probably, belonged the work recorded on a tower between the Gate of Charisius and Tekfour Serai. The inscription was fragmentary, consisting of the letters ΕΝΙΣΘΗ Η ΚΟ, evidently ΑΝΕΚΕΝΙΣΘΗ Η ΚΟΡΤΙΝΑ[[423]] (“The curtain-wall was restored”). The lettering and the form of expression resembled the style of an unmutilated inscription on the walls near the Sea of Marmora, commemorating repairs on that side of the city, in 1448, by George, Despot of Servia;[[424]] and in view of this resemblance, it is safe to conclude that a part of the money sent by the Servian king to fortify Constantinople against the common enemy was spent upon the land wall.
To the period of John VII. Palæologus, probably, must be assigned the inscription which stands on the fifth tower north of the Gate of Charisius:[[425]]
ΝΙΚΟΛΑΟΥ
ΚΑΒΑΛΑΡΙΟΥ
ΤΟΥ ΑΓΑΛΟΝΟΣ
“(Tower) of Nicholas Agalon, Cabalarius.”
(16) On the first outer tower north of the Golden Gate, and on the outer tower opposite the Gate of the Pempton, the name Manuel Igari was found, placed a little below the inscriptions on those towers in honour of John VII. Palæologus.[[426]]
At first it might be supposed that we have here the name of the officer who superintended the repair of the fortifications in the reign of that emperor. But, according to Leonard of Scio,[[427]] Manuel Iagari, along with a certain monk, Neophytus of Rhodes, had charge of such work immediately before the final siege, while Constantine Dragoses, the last of the Byzantine emperors, was making pathetic efforts to avert inevitable doom. Leonard accuses Manuel and Neophytus of having, even at that crisis, when the fate of the city hung in the balance, embezzled a large part of the funds devoted to the restoration of the walls, thereby leaving the fortifications in a state which made a successful defence impossible: “Idcirco urbs prædonum incuria, in tanta tempesta periit.” It is said that after the capture of the city the Turks discovered a considerable portion of the stolen money concealed in a jar.
Sketch Plan of the Blachernæ Quarter.
CHAPTER VII.
THE PALACE OF THE PORPHYROGENITUS.
The ruined Byzantine palace, commonly styled Tekfour Serai, beside the Porta Xylokerkou was the Imperial residence, known as the Palace of the Porphyrogenitus (τὰ βασίλεια τοῦ Πορφυρογεννήτου: οἱ τοῦ Πορφυρογεννήτου οἶκοι),[[428]] and formed an annex to the great Palace of Blachernæ, which stood lower down the hill.
It is true, Gyllius supposed it to be the Palace of the Hebdomon, and his opinion, though contrary to all the evidence on the subject, has been generally accepted as correct. But the proof that the suburb of the Hebdomon was situated at Makrikeui, upon the Sea of Marmora, is overwhelming, and consequently the Palace of the Hebdomon must be sought in that neighbourhood.[[429]]
The evidence for the proper Byzantine name of Tekfour Serai[[430]] occurs in the passage in which Critobolus describes the positions occupied by the various divisions of the Turkish army, during the siege of 1453. According to that authority, the Turkish left wing extended from the Xylo Porta (beside the Golden Horn)[[431]] to the Palace of the Porphyrogenitus, which was situated upon a slope, and thence to the Gate of Charisius (Edirnè Kapoussi).[[432]] The site thus assigned to the Palace of the Porphyrogenitus corresponds exactly to that of Tekfour Serai, which stands on the steep ascent leading from Egri Kapou to the Gate of Adrianople.
The Palace of the Porphyrogenitus (Southern Façade).
All other references to the Palace of the Porphyrogenitus are in accord with this conclusion, so far, at least, as they imply the proximity of that residence to the Palace of Blachernæ. When, for instance, Andronicus III., in 1328, entered Constantinople by the Gate of St. Romanus to wrest the government from the feeble hands of his grandfather Andronicus II., he took up his quarters, we are told, in the Palace of the Porphyrogenitus, to be near the palace occupied by the elder sovereign.[[433]] That Andronicus II. was at the Palace of Blachernæ is manifest from the fact that the peasants who witnessed the entrance of the rebel grandson into the city ran and reported the event to the guards stationed at the Gate Gyrolimnè,[[434]] a gate leading directly to the Palace of Blachernæ.[[435]]
The Palace of the Porphyrogenitus (Northern Façade).
Again, the Palace of the Porphyrogenitus was occupied by John Cantacuzene, in 1347, while negotiating with the Dowager-Empress Anna of Savoy to be acknowledged the colleague of her son, John Palæologus.[[436]] Upon taking possession of that residence he issued strict injunctions that no attack should be made upon the palace in which the empress and her son were then living. But the followers of Cantacuzene, hearing that Anna hesitated to come to terms, disobeyed his orders and seized the fort at Blachernæ, named the Castelion, which guarded that palace.[[437]] Evidently the Palace of Blachernæ and the Palace of the Porphyrogenitus stood near each other. Seven years later, John Palæologus himself, upon his capture of the city, made the Palace of the Porphyrogenitus his headquarters while arranging for the abdication of Cantacuzene.[[438]] And from the narrative of the events on that occasion it is, again, manifest that the Palace of the Porphyrogenitus was in the neighbourhood of the Castelion and the Palace of Blachernæ.
By this identification, a flood of light is shed upon the incidents of Byzantine history to which allusion has just been made.
The palace, an oblong building in three stories, stands between the two parallel walls which descend from the Porta Xylokerkou for a short distance, towards the Golden Horn. Its long sides, facing respectively north and south, are transverse to the walls, while its short western and eastern sides rest, at the level of the second story, upon the summit of the walls.
Its roof and two upper floors have disappeared, and nothing remains but an empty shell. The northern façade was supported by pillars and piers, and its whole surface was decorated with beautiful and varied patterns in mosaic, formed of small pieces of brick and stone. The numerous windows of the building were framed in marble, and, with the graceful balconies on the east and south, looked out upon the superb views which the lofty position of the palace commanded. The western façade, being the most exposed to hostile missiles, was screened by a large tower built on the west side of the Porta Xylokerkou, to the injury, however, of the gate, which was thus partially blocked up.
A transverse wall erected at some distance to the north made the area between the two walls, upon which the palace rests, a spacious court, communicating by a gate at its north-eastern corner with the city, while a gate in the western wall led to the parateichion.[[439]] The latter entrance is, probably, the one known as the Postern of the Porphyrogenitus, by which forty-two partisans of John Cantacuzene made good their escape from the city in 1341.[[440]]
Monogram Of The Palæologi.[[441]]
According to Salzenberg, the palace belongs to the earlier half of the ninth century, and was the work of the Emperor Theophilus.[[442]] But the name of the building is in favour of the view that we have here an erection of the Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus, and consequently a monument of the Art of the tenth century. Constantine Porphyrogenitus was noted for the number of palaces he erected.[[443]]
The Palace of the Porphyrogenitus (View of Interior).
At the north-western end of the court stood another residence, the western façade of which, pierced by spacious windows, still surmounts the outer wall of the court. Over the second window (from the south) was inscribed the monogram of the legend on the arms of the Palæologi;[[444]] Βασιλεὺς Βασιλέων Βασιλεύων Βασιλεύουσι.
Dr. Paspates[[445]] regarded this building as the Monastery of the Seven Orders of the Angels, mentioned by Cantacuzene;[[446]] but that monastery, and the gate named after it, were at Thessalonica, and not at Constantinople. The building formed part of the Palace of the Porphyrogenitus.
Bullialdus, the annotator of Ducas,[[447]] speaking of the palace, says that the double-headed eagle of the Palæologi was to be seen on the lintel of one of the doors; that the capitals of the pillars in the building bore the lilies of France; and that several armorial shields were found there with the monogram—
Monogram.
These ornaments may be indications of repairs made by different occupants of the palace.[[448]]
Plan of the Palace of the Porphyrogenitus, And Adjoining walls.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE FORTIFICATIONS ON THE NORTH-WESTERN SIDE OF THE CITY, BEFORE THE SEVENTH CENTURY.
At the Gate of the Xylokerkus, or the Kerko Porta, the Theodosian Walls come to an abrupt termination, and the line of defence from that point to the Golden Horn is continued by fortifications which, for the most part, did not exist before the seventh century. Along the greater portion of their course these bulwarks consisted of a single wall, without a moat; but at a short distance from the water, where they stand on level ground, they formed a double wall, which was at one time protected by a moat and constituted a citadel at the north-western angle of the city.
With the exception of that citadel’s outer wall, erected by Leo the Armenian, the defences from the Kerko Porta to the Golden Horn have usually been ascribed to the Emperor Heraclius.[[449]] But this opinion is at variance both with history, and with the striking diversity in construction exhibited by the various portions of the works. As a matter of fact, the fortifications extending from the Kerko Porta to the Golden Horn comprise walls that belong to, at least, three periods: the Wall of Heraclius, the Wall of Leo, and the Wall of Manuel Comnenus.[[450]] Curiously enough, the Wall of Manuel Comnenus, though latest in time, stands first in order of position, for it intervenes between the Theodosian Walls, on the one hand, and the Heraclian and Leonine Walls, on the other.
Here, therefore, a question presents itself which must be answered before proceeding to the study of the walls just mentioned. If the various portions of the fortifications between the Kerko Porta and the Golden Horn did not come, respectively, into existence until the seventh, ninth, and eleventh centuries, how was the north-western side of the city defended previous to the erection of those walls?
Two answers have been given to this important and very difficult question. Both agree in maintaining that the city was defended on the north-west by the prolongation of the Theodosian Walls; but they differ as regards the precise direction in which the walls were carried down to the Golden Horn.
One view is that the Theodosian Walls upon leaving the Kerko Porta turned north-eastwards, to follow the eastern spur of the Sixth Hill,[[451]] along a line terminating somewhere in the vicinity of Balat Kapoussi.[[452]] According to this view, the quarter of Blachernæ, which until 627 lay outside the city limits,[[453]] was the territory situated between the spur just mentioned and the line occupied eventually by the Walls of Comnenus and Heraclius.
The second view on the subject is that the two Theodosian Walls were carried northwards along the western spur of the Sixth Hill, and enclosed it on every side. On this supposition, the suburb of Blachernæ, with its celebrated Church of the Theotokos, without the fortifications, was the plain extending from the foot of the western spur of the Sixth Hill to the Golden Horn, the plain occupied now by the quarter of Aivan Serai.[[454]]
In support of the first opinion, there is the undoubted fact that the Theodosian Walls, as they approach the Kerko Porta, bend north-eastwards, so that if continued in that direction they would reach the Golden Horn near the Greek Church of St. Demetrius, to the west of Balat Kapoussi.
The opinion that the Theodosian Walls were carried to the foot of the western spur of the Sixth Hill rests upon the fact that traces of old fortifications enclosing that spur are still distinctly visible; while the Theodosian Moat is, moreover, continued towards Aivan Serai, until it is stopped by the Wall of Manuel, which runs transversely to it.[[455]]
The fortifications referred to are found mostly to the rear of the Comnenian Wall, but portions of them are seen also to the north of it.
One line of the fortifications proceeded from the Kerko Porta along the western flank of the spur, and joined the city walls a little to the south of the “Tower of Isaac Angelus;” another line ran from that gate along the eastern side of the spur to the fountain Tsinar Tchesmè in the quarter of Londja, a short distance to the south-east of the Holy Well which marks the site of the Church of Blachernæ; while a third wall, facing the Golden Horn, defended the northern side of the spur, and abutted against the city walls, very near the southern end of the Wall of Heraclius.[[456]] Within the acropolis formed by these works of defence, the Palace of Blachernæ and the Palace of the Porphyrogenitus were in due time erected.
Both answers to the question before us have much in their favour, and possibly the truth on the subject is to be found in their combination. Their respective values as rival theories will, perhaps, be more easily estimated, if we begin with the consideration of the second answer.
Balcony in the Southern Façade of the Palace of the Porphyrogenitus.
That the western spur of the Sixth Hill was a fortified position early in the history of the city can scarcely be disputed. It must have been so, to commence at the lowest date, before the erection of the Wall of the Emperor Manuel in the twelfth century; for it was to get clear of the fortifications on that spur that the Comnenian Wall describes the remarkable detour it makes in proceeding from the court of the Palace of the Porphyrogenitus towards the Golden Horn, running out westwards for a considerable distance before taking a northerly course in the direction of the harbour. Then, there is reason to believe that the spur was fortified as early as the seventh century. This is implied in the accounts we have of the siege of Constantinople by the Avars in 627, when we hear of fortifications, named the Wall of Blachernæ,[[457]] the Pteron[[458]] or Proteichisma,[[459]] outside of which stood the Church of Blachernæ and the Church of St. Nicholas.[[460]]
Archway leading to the Gate of the Xylokerkus (Screen Tower). The Palace of the Porphyrogenitus (From The West).
For these sanctuaries were situated precisely at the foot of the western spur of the Sixth Hill, the site of the former being marked by the Holy Well of Blachernæ at Aivan Serai, that of the latter by the Holy Well in the ground between the Wall of Heraclius and the Wall of Leo.
It is also in favour of the presence of fortifications on the spur in the seventh century to find that the historians of the Avar siege are silent as to any danger incurred by the Palace of Blachernæ, which stood on the spur, when the Church of St. Nicholas was burnt down, and when the Church of Blachernæ narrowly escaped the same fate. A similar silence is observed as to any advantage derived by the palace from the erection of the Wall of Heraclius, at the close of the war.
But the age of these fortifications may be carried back to a still earlier date than the seventh century; for, according to the Notitia, the Fourteenth Region of the city, which stood on the Sixth Hill, was defended by a wall of its own, proprio muro vallata, so as to appear a distinct town.[[461]] The fortifications on the Sixth Hill may therefore claim to have originally constituted the defences of that Region, and therefore to be as old, at least, as the reign of Theodosius II.
But although the origin of the fortifications around the western spur of the Sixth Hill may thus be carried so far back, it is a mistake to regard them as a structural prolongation of the Theodosian Walls. On the contrary, they are distinct and independent constructions. They proceed northwards, while the latter make for the north-east; so that the Wall of Anthemius, if produced, would stand to the east of the former, while the Wall of the Prefect Constantine under similar circumstances would cut them transversely. Furthermore, the outer wall, north of the Kerko Porta, is built almost at right angles against the wall of the Prefect Constantine, with a distinct line of junction, and stands so close to the Kerko Porta that the gate, what with the wall on one side and the tower screening the western façade of the Palace of Porphyrogenitus[[462]] upon the other, is almost crushed between them. Such a situation could never have been assigned to the gate, if the walls on either hand belonged to the same construction. It should also be added that the masonry of the walls around the spur is different from that in the Walls of Theodosius.
How the non-Theodosian character of the walls to the north of the Kerko Porta is to be accounted for admits of more than one explanation. It may be due to changes in works of Theodosian origin, or to the fact that they are works of an earlier period,[[463]] or to the fact that they are works of a later age. On the supposition that these fortifications defended originally the Fourteenth Region, the second explanation is the most probable, for the division of the city into Regions was anterior to Theodosius II., and there is every reason to believe that the isolated Fourteenth Region was a fortified suburb from the earliest period of its history.[[464]]
Accordingly, the second answer to the question how the north-western side of the city was defended before the erection of the Walls of Heraclius, Leo, and Manuel Comnenus, would have more in its favour if it maintained that the defence was effected by the junction of the Theodosian Walls with pre-existing fortifications around the western spur of the Sixth Hill.[[465]]
The chief difficulty attending this view is that the Notitia speaks of the Fourteenth Region as still an isolated suburb in the reign of Theodosius II.[[466]]
As regards the opinion that the Theodosian Walls proceeded from the Kerko Porta to the Golden Horn in a north-eastern course and reached the water between the Church of St. Demetrius and Balat Kapoussi, it has upon its side the patent fact that those walls, if produced according to their trend at the Kerko Porta, would certainly follow the line indicated. On this view, the walls around the western spur of the Sixth Hill were either the fortifications of the Fourteenth Region (modified), or walls built expressly to defend the Palace of Blachernæ, after the fifth century.
The trend of the walls at the Kerko Porta affords, unquestionably, a very strong argument for this view of the case. But the view is open to objections. The absence of all traces of the walls along the line indicated should, perhaps, not be pressed, as such works are apt to disappear when superseded. A more serious objection is that the Theodosian Moat does not follow the north-eastern course of the walls, but proceeds northwards, for a short distance, in the direction of Aivan Serai.
Furthermore, if the western spur of the Sixth Hill was already fortified when the Theodosian Walls were built, it is reasonable to suppose that the land defences of the city were completed by the simple expedient of uniting the new works with the old. Any other proceeding appears cumbrous and superfluous.
Still, after all is said, the information we have is so meagre, the changes made in the walls beside the Kerko Porta have manifestly been so numerous, that a decided judgment upon the point at issue does not seem warranted by the evidence at our command.
CHAPTER IX.
THE WALL OF THE EMPEROR MANUEL COMNENUS.
According to Nicetas Choniates,[[467]] a portion of the city fortifications was erected by the Emperor Manuel Comnenus.
Tower of the Wall of the Emperor Manuel Comnenus.
The historian alludes to that work when describing the site upon which the Crusaders established their camp in 1203, and from his account of the matter there can be no doubt regarding the portion intended. The Latin camp, says Nicetas,[[468]] was pitched on the hill which faced the western front of the Palace of Blachernæ, and which was separated from the city walls by a strip of level ground, extending from the Golden Horn, on the north, to the wall built by the Emperor Manuel, on the south. This is an unmistakable description of the hill which stands to the west of the fortifications between the Golden Horn and Egri Kapou, and which is separated from those fortifications by a narrow plain, as by a trench or gorge. Consequently, the wall erected by the Emperor Manuel must be sought at the plain’s southern extremity; and there, precisely, commences a line of wall which displays, as far as the north-western corner of the court of the Palace of the Porphyrogenitus, a style of workmanship perfectly distinct from any found elsewhere in the bulwarks of the city.
The object of building this wall was to add to the security of the Palace of Blachernæ, which became the favourite residence of the Imperial Court in the reign of Alexius Comnenus,[[469]] and which Manuel himself enlarged and beautified.[[470]] The new wall was not only stronger than the earlier defences of the palace, but had also the advantage of removing the point of attack against this part of the city to a greater distance from the Imperial residence. At the same time, the older fortifications were allowed to remain as a second line of defence.
In construction the wall is a series of lofty arches closed on the outer face, and built of larger blocks of stone[[471]] than those generally employed in the Walls of Theodosius. On account of the steepness of the slope on which it, for the most part, stands, it was unprotected by a moat, but to compensate for this lack the wall was more massive, and flanked by stronger towers than other portions of the fortifications. At the summit the wall measured fifteen feet in thickness. Of its nine towers, the first six, commencing from the court of the Palace of the Porphyrogenitus, are alternately round and octagonal; the seventh and eighth are octagonal; the last is square.
The wall was provided with a public gate and, apparently, two posterns.
One postern, opening on the Theodosian parateicheion, was in the curtain[[472]] extending from the outer wall of the court of the Palace of the Porphyrogenitus to the first tower of Manuel’s Wall. The other postern stood between the second and third towers, and is remarkable for being the only entrance in the city walls furnished with a drip-stone. Dr. Paspates[[473]] identified it with the Paraportion of St. Kallinikus; but the postern of that name is mentioned in history before the erection of Manuel’s Wall.
Between the sixth and seventh towers was the Public Gate, now styled Egri Kapou. By some authorities, as already stated,[[474]] it has been identified with the Porta Charisiou, but it is, beyond question, the Porta Kaligaria, so conspicuous in the last siege of the city.[[475]] This is clear from the following circumstances: The Porta Kaligaria pierced the wall which protected the quarter known, owing to the manufacture of military shoes (caliga) there, as the Kaligaria (ἐν τοῖς Καλιγαρίοις). That wall stood near the palace of the emperor; it was a single line of fortifications, distinguished for its strength, but without a moat.[[476]] It occupied, moreover, such a position that from one of its towers the Emperor Constantine Dragoses and his friend the historian Phrantzes were able to reconnoitre, early in the morning of the fatal 29th of May, the operations of the Turkish army before the Theodosian Walls, and hear the ominous sounds of the preparations for the last assault.[[477]] All these particulars hold true only of the wall in which Egri Kapou is situated; and hence that gate must be the Porta Kaligaria.
The only inscription found on the Wall of Manuel consists of the two words, ΥΠΕΡ ΕΥΧΗΣ, on a stone built into the left side of the entrance which leads from within the city into the square tower above mentioned.
In the siege of 1453, this wall, on account of its proximity to the Palace of Blachernæ, was the object of special attack; but all the attempts of the Turkish gunners and miners failed to open a breach in it.[[478]] A battery of three cannon, one of them the huge piece cast by Orban, played against these bulwarks with such little effect that the Sultan ordered the guns to be transferred to the battery before the Gate of St. Romanus.[[479]] The skilled miners who were brought from the district around Novobrodo, in Servia, to undermine the wall succeeded in shaking down only part of an old tower, and all the mines they opened were countermined by John Grant, a German engineer in the service of the Greeks.[[480]]
The tower from which the emperor and Phrantzes reconnoitred the Turkish movements was, Dr. Paspates thinks, the noble tower which stands at the point where the wall bends to descend the slope towards the Golden Horn.[[481]]
The portion of the fortifications, some 453 feet in length, extending from the square tower in the wall just described to the fourth tower to the north (the tower bearing an inscription in honour of Isaac Angelus),[[482]] is considered by one authority to be also a part of the Wall of Manuel Comnenus.[[483]] If so, it must have undergone great alterations since that emperor’s time, for in its construction and general appearance it is very different from the Comnenian ramparts. It is built of smaller blocks of stone; its bricks are much slighter in make; its arches less filled with masonry; its four towers are all square, and glaringly inferior to the splendid towers in Manuel’s undoubted work; while, immediately to the south of the square tower above mentioned one can see, from within the city, a line of junction between the wall to the south and the wall to the north of that tower, indicating in the plainest possible manner the juxtaposition of two perfectly distinct structures. And in point of fact, three inscriptions recording repairs are found on the latter wall. One inscription, on the fourth tower, belongs to the reign of Isaac Angelus[[484]] and bears the date 1188. Another is seen among the Turkish repairs executed on the city side of the second tower of the wall, and records the date, “In the year 6824 (1317), November 4;” the year, as we have seen, in which Irene, the empress of Andronicus II., died, leaving large sums of money, which that emperor devoted, mainly, to the restoration of the bulwarks of the capital.[[485]] The third inscription stands on the curtain between the third and fourth towers of the wall, immediately below the parapet, and commemorates repairs executed in 1441 by John VII. Palæologus, who was concerned in the reconstruction of the Outer Theodosian Wall. It reads:
ΙΩΑΝΝΗΣ ΕΝ ΧΩ ΤΩ
ΘΩ ΠΙΣΤΟΣ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΣ
ΚΑΙ ΑΥΤΟΚΡΑΤΩΡ ΡΩΜΑΙΩΝ
Ο ΠΑΛΑΙΟΛΟΓΟΣ ΚΑΤΑ ΜΗΝΑ
ΑΥΓΟΥΣΤΟΥ ΤΗ Δ
ΤΟΥ ϚϠΜΘ ΕΤΟΥΣ (6949).
“John Palæologus, faithful King and Emperor of the Romans, in Christ, God; on the second of the month of August of the year 1441.”
The Palæologian Wall, North of the Wall of the Emperor Manuel Comnenus.
To the north of the second tower in the wall before us is a gateway which answers to the description of the Gate of Gyrolimnè (πύλη τῆς Γυρολίμνης); for the Gate of Gyrolimnè, like this entrance, stood in the immediate vicinity of the Palace of Blachernæ, and was so near the hill on which the Crusaders encamped in 1203 that the Greeks stationed at the gate and the enemy on the hill were almost within speaking distance.[[486]]
The Gate of Gyrolimnè.
The gate derived its name from a sheet of water called the Silver Lake (Ἀργυρὰ Λίμνη), at the head of the Golden Horn, and beside which was an Imperial palace.[[487]] The gate was at the service of the Palace of Blachernæ, a fact which, doubtless, explains the decoration of the arch of the entrance with three Imperial busts.[[488]]
Several historical reminiscences are attached to the gate. Through it, probably, the leaders of the Fourth Crusade went to and fro in carrying on their negotiations with Isaac Angelus.[[489]] By it Andronicus the Younger went forth in hunter’s garb, with his dogs and falcons, as if to follow the chase, but in reality to join his adherents and raise the standard of revolt against his grandfather.[[490]] Hither that prince came thrice in the course of his rebellion, and held parley with the officials of the palace, as they stood upon the walls, regarding terms of peace;[[491]] and here the intelligence that he had entered the city was brought by the peasants who had seen him admitted early in the morning through the Gate of St. Romanus.[[492]]
To this gate Cantacuzene also came at the head of his troops in 1343, to sound the disposition of the capital during his contest with Apocaucus and the Empress Anna.[[493]]
The Palace of Blachernæ.
Τὸ ἐν Βλαχέρναις Βασίλειον, Παλάτιον.
Until the site of the Palace of Blachernæ is excavated, little can be added to the information which Du Cange[[494]] and Paspates[[495]] have collected respecting that Imperial residence, from the statements made on the subject by writers during the Byzantine period. If the quarter of Egri Kapou, on the western spur of the Sixth Hill, was included in the Fourteenth Region of the city, the Palace of Blachernæ appears first as the palace which, according to the Notitia, adorned that Region.[[496]] In the reign of Anastasius I. the residence was enlarged by the addition of the Triclinus Anastasiacus (Τρίκλινος Ἀναστασιακὸς),[[497]] and in the tenth century[[498]] it boasted, moreover, of the Triclinus of the Holy Shrine (Τρίκλινος τῆς ἁγίας σοροῦ), named so in honour of the shrine in which the robe and mantle of the Theotokos were kept in the Church of Blachernæ; the Triclinus Danubius (Τρίκλινος Δανουβιὸς); and the Portico Josephiacus (τὸν Πόρτικα Ἰωσηφιακὸν). Under Alexius I. Comnenus it was frequently occupied by the Court, and there the emperor received the leaders of the First Crusade, Peter the Hermit, Godfrey of Bouillon, Bohemond, and others.[[499]] By Manuel Comnenus it was repaired and embellished[[500]] to an extent which obtained for it the name of the New Palace,[[501]] and it was one of the sights of the capital with which he entertained Amaury, King of Jerusalem.[[502]] The lofty building named after the Empress Irene,[[503]] and, probably, the Domus Polytimos,[[504]] were the work of Manuel Comnenus. He also increased, as we have seen, the security of the palace by the erection of new bulwarks; to which Isaac Angelus added a tower.[[505]] In 1203 the palace was the scene of the negotiations between the latter emperor and the envoys of Baldwin of Flanders and Henrico Dandolo, the leaders of the Fourth Crusade.[[506]] In 1204, upon the capture of the city by the Crusaders, it surrendered to Henry, the brother of Baldwin,[[507]] but the Latin emperors seem to have preferred the Palace of the Bucoleon for their residence.
General View of the Wall of the Emperor Manuel Comnenus.
Baldwin II., however, resided in the Palace of Blachernæ, and left it in such a filthy condition that when taken possession of by the Greeks in 1261, Michael Palæologus could not occupy it until it had been thoroughly cleaned and renovated.[[508]] It was the usual residence of the Byzantine Court during the period of the Palæologi,[[509]] and from this palace the last emperor who sat upon the throne of Constantinople went forth to die “in the winding-sheet of his empire.”[[510]] All descriptions of the palace agree in representing it as of extraordinary splendour.[[511]] Foreign visitors could not find words in which to give an idea of its magnificence and wealth. According to them, its exterior appearance was incomparable in beauty, while within it was decorated with gold, and mosaics, and colours, and marbles, and columns, and jewels, at a cost hard to estimate, and with a skill that could be found nowhere else in the world.[[512]]
The hill on which the palace stood was partly artificial, to furnish a suitable platform or terrace for the group of buildings which composed the residence, and to afford wide views over the harbour, the city, and the country beyond the walls—“triplicem habitantibus jucunditatem offerens,” as Odo de Dogilo aptly remarks, “mare, campus, urbemque, alterius despicit.” The palace derived much of its importance from its proximity to the venerated shrine of the Theotokos of Blachernæ. And the ease with which the country could be reached from it, to enjoy the pleasures of the chase, must not be overlooked in explaining the favour with which the palace was regarded.[[513]] It should be added that the palace stood within the fortified enclosure[[514]] around the western spur of the Sixth Hill, the Castelion of Blachernæ (Τὸ ἐν Βλαχέρναις φρούριον, μέρος καὶ αὐτὸ τοῦ περὶ τὰ βασίλεια φρουρίου ὂν Καστέλιον προσαγορευόμενον).[[515]]
Plan of the So-Called Prison of Anemas.
CHAPTER X.
THE TOWER OF ANEMAS—THE TOWER OF ISAAC ANGELUS.
The next portion of the walls to be considered, beginning at the tower marked with an inscription in honour of Isaac Angelus,[[516]] and terminating at the junction of the Wall of Heraclius with the Wall of Leo, has undergone many changes in the course of its history, and, consequently, presents problems which cannot be solved in the actual state of our knowledge. After all is said on the subject, there will be room for wide difference of opinion.
Originally, it would seem, this portion of the walls formed part of the defences around the outlying Fourteenth Region of the city; later, it constituted the north-western front of the enclosure around the Palace of Blachernæ.
It is remarkable for its dimensions, rising in some places 68 feet above the exterior ground-level, with a thickness varying from 33-¼ to 61-½ feet. Inside the city the ground reaches the level of the parapet-walk. The wall is flanked by three towers, the second and third being built side by side, with one of their walls in common. In the body of the wall behind the twin towers, and for some distance to the north of them, were three stories of twelve chambers, presenting in their ruin the most impressive spectacle to be found in the circuit of the fortifications.
The first[[517]] of the three towers stands at the south-western angle of the enclosure around the Palace of Blachernæ, where the fortifications around the western spur of the Sixth Hill, to the rear of the Wall of Manuel, join the wall now under consideration; the tower’s upper chamber being on the level of the palace area. Upon the tower is the following inscription, in honour of the Emperor Isaac Angelus:
ΠΡΟΣΤΑΞΙ ΑΥΤΟΚΡΑΤΟΡΟΣ ΑΝΓΕΛΟΥ ΙΑΣΑΑΚΙΟΥ
ΠΥΡΓΟΣ ΕΚ ΠΑΡΑΣΤΑΣΕΩΣ ΔΙΜΕΗΙ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΟΥ ΕΤ
ϚϠΧΙ (6696).[[518]]
“Tower, by command of the Emperor Isaac Angelus, under the superintendence of Basil ... (?) in the year 1188.”
The twin towers rise to a great height, and are supported along their base by a massive buttress or counter-fort, 1 G1 G2 G3 G4, that stands 23 feet above the present ground-level, and projects from 19-½ to 26 feet beyond the towers.
The tower N, an irregular quadrilateral building in two stories, measures 48 feet by 43 feet; the tower S, also quadrilateral, is 36 feet by 47 feet. But although closely associated, the two buildings differ greatly in style of construction. The masonry of N is irregular, having a large number of pillars inserted into it; often partially, so that many of them project like mock artillery. On the other hand, the tower S is carefully put together with the usual alternate courses of stone and brickwork, and is, moreover, ornamented with a string-course. A similar diversity of style is observable in the counter-fort. The portion about the tower N is built of small stones roughly joined, whereas the portion about the tower S consists of splendid large blocks, regularly hewn, and carefully fitted. Manifestly the towers are not the work of the same period.
The tower N is commonly regarded as the tower of Isaac Angelus; while the tower S has been considered, since Dr. Paspates propounded the opinion, to be the Tower of Anemas,[[519]] which stood in the vicinity of the Palace of Blachernæ, and is famous in the annals of Constantinople as a prison for political offenders of high rank. The chambers in the body of the wall, behind and to the north of the towers, Dr. Paspates thinks, were the cells of that celebrated prison.
How far these views are correct can be determined only after the towers and the chambers in the adjoining wall have been carefully surveyed. The plan attached to this chapter will render the survey easier and clearer.[[520]]
At x was a small arched postern, by which one entered the vaulted tunnel Z, that led through the counter-fort G´ to the gateway l in the north-eastern side of the tower S. The sill of the postern x is now nearly 10 feet above the exterior ground-level, but originally it was higher, so that persons could pass in and out only by means of a ladder that could be withdrawn at pleasure. The postern x, the tunnel Z, and the gateway l are now built up with solid masonry to the spring of the vault, obliging the explorer to make his way on his hands and knees in a most uncomfortable manner.[[521]] Judging from the carefulness of the work, the passage was blocked before the Turkish Conquest.
By the gateway l one enters the lofty vestibule b, now in total darkness, so that all further exploration requires the aid of artificial light. The original floor of the vestibule is buried below a mass of earth which stands at the present level of Z and l.
In the wall to the right is a low arched niche, i; in the wall g, directly in front of the explorer, a wide breach opens into E; while in the wall to the left is a loophole O, now on the level of the present floor of b.
Crawling first through O, one finds one’s self in a spacious vaulted hall, some 200 feet long, and from 29 to 40 feet wide. The lower portion of the hall is filled with débris and earth, piled unevenly upon the floor, in great mounds and deep hollows, which add indeed to the weirdness of the scene, but, unfortunately, render a complete exploration of the interior impossible.
Thirteen buttress-walls, pierced by three arches superposed, run transversely across the hall, from the wall AA to the wall BB, and divide the interior into fourteen compartments, which average nearly 10 feet in breadth, and vary in length from about 27 to 40 feet; the walls AA and BB standing further apart, as they proceed from south-west to north-east.
These compartments, excepting the first and last, were divided, as the cavities for fixing joists in the buttresses prove, into three stories of twelve chambers, the superposed arches affording continuous communication between the chambers on the different floors. The chambers on the ground floor, so far as appears, were totally dark, but those on the two upper stories received light and air through the large loophole in the wall BB, with which each of them was provided. The compartment C´ led to the chamber in the second story of the tower N, and at the same time communicated at v with the terrace on which the Palace of Blachernæ stood, and where the Mosque of Aivas Effendi is now erected.
The face of the wall AA is pierced by two tiers of loopholes, which are openings in two superposed corridors or galleries constructed in the body of the wall AA. These loopholes occur at irregular distances from the buttress-walls, and some of them are partially closed by the latter, while others are completely so.
As the galleries in AA are blocked with earth at various points, they cannot be explored thoroughly. At the north-eastern end, the upper gallery opens on the garden of a Turkish house near the Heraclian Wall. Whether the south-western end communicated with the court of the Palace of Blachernæ cannot be determined.
Returning to the vestibule b, and crawling next through the opening at i, the explorer finds himself in F, a vaulted chamber over 29 feet long, and about 17 feet wide. What the original height of the apartment was cannot be ascertained, the floor being covered with a deep bed of fine dark loam, but the ceiling is still some 23 feet high. Below a line nearly 14 feet from the ceiling, as a sloping ledge at that elevation makes evident, the north-eastern and north-western walls of the apartment are much thicker than above that point. Over the ledge in the north-eastern wall is a loophole.
The south-eastern wall is strengthened with two arches; while the ceiling is pierced by a circular hole, which communicates with the room on the higher story of the tower. When first explored by Dr. Paspates, a well nearly 18 feet deep was found sunk in the floor.[[522]]
Before leaving the chamber the explorer should notice the shaft of a pillar which protrudes from the south-western wall, like the shafts of the pillars built into the open sides of the tower N.
Returning once more to the vestibule b, we proceed to the breach in the wall g, and enter E. That the breach was made on a systematic plan is clear from the half-arch f, which was constructed to support the building after the wall g had been weakened by the opening made in it.
E was a stairway-turret, in which an inclined plane, without steps, winded about the newel, e, upwards and downwards. The turret is filled with earth to the present level of the vestibule b, so that one cannot descend the stairway below that point; but there can be no doubt whatever that the stairway conducted to the original floor of the vestibule b, and to the gateway l, and thence to the tunnel and postern in the counter-fort. Whether it led also to an entrance to the chambers C C C cannot be discovered under existing circumstances. The object of the breach in g was to establish communication between the stairway, the vestibule b, and the tunnel Z, after the original means of communication between them had been blocked by raising the floors of the tunnel and the vestibule to their present level, in the manner already described.
The stairway winds thirteen times about its newel, and ascends to within a short distance of the summit of the turret. The summit was open, and stood on the level of the court of the Palace of Blachernæ; but the opening could be reached from the stairway only by means of a ladder removable at the pleasure of the guardians of the palace, and was, doubtless, closed with an iron door for the sake of greater security.
The walls of the turret were pierced by four loop-holes; two, placed one above the other, looking towards the north-west, and two, similarly arranged, facing the north-east. Those on the lower level are closed, but the two higher ones have been enlarged, and admit to the fine L-shaped chamber in the upper story of the tower, the chamber above F and the vestibule b.
The L-Shaped Chamber in Upper Story of Tower S.
The chamber measures some 39 feet by 33 feet, and was lighted by a large square window in the north-western wall. A circular aperture in the floor communicated with F; and a corresponding aperture in the vaulted ceiling opened on the roof of the tower. The walls are furnished with numerous air-passages, to prevent dampness, and are covered with a thin coating of plaster. The vault of the ceiling, if we may judge from the small cavities for joists below the spring of the arch, was concealed by woodwork. Indeed, a portion of one of the cross-beams is still in its place.
The stairway communicated, moreover, with the tower N, through narrow vaulted passages that pierce the north-eastern wall of the tower at three points; first, at the original level of the vestibule b, and then at the level of the two tiers of loopholes. These passages are choked with earth, but by the partial excavation of the lowest one of them access was obtained to the small chamber D. It had no windows, but a round aperture in the ceiling connected it with some unexplored part of the tower.
From this survey of the buildings before us some satisfactory inferences may certainly be drawn regarding their history and character; although several points must remain obscure until the removal of the earth accumulated within the ruins renders a complete exploration possible.
In the first place, the character of these walls and towers can be understood only in the light of the fact that whatever other function belonged to them, they were intended to support the terraced hill on which the Palace of Blachernæ, to their rear, was constructed. The unusual height and thickness of the walls, the extent to which buttresses are here employed, were not demanded by purely military considerations. Such features are explicable only upon the view that the fortifications of the city at this point served also as a retaining wall, whereby the Imperial residence could be built upon an elevation beyond the reach of escalade, and where it would command a wide prospect of the city and surrounding country. In fact, the buildings before us resemble the immense substructures raised on the Palatine hill by Septimius Severus and Caracalla to support the platform on which the Ædes Severianæ were erected.[[523]]
“The Tower of Anemas” and “The Tower of Isaac Angelus” (From The South-West).
In the next place, there are at several points in these buildings so many alterations; there is so much undoing of work done, either rendering it useless or diverting it from its original purpose, that these various constructions cannot be treated as parts of an edifice built on a single systematic plan, but as an agglomeration of different erections, put up at various periods to serve new requirements arising from time to time. For instance, the loopholes in the wall AA have no symmetrical relation to the buttress-walls that divide the compartments C; some of them, as already stated, are partially closed by the buttresses; others are entirely so, their existence being discoverable only from the interior of the galleries in the body of that wall. It is hard to believe that such inconsistent arrangements can be the work of one mind and hand.
Again: the tower S and the tower N block the windows in four of the compartments C. Surely the same builder would not thus go back upon his work. Once more; the loopholes in the stairway-turret afford no light in their present position, the lower pair being closed, the upper pair forming entrances to the L-shaped chamber. This is not an original arrangement.
In view of such peculiarities, the following conclusions regarding these buildings seem the most reasonable, in the present state of our knowledge:
(1) The wall AA was at one time the only erection here; and the two galleries, constructed in the thickness of the wall formed with their loopholes two tiers of batteries, so to speak, for the discharge of missiles upon an enemy attacking this quarter of the city. A similar system of defence was employed for the protection of the smaller residence forming part of the Palace of the Porphyrogenitus,[[524]] and for the protection of the Palace of the Bucoleon, situated on the city walls near Tchatlady Kapou.[[525]]
When precisely the wall AA was erected cannot be determined; but, judging from its height, and the manner in which it was equipped for defence, the probable opinion is that this was done after the Palace of Blachernæ had assumed considerable importance. Possibly, the work belongs to the reign of Anastasius I.[[526]]
(2) At some later period the wall BB, equipped with buttresses within and without, was erected to support the wall AA. The demand for such support was doubtless occasioned by additions to the Palace of Blachernæ, which already in the tenth century comprised several edifices on the hill behind the wall AA.[[527]]
As BB superseded the original function of the galleries in AA, it was a matter of little moment how many of the loopholes in the latter were more or less masked by the buttresses built transversely between the two walls. It would be enough to retain a few loopholes to light the galleries. At the same time, advantage was taken of the buttresses to construct, in the space between AA and BB, three stories of chambers, for such purpose as the authorities of the palace might decide.
(3) The manner in which the towers S and N block the windows in four of the compartments C is evidence that these towers were additions made later than the age of BB. This view is corroborated by the marked difference between the masonry of the towers and the masonry of the wall BB, against which they are built.
(4) The towers S and N are so different in their respective styles of construction that they cannot be contemporaneous buildings.
(5) The tower S is later than the tower N, for their common wall, H, is strictly the north-eastern side of the tower N, as the similarity of the masonry of H to that of the other sides of N makes perfectly plain. This similarity is manifest not only in the general features of the work, but also in the insertion of marble shafts into the wall H; in one instance partially, after the odd fashion adopted so extensively in the open sides of the tower N. Furthermore, the manner in which the walls of the chamber F and the L-shaped chamber in the tower S impinge upon the wall H shows that the former were built against the latter, and that they are posterior in age.
(6) The stairway-turret E, as the loopholes in its sides prove, stood, at one time, in the open light and air. If so, it must be older than the apartments b, F, L, in the tower S, which enclose it.
(7) The passages communicating between the stairway and the chambers in the tower N render it almost certain that the stairway-turret was constructed at the same time as that tower. Thus, also, a short and private way from the Palace of Blachernæ to the country beyond the city bounds was provided; for it may be confidently assumed that at the foot of the stairway there was a small gate, corresponding to the gate l, and the postern x at the mouth of the tunnel Z.
(8) When the stairway-turret was enclosed by the vestibule b, the chamber F, and the L-shaped chamber, the lower loopholes of the turret were built up as superfluous, while the upper ones were widened to form entrances to the L-shaped chamber. Accordingly, the tower S is an old stairway-turret enclosed within later constructions.
(9) In view of some great danger, access to the tower S from without the city was blocked by building up the postern x, the tunnel Z, the gate l, and the vestibule b, to their actual level. The portion of the passage still left open was too narrow to be forced by an enemy, and yet was convenient to be retained for the sake of ventilation, or as a way in and out in some emergency. At the same time, a breach was made in the wall g to place the elevated floor of the vestibule into communication with the stairway-turret E.
(10) What precise object the chambers C in the body of the city wall were intended to serve is open to discussion. In the opinion of Dr. Paspates, who was the first to explore them, they were prison-cells. Possibly the lowest series of these chambers may have been employed for that purpose; but, taken as a whole, the suite of apartments between AA and BB do not convey the impression of being places of confinement. Their spaciousness, their number, the free communication between them, the size of the windows in the two upper stories, the proximity of the windows to the floor, are not the characteristics of dungeons.
It is not impossible that these chambers were store-rooms or barracks,[[528]] and that through the loopholes in the wall BB the palace was defended as, previously, through the openings in AA.
Communication between the three stories must have been maintained by means of wooden stairs or ladders. In the north-eastern wall of C’—the chamber which gave access from the court of the Palace of Blachernæ at v to the second story of the tower N—there was an archway, now filled up, opening upon the level of the highest series of chambers C. When the archway was closed, communication was held through a breach at h. Possibly the same series of chambers was entered from the north-eastern end of the upper gallery in AA. Contrary to what might be supposed, there was no access to the two upper series of chambers from the stairway-turret. Whether the lowest series could be reached by a door at the foot of the stairway cannot be ascertained, on account of the earth in which the lower portion of the stairway lies buried. But it is extremely improbable that such was the case, for the stairway-turret belongs, we have seen, to a later age than the chambers in the body of the adjoining wall.
With these points made clear, we are in a position to consider how far the identification of the towers N and S, respectively, with the historical towers of Isaac Angelus and Anemas can be established.
According to Nicetas Choniates, the Tower of Isaac Angelus stood at the Palace of Blachernæ, and was built by that emperor to buttress and to defend the palace, and to form, at the same time, a residence for his personal use.[[529]] It was constructed with materials taken from ruined churches on the neighbouring seashore, and from various public buildings in the city, ruthlessly torn down for the purpose.[[530]]
This account makes it certain, in the first place, that the Tower of Isaac Angelus was one of the three towers which flank the portion of the city walls now under consideration, the portion which forms the north-western side of the enclosure around the Palace of Blachernæ; for these towers, and they only, at once defended and supported the terrace upon which that palace stood.
This being the case, it is natural to suppose that the Tower of Isaac Angelus is the tower which bears the inscription in his honour.[[531]] But this opinion is attended with difficulties. For the tower in question does not differ in any marked manner from an ordinary tower in the fortifications of the city. It is not specially fitted for a residence, nor does it possess features which render it worthy to have a place in history among the notable buildings erected by a sovereign. Furthermore, it is not constructed, to any striking degree, with materials drawn from other edifices.
To all this it is possible to reply that we do not see the tower in its original condition; that its upper story, which stood on the level of the palace area to the rear, is gone; that the tower, as it stands, consists largely of Turkish repairs; that the extent to which, in its original state, it resembled, or failed to resemble, the description of the Tower of Isaac Angelus as given by Nicetas, cannot be accurately known, and that, consequently, the question regarding the identity of the tower must be decided by the inscription found upon the building. There is force in this rejoinder; and it is the conclusion we must adopt, if there are not stronger reasons for identifying the Tower of Isaac Angelus with one or other of the two adjoining towers, N and S.
“The Tower of Anemas” and “The Tower of Isaac Angelus” (From the North-West).
The claims of the tower N to be the Tower of Isaac Angelus rest upon its strong resemblance to the description which Nicetas has given of the latter building. His description seems a photograph of that tower. Like the Tower of Isaac Angelus, the tower N, besides defending and supporting the Palace of Blachernæ, was pre-eminently a residential tower; and the numerous pillars employed in its construction betray clearly the fact that it was built with materials taken from other edifices, some of which may well have been churches. The upper story, which was reached from the court of the palace behind it, formed a spacious apartment 22-¼ by 27-½ feet, and about 18 feet high. Its north-western wall was pierced by three large round-headed windows, opening, as pillars placed below them for supports indicate, upon a balcony which commanded a beautiful view of the country about the head of the Golden Horn. Another window led to a small balcony on the south-western side of the tower, while a fifth looked towards the Golden Horn and the hills beyond. The apartment might well be styled the Belvedere of the Palace of Blachernæ. The lower story of the tower, which was reached by a short flight of steps descending from the palace court to the vestibule C1, cannot be explored, being filled with earth; but, judging from its arched entrance and the large square window in the north-western wall, it was a commodious room, with the advantage of affording more privacy than the apartment above it. What was the object of the dark rooms situated below these two stories, at different levels of the tower, and reached from the stairway-turret outside it, is open to discussion. The stairway, as already intimated, led also to the surrounding country. Taking all these features of the tower N into consideration, a very strong case can be made in favour of the opinion that it is the Tower of Isaac Angelus.
How this conclusion should affect our views regarding the inscription in honour of that emperor found on the tower L is a point about which minds may differ. The inscription may be in its proper place, and thereby prove that the tower it marks was also an erection of Isaac Angelus, although not the one to which Nicetas refers. And some countenance is lent to this view by a certain similarity in the Byzantine masonry of the towers L and N. But, on the hypothesis that L and N were both erected by Isaac Angelus, it is extremely strange that the inscription in his honour should have been placed upon the inferior tower, and not upon the one which formed his residence and had some architectural pretensions.
This objection can be met, indeed, either by assuming that another inscription in honour of Isaac Angelus stood on the tower N, but has disappeared; or, with Dr. Paspates,[[532]] it may be maintained that the inscription is not in its proper place, but belonged originally to the counter-fort supporting the tower N, and was transferred thence to the tower L when the latter was repaired.
In favour of this alternative it may be urged that the tower L has, manifestly, undergone repair; that some of the materials used for that purpose may have been taken from the counter-fort G4, which has been to a great extent stripped of its facing; and that the inscription on the tower L is not in a symmetrical position, being too much to the left, and somewhat too high for the size of its lettering. But to all this there is the serious objection that the inscribed slab is found in the Byzantine portion of the tower; while the idea that the counter-fort G4 was defaced in Byzantine days for the sake of repairing the tower L is against all probability.
We pass next to the identification of the Tower of Anemas with the tower S. The Tower of Anemas is first mentioned by Anna Comnena in the twelfth century, as the prison in which a certain Anemas was confined for having taken a leading part in a conspiracy to assassinate her father, the Emperor Alexius Comnenus. According to the Imperial authoress, it was a tower in the city walls in the neighbourhood of the Palace of Blachernæ, and owed its name to the circumstance that Anemas was the first prisoner who occupied it.[[533]]
Another indication of the situation of the tower is given by Leonard of Scio,[[534]] when he states that the towers “Avenides” stood near the Xylo Porta, the gate at the extremity of the land-walls beside the Golden Horn. To this should be added the indication that the tower was one of a group, for Phrantzes[[535]] and Leonard of Scio employ the plural form, “the Anemas Towers.”
Whether the tower was an erection of Alexius Comnenus or an earlier building is not recorded; but in either case it was in existence in the reign of that emperor, and, consequently, was older than any work belonging to the time of Isaac Angelus.
With these indications as the basis for a decision, can the claim that the tower S is the Tower of Anemas be maintained? The tower answers to the description of Anna Comnena in being a tower in the city walls close to the Palace of Blachernæ. Nor is its situation at variance with the statement of Leonard of Scio that it stood in the neighbourhood of the Xylo Porta, although there are three towers between it and that gate. Furthermore, it is one of a pair of towers that might be designated the Towers of Anemas.
The main reason, however, which induced Dr. Paspates to identify the tower S with the prison of Anemas was the proximity of the tower to the chambers C in the adjoining wall, which he regarded as prison-cells. This view of the character of those chambers is, for reasons already intimated, extremely doubtful. But even if prison-cells, that fact alone would not be conclusive proof that they were the prison of Anemas. For the prison of Anemas is always described as a tower; and by no stretch of language can that designation be applied to the chambers in the body of the wall.[[536]]
The force of this objection would, indeed, be met if proof were forthcoming that the tower S gave access to the chambers C, and formed an integral part of a common system. But the evidence is all on the other side. From the manner in which the tower S blocks the windows of some of the chambers, it is clear, as already observed, that the tower S and the adjoining chambers belong to different periods, and were built without regard to each other. There is no trace of any means of communication between the tower and the two upper series of chambers, and we have no reason to think, but the reverse, that the lowest series of chambers could be reached from it. So far as the chambers are concerned, the tower S is an independent building, upon whose identity they throw no light. Whether it was the prison of Anemas must be determined by its own character. Was it suitable for a prison? Above all, is its age compatible with the view that it was the prison of Anemas?
In answer to the former question, it cannot be denied that the tower S could be used as a place of confinement. The chamber F, which is supposed to have been a cistern, may have been a dungeon. The L-shaped chamber in the second story may have served for the detention of great personages placed under arrest. Still, on the whole, the tower S seems rather an extension of the residential tower N than a dungeon.
But the point of most importance in the whole discussion is the comparative ages of the towers N and S. As a building in existence when Alexius Comnenus occupied the throne of Constantinople, the Tower of Anemas was, at least, seventy years older than the Tower of Isaac Angelus. Hence, if the tower S is the former, it must be older than the tower N, which Dr. Paspates identifies with the Tower of Isaac Angelus. But the evidence which has been submitted goes to prove that the tower S is more recent than the tower N. These towers, therefore, cannot be, respectively, the Tower of Anemas and the Tower of Isaac Angelus. Nothing can prove that the tower S is the Tower of Anemas, until S is shown to be earlier than N, or the identification of the tower N with the Tower of Isaac Angelus is abandoned as erroneous.
Dr. Paspates,[[537]] indeed, assigned the tower S to the reign of Theophilus in the ninth century, on the ground that a block of stone upon which some letters of that emperor’s name are inscribed is built into the tower’s north-western face. But a little attention to the way in which that stone is fitted into the masonry will make it perfectly evident that the stone has not been placed there to bear part of an inscription, but as ordinary material of construction, obtained from some other edifice. Consequently, it throws no light upon the age of the tower.
Where, then, was the Tower of Anemas? Perhaps, in our present state of knowledge, no answer which will commend itself as perfectly satisfactory can be given to the question.
The simplest solution of the difficult problem is that the tower L, which bears the inscription in honour of Isaac Angelus, is, after all, the tower erected by that emperor, though greatly altered by injuries and repairs; and that the towers N and S together constituted the prison-tower of Anemas, S being a later addition.
Others may prefer to hold the view that the tower N is the Tower of Anemas, and the tower S that of Isaac Angelus, pointing in support of this opinion to the cells in the tower N, reached from the stairway by narrow vaulted passages. This would mean, practically, that the Tower of Isaac Angelus was the Tower of Anemas renovated and enlarged.
Possibly, others may be disposed, notwithstanding the inscription of Isaac Angelus upon it, to regard the tower L as the Tower of Anemas, and the tower N, with the later addition of S, as that of Isaac Angelus.
If none of these views is acceptable, we must fall back upon the opinion which prevailed before Dr. Paspates discovered the chambers adjoining the tower N and S, viz. that the towers N and S together formed the Tower of Isaac Angelus, and that the Tower of Anemas was one of the three towers in the Heraclian Wall.
This was the view of the Patriarch Constantius,[[538]] who writes: “The Tower of Anemas still exists. On its side facing the Holy Well of Blachernæ it has a large window, with a smaller one above.”
This opinion prevailed in Constantinople also in the sixteenth century, for Leunclavius was informed by Zygomales that the Towers of Anemas were the Towers of the Pentapyrgion,[[539]] the name given to the citadel formed by the Walls of Heraclius and Leo.
Note.—For the illustrations facing respectively pp. [150], [156], and for the lower illustration facing p. [162], I am indebted to the kindness of my colleague, Professor W. Ormiston. The photographs were taken on the 10th of July, 1894, shortly before the occurrence of the severe earthquake which has made that day memorable in Constantinople. Our situation in the chambers at such a time was not enviable. But we learned that day what an earthquake meant in the old history of the walls of the city.
View of the Interior of “The Prison of Anemas” Looking North-West (Being The Substructures Supporting The Palace of Blachernæ).
There is nothing in this view opposed to the fact that the Tower of Anemas stood in the city walls near the Palace of Blachernæ; and a strong argument in its favour may be based upon the association of the tower with the Xylo Porta by Leonard of Scio, when he relates to Pope Nicholas how Jerome from Italy, and Leonardo de Langasco from Genoa, at the head of their companions-in-arms, guarded the Xylo Porta and the towers named Avenides (clearly Anemades): “Hieronymus Italianus, Leonardus de Langasco, Genovensis, cum multis sociis, Xylo Portam et turres quos Avenides vocant, impensis cardinalis reparatas, spectabant.”[[540]] This statement is repeated by Zorzo Dolfin.[[541]]
The Xylo Porta, without question, was at Aivan Serai Kapoussi, to the north of the Wall of Heraclius, and immediately beside the Golden Horn;[[542]] and the towers which would most appropriately be entrusted to soldiers defending that entrance are the towers nearest to it, viz. the three towers of the Heraclian Wall. At all events, the designation, “turres Avenides,” as used by Leonard of Scio, must include them, even if it comprised others also.
One thing is certain; the commonly accepted view that the towers N and S represent, respectively, the historical Towers of Isaac Angelus and of Anemas must, in one way or another, be corrected.