Strangely enough, the site of a harbour so prominent, and so fully described, has been a point concerning which students of the topography of the city have widely differed. Dr. Paspates[[996]] placed the harbour at a distance of 104 feet to the south of Indjili Kiosk, consistently with his opinion that the ruins discovered behind that Kiosk marked the site of the Palace of the Bucoleon.[[997]] With much learning and ingenuity, Labarte argues that the Harbour of the Bucoleon was in the recess of the shore at Ahour Kapoussi.[[998]] Von Hammer wavered in his opinion, placing the harbour at one time at Tchatlady Kapou, and at another at Kadriga Limani.[[999]] And yet to Von Hammer is due the discovery of the evidence that puts an end to all uncertainty on the subject, by showing us that the marble group of the Lion and the Bull, which gave the harbour its name, stood at Tchatlady Kapou.
The evidence on the subject is found in a report which Pietro Zen, Venetian envoy to the Turkish Court, sent to his Government in 1532, where he describes the monument at great length, as he saw it after it had been shaken by an earthquake. In quoting this description,[[1000]] Von Hammer, however, not only fails to use it for the settlement of the question at issue, but also omits portions of the report which are of the utmost importance for determining the exact site of the famous group. Dr. Mordtmann, citing Von Hammer, has appreciated the significance of the passage referred to, and employs it more successfully, but with the same omissions.[[1001]]
The original manuscript of the report is preserved in the Marciana Library, among the unpublished Archives of the Venetian Republic,[[1002]] and the passage with which we are concerned reads to the following effect:
“At the gate at which animals are slaughtered (near the columns of the Hippodrome, on the road below), which in Turkish is named Chiachadi Capisso, which in the Frank language means ‘Gate of the Crack,’ outside the said water-gate, and beneath the three ancient windows which have a lion at either end (of the row); there, down beside the shore, on two columns, is a marble block upon which is a very large bull, much larger than life, attacked at the throat by a lion, which has mounted upon the back of the (bull’s) neck, and thrown him down, and strikes at a horn of the bull with great force. This lion is considerably larger than life, all cut out of one piece of stone of very fine quality. These animals used to stand with their heads turned towards Asia, but it seems that on that night (the night of the catastrophe) they turned themselves with their heads towards the city. When this was observed next morning, the whole population of the place ran together to the spot, full of amazement and stupefaction. And every one went about discoursing upon the significance of the event according to his own turn of mind; a comet also appearing for many nights.”
The original is as follows, the words in italics being omitted by Von Hammer: “Alla porta dove si amaza animali, acosto dile colone dilprodramo, da basso via, e in Turcho si chiama chiachadi capisso, e in francho vol dir para di crepido, fuora dila dita porta de marina, sotto quelle tre fenestre antiquissime che hanno uno lione per banda, li abasso alla marina, sopra due colone, e una lastra di marmoro sopra la qual e uno granmo tauro, maior bonamente che il vivo, acanatto de uno lione, el qual li e montato sopra la schena, et lo ho atterato, et da una brancha ad un corno dil tauro in un grandissimo atto; e questo leone assai maior del vivo e tutto di una piera de una bona vena ouer miner. Questi animali soleano esser con le teste voltate verso Anatolia, et par che quella medema notte i se voltasseno con le teste verso Conple., il che la matina veduto tutta questa terra li e concorsa et ha fatto stupir e stornir tutta quest terra; et ogni uno va discorendo secondo le passione dil animo suo, stante una cometa apparsa per molte notte, questa cosa per il preditto rispetto ho voluto significar.”[[1003]]
Nothing can be more explicit or more decisive.
There is no room to doubt that the monument described by Zen was the group of the Lion and the Bull, described, before him, by Anna Comnena and Zonaras.[[1004]] His description might be a translation of the account given of the group by those writers. Nor is there any uncertainty as to the locality where Zen saw the monument. He indicates the site with a redundancy which makes misunderstanding simply impossible, and for which he may be pardoned, since minute particularity seldom distinguishes the statements of authorities on the topography of the city. According to the Venetian envoy, the monument stood on the quay outside the water-gate named Tchatlady Kapou, which was a gate below the Hippodrome, and near a slaughter-house. The group stood, he adds, beneath a row of three windows, adorned with a lion at either end, belonging to a very ancient building.
Marble Figures of Lions Attached to the Balcony in the Palace of the Bucoleon.
Now, the gate to which the name Tchatlady pertains is a matter of public notoriety, and every particular by which Zen marks the entrance he had in mind holds good of that gate. It is near the Hippodrome, and on the level ground below the race-course. On the western headland of the little bay in front of it, is an old slaughter-house, by which Leunclavius, likewise, identifies the gate Tchatlady Kapou, and from which he derived the name of the entrance;[[1005]] while to the east of the gate stood, until recent times, a Byzantine palace, in the façade of which was a row of three windows, supported at either end by the figure of a lion. The palace is thus described by Leunclavius: “This gate (Tchatlady Kapou) has on one side of it the marble-framed windows of an ancient building or palace, which rests upon the city walls themselves.”[[1006]] Gyllius refers to it in the following terms: “Below the Hippodrome towards the south is the Gate of the Marble Lion, which stands without the city among the ruins of the Palace of Leo Marcellus. The windows of the palace are of ancient workmanship, and are in the city wall.”[[1007]] Choiseul-Gouffier[[1008]] gives a view of the palace as seen in his day, and so does Canon Curtis, in his Broken Bits of Byzantium. The façade was torn down in 1871, and the lions have been placed at the foot of the steps leading to the Imperial School of Art, within the Seraglio enclosure.[[1009]]