declared to be the "equal of the Apostles."[1] Subsequently, however, this religious pile was adopted as the customary place of interment of the Imperial families, and many tombs of royal personages are now to be seen scattered around. Amongst them lie the sons of Constantine, Theodosius I and II, Arcadius, Marcian, Pulcheria, Leo I, and Zeno.[2] On leaving this spot, if we turn to the south for a short distance, we shall be enabled to examine a tall column with a heavy capital elaborately sculptured in a Byzantino-Corinthian style. An inscription on the pedestal testifies to its having been erected by the Praefect Tatian to the memory of the Emperor Marcian.[3]
The region of Sycae, built on the steep slope of the hill which rises almost from the water's edge to the north of the Golden Horn, is considered to be an integral part of the city. It is particularly associated with the brother of Arcadius, the enervated Honorius, who ruled the Western Empire for more than thirty years, an effigy rather than the reality of a king. Thus the Forum of Honorius constitutes its market-place, and its public baths are also distinguished by the name of the same prince. It possesses, moreover, a dock and a church with gilded tiles, and is fortified in the usual way by a wall with towers.[4]
- ↑ Eusebius, Vit. Constant., iv, 58, et seq.; a later hand has evidently embellished this description.
- ↑ Const. Porph., De Cer. Aul. Byz., ii, 43; Codin., p. 203.
- ↑ Corp. Inscript. Lat., Berlin, 1873, no. 738; still existing and called by the Turks the "Girls' Pillar," from two angels bearing up a shield figured on the pedestal; see Grosvenor, op. cit., p. 385; there is an engraving of it in Miss Pardoe's "Bosphorus," etc. The "girls" are utilized by Texier and P. in their frontispiece.
- ↑ Notitia, Reg. 13; Procopius, De Bel. Pers., ii, 23, etc. Perhaps not walled till later; Jn. Malala, xiii, p. 430.
