The fourteenth Ward, which is enclosed within its own Walls, makes the Figure of a kind of small City by it self.] It was antiently looked upon to be a small City, because one of the Emperors had built there an Imperial Citadel. ’Tis very mountainous about it, and it descends towards the Sea, into the Bosom of a Plain. The Name of the Church in this Ward is not known at present.
A Palace.] This is the Place of Imperial Residence, which was antiently called Palatium, because Augustus dwelt in Mount Palatine at Rome. The Dwelling-House of Romulus was also called by the same Name. Wherefore, says Dion, speaking of Augustus, let the Emperor be where he pleases, yet the Place where he constantly dwells, is always called his Palace.
A Lusorium.] This probably was the same Place with the Ludus Venatorius, in which the Combatants exercised themselves before they engaged with wild Beasts; yet is it more probable, that it was so called from the Naves Lusoriæ, which were built there, of which Marcellinus takes Notice in his sixth Book, as also the Code of Theodosius de Lusoriis Danubii.
A Wooden Bridge.] Suidas writes, that near the Church of St. Mamas, there was a Bridge which consisted of twelve Arches, for there was a great Flood of Waters there. I believe this was after chang’d into a Stone Bridge.
Five Gradus, or Stairs.] At the End of this Ward, after the five Gradus, I would correct the Omission of my Author, by comparing this with the other Wards, and adding one Curator, one Vernaculus, thirty seven Collegiati, and five Vico-Magistri.
The Author, in his following summary View of the City, mentions five hundred and sixty Collegiati, but to complete the Number of them, there are wanting seven. Theodosius the Less has added three in Lib. de Commer. & Mercat. and makes the Number of them to be five hundred and sixty three.
A Summary View of the whole City.
Having taken a particular View of the City, as divided into Wards, I shall now, continues my Author, give the Reader a more large and general Description of it, to shew that its Beauty and Magnificence is not only to be ascribed to Art and good Workmanship, but that Nature herself by the Mediation of the Elements, has happily contributed to its Security and Defence. The divine Providence has with so much Wisdom consulted the Preservation of its Inhabitants, even to future Ages, that a long Tract of Land, in the Nature of a Promontory, full of Windings and Harbours in its Sides, facing the Chaps of the Black-Sea, narrow in Breadth, is strongly fortified by the Sea. The Isthmus, the only Part of the City not bounded by the Sea, is at the same Time strengthened with a double Wall with numerous Towers on its Ramparts. The City thus enclosed and defended, contains in the Whole the following Buildings. Five Palaces; fourteen Churches; five divine Houses of the Augustæ; three of the most illustrious Ladies; eight Bagnio’s; two Basilica’s; four Fora’s; two Senate-Houses; five Granaries, or Store-Houses; two Theatres; two Lusoria; four Havens; one Circo; four Cisterns; four Nymphea; three hundred and twenty two Streets; four Thousand three hundred and eight large Houses; fifty two Portico’s; a hundred and fifty three private Baths; twenty publick, and a hundred and twenty private Mills; a hundred and seventeen Gradus; five Flesh Markets; one Porphyry Pillar; two Pillars with winding Stairs; one Colossus; one Golden Tetrapylum; the Forum of Augustus; the Capitol; the Mint, or Treasury; and three Gradus by the Sea-Shore. It was under the Care and Government of fourteen Curators, fourteen Vernaculi, five hundred and sixty Collegiati, and sixty five Vico-Magistri. The Length of the City from the Porta Aurea in a direct Line to the Sea-Shore, is fourteen Thousand and seventy five Feet; the Breadth of it, six Thousand one Hundred and fifty. Thus concludes the Author of the Description, I shall now go on with my