This being so there are only two gates with one or other of which the Imperial Gate can be identified, if the indications furnished on the subject by Phrantzes and Leonard of Scio are strictly followed. It was either the Gate of Eugenius (Yali Kiosk Kapoussi), as Gerlach maintains,[[859]] or the Gate of St. Barbara (Top Kapoussi), which stands immediately to the south of Seraglio Point, and was, therefore, so near the Harbour Walls that it might be included in an account of their defence.
The description of the Imperial Gate given by the historians above mentioned, applies equally well to both these entrances. Both stand near the mouth of the harbour, and opposite a tower “in the middle of the current;” both occupy a point of great strategical importance, such as the Basilikè Pylè must have occupied, if we may judge from the fact that it was entrusted to commanders like Gabriel of Treviso and the Duke Notaras; both entrances were, in the course of history, associated with the Court[[860]] in a way which might have earned for them the distinction of the epithet, “Imperial.”
It is not easy to decide, directly, between conflicting claims so nicely balanced. Judgment on the point at issue will doubtless be determined, largely, by the views adopted on questions indirectly connected with the matter in dispute, especially by what view is taken as regards the situation of the Horaia Pylè. Any one who upholds the accuracy of Ducas regarding the point to which the southern end of the chain was attached, and identifies the Beautiful Gate with Yali Kiosk Kapoussi (the Gate of Eugenius) will, necessarily, identify the Imperial Gate with Top Kapoussi. On the other hand, those who accept the opinion that the Beautiful Gate stood, as the Greeks in the sixteenth century maintained, at Bagtchè Kapoussi, may, though still free to place the Imperial Gate at Top Kapoussi, nevertheless prefer to place it at Yali Kiosk Kapoussi, as, on the whole, more in accordance with the indications of its position. If at the latter point, one can understand more readily why the Imperial Gate should have been associated with the Harbour Walls, and why Phrantzes mentions it immediately after the Horaia Pylè, and before the chain and the ships at the harbour’s mouth.
Having thus indicated which of the gates near the Seraglio Point have the strongest claim to be regarded as the Basilikè Pylè, it remains to consider the question whether either of those gates was the only entrance bearing that epithet, in the Harbour Walls.
Are there, in other words, any statements made by Byzantine writers in reference to the Basilikè Pylè which cannot be applied to the Gate of Eugenius or to the Gate of St. Barbara, and which, therefore, imply the existence of another gate of that name? So far as the Gate of St. Barbara is concerned, there are several such statements. The narrow quay outside Top Kapoussi could not afford room for the Church of St. John, the hospitium, and the other buildings, which are described as situated on the shore outside the Basilikè Pylè.[[861]] Nor could a ship be moored in front of that gate, as the ship of the Catalan chief Berenger was moored in front of the Imperial Gate.[[862]] Nor was it necessary, before that gate could be attacked by the Turkish fleet, that the chain across the entrance of the Golden Horn should be forced, as we are told was necessary in the case of the Basilikè Pylè to which Critobulus alludes.[[863]] Hence the opinion that the Basilikè Pylè was another name for the Gate of St. Barbara involves the view that there were two Imperial Gates.
The claim of the Gate of Eugenius to be the sole Basilikè Pylè encounters but one serious objection. Critobulus, it would appear, distinguishes the two entrances. He refers to the former to indicate where the southern end of the chain across the harbour was attached;[[864]] he speaks of the latter to mark the point which the Turkish fleet attacked on the last day of the siege, after breaking the chain, and becoming master of the Golden Horn.[[865]] For as soon as the Turkish admiral perceived that the Sultan’s troops had entered the city, and were busily engaged in the work of plunder, he made a desperate attempt upon the chain, cut it asunder, and forced his way into the harbour. Then, having captured or sunk the Greek galleys found in the port, he led his ships to the Imperial Gate (ταῖς βασιλικαῖς πόλαις) and landed his sailors in quest of booty. The gate was, however, still held by the Greeks, as the Turkish troops had not yet reached it from within the city. A fierce struggle therefore ensued. But at last the gate was burst open, its brave defenders were slain to a man, their blood pouring through it like a stream, and the assailants rushed in to share the spoils of victory.
What is here related might hold true of the Gate of Eugenius. Such facts as that the Imperial Gate stood within the chain, that before attacking it the Greek vessels in the harbour had to be disposed of, that it was held for a considerable time after the Turkish army had entered the city, are all consistent with the idea that the Basilikè Pylè, to which Critobulus refers, was the Gate of Eugenius. But, on the other hand, if the Gate of Eugenius was both the entrance to which the chain was attached and the entrance captured by the Turkish admiral after the chain had been broken, it comes very near defying all the laws of the association of ideas for the historian to speak of the entrance by different names, when the matters he records were so closely connected. This is a very serious objection to the identification of the Imperial Gate which Critobulus had in mind with the Gate of Eugenius. Hence, if this objection cannot be removed by saying that he could speak of the same gate by different names in different passages of his work, it follows that the epithet “Basilikè” did not belong exclusively to the Gate of Eugenius (any more than to the Gate of St. Barbara), but was bestowed also upon a gate higher up the Golden Horn.
This being the case, there can be no hesitation where the latter was situated. Balat Kapoussi, by the significance of its name, by its proximity to Imperial palaces, and by the presence of a Church of St. John, with room for other buildings, on the territory outside the gate, establishes the best claim to be considered the second Basilikè Pylè in the line of the harbour fortifications.[[866]]
Why the Turkish admiral selected it as the point at which to land his sailors is explained by the wealthy character of the adjoining quarter of the city.[[867]]