NOTES.
The Church of St. Irene.] This Church stood in a Street of this Ward, which was called Taurus. It was called the Church of St. Irene, i. e. of Peace; and which, as Socrates and Cedrinus inform us, was built by Constantine the Great, and burnt down in the Reign of Justinian.
The Church of St. Anastasia.] The Reliques of St. Anastasia, in the first Year of Leo the Great, were brought from Syrmium to Constantinople, and reposited in this Church which was built by the Catholicks, because St. Gregory Nazianzen had there revived the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity, or as Sozomen reports, because a Woman big with Child falling from a Gallery over the Church-porch died upon the Spot, and revived by the Prevalency of the Prayers of the Congregation.
But it seems to me more agreeable to Truth, that there were at Constantinople two Churches which went under this Name: One was the Church of the Novatians, which was pull’d down by the Arians, and which was afterwards rebuilt by them, as Sozomen observes, Lib. IV. Cap. 19, and was therefore call’d the Church of St. Anastasia. The other was so call’d, from the Revival of the Doctrine of the Trinity, just mentioned. The Church here meant was anciently the House of Nicobulus, where St. Gregory Nazianzen was hospitably entertained by him, as appears in his Oration to the Hundred and fifty Bishops. This House was afterwards made a Church, and became a most magnificent Basilica. But Sozomen tells us, Lib. V. Cap. 5. That the Church was so called for the Reason above-mentioned. Martian, one of the Principal, and most wealthy Citizens, built there a large and beautiful Church. The Reliques of Anastasia, were reposited there, because the Church bore her Name.
The Pillar of Theodosius, which is ascended on the Inside by Winding Stairs.] Zonaras, in his Life of Justinian, writes concerning this Pillar as follows: In the seventeenth Year of his Reign, says he, the great Pillar placed before the Porch of the great Church was finished, upon which he placed his own Statue on Horseback. In the same Place had stood formerly the Pillar of Theodosius, supporting a silver Statue, made at the Cost of his Son Arcadius. This Statue was seven Thousand four hundred Pound in Weight. Justinian took down the Statue, and demolished the Pillar, and laid them both up; so that the Statue, with the Stones of the Pillar, is to be seen at this Day. As the Treatise, I am, upon was wrote when this Pillar was standing, it must of Consequence be wrote before the Time of Justinian. Cedrinus, in his Life of Zeno, speaks of this Pillar in another Manner, or else he is speaking of another Pillar. In the Street called Taurus, says he, Theodosius the Great erected a Pillar, on which was carved the History of his Battles with the Scythians, and the Trophies of his Success. This Pillar, continues he, has Winding-Stairs within it. At the Top of it, in a Place where two Ways meet, sat Theodosius on Horseback, with his right Hand stretched towards the City, and pointing downwards to the Trophies carved upon it. This Pillar, with the Statue, was thrown down by an Earthquake in the fourth Year of the Reign of Zeno the Emperor. The same Historian, speaking of Anastasius, says, that he ordered to be melted down many of the Statues, and other Curiosities set up by Constantine the Great, out of which his own Statue was made, which he placed upon the Pillar in the Taurus. For before the Statue of Theodosius the Great was placed there, the Pillar of Anastasius was thrown down, and dashed to Pieces by an Earthquake.
Two large Equestrian Statues.] One of these was the Statue of Theodosius the Great. The other is unknown.
The Bagnio’s of Corosia.] These Bagnio’s took their Name from Corosia, the Daughter of Valens the Emperor, as Sozomen observes in the Ninth Chapter of his Sixth Book. Martian, says he, a Man of consummate Learning, and great Austerity of Life, who had formerly been one of the Emperor’s Life-Guard, but at that Time a Priest, was a Novatian, and Tutor to Anastasius and Corosia, the Son and Daughter of Valens, in the Rudiments of Grammar. He adds, that there were some Bagnio’s at Constantinople that were named from them.