NEAR the Church of Bacchus, stood the Port of Julian. This is plain from the Account we have of the Fire, which happen’d in the Reign of Leo the Great, and as Evagrius tells us, began on the North-side of the City, and destroy’d all before it, from the Bosporian Port, to the old Temple of Apollo; and that on the South-side of the City, it made the same Havock from the Port of Julian, to the Houses near the Temple of Concord. Zonaras writes, who has described the Devastations of that Fire, that it burnt with great Fury from the Bosporium to the Church of St. John the Calybite, and on the South from the Church of St. Thomas to the Church of the renowned Martyrs, Sergius and Bacchus. The Church of St. Thomas stood near the Temple of Concord. The Account which Cedrinus gives of this Fire is, that it took its Course round the City quite from the Northern to the Southern Shore, as far as the Church of Sergius and Bacchus. The Emperor Anastasius fortified the Port of Julian, and secured it by a strong Wall. It was afterwards called the Port of Sophia, according to Cedrinus, who writes, That Justin the Nephew of Justinian, built a Palace in the Port of Julian, which he ordered to be cleansed, and that he commanded his own, and the Statue of Sophia his Consort to be erected there, and from thence gave it the Name of the Port of Sophia. The Inscription on the Statue of Justin placed here is as follows:
I Theodorus, Prefect of the City,
Here, on the Shore, erect this lofty Statue;
It represents the Emperor Justinus.
May his kind Presence guard, and ever shed
Its peaceful Influence o’er the neighbouring Ports.
Procopius writes, that the Church of the Martyr Thecla stood near this Port. Some modern Historians tell us, that Belisarius set Sail from this Port, when he went to Battel against the Vandals. But I cannot conceive what Reason they have for that Opinion, unless it be from some Words of Procopius, who says, that Justinian commanded the Ship, in which the General sail’d, to be brought near the Palace, and that there Epiphanius Bishop of Constantinople, as was customary upon such Occasions, put up a Prayer for his Success, and that then Belisarius went off with his Wife Antonina. There were indeed some Palaces near this Port, but there were also other Palaces near the Bay, which was full of Havens, from whence, at a little Distance, stood the House of Belisarius. Suidas confirms it, that Anastasius fortify’d this Harbour, and made a Pier there; and Zonaras attests, that Justin built there some Palaces, and call’d them the Palaces of Sophia, from the Name of his Consort, whom he passionately loved. Many Historians are of Opinion, that these Palaces stood near the Port of Sophia; but I am induced to think, both from Reason and the Authority of learned Men, that it was not so. For Zonaras, among others, writes, that Justin built these Palaces against the City, and Agathius, a much ancienter Writer, and who was living at the Time they were built, wrote the following Inscription, which was fix’d upon them. From whence the Reader may observe, that they were not seated near the Propontis, adjoining to which was the Port of Sophia, but opposite to the City, near the Shore of the Bosporus, where the Continent is divided into two Parts.
Agathius Scholasticus upon the Palaces of
Sophia.
Where the streight Sea divides the Continents,
These gilded Palaces the Emperor built