The three succeeding gates, Odoun Kapan Kapoussi, Zindan Kapoussi, Balouk Bazaar Kapoussi, bore respectively the names Gate of the Drungarii (τῶν Δρουγγαρίων); Gate of the Forerunner (Porta juxta parvum templum Precursoris, known also as St. Johannes de Cornibus); Gate of the Perama or Ferry (τοῦ Περάματος). They can be identified, perhaps, most readily and clearly by the following line of argument:—
The three Byzantine gates just named were situated in the quarter assigned to the Venetians in Constantinople by successive Imperial grants from the time of Alexius Comnenus to the close of the Empire. The Gate of the Drungarii marked the western extremity of the quarter;[[749]] the Gate of the Perama, its eastern extremity;[[750]] while the gate beside the Church of the Forerunner was between the two points. Where the Gate of the Perama stood admits of no doubt. All students of the topography of the city are agreed in the opinion that the entrance so named was at Balouk Bazaar Kapoussi. Consequently, the two other gates in the Venetian quarter lay to the west of Balouk Bazaar Kapoussi, in the portion of the fortifications between that entrance and the Gate of the Platea, all gates further west being out of the question. But as the only two gates in that portion of the walls are Zindan Kapoussi and Oun Kapan Kapoussi, they must represent, respectively, the Gate of the Forerunner and the Gate of the Drungarii.
The Gate of the Drungarii (τῶν Δρουγγαρίων) derived its name from the term “Drungarius,” a title given to various officials in the Byzantine service;[[751]] as, for example, to the admiral of the fleet (μέγας δρουγγάριος τοῦ θεοσώστου στόλου), and to the head of the city police, the Drungarius Vigiliæ. (ὁ τῆς Βίγλας δρουγγάριος). In this particular case the reference was to the latter officer, for in the neighbourhood of the gate stood an important Vigla, or police-station, which is sometimes mentioned instead of the Gate of the Drungarii, as the western limit of the Venetian quarter.[[752]]
The street running eastwards, outside the city wall, was known as the Via Drungariou (De Longario),[[753]] and the pier in front of the next gate bore the name Scala de Drongario.[[754]]
The practice of storing timber on the shore without the gate has come down from an early period in the history of the city. One of the questions put to Justinian the Great by the Greens, during the altercation between him and the Factions in the Hippodrome, on the eve of the Nika riot was, “Who murdered the timber-merchant at the Zeugma?”[[755]]—another name for this part of the shore. An inscription on the gate reminded the passing crowd that to remember death is profitable to life (Μνῆμη θανάτου χρησιμεύει τῷ βίῳ).[[756]]
It is in favour of the identification of Zindan Kapoussi with the Gate near the Church of St. John (Porta juxta parvum templum Precursoris) to find only a few yards within the entrance a Holy Well, venerated alike by Christian and Moslem, beside which stood, until recently, the ruins of a Byzantine chapel answering to the small Church of the Forerunner mentioned in the Venetian charters.[[757]]
Leunclavius found the gate called in his day Porta Caravion, because of the large number of ships which were moored in front of it.[[758]] The landing before the gate, the old Scala de Drongario, now Yemish Iskelessi, in front of the Dried Fruit-Market, is one of the most important piers on the Golden Horn.
Dr. Paspates[[759]] and M. Heyd[[760]] identify this entrance with the Gate of the Drungarii. But this opinion is inconsistent with the fact that whereas the gate near St. John’s stood between the Gate of the Drungarii and the Gate of the Perama, no entrance which can be identified with the gate near St. John’s intervenes between Zindan Kapoussi and Balouk Bazaar Kapoussi (Gate of the Perama).
M. Heyd, moreover, identifies Zindan Kapoussi with the Porta Hebraica,[[761]] mentioned in the charters granted to the Venetians in the thirteenth century. But, as will appear in the sequel, the Porta Hebraica of that period was either the Gate of the Perama itself, or an entrance a little to the east of it.
The Gate of the Perama (τοῦ Περάματος), as its name implies, stood where Balouk Bazaar Kapoussi is found to-day, close to the principal ferry between the city and the suburb of Galata; communication between the opposite shores being maintained in ancient times by boats, for the only bridge across the harbour was that near the head of the Golden Horn. The Perama is first mentioned by Theophanes,[[762]] in recording the dedication of the Church of St. Irene at Sycæ (Galata), after the reconstruction of that sanctuary by Justinian the Great. Special importance attached to the event, as the emperor attributed his recovery from an attack of the terrible plague that raged in Constantinople, in 542, to the touch of the relics of the Forty Martyrs which had been discovered in pulling down the old church, and which were to be enshrined in the new building. Menas, Patriarch of Constantinople, and Apollinarius, Patriarch of Alexandria—who was then in the capital—were appointed to celebrate the service of the day; and the two prelates, seated in the Imperial chariot, and bearing upon their knees the sacred relics, drove through the city from St. Sophia to the Perama, to take boat for Sycæ, where Justinian awaited them. The ferry was also styled Trajectus Sycenus;[[763]] Transitus Sycarum, after the oldest name for Galata. It was, moreover, known as Transitus Justinianarum,[[764]] from the name Justinianopolis, given to the suburb in honour of Justinian, who rebuilt its walls and theatre, and conferred upon it the privileges of a city.[[765]] The pier at the city end of the ferry was known as the Scala Sycena.[[766]]