Another gate was the Porta Atalou (Πόρτα Ἀτάλου).[[105]] It was adorned with the statue of Constantine the Great and the statue of Atalus, after whom the gate was named. Both monuments fell in the earthquake of 740. The presence of the statue of the founder of the city upon the gate, the fact that the damage which the gate sustained in 740 is mentioned in close connection with the injuries done at the same time to the Column of Arcadius on the Xeropholos,[[106]] and the lack of any proof that the gate stood in the Theodosian Walls, are circumstances which favour the view that it was an entrance in the Wall of Constantine. From its association with the Xerolophos one would infer that the Gate of Atalus was situated on the Seventh Hill, in a position corresponding to one of the later Theodosian gates on that eminence.
That the Palaia Porta—Isa Kapoussi, beside the Mosque Isa Kapou Mesdjidi—was a Constantinian gate is beyond dispute.[[107]] But a difficult, and at the same time important, question occurs in connection with it. Was it the Porta Aurea mentioned in the Notitia as the gate from which the length of the city was measured? What renders this a difficult question is the fact that the Porta Aurea of the Theodosian Walls—the celebrated Golden Gate which appears so frequently in the history of the city, and which is now incorporated in the Turkish fortress of the Seven Towers (Yedi Koulè), under the name Yedi Koulè Kapoussi—was already in existence when the Notitia was written.[[108]] That being the case, the presumption is in favour of the opinion that the Golden Gate at Yedi Koulè is the Porta Aurea to which the Notitia refers; and this opinion has upon its side the great authority of Dr. Strzygowski.[[109]] On the other hand, the distance from the Porta Aurea to the sea, as given by the Notitia, does not correspond to the distance between Yedi Koulè and the head of the promontory, the latter distance being much greater. To suppose that this discrepancy is due to a mistake which has crept into the figures of the Notitia is possible; but the supposition is open to more than one objection. In the first place, such a view obliges us to assume a similar mistake in the figures which that authority gives for the breadth of the city, seeing they do not accord with the breadth of the city along the line of the Theodosian Walls. But even if this objection is waived, and the possibility of a double error admitted in the abstract, the hypothesis of a mistake in the figures before us is attended by another difficulty, which cannot be dismissed so easily. How comes it that figures condemned as inaccurate because they do not accord with the size of Constantinople under Theodosius II., prove perfectly correct when applied to the dimensions of the city under its founder? How come these figures to agree completely with what we learn regarding the length and breadth of the city of Constantine from other data on that subject? This cannot be an accident; the only satisfactory explanation is that the figures in question belonged to the primitive text of the document in which they are found, and never referred to anything else than the original size of the city. Hence we are compelled to adopt the view that when the Notitia was written, two gates bearing the epithet “Golden” existed in Constantinople, one of them in the older circuit of the city, the other in the later fortifications of Theodosius, and that the author of the Notitia refers to the earlier entrance. There is nothing strange in the existence of a Triumphal Gate in the Wall of Constantine, while the duplication of such an entrance for a later line of bulwarks was perfectly natural.
Why the Notitia overlooks the second Porta Aurea is explained by the point of view from which that work was written. Its author was concerned with the original city. A gate in the Wall of Theodosius was only the vestibule of the corresponding Constantinian entrance.
The existence of a Porta Aurea in the Wall of Constantine being thus established, the identification of that gate with the Palaia Porta offers little difficulty. The Constantinian Porta Aurea, like the Ancient Gate, stood on the Seventh Hill, since the portion of the Via Triumphalis leading from the Exokionion to the Forum of Arcadius was on that eminence.[[110]] Like the Ancient Gate, the Porta Aurea was, moreover, distinguished by fine architectural features, as its very epithet implies, and, as the Notitia declares, when it states that the city wall bounding the Twelfth Region, on the Seventh Hill, was remarkable for its monumental character—“Quam (regionem) mœnium sublimior decorat ornatus.”[[111]] Gates so similar in their position and appearance can scarcely have been different entrances.
Of the Constantinian gates along the seaboard of the city, the only one about which anything positive can be affirmed is the Gate of St. Æmilianus, near the Church of St. Mary Rabdou, on the Sea of Marmora. It is now represented by Daoud Pasha Kapoussi.[[112]]
Dr. Mordtmann[[113]] suggests the existence of a gate known as the Basilikè Porta beside the Golden Horn, where Ayasma Kapoussi stands; but this conjecture is exceedingly doubtful.
The Wall of Constantine formed the boundary and bulwark of the city for some eighty years, its great service being the protection of the new capital against the Visigoths, who asserted their power in the Balkan Peninsula during the latter part of the fourth century and the earlier portion of the fifth. After the terrible defeat of the Roman arms at Adrianople in 378, the Goths marched upon Constantinople, but soon retired, in view of the hopelessness of an attack upon the fortifications. The bold Alaric never dared to assail these walls; while Gainas, finding he could not carry them by surprise, broke up his camp at the Hebdomon, and withdrew to the interior of Thrace.
It is a mistake, however, to suppose that the original bulwarks of the capital were demolished as soon as the Theodosian Walls were built.[[114]] On the contrary, the old works continued for a considerable period to form an inner line of defence. We hear of them in the reign of Justinian the Great, when, together with the Wall of Theodosius, they were injured by a violent earthquake.[[115]] They were in their place also when the Paschal Chronicle was written.[[116]] What their condition precisely was in 740, when the Gate of Atalus was overthrown,[[117]] cannot be determined, but evidently they had not completely disappeared. Thereafter nothing more is heard of them, and the probability is that they were left to waste away gradually. Remains of ancient walls survived in the neighbourhood of Isa Kapoussi as late as the early part of this century.[[118]]
Interior Arrangements of the City of Constantine.
The work of altering Byzantium to become the seat of government was commenced in 328, and occupied some two years, materials and labourers for the purpose being gathered from all parts of the Empire. Workmen skilled in cutting columns and marble came even from the neighbourhood of Naples,[[119]] and the forty thousand Gothic troops, known as the Fœderati, lent their strength to push the work forward.[[120]]