Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 1).djvu/45

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II. Topography

Having now traced the growth of the city on the Golden Horn from its origin in the dawn of Grecian history until its expansion into the capital of the greatest empire of the past, I have reached the threshold of my actual task—to place before the reader a picture of Constantinople at the beginning of the sixth century in its topographical and sociological aspects. The literary materials, though abundant, are in great part unreliable and are often devoid of information which would be found in the most unpretentious guide-book of modern times.^[1] On the other hand the monumental re-*

[Footnote: wall of Crassus against Spartacus was nearly forty miles long (Plutarch,

Crassus). Except the first, however, these were more or less temporary structures. Very substantial extempore walls are frequently mentioned by both Greek and Latin historians as having been erected during sieges, etc. See especially Caesar (i, 8) and Thucydides (iii, 21, Siege of Plataea).]*

↑ The earliest and most reliable source is the Notitia Dignitatis utriusque Imperii, etc., which dates from the time of Arcadius. To this work is prefixed a short description of Rome and CP., which enumerates the chief buildings, the number of streets, etc., in each division of those cities. Next we have the Aedificia of Procopius, the matter of which, however, does not come within the scope of the present chapter. A gap of six centuries now occurs, which can only be filled by allusions to be found in general and church historians, patristic literature, etc. We then come to a considerable work, the Anonymous, edited by A. Banduri (Venice, 1729), a medley of semi-historical and topographical information, often erroneous, ascribed to the twelfth century. A second edition of this work, introduced by the Byzantine fragment of Hesychius of Miletus, passes under the name of Geo. Codinus, who wrote about 1460. Here we draw the line between mediaeval and modern authors, and we have next the Topography of CP., by P. Gyllius, a Frenchman, who wrote on the spot about a century after the Turkish conquest. His Thracian Bosphorus, which

[1] The earliest and most reliable source is the Notitia Dignitatis utriusque Imperii, etc., which dates from the time of Arcadius. To this work is prefixed a short description of Rome and CP., which enumerates the chief buildings, the number of streets, etc., in each division of those cities. Next we have the Aedificia of Procopius, the matter of which, however, does not come within the scope of the present chapter. A gap of six centuries now occurs, which can only be filled by allusions to be found in general and church historians, patristic literature, etc. We then come to a considerable work, the Anonymous, edited by A. Banduri (Venice, 1729), a medley of semi-historical and topographical information, often erroneous, ascribed to the twelfth century. A second edition of this work, introduced by the Byzantine fragment of Hesychius of Miletus, passes under the name of Geo. Codinus, who wrote about 1460. Here we draw the line between mediaeval and modern authors, and we have next the Topography of CP., by P. Gyllius, a Frenchman, who wrote on the spot about a century after the Turkish conquest. His Thracian Bosphorus, which

[1]