If none of these views is acceptable, we must fall back upon the opinion which prevailed before Dr. Paspates discovered the chambers adjoining the tower N and S, viz. that the towers N and S together formed the Tower of Isaac Angelus, and that the Tower of Anemas was one of the three towers in the Heraclian Wall.
This was the view of the Patriarch Constantius,[[538]] who writes: “The Tower of Anemas still exists. On its side facing the Holy Well of Blachernæ it has a large window, with a smaller one above.”
This opinion prevailed in Constantinople also in the sixteenth century, for Leunclavius was informed by Zygomales that the Towers of Anemas were the Towers of the Pentapyrgion,[[539]] the name given to the citadel formed by the Walls of Heraclius and Leo.
Note.—For the illustrations facing respectively pp. [150], [156], and for the lower illustration facing p. [162], I am indebted to the kindness of my colleague, Professor W. Ormiston. The photographs were taken on the 10th of July, 1894, shortly before the occurrence of the severe earthquake which has made that day memorable in Constantinople. Our situation in the chambers at such a time was not enviable. But we learned that day what an earthquake meant in the old history of the walls of the city.
View of the Interior of “The Prison of Anemas” Looking North-West (Being The Substructures Supporting The Palace of Blachernæ).
There is nothing in this view opposed to the fact that the Tower of Anemas stood in the city walls near the Palace of Blachernæ; and a strong argument in its favour may be based upon the association of the tower with the Xylo Porta by Leonard of Scio, when he relates to Pope Nicholas how Jerome from Italy, and Leonardo de Langasco from Genoa, at the head of their companions-in-arms, guarded the Xylo Porta and the towers named Avenides (clearly Anemades): “Hieronymus Italianus, Leonardus de Langasco, Genovensis, cum multis sociis, Xylo Portam et turres quos Avenides vocant, impensis cardinalis reparatas, spectabant.”[[540]] This statement is repeated by Zorzo Dolfin.[[541]]
The Xylo Porta, without question, was at Aivan Serai Kapoussi, to the north of the Wall of Heraclius, and immediately beside the Golden Horn;[[542]] and the towers which would most appropriately be entrusted to soldiers defending that entrance are the towers nearest to it, viz. the three towers of the Heraclian Wall. At all events, the designation, “turres Avenides,” as used by Leonard of Scio, must include them, even if it comprised others also.
One thing is certain; the commonly accepted view that the towers N and S represent, respectively, the historical Towers of Isaac Angelus and of Anemas must, in one way or another, be corrected.