Two small gates in the city walls were respectively named after the two churches just mentioned, one being styled the Postern of St. Lazarus (τοῦ αγίου Λαζάρου πυλίς),[[947]] the other the Small Gate of the Hodegetria (ἡ μίκρα πύλη τῆς Ὁδηγητρίας).[[948]] They must have stood to the south of Indjili Kiosk; and, in fact, at the distance of some 145 paces from that point the marble frames of two small gateways are seen built in the wall. On the lintel of the one more to the south is a cross, and on two slabs built into the inner side of the gateway are the words, “Open to me the gates of righteousness, that entering into them I may worship the Lord.”[[949]] Two similar gates are seen still further south, one on either side of the second tower beyond Indjili Kiosk. These four entrances must have belonged to some of the numerous churches which were situated, according to the Russian pilgrims, in this part of the city. One of them, doubtless, represents the Postern of St. Lazarus, while another may claim to be the Small Gate of the Hodegetria.
The Postern of St. Lazarus is mentioned in history on the occasion of the sudden appearance, in 1269, of seventy-five Venetian galleys in the offing.[[950]] As soon as the fleet was sighted, all the gates of the city were closed, with the exception of this postern; and from it envoys were despatched in a boat to ascertain the object of the expedition. The public anxiety was relieved, when it was found that the Venetians had come to settle disputes with the Genoese at Galata and not to molest the capital.
According to Ducas[[951]] it was through the Gate of the Hodegetria that John VI. Palæologus penetrated, in 1355, into the city to overthrow John Cantacuzene. The voyage of the conspirators from Tenedos had been accomplished in rough weather; and it was dark and stormy when they arrived before Constantinople. As their force consisted of but two galleys, with 2000 men, the assailants could hope to enter the city only by stratagem. Approaching, therefore, the Gate of the Hodegetria, they proceeded to hurl empty oil-jars against the walls, and to rend the air with loud cries of distress. The startled sentinels, imagining it was a case of shipwreck, and touched by appeals to their humanity and by promises of a share in the rich cargo of oil reported to be on board the galleys, opened the gate and rushed to the rescue. When they discovered their mistake, it was too late. They were promptly overpowered and killed, and the Italian adventurers seized the gate, mounted the adjoining towers, and raised the cry in favour of Palæologus.
It was at the Gate of the Hodegetria, probably, that Bardas, in 866, embarked to conduct an expedition against the Saracens in Crete, after invoking the aid of the Virgin Hodegetria.[[952]] Here, the troops sent by Alexius III. to suppress the insurrection under John the Fat landed to gain the Great Palace, which the rebel leader was occupying.[[953]] The gate appears in the last siege, as a point blockaded by the Turkish fleet which invested the walls along the Sea of Marmora.[[954]]
In the recess of the shore immediately beyond the Seraglio Lighthouse, where the coast bends westwards, are two gates, known, respectively, as Balouk Haneh Kapoussi and Ahour Kapoussi. The former, the Gate of the Fish House, obtained its name from the circumstance that it led to the quarters of the fishermen in the service of the Turkish Court; the latter was styled the Stable Gate, because it conducted to the Sultan’s Mews.
The Patriarch Constantius[[955]] identified Balouk Haneh Kapoussi with the Postern of Michael the Protovestarius, mentioned once in Byzantine history. That was the gate by which Constantine Ducas, in 913, entered the city to join the conspirators who sought to place him upon the throne instead of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, then a minor under the tutelage of his uncle and colleague, Alexander.[[956]] The fact that Constantine Ducas reached the gate by sea without being immediately discovered, and that he was then able to reach the Hippodrome quickly, is in favour of the view that the entrance stood upon the Sea of Marmora. But if, as seems probable, the entrance at Balouk Haneh Kapoussi was within the limits of the Great Palace, it cannot be the Parapylis of Michael Protovestarius; for that postern did not conduct Ducas into the grounds of the Imperial residence, but to the private house of his father-in-law Gregoras, without the palace precincts. Possibly one of the small gates between the Lighthouse and Indjili Kiosk represents the postern.
The ancient name of Ahour Kapoussi is not known. The Patriarch Constantius,[[957]] it is true, identifies it with the Gate of the Hodegetria. But the Gate of the Hodegetria was remarkable for its small size, and stood outside the enclosure of the Great Palace; whereas Ahour Kapoussi was within the palace grounds, and is of ordinary dimensions.
Equally erroneous is the view of Labarte[[958]] that the recess in the shore at this point marks the site of the Port of the Bucoleon, the harbour attached to the Imperial palace. Doubtless, the small bay before Ahour Kapoussi, as its position implies, served the convenience of the Byzantine Court, but it was not the Port of Bucoleon strictly so called. That harbour, we shall find, lay further west at Tchatlady Kapou, the gate next in order.
The splendid marble stables erected by Michael III. at the Tzycanisterion[[959]] were in this vicinity. May this gate not have been at their service? It would not be strange if the Sultan’s Mews were built upon the site of the Mews of his Byzantine predecessors.
Passing next to Tchatlady Kapou (the Broken or Cracked Gate), we reach the entrance attached, as already intimated, to the Imperial Port of the Bucoleon. Its Byzantine name has not been preserved, but in the time of Gyllius[[960]] it was called the Gate of the Lion (Porta Leonis), after the marble figure of a lion near the entrance. Upon the maps of Constantinople, made in the sixteenth century, it is styled “Porta liona della riva.” Leunclavius names it the Gate of the Bears (Πόρτα ταῖς Ἀρκούδαις), a designation derived, doubtless, from the figures of bears which once adorned the adjoining quay.[[961]]