Portion of the Palace of Hormisdas.[[1023]]
In favour of the alternative that the Palace and Harbour of Hormisdas were the Palace and Harbour of the Bucoleon under another name, may be urged all that goes to show that the former stood where the evidence furnished by Pietro Zen has obliged us to place the latter. The bay and palace on the east of Tchatlady Kapou stand close to what was unquestionably the district of Hormisdas; for the Church of SS. Sergius and Bacchus (Kutchuk Aya Sophia), a short distance to the west of the gate, was in that district.[[1024]] It would be strange if a palace and harbour so near that district were not those known by its name.
The palace at Tchatlady Kapou answers, moreover, to the description which Procopius gives of the Palace of Hormisdas, the residence of Justinian, as near SS. Sergius and the Great Palace.[[1025]] Its position agrees also with the statement of John of Ephesus that the Palace of Hormisdas was below the great Imperial residence.[[1026]] Again, the style of the capitals and other pieces of marble, which have fallen from the palace at Tchatlady Kapou into the water, resemble the sculptured work in the Church of SS. Sergius and Bacchus, erected by Justinian. And lastly, the palace at this point was regarded as the Palace of Justinian when Bondelmontius visited the city in 1422. “Beyond Condoscali (Koum Kapoussi),” says that traveller, as he proceeds eastward, along the Marmora shore of the city, “was the very large Palace of Justinian upon the city walls” (“Ultra fuit supra mœnia amplissimum Justiniani Palatium”).
All this being the case, it seems unavoidable to conclude that the Palace and Harbour of Hormisdas were the Palace and Harbour of the Bucoleon, under an earlier name. The circumstance that the palaces are distinguished by the Anonymus presents, after all, no serious difficulty, but the reverse; for, as a matter of fact, there are two palatial buildings on the bay east of Tchatlady Kapou, at a distance of some 110 yards from each other, and on different levels. One of the buildings, probably the lower, might be the Palace of Hormisdas; the other, on higher ground, and nearer the gate—may be the palace to which the Anonymus referred as the Bucoleon.
It is in keeping with this view of the subject to find that the terms “Palace of Hormisdas,” “Port of Hormisdas,” are not employed by Byzantine authors to designate an Imperial residence or harbour, after the name Bucoleon came into vogue.
The earliest writer who refers to the Harbour of the Bucoleon is the Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus,[[1027]] in the tenth century. Later writers,[[1028]] it is true, employ the name when speaking of events which occurred in the reign of Michael I., and in that of Theophilus, in the course of the ninth century. But whether these writers do so because the name was contemporary with the events narrated, or because, when the historians wrote, it was the more familiar appellation for the scene of those events, is uncertain. Should the former supposition be preferred, it was early in the ninth century that the term “Bucoleon” first appeared.
On the other hand, the last author who alludes to the Palace of Hormisdas is the historian Theophanes, who died in 818. The passage in which the allusion is found refers, indeed, to matters which transpired in the seventh century, viz. to the execution of a certain David, Chartophylax of (the Palace of) Hormisdas, in the reign of Phocas. But the historian could hardly have described an official position in terms not still familiar to his readers.[[1029]]
Accordingly, the designation “Palace of Hormisdas” disappears about the time when the term “Bucoleon” appears, and this is consistent with the supposition that the two names denoted the same building at different periods of its history.[[1030]]
The Palace of Hormisdas was so named in honour of the Persian Prince Hormisdas, who had been deprived of the succession to the throne of his country by a conspiracy of nobles, and confined in a tower; but who escaped from his prison through the ingenuity of his wife, and fled to New Rome for protection at the hands of Constantine the Great. The royal fugitive was received with the honour due to his rank, and this residence was assigned to him because near the emperor’s own palace.[[1031]] Later, the residence was occupied, as already intimated, by Justinian while Crown Prince, with his consort Theodora; and after his accession to the throne, was by his orders, improved and annexed to the Great Palace.[[1032]] It appears in the reign of Justin II. as the abode of Tiberius, upon his being appointed Cæsar.[[1033]] Under ordinary circumstances, Tiberius should have occupied apartments in the Great Palace. But the Empress Sophia was bitterly jealous of his wife Ino, and forbade her to show herself at Court, on any pretext whatever. Obliged, consequently, to find a home elsewhere, the Cæsar selected the Palace of Hormisdas, because its proximity to the Great Palace would allow him to enjoy the society of his family, and attend to his official duties. But the jealousy of the empress was not to be allayed so readily. It followed Ino to the Palace of Hormisdas with such intensity that the ladies of the Court dared not visit her even there; and it compelled her at last to leave the capital and retire to Daphnusium.
As already stated, when Heraclius appeared with a fleet, in 610, before the city to put an end to the tyranny of Phocas, he found the quarter of Hormisdas defended by the Faction of the Blues.[[1034]]