A church dedicated to St. Antony was found in this part of the city by the Archbishop of Novgorod, when he visited Constantinople at the close of the eleventh century. He reached it after paying his devotions in the Church of St. Theodosia, the Church of St. Isaiah, and the Church of St. Laurentius,[[95]] sanctuaries situated in the plain before us; the first being now the Mosque Gul Djami, near Aya Kapou,[[96]] while the two last are represented, it is supposed, respectively, by the Mosque of Sheik Mourad and the Mosque of Pour Kouyou, further to the south.[[97]] The Archbishop places the Church of St. Antony on higher ground than the Church of St. Laurentius, apparently a short distance up the slope of the Fourth Hill, a position which St. Antony of Harmatius may well have occupied.
(i) The locality known as the Zeugma, or Ferry of St. Antony, stood, naturally, beside the shore. If it cannot be identified with Oun-Kapan Kapoussi, where one of the principal ferries across the Golden Horn has always stood, it must, at all events, have been in that neighbourhood.
(j) With the result thus obtained regarding the course of the Constantinian Wall, may now be compared the statement of the Paschal Chronicle upon the subject. According to that authority the old land wall of the city crossed the promontory from the Gate of St. Æmilianus, upon the Sea of Marmora, to the district of the Petrion, upon the Golden Horn.[[98]] This statement is of great importance, because made while the wall was still standing; and it would on that account have been considered sooner, but for certain questions which it raises, and which can be answered more readily now than at a previous stage of our inquiries. The Chronicler makes the strange mistake of supposing that the wall which he saw stretching from sea to sea was the wall built originally for the defence of Byzantium by Phedalia, the wife of Byzas. Unfortunately, Byzantine archæologists were not always versed in history.
Setting aside, therefore, the Chronicler’s historical opinions, and attending to the facts under his personal observation, we find him entirely agreed with the Anonymus as regards the point at which the southern extremity of the Wall of Constantine terminated.
For the Gate of St. Æmilianus, by which the former authority marks that extremity, stood close to the Church of St. Mary Rabdou, the indication given by the latter.[[99]]
The case seems otherwise as regards the northern end of the line, for the Petrion, mentioned in the Paschal Chronicle, was, strictly speaking, the district in which the Greek Patriarchate is now situated, the name of the district being still retained by the gate (Petri Kapoussi) at the eastern end of the enclosure around the Patriarchal Church and residence. But this would bring the northern end of the land wall considerably more to the west than the point where we have reason to believe the Church of St. Antony was found. It would also make the city broader than the Notitia allows. The discrepancy can, however, be easily removed. For, while the Petrion was pre-eminently the district above indicated, the designation was applied also to territory much further to the east. The Church of St. Laurentius, for example, near which St. Antony’s stood, is at one time described as standing in the Plateia,[[100]] the plain to the east of Petri Kapoussi, while at another time it is spoken of as in the Petrion.[[101]] Hence the statement of the Paschal Chronicle does not conflict with what other authorities affirm respecting the point at which the Constantinian land fortifications reached the Golden Horn.
(k) Finally, from the Church of St. Antony the wall proceeded along the shore of the Golden Horn to the head of the promontory, thus completing the circuit of the fortifications.
It should, however, be noted that this work of surrounding the city with bulwarks was not executed entirely in the reign of Constantine. A portion of the undertaking—probably the walls defending the shores of the city—was left for his son and successor Constantius to complete.[[102]]
The following gates, mentioned in Byzantine history, were found, there is reason to believe, in the Constantinian circuit:—
Porta Polyandriou (Πόρτα Πολυανδρίου,[[103]] the Gate of the Cemetery) stood in the portion of the wall near the Church of the Holy Apostles. It is true that this was one of the names of the Gate of Adrianople in the later Theodosian Walls, but if the name was derived from the Imperial Cemetery beside the Church of the Holy Apostles, there is much probability in Dr. Mordtmann’s opinion that the designation belonged originally to the corresponding gate in the Constantinian fortifications, which stood closer to the cemetery.[[104]]