In the second place, not only is the Hebdomon, as a whole, described as being seven miles from the city, but the particular objects found there are similarly identified. The Church of St. John the Baptist in that suburb, Sozomon,[[1201]] Socrates,[[1202]] and John of Antioch[[1203]] state in express words, was seven miles from the city. The Church of St. John the Evangelist, which stood in the suburb, is declared by Socrates[[1204]] to have been at the same distance. Thus, also, the Campus of the Hebdomon is described by Cedrenus as “the plain in front of the city, seven miles distant.”[[1205]] The Imperial Tribune in that Campus was, according to Idatius and Marcellinus Comes, at the seventh mile: “In milliario septimo, in Tribunali;” “Septimo ab urbe regia milliario.” So, likewise, the palace which Justinian the Great built at the Hebdomon[[1206]] is described, in the subscription to several of his laws, as at the seventh mile: “Recitata septimo milliario hujus inclytæ civitatis, in Novo Consistorio Palatii Justiniani.”[[1207]] In all these passages the Hebdomon is defined with a precision that renders any vague and loose application of the term impossible, if language has any meaning. So much for the distance of the Hebdomon from the city.
That the Hebdomon was situated on the shore of the Sea of Marmora is placed beyond dispute by the fact that ships approaching Constantinople from the south reached the Hebdomon before arriving at the city. When, for example, Epiphanius came by ship from Cyprus to Constantinople, in 402, to attend a synod called to condemn the heresies of Origen, he landed at the Hebdomon, and celebrated divine service there in the Church of St. John the Baptist, before entering the capital.[[1208]] This order in the stages of the bishop’s journey implies that the suburb stood on the shore of the Sea of Marmora. Again, when the fleet of Heraclius came up from Carthage to overthrow Phocas, in 610, the latter proceeded to the Hebdomon to view the ships of the hostile expedition as they stood off the suburb, and there he remained until they advanced towards the city, when he mounted horse and hurried back to fight for his throne.[[1209]] Such proceedings were possible only if the suburb stood beside the Sea of Marmora. Yet again; the Saracen fleets which came against Constantinople, in 673 and 717, put into the harbour of the Hebdomon on their way to the city. On the first occasion the enemy’s vessels anchored, says Theophanes,[[1210]] “off Thrace, from the promontory of the Hebdomon, otherwise named Magnaura, to the promontory of the Cyclobion.” The ships of the second Saracen expedition, likewise, “anchored between the Magnaura and the Cyclobion.” There they waited for two days, and then, taking advantage of a south wind, “they sailed alongside the city,” some of them making the ports of Anthemius and Eutropius (at Kadikeui), others of them reaching the Bosporus, and dropping anchor between Galata and Klidion (Ortakeui).[[1211]] Manifestly, the Hebdomon lay to the west of the city, upon the Sea of Marmora.
Let one more proof of this fact suffice. When Pope Constantine visited Constantinople in 708, for the settlement of certain disputes between Eastern and Western Christendom, he came all the way by sea until he reached the Hebdomon. There the Pontiff and his retinue disembarked, and having been welcomed with distinguished honour, mounted horses which had been sent from the Imperial stables, and rode into the city in great state: “A quo loco (the island Cæa) navigantes venerunt a Septimo Milliario Constantinopolim, ubi egressus Tiberius Imperator, filius Justiniani Augusti (Justinian II.) cum Patriciis, cum clero, et populi multitudine, omnes lætantes, et diem festum agentes. Pontifex autem et ejus primates, cum sellaribus imperialibus, sellis et frenis inauratis, simul et mappulis, ingressi sunt civitatem.”[[1212]] On the view that the Hebdomon was situated beside the Sea of Marmora, all this is clear.
The data for determining the situation of the Hebdomon therefore are: that the suburb was seven miles from the city; that it stood beside the Sea of Marmora; that it had a harbour, on the one hand, and a plain of considerable extent, on the other.
There is little room for difference of opinion in regard to the point from which the seven miles are to be measured. That point could not have been in the Theodosian Walls, as the Hebdomon is mentioned before they were in existence. For a similar reason, it could not have been in the Wall of Constantine, seeing the Egnatian Road which led from Byzantium to Rome was marked with the seventh milestone before the foundation of Constantinople. It must, therefore, have been the point whence distances from old Byzantium were measured under the Roman domination. This being so, the choice lies between the Milion near St. Sophia, and the gate of Byzantium near the Column of Constantine. In favour of the former is the fact that it was the point from which distances from Constantinople were afterwards measured; for in all probability that usage was the continuation of the practice of the older city, any change in that respect being not only unnecessary, but exceedingly inconvenient. Still, the result will be substantially the same if the gate of Byzantium is preferred, since the Milion and that gate were at a short distance from each other. Seven miles from either point, westwards, to the Sea of Marmora will bring us to the modern suburb of Makrikeui.
Between the promontory on which that village stands and the promontory of Zeitin Bournou, to the east, is a bay which could serve as a harbour; while to the north and north-east spreads a magnificent plain. Makrikeui, therefore, satisfies all the indications regarding the site of the Hebdomon.
As a corollary from this determination of the real site of the Hebdomon there follows the determination of the real site of the Cyclobion; and thus the correction of another of the mistakes into which students of the topography of Byzantine Constantinople have fallen. The prevalent opinion on the subject, since Du Cange[[1213]] propounded the opinion, has been that the Cyclobion was a fortress attached to the Golden Gate. But this could not have been the case, for the Cyclobion was at the Hebdomon. It was a fortification on the eastern headland of the bay which formed the Harbour of the Hebdomon,[[1214]] and, therefore, stood some two miles and a half from the Golden Gate. This explains how Theophanes[[1215]] describes the engagements between the Greeks and the Saracens, who landed at the Hebdomon in 673, as taking place between the Golden Gate and the Cyclobion. The fortress was so closely connected with the suburb that the latter is sometimes referred to under the name of the former. The Church of St. John the Evangelist at the Hebdomon, for example, is declared by one authority[[1216]] to have stood in the Cyclobion: “Ad Castrum autem Rotundum, in quo est Ecclesia, miræ magnitudinis, Sancti Evangelistæ Johannis nomini dicata.” Again, whereas John of Antioch[[1217]] represents the fleet of Heraclius as standing off the Hebdomon, the Paschal Chronicle,[[1218]] on the other hand, says the fleet was seen off the Round Tower. In all probability, the Cyclobion stood at Zeitin Bournou, on the tongue of land to the east of Makrikeui. It derived its name, Κυκλόβιον, Στρογγύλον Καστέλλιον (Castrum Rotundum), from its circular form,[[1219]] and was a link in the chain of coast fortifications defending the approach to the city. It was repaired by Justinian the Great, who connected it by a good road with Rhegium[[1220]] (Kutchuk Tchekmedjè), another military post, and drew upon its garrison for troops to suppress the riot of the Nika.[[1221]] There Constantine Copronymus died on board the ship on which he had hoped to reach the capital from Selivria, when forced by his mortal illness to return from an expedition against the Bulgarians.[[1222]]
Whether the Cyclobion was the same as the “Castle of the Theodosiani at the Hebdomon,” mentioned by Theophanes,[[1223]] is not certain. On the whole, the fact that the two names are employed by the same historian favours the view that they designated different fortifications. The Theodosiani were a body of troops named in honour of Theodosius the Great.[[1224]]
What gave the Hebdomon its importance and explains its history was, primarily, its favourable situation for the establishment of a large military camp in the neighbourhood of the capital. An extensive plain, with abundance of water, and at a convenient distance from the city, furnished a magnificent camping-ground for the legions of New Rome. This, in view of the military associations of the throne, especially during the earlier period of the Empire, brought the emperors frequently to the suburb to attend great functions of State, and thus converted it also into an Imperial quarter, embellished with the palaces, churches, and monuments which spring up around a Court. To these political reasons for the prosperity of the suburb were added the natural attractions of the place—its pleasant climate, its wide prospect over the Sea of Marmora, and the excellent sport obtained in the surrounding country.
It was on the plain of the Hebdomon that Theodosius the Great joined the army which he led against the usurper Eugenius in Italy.[[1225]] There, the Gothic troops which Arcadius recalled from the war with Alaric took up their quarters under the command of Gainas, and there that emperor, accompanied by his minister Rufinus, held the memorable review of those troops, in the course of which Rufinus was assassinated in the Imperial tribune.[[1226]] It was at the Hebdomon that Gainas gathered the soldiers with which he planned to seize the capital.[[1227]] There Vitalianus encamped with more than sixty thousand men to besiege Constantinople in the reign of Anastasius I.[[1228]] Thither Phocas[[1229]] and Leo the Armenian[[1230]] brought the armies that enabled them to win the crown. And there Avars, Saracens, Bulgarians, and, doubtless, other foes halted to gaze upon the walls and towers they hoped to scale, or from which they retired baffled and broken.[[1231]]