Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 1).djvu/63

This page needs to be proofread.

of the city lies open to the water. Deeming it improbable that the town should ever be assaulted from this sequestered inlet, Constantine and his successors have omitted to fortify this bank. Originally this shore was indented by a number of small creeks,^[1] but the teeming population, overflowing into every available space, has now so crowded the strand with houses that the outer rank, founded on piles, extends beyond the water's edge.^[2] In the further part of this district the stream becomes narrower, and from a projecting point a wooden bridge has been thrown across to the opposite shore.^[3] In its vicinity a brazen dragon commemorates or suggests a legend of virgins ravished and devoured until the destruction of the monster by St. Hypatius.^[4] A slight expansion of the Golden Horn at Blachernae is called the Silver Bay.^[5]; see Paspates, op. cit., p. 68.]

↑ Strabo, vii, 6; Gyllius, op. cit., iii, 9.
↑ Zosimus, ii, 35. This circumstance, and the fact that almost all the towers along here bear the name of Theophilus (Paspates, op. cit., p. 4), suggest that this side was not walled till the ninth century. Chron. Paschal. (an. 439) doubtless refers only to the completion of the wall on the Propontis. Grosvenor (p. 570) adopts this view, but as usual without giving reasons or references. He is wrong in saying that the chain was first broken in 1203 by the Crusaders; it was broken in 823 (Cedrenus, p. 80; Zonaras, xv, 23). I do not credit the statement of Sidonius Ap. (Laus Anthemii) that houses were raised in the Propontis on foundations formed of hydraulic cement from Puteoli. In any case, such could have been obtained much nearer, viz., across the water at Cyzicus (Pliny, Hist. Nat., xxxv, 47). The Bp. of Clermont never visited CP.
↑ Notitia, Reg. 14. There was a populous suburb at Blachernae, which had walls of its own before Theodosius included it within the city proper.
↑ Codin., pp. 30, 120; Suidas, sb. Mamante (St. Mamas, however, appears to have been outside the walls; Theophanes, an. 6304, etc.); Glycas, iv. Versions of the same story, probably. Gyllius' memory fails him on this occasion.
↑ [Greek: Argyrolimnê

[1] Strabo, vii, 6; Gyllius, op. cit., iii, 9.

[2] Zosimus, ii, 35. This circumstance, and the fact that almost all the towers along here bear the name of Theophilus (Paspates, op. cit., p. 4), suggest that this side was not walled till the ninth century. Chron. Paschal. (an. 439) doubtless refers only to the completion of the wall on the Propontis. Grosvenor (p. 570) adopts this view, but as usual without giving reasons or references. He is wrong in saying that the chain was first broken in 1203 by the Crusaders; it was broken in 823 (Cedrenus, p. 80; Zonaras, xv, 23). I do not credit the statement of Sidonius Ap. (Laus Anthemii) that houses were raised in the Propontis on foundations formed of hydraulic cement from Puteoli. In any case, such could have been obtained much nearer, viz., across the water at Cyzicus (Pliny, Hist. Nat., xxxv, 47). The Bp. of Clermont never visited CP.

[3] Notitia, Reg. 14. There was a populous suburb at Blachernae, which had walls of its own before Theodosius included it within the city proper.

[4] Codin., pp. 30, 120; Suidas, sb. Mamante (St. Mamas, however, appears to have been outside the walls; Theophanes, an. 6304, etc.); Glycas, iv. Versions of the same story, probably. Gyllius' memory fails him on this occasion.

[5] [Greek: Argyrolimnê

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]