The Antiquities of Constantinople. Gilles Pierre

I found no Mention there of the Port, but only τὴν χηλὴν τοῦ τείχους, that is, near the Copings of the Wall, or rather the Buttresses that support it. Had it been in the Original χηλὴ τοῦ λιμένος, it ought rather to have been translated the Leg, or the Arm. Dionysius a Byzantian mentions, that the first Winding of the Bosporus contains three Ports. The Byzantians in their time had five hundred Ships, some of which were two-oar’d Galleys; some had Rudders both at Stem and Stern, and had also their Pilates at each, and two Sets of Hands aboard, so that either in an Engagement, or upon a Retreat, there was no Necessity for them to tack about. The Byzantians, both in the Life-time and after the Death of Niger, when besieged for the Space of three Years, acted Wonders; for they not only took the Enemies Ships as they sail’d by them, but dragg’d their three-oar’d Galleys from their Moorings; for diving under Water they cut their Anchors, and by fastening small Ropes from the Stern round their Ancles, they hall’d off their Ships, which seem’d to swim merely by the natural Tyde of the Sea. Nor were the Byzantians the first who practis’d this Stratagem, but the Tyrians frequently, under a Pretence of gathering Shell-Fish, would play the same Trick; which Alexander had no sooner discover’d, than he gave Orders that the Anchors of his whole Fleet, instead of Cables, should be fasten’d to Iron Chains. In this Siege the Byzantians being reduced to great Straits, still refused to surrender, making the best Defence they could with Timber taken from their Houses. They also breeded Cables for their Ships out of their Womens Hair; nay sometimes they threw down Statues and Horses upon the Heads of their Enemies. At last their Provision being entirely spent, they took up with Hydes soften’d in Water; and these being gone, they were brought to the extreme Necessity of eating one another: At last, being wholly reduced by Famine, they were forced to a Surrender. The Romans gave no Quarter to the Soldiers, nor the principal Men of the City. The whole Town, with all its stately Walls in which it glory’d, was levelled with the Ground; and all its Theatres and Bagnio’s were demolish’d even to the small Compass of a single Street. Severus was highly pleased with so noble a Conquest. He took away the Freedom of the City, and having deprived it of the Dignity of a Commonwealth, he confiscated the Goods of the Inhabitants; and afterwards making it tributary, he gave it, with all the neighbouring Countrey, into the Hands of the Perinthians. Entering the City afterwards, and seeing the Inhabitants coming to meet him, with Olive-branches in their Hands begging Quarter, and excusing themselves for making so long a Defence, he forbore the Slaughter; yet left the Perinthians in the Possession of the Town, allowing them nevertheless a Theatre, gave Orders for building them a Portico for Hunting, and a Hippodrom, to which he adjoin’d some Bagnio’s, which he built near the Temple of Jupiter, who was called Zeuxippus. He also rebuilt the Strategium; and all the Works that were begun by Severus in his Life-time, were finish’d by his Son Antoninus.

Chap. II.

       Of the Extent of Old Byzantium.

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      THE present Inhabitants of Constantinople tell you, that Old Byzantium stood within the Compass of the first Hill in the Imperial Precinct, where the Grand Seignor’s Seraglio now stands: but I am of Opinion, from what follows it will appear, that it was of a larger Extent. Our modern Writers describe its Situation thus; that it began at the Wall of the Citadel, stretched itself to the Tower of Eugenius, and that it rose gradually up to the Strategium, the Bagnio of Achilles, and the Urbicion. From thence it pass’d on to the Chalcopratia, and the Miliarium Aureum, where there was another Urbicion of the Byzantians: Thence it lengthen’d to the Pillars of Zonarius, from whence, after a gentle Descent, it winded round by the Manganæ and the Bagnio’s of Arcadius, up to the Acropolis. I am inclinable to credit all these Writers, excepting only Eustathius, who tells us, that the Athenians made use of Byzantium, a small City, to keep their Treasure in. But Zosimus, a more ancient Historian, describes Byzantium after this Manner: It was seated, says he, on a Hill, which took up part of the Isthmus, and was bounded by a Bay called Cheras, and the Propontis. At the End of the Portico’s built by Severus the Emperor, it had a Gate set up, upon his Reconciliation with the Inhabitants, for giving Protection to Niger his Enemy. The Wall of Byzantium extended itself from the Eastern Part of the City to the Temple of Venus, and the Sea over-against Chrysopolis: from the North it descended to the Dock, and so onward to the Sea, which faces the Black Sea, and through which you sail into it. This, says he, was the ancient Extent of the City; but Dionysius, a more ancient Writer than Zosimus, as appears by his Account, which was written before its Destruction by Severus, tells us, that Byzantium contain’d in Compass at least forty Furlongs, which is a much greater Extent than the preceding Writers reported it. Herodian informs us, that Byzantium, in the Time of Severus, was the greatest City in all Thrace.

Chap. III.

       Of the Rebuilding of Byzantium by Constantine the Great, and the Largeness of it in his Time.

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      IT is recorded by Zonaras, that Constantine being inclinable to build a City, and to give it his own Name, at first pitch’d upon Sardicus a Field of Asia; afterwards, upon the Promontory Sigeum, and last of all upon Chalcedon and Byzantium, for that Purpose. Georgius Cedrinus is of Opinion, that he first pitch’d upon Thessalonica, and after he had lived there two Years, being wonderfully taken with the Delightfulness of the Place, he built the most magnificent Temples, Bagnio’s and Aqueducts; but being interrupted in his great Designs by the Plague which raged there, he was obliged to leave it, and passing away for Chalcedon, (formerly overthrown by the Persians, but then upon rebuilding) he was directed by the Eagles frequently carrying the small Stones of the Workmen from thence to Byzantium, where Constantinople ought to be built. Zonaras is of the same Opinion; and only differs as to the Story of the Stones, and says, that they were small Ropes which they used in Building. But this seems to be a Fable taken out of Dionysius a Byzantian Writer, who tells us, that Byzas had been the Founder of Byzantium, in a Place call’d Semystra, seated at the Mouth of the Rivers Cydarus and Barbysa, had not a Crow, by snatching a Piece of the Sacrifice out of the Flames, and carrying it to a Promontory of the Bosporus, directed Byzas to found Byzantium in that Place. But Constantine does not seem to me to have been so oversighted as were the ancient Chalcedonians, for which they stand recorded in the Histories of all Ages. Nay, ’tis distinguishable by any Man of a tolerable Judgment, that Byzantium was a much more commodious Situation for the Roman Empire than that of Chalcedon. The far more ancient Historians, among whom are Sozomen of Salamis and Zosimus, who wrote in the Reign of Theodosius the Less, judged more rationally on this Occasion. They tell us, without taking any Notice of Sardica, Thessalonica or Chalcedon, that Constantine debating with himself, where he might build a City, and call it by his own Name, equal in Glory and Magnificence to that of Rome, had found out a convenient Situation for that Purpose, between old Troy and the Hellespont; that he had lay’d the Foundations, and raised part of the Wall to a considerable Height, which is to be seen at this Day on the Promontory Sigeum, which Pliny calls Ajantium; because the Sepulchre of Ajax, which was in that Place, hung over the Chops of the Hellespont: They tell you farther, that anciently some Ships were station’d there, and that the Grecians, when at War with the Trojans, pitch’d their Tents in that Place: That Constantine afterwards came into an Opinion, that Byzantium was a properer Situation; that three hundred and sixty two Years after the Reign of Augustus, he rebuilt, enlarged