Only the bas-relief which stood on the eastern side of the archway has survived to our time.[[675]] It represents a winged female figure, attired in a flowing robe, and holding in her left hand a palm leaf—beyond all controversy a Nikè, not, as Tafferner imagined, the Angel of the Annunciation, nor, as the Patriarch Constantius supposed, the Archangel Michael.[[676]]
Regarding the precise object of these four entrances, and the names to be attached to them, a serious difference of opinion prevails. Most authorities maintain that the archway adorned with the bas-relief was the Gate of the Kynegos, of the Hunter (τοῦ Κυνηγοῦ, τῶν Κυνηγῶν), so frequently mentioned in the later days of the Empire; and that Balat Kapoussi was the Pylè Basilikè (Πύλη Βασιλικὴ) referred to by writers of the same period. On the other hand, Gyllius identified Balat Kapoussi with the Gate of the Kynegos, and regarded the three archways above mentioned as entrances to a small artificial port within the line of the fortifications. His reason for the latter opinion was the existence of a great depression in the ground to the rear of the archways, which was occupied, in his day, by market-gardens, but which seemed to him the basin of an old harbour: “Ultra Portam Palatinam”—to give his own words—“progressus circiter centum viginti passus, animadverti tres magnus arcus, astructos urbis muro, et substructos, per quos olim Imperatores subducebant triremes in portum opere factum, nunc exiccatus et conversus in hortos concavos, præ se gerentes speciem portus obruti.”[[677]]
As appears from the passage just quoted, Gyllius styled Balat Kapoussi not only the Gate of the Hunter, but also the Porta Palatina. Whether in doing so he meant to identify the Gate of the Kynegos with the Basilikè Pylè, or simply gave the Latin rendering of the name by which Balat Kapoussi was popularly known when he visited the city, is not perfectly clear. The latter supposition is, however, more in harmony with that author’s usage in the case of other gates.
Stephen Gerlach and Leunclavius agree with Gyllius in regarding Balat Kapoussi as the Gate of the Kynegos, but place the Basilikè Pylè near the eastern extremity of the Harbour Walls, Gerlach[[678]] identifying it with Yali Kiosk Kapoussi, Leunclavius[[679]] with Bagtchè Kapoussi. Neither Gerlach nor Leunclavius refers to the three arches on the west of Balat Kapoussi. The latter, however, speaks of the hollow ground to their rear, describing it in the following terms: “Locus depressus et concavus, ubi Patriarchion erat meæ peregrinationis tempore,” and supposed it to have been the arena of a theatre for the exhibition of wild animals. From that theatre, he thought, the Gate of the Kynegos obtained its name.
The question to which gates the names Gate of the Kynegos and Basilikè Pylè respectively belonged is the most difficult problem connected with the history of the harbour fortifications. To discuss it satisfactorily at this stage of our inquiries is, however, impossible; for the opinion that the Basilikè Pylè was not at Balat Kapoussi, but near the eastern extremity of the Harbour Walls, is a point which can be determined only after all the facts relative to the gates near that end of the fortifications are before us. The full discussion of the subject must therefore be deferred,[[680]] and, meantime, little more can be done than to state the conclusions which appear to have most evidence in their favour.
There can be no doubt, in the first place, that the Gate of the Kynegos was in this vicinity, and was either Balat Kapoussi or the archway adorned with the bas-relief. This is established by all the indications in regard to the situation of the entrance. The Gate of the Kynegos stood, according to Phrantzes,[[681]] between the Xylo Porta and the Petrion; according to Pusculus,[[682]] between the Xylo Porta and the Porta Phani (Fener Kapoussi), and not far from the former. It was in the neighbourhood of the emperor’s palace,[[683]] and the point at which persons approaching that palace from the Golden Horn disembarked and took horses to reach the Imperial residence.[[684]] Both Balat Kapoussi and the adjoining archways answer to this description, and they are the only entrances which can pretend to be city gates in the portion of the walls between the Xylo Porta and the Gate of the Phanar. Therefore, one or other of them was the Gate of the Kynegos.
It is a corroboration of this conclusion to find that the district named after the Gate of the Kynegos occupied the level tract beside the Golden Horn within and without the line of the walls in the vicinity of these entrances. The Church of St. Demetrius, for instance, which stood a short distance to the west of Balat Kapoussi and the adjoining archways, is described as near a gate in the quarter of the Kynegon.[[685]] The bridge which the Turks threw out into the harbour from Haskeui, to carry a battery with which to bombard this part of the fortifications, was in front of the Kynegon.[[686]] Nicholas Barbaro[[687]] applies the name even to the territory near the Xylo Porta; for, according to him, the land walls extended from the Golden Gate to the Kynegon: “Le mure de tera, che jera mia sie, che sun de la Cresca per fina al Chinigo.” With this agrees also the statement of the same author that the Kynegon was the point where Diedo and Gabriel of Treviso landed the crews of their galleys, to excavate the moat which the emperor asked to be constructed before the land walls protecting his palace.[[688]] The quarter of the Kynegon thus comprised the modern quarters of Balata and Aivan Serai.
In the second place, it is exceedingly doubtful whether the archway with the Nikè, to which the name Gate of the Kynegos is commonly ascribed, was, after all, a city gate in the ordinary sense of the term. It does not stand alone, but is one of three archways which pierce, respectively, the curtain-walls between three towers. And these three openings were in close proximity to a gate (Balat Kapoussi), amply sufficient for the requirements of public traffic in this quarter of the capital. Such facts do not accord with the idea that any one of these archways was a gateway. Furthermore, when their real destination could be more accurately ascertained than at present, Gyllius found that they formed the entrances to an artificial harbour within the line of the fortifications. This explanation of their presence in the wall is perfectly satisfactory, and any other is superfluous. But if Balat Kapoussi was the only gate in this vicinity, it must have been the Gate of the Kynegos, which certainly stood in this part of the city.
There is nothing strange in the existence of a harbour within the line of the fortifications in the quarter of the Kynegon. It is what might be expected when we remember how closely the quarter was connected with the Palace of the Porphyrogenitus and the Palace of Blachernæ, and how necessary such a harbour was for the accommodation and protection of the boats and galleys at the service of the Court. That the harbour behind the three archways near Balat Kapoussi was the Neorion of Blachernæ is unlikely; the most probable situation of that Neorion being at Aivan Serai Iskelessi. But it may very well have been the harbour on the shore of the Kynegon at which, during the period of the Palæologi, the emperor and visitors to the palaces in the vicinity embarked or disembarked in moving to and fro by water. The landing at which the Spanish ambassadors to the Byzantine Court were received is described as near the Gate of the Kynegos: “Près de la porte de Quinigo.”[[689]] The galleys sent by the Council of Basle to convey John VII. Palæologus to the West, and which reached Constantinople fifteen days after the arrival of four Papal galleys on a similar errand, were detained for one day at Psamathia, until the rival parties had been prevailed upon to keep the peace, and then came and moored at the Kynegon (εἰς τὸν Κυνηγὸν). There the emperor embarked for Italy, under the escort of the Papal galleys; there the galley having on board the patriarch, who was to accompany the emperor, joined the Imperial squadron; and there the emperor disembarked upon his return from the Councils of Ferrara and Florence.[[690]] During the siege of 1453 a fire-ship, with forty young men on board, proceeded from the Gate of the Kynegos to burn the Turkish vessels which had been conveyed over the hills into the Golden Horn.[[691]] All this implies the existence of a port somewhere on the shore of the quarter of the Kynegon.
In the third place, all discussion in regard to the proper application of the names Basilikè Pylè, and Gate of the Kynegos must proceed upon the indisputable fact that the epithet “Imperial,” belonged to an entrance at the eastern extremity of the Harbour Walls. In proof of this, it is enough to cite, meantime, the statement of Phrantzes[[692]] that Gabriel of Treviso was entrusted with the defence of a tower which guarded the entrance of the Golden Horn, and which stood opposite the Basilikè Pylè. Unless, therefore, it can be shown that there was more than one Basilikè Pylè in the fortifications beside the Golden Horn, the claim of Balat Kapoussi to the Imperial epithet falls to the ground. If the existence of two Imperial gates in the Harbour Walls can be established, then Balat Kapoussi has the best right to be regarded as the second entrance bearing that designation. In that case, however, the conclusion most in harmony with the facts involved in the matter is that the second Basilikè Pylè was only the Gate of the Kynegos under another name.[[693]]