Chap. V.
Of the Blachernæ, the Triclinium of the Blachernæ, the Palace, the Aqueduct and many other Places of Antiquity.
THE Author of the Book entitled, The antient Description of the Wards attests, that there stood in the fourteenth Ward, a Church, but does not name it; nor does he take Notice of the Blachernæ, although it was called so before the taking of Constantinople by Severus, as I shall immediately make appear. The Blachernæ stood without the Walls, not only in the Time when that Book was wrote, but even in the Reign of Justinian, who, as Procopius writes, built a Church, which he dedicated to the Virgin Mary, before the Walls of the City, in a Place called the Blachernæ. The Spectator, says he, when he enters this Church, will admire its large and bulky Building, yet secure from the Danger of falling by the Strength of its Foundation. You may behold in it, adds he, a stately Magnificence, without any Mixture of Gaiety, and too much Embellishment. ’Tis my Opinion, that Justinian only repaired this Church: For Zonaras reports, that Pulcheria, the Wife of Marcian, built a Church in the Blachernæ, and dedicated it to the Virgin Mary. Pomponius Lætus tells us, that this Church was built by Theodosius. Cedrinus writes, that Justin the Nephew of Justinian, added two Arches to the Church in the Blachernæ. So that ’tis plain from what Procopius has wrote upon this Occasion, that the Blachernæ stood without the Walls of the City, as it is no less evident from the Testimony of Agathius. When the barbarous Nations, says he, approached Constantinople, by the Permission of Justinian, all the Churches situate without the Walls, from the Blachernæ to the Black-Sea, were stripp’d of their Armaments, which were kept within the City. There is at present to be seen, near the Gate called Xylon, and the Western Angle of the City, between the Foot of the sixth Hill, and the turning of a Mosque, situate within the City, (which the People say was dedicated to the Virgin Mary) a Spring now running, which the Greeks tell us was consecrated to her. The Place, where the Spring is, is call’d the Blachernæ. Upon my first coming to Constantinople, some Remains of it were to be seen, but now there nothing appears even of its Ruines. From the Bottom of the sixth Hill, which rises above the Church in the Blachernæ, there shoots an Aqueduct with two Pipes; one of which is stopp’d with a Cock, and the other flows in a constant Stream. I took Notice before, that Andronicus the Emperor brought this Aqueduct from the River Hydrales, into the Ward of the Blachernæ, where there was no River Water till his Time. The Emperor Anastasius built the great Triclinium in the Blachernæ, which went under his Name, even in the Time of Suidas. Zonaras, and others assure us, that the Emperor Tiberius built the publick Bath in the Blachernæ. ’Tis certain from some modern Histories, that there was in the Time of Zonaras, even down to the Reign of Manuel the Emperor, an Imperial Palace in that Place. The Reason why ’tis called the Blachernæ, is mentioned by Dionysius a Byzantian, in his Navigation of the Bosporus, from whom I shall just touch upon some Places described by him, which reach from the Foot of the fifth Hill, to the furthermost Angle of the City, and the sixth Hill. Beyond Mellacopsas, says he, (this, I took Notice of before, was at the Foot of the fifth Hill) there are two Places which afford good Sport in Fishing, all the Year. One upon the Shallows under the Promontories, the other under the deep hollow Shores which are never ruffled by the Wind. The first of these is called Indigenas, from some great Man who was a Native there; the other Pyracius, from Pyræus, a Port of Athens; or as some believe, from some antient Inhabitant. There’s a Place between them called Cittos, from the great Plenty of Ivy it produces. There is also a steep Place called Camara, which adjoins that of Pyracius. ’Tis much exposed to the Wind, and therefore often feels the Roughness of the Sea. Thence, up higher, stands Thalassa, which is the Boundary of the Ceratine Bay, where the Rivers begin to flow into it. ’Tis thus called, either by Reason of their Nearness to the Sea, whose Salt Waters they mingle with their Freshness, or because it stands steddy, and more out of the Wind; or rather, because the constant Influx of the Rivers into it, brings down daily a muddy Substance into the Sea, which very much thickens it; though it serves for Nourishment to the Multitudes of Fish with which it abounds. The first Place that stands upon this calm Sea is called Polyrrhetius, from a Man named Polyrrhetus: The next is Vateiascopia, so called from the deep Sea that is about it; a third is the Blachernæ, which is a barbarous Word; and the last Place is the Marshes.
Chap. VI.
Of the Bridge near the Church of St. Mamas; of his Hippodrom; of the Brazen Lyon, and the Sepulchre of the Emperor Mauritius.
NOT only some Historians, but also Suidas the Grammarian, have handed it down to us, that near the Church of St. Mamas, there stood a Bridge, which had twelve Arches; for there was a great Floud of Waters at that Place. There was also set up at the same Place a brazen Dragon; because ’twas reported that a Serpent had some Time liv’d there, which had deflour’d many Virgins. This Story was occasion’d by the Name of a Man, who was call’d Basiliscus, one of Numerianus Cæsar’s Life-Guard, who liv’d there, and built a Church, which Zeno afterwards pull’d down. Constantine, call’d Iconomachus, because he was a profess’d Enemy to Images, order’d one Andreas a Statuary, a Man of some Note in the Blachernæ, to be whipt to Death in the Hippodrom of St. Mamas. Zonaras tells us, that Mauritius the Emperor was buried in the Church of St. Mamas, which was built by Pharasmenes, an Eunuch, and Gentleman of the Bed-chamber to Justinian. Cedrinus writes, that the Church of St. Mamas stood near the Gate call’d Xylocercon. Others report, That Crunna, King of the Bulgarians, surrounded Constantinople with an Army from the Blachernæ to the Porta Aurea, and distrusting the Strength of his Forces to take the Town, he hasten’d to this Church, set Fire to a Palace that was near it, and that upon his Retreat, he carry’d off a Brazen Lyon plac’d in the Hippodrom, a Bear, a Dragon, and some curious Pieces of Marble. Sozomen speaking of those Persons who were banish’d on St. Chrysostom’s Account, says, that when they were got without the Walls they met in a Place situate before the City, which Constantine order’d to be cleans’d, to be pal’d round, and made it into a Hippodrom. This, I take it, was the Place which was afterwards call’d the Hippodrom of St. Mamas. Zonaras adds upon this Occasion, that Leo the Emperor, scar’d by a Fire, which then rag’d in the City, flew to the Church of St. Mamas, and continu’d there for some Time. Cedrinus mentions, that the Emperor diverted himself with Horse-racing, near the Church of St. Mamas the Martyr, situate in the Stenon. ’Tis plain from the Authorities abovemention’d, that this Church was seated in the Blachernæ, and that there was a Bridge there, as is farther confirm’d by Johannes Tzetzes in his Variâ Historiâ, where he says, that the Sea extending itself from the Streights of Abydus, to the Bridge of the Blachernæ, is call’d the Hellespont. ’Tis also evident, that this Bridge stood, where the Stone Piles of the old Bridge (when the Water is low, as ’tis in Summer) are seen at present, and stand between the Suburbs call’d the Blachernæ, and the Suburbs, which the Turks call the Aibasarium. This, I am confident, is the same Bridge which the ancient Treatise of the Wards of the City, calls the Wooden Bridge, and places it in the fourteenth Ward, in which, as I observ’d, was the Suburbs call’d the Hepdomum. I desire the Reader to remark one Thing from Suidas, that St. Mamas Bridge had either twelve Stone Arches, or else, that he was writing of another Church of St. Mamas, situate in another Place.
Chap. VII.
Of the seventh Hill, the twelfth Ward, and of the Pillar of Arcadius.
I Take it for granted, from the Situation of the Pillar of Arcadius, now standing on the seventh Hill, call’d the Xerolophon, (which is divided from the other six Hills by a broad Valley,) that That is the twelfth Ward, which lies a great Way upon the Level, from the Entrance of the City at the Porta Aurea, and is lengthen’d, on the Left Side of it, by a gentle Descent, and bounded by the Sea. It contain’d the Porta Aurea, the Trojan Portico’s, the Forum, and Haven of Theodosius, and a Pillar with winding Steps in the Inside, built in the Xerolophon by Arcadius. The Hill still preserves the same Name. Upon this Pillar the Emperor plac’d his Statue, which was thrown down, in the Reign of Leo Conon by an Earthquake, which shook the whole City, overturn’d many Churches and Houses, and buried Multitudes of People under it. Cedrinus assures us, that this Pillar was in all respects like that of Theodosius erected in the Taurus. It has a Base, a Pedestal, and a Capital. The Shaft of the Pillar, with its Pedestal and Capital, consists of twenty one Stones. Above the Capital are two Stones. The Pedestal alone is built with five Stones, so closely cemented together, that if the Pillar had never felt the Shocks of an Earth-quake, or the Decays of Time, it had appear’d to have been one entire Stone. These Stones are plac’d one above another, and are hollow in the Inside. Each of them is the whole Compass of the Pillar, out of which are cut the Steps and Windows which beautify and enlighten it. I took upon me to measure the Compass of the Shaft from the Stone which covers it at Top, down to the lowest Step of the Pedestal. This Stone therefore, thro’ which there is cut a Door, by which you ascend above the Abacus of the Capital, is about thirteen Foot nine Inches high, and is itself the Roof and Arch of the whole Pillar. The Door is six Foot two Digits high, and three Foot nine Inches broad. The second Stone is six Foot high, in which is cut the uppermost Step above the Abacus of the Capital. The third is five Foot and four Digits high, and contains the Abacus and the whole Capital. The fifth is five Foot in height, wanting two Digits. The Sixth is four Foot nine Inches high. The Seventh five Foot and two Digits. The Eighth four Foot and four Digits. The Ninth is six Foot high. The Tenth five Foot. The Eleventh four Foot and fourteen Digits. The Twelfth four Foot nine Inches. The Thirteenth five Foot. The Fourteenth five Foot two Digits. The fifteenth five Foot and a half. The Sixteenth the same. The Seventeenth five Foot and ten Digits. The eighteenth six Foot and a half. The Nineteenth five Foot and four Digits. The Twentieth six Foot and a half. The Twenty first, where the Shaft of the Pillar begins, six Foot and four Digits high. The Pedestal consists of six Stones. The uppermost of which is four Foot nine Inches high. The Second is the same height. The Third four Foot. The Fourth four Foot six Inches. The Fifth the same. The Sixth and last is four Foot high. It has in all fifty six Windows, and two hundred thirty three Steps of two kinds. For some rise in square, others in circular Windings, after the Manner of some Shell-Fish. You ascend the Pedestal by five square Winding Steps. Every Winding has at the Top of it a small Floor, which leads you from one Winding to another. The first and second Windings have six Steps each; the third eight; the fourth and fifth, nine each; the lowest of them all, which lies level with the Threshold of the Door, is ten Digits high, twelve Inches broad, and two Foot nine Inches long. The other square Windings are like this, and the Floor at the Top of each of them is two Foot nine Inches square. Upon the fifth Winding stands the Shaft of the Pillar, the first Steps of which are ten Digits high; near the Wall they are a Foot broad, in the Middle a Foot and nine Inches, and in Length they are two Foot nine Inches. The Steps above them, are all of them, nine Digits high. The Inside of the Shaft of the Pillar measures twenty eight Foot in Circumference. The Wall which encloses the Steps, in the lowest Part of it, is two Foot and three Digits, in the highest, ’tis one Foot nine Inches thick. If I should be thought too curious, in taking the Dimensions of every Stone, this Character with more Justice belongs to that Man, (and yet Thucydides highly commends him for it) who by counting the Rows of Bricks of which they were built, took the height of the Enemies Walls. I was under some Apprehensions from the Savageness of the Inhabitants, lest they should catch me dropping my Line, had I measur’d it without, so that I lay under a Necessity of taking the Dimensions within; and by joining the height of one Stone to the height of another, I discover’d its Altitude. There are two Steps consisting of many Stones, which first shew themselves from the Surface of the Earth. Above them is the third Step, which is cut out of a Stone three Foot and four Digits high, and thirty three Foot and a half in Circumference. Upon the Stone which makes the third Step, stands the Pedestal. The first of the five Stones of which it consists, from the Threshold of the Door, is five Foot and a half high. Its Ornaments are a plain Plinth three Foot five Digits high, a small Tore five Digits high, an Apophyge with a Reglet nine Inches, another Reglet above it two Digits, and a Cornice engrav’d, which is nine Inches high. The Frieze, on three Sides, is curiously engrav’d with Trophies; the Northern Side of it, where the Door is, is not engrav’d at all. The Cornice of the Pedestal bends downwards. At the bottom of it is a Reglet, above that an Astragal, adorn’d with Berries; then an Ovolo, and above that an Astragal wreath’d like a Rope. Higher yet is a Folial Bandage. There projects beyond the Pedestal a kind of Abacus; on each side of which there are two Fasces of Laurel-work, the largest of which is incurvated even to the bottom of the Abacus. On the Sides of this Abacus there is a Sculpture of seven naked Boys, holding each of them in his Hand a Laureated Fascis. At every Angle of this Abacus there stands an Eagle, and above it is the Plinth of the Pillar, adorn’d with a Foliage, which projects very little. Above the Plinth is a Tore, adorn’d with Laurel-work, which is filletted with a spiral Bandage. Above the Tore there rises an Apophyge, upon which Stands the Shaft of the Pillar, which is carv’d with the Scenes of War, and of Battles. The Sculpture is much like that which adorns the Pillar of Trajan in Old Rome. The Trachelium, or Top of the Shaft, is fluted perpendicularly. The lower part of its Capital is adorn’d with Apophyges, an Ovolo, and an Abacus, which projects beyond the Shaft two Foot and fourteen Digits. The Abacus, on all sides of it, is seventeen Foot, and nine Inches round. Above the Abacus there is a Door, above which the Pillar rises in the Form of a Cone, where there is another Door above ten Foot high. We may look upon this Pillar to be of the Tuscan Order, because both the Base, and the Capital of it, are finished after the Tuscan manner.