This epigram and its companion in Greek are still legible on the stone of the Rhegium Gate (now of Melandesia). See Paspates, op. cit., pp. 47, 50. The Porta Xylocerci has practically disappeared.
[107] Mordtmann’s exposition of these gates is the most convincing (op. cit., p. 16, etc.). I have omitted the Gate of the Seven Towers as it has always been claimed as a Turkish innovation, a view, however, which he rejects. In any case it was but a postern—there may have been others such in the extinct section of the wall.
[108] That is an S, which at this period was formed roughly like our C.
[109] Cedrenus, ii, p. 173; or a personification of the city; Codin., p. 47.
[110] Zonaras, xv, 4.
[111] A fragment still exists on the northern tower. See Grosvenor, op. cit., p. 591.
[112] Chrysoloras, loc. cit., Gyllius, De Top. CP., iv, 9.
[113] Ibid. Gyllius would seem to have been inside when making these observations, but that would be within the fortress of Yedi Koulé, rigorously guarded at that time. Doubtless the city side was adorned, but no description of the gate as a whole is left to us. The ornaments are only mentioned incidentally when recording damage done by earthquakes (in their frequency often the best friends of the modern archaeologist) and their arrangement can only be guessed at. Most likely they were of gilded bronze, a common kind of statue among the Byzantines. See Codinus, passim. The idea that the Golden Gate opened into a fortress should be abandoned. The conception of the Seven Towers seems to have originated with the Palaeologi in 1390, but Bajazet ordered the demolition of the unfinished works (Ducas, 13), and it was left to the Turkish conqueror to carry out the idea in 1458. See p. [26]. I may remark here that Mordtmann’s map has not been brought up to date as regards his own text.
[114] Cedrenus, i, p. 675.
[115] Ibid., i, p. 567; Codin., pp. 26, 47; said to have been brought from the temple of Mars at Athens.