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100-582: The monastery was situated beyond the Chalkoprateia by the sea and served as the counterpart of the Blachernai so that these structures bracket the city of Constantinople as well as the processions such as the weekly Blachernai procession that began at the Theodosian walls and ended at Chalkoprateia. However, the exact location of the monastery is still subject to discussion. The Hodegon Monastery

200-458: A Victory , which was cast down in the reign of Michael III ; and a crowned Fortune of the city. In 965, Nikephoros II Phokas installed the captured bronze city gates of Mopsuestia in the place of the original ones. The main gate itself was covered by an outer wall, pierced by a single gate, which in later centuries was flanked by an ensemble of reused marble reliefs. According to descriptions of Pierre Gilles and English travelers from

300-450: A 1.5 m tall crenellated wall on the inner side, serving as a first line of defence. Transverse walls cross the moat, tapering towards the top so as not to be used as bridges. Some of them have been shown to contain pipes carrying water into the city from the hill country to the city's north and west. Their role has therefore been interpreted as that of aqueducts for filling the moat and as dams dividing it into compartments and allowing

400-468: A cave under the earth near the Golden Gate, where he waits to be brought to life again to conquer the city back for Christians. The legend explained the later walling up of the gate as a Turkish precaution against this prophecy. After his conquest of Constantinople in 1453, Sultan Mehmed II built a new fort in 1458. By adding three larger towers to the four pre-existing ones (towers 8 to 11) on

500-479: A painting with a square panel that was covered with precious stones such as emeralds , sapphires , topaz , and pearls . When the icon was sent to Pulcheria, she took a vow of chastity. The name of the icon, Panagia Hodegetria ("She who shows the Way"), is given through the legend which tells that nearby the church of the monastery was a source where the blind and all who suffered eye disorders came to be healed, since

600-480: A part in the city's fall to Ottoman forces in 1453 but were not able to breach its walls. The walls were largely maintained intact during most of the Ottoman period until sections began to be dismantled in the 19th century, as the city outgrew its medieval boundaries. Despite lack of maintenance, many parts of the walls survived and are still standing today. A large-scale restoration program has been underway since

700-445: A prophecy, it was this gate that Western Emperor Frederick Barbarossa would enter the city through. It was re-opened in 1346, but closed again before the siege of 1453 and remained closed until 1886, leading to its early Ottoman name, Kapalı Kapı ("Closed Gate"). The gate ( Πύλη τοῦ Δευτέρου ) is located between towers 30 and 31, little remains of the original gate, and the modern reconstruction may not be accurate. The Gate of

800-534: A short description of its course by Zosimus and that its main gate was located at the end of a porticoed avenue (the first part of the later Mese ) and shortly before the entrance of the later Forum of Constantine . The wall seems to have extended from near the modern Galata Bridge in the Eminönü quarter south through the vicinity of the Nuruosmaniye Mosque to curve around the southern wall of

900-420: A terrace, the peribolos ( περίβολος ). Between the outer wall and the moat ( σοῦδα , souda ) there stretched an outer terrace, the parateichion ( τὸ ἔξω παρατείχιον ), while a low breastwork crowned the moat's eastern escarpment. Access to both terraces was possible through posterns on the sides of the walls' towers. The inner wall is a solid structure, 4.5–6 m thick and 12 m high. It

1000-527: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Walls of Constantinople The Walls of Constantinople ( Turkish : Konstantinopolis Surları ; Greek : Τείχη της Κωνσταντινουπόλης ) are a series of defensive stone walls that have surrounded and protected the city of Constantinople (today Istanbul in Turkey ) since its founding as the new capital of the Roman Empire by Constantine

1100-762: Is another unclear case. Van Millingen identifies it with the Old Golden Gate, while Janin considers it to have been located on the northern slope of the Seventh Hill. The last known gate is the Gate of Melantias ( Πόρτα τῆς Μελαντιάδος , Porta tēs Melantiados ), whose location is also debated. Van Millingen considered it to be a gate of the Theodosian Wall (the Pege Gate ), while more recently, Janin and Mango have rebutted this, suggesting that it

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1200-547: Is believed to be named after the term hodegoi , which referred to the guides who led the blinds toward the miraculous well within the structure. Tradition states that the monastery held the Icon of the Hodegetria , believed to have been painted by Saint Luke . According to an account by Xanthopoulos, this relic was brought from Antioch . While it was at Hodegon, Ruy Gonzales de Clavijo described it sometime in 1403 to 1406 as

1300-404: Is faced with carefully cut limestone blocks, while its core is filled with mortar made of lime and crushed bricks. Between seven and eleven bands of brick , approximately 40 cm thick, traverse the structure, not only as a form of decoration, but also strengthening the cohesion of the structure by bonding the stone façade with the mortar core, and increasing endurance to earthquakes . The wall

1400-439: Is of middle or late Byzantine construction. The corresponding gate in the outer wall was preserved until the early 20th century, but has since disappeared. It is very likely that this gate is to be identified with the Gate of Kalagros ( Πύλη τοῦ Καλάγρου ). Modern Yeni Mevlevihane Kapısı , located between towers 50 and 51 is commonly referred to as the Gate of Rhegion ( Πόρτα Ῥηγίου ) in early modern texts, allegedly named after

1500-446: Is the first gate to be encountered. It was the main ceremonial entrance into the capital, used especially for the occasions of a triumphal entry of an emperor into the capital on the occasion of military victories or other state occasions such as coronations. On rare occasions, as a mark of honor, the entry through the gate was allowed to non-imperial visitors: papal legates (in 519 and 868) and, in 710, to Pope Constantine . The Gate

1600-542: The peribolos by small posterns. Generally speaking, most of the surviving towers of the main wall have been rebuilt in Byzantine or Ottoman times, and only the foundations of some are of original Theodosian construction. Furthermore, while until the Komnenian period , the reconstructions largely remained true to the original model, later modifications ignored the windows and embrasures on the upper story and focused on

1700-555: The Lycus and near the point where the river passed under the wall. In earlier centuries, it was decorated with many statues, including one of Constantine, which fell down in an earthquake in 740. The only gate whose location is known with certainty, aside from the Old Golden Gate, is the Gate of Saint Aemilianus ( Πόρτα τοῦ ἁγίου Αἰμιλιανοῦ , Porta tou hagiou Aimilianou ), named in Turkish Davutpaşa Kapısı . It lay at

1800-464: The tower terrace as the sole fighting platform . The outer wall was 2 m thick at its base, and featured arched chambers on the level of the peribolos , crowned with a battlemented walkway, reaching a height of 8.5–9 m. Access to the outer wall from the city was provided either through the main gates or through small posterns on the base of the inner wall's towers. The outer wall likewise had towers, situated approximately midway between

1900-475: The "City of Constantine", in dedication to its founder. New Rome was protected by a new wall about 2.8 km (15 stadia ) west of the Severan wall. Constantine's fortification consisted of a single wall, reinforced with towers at regular distances, which began to be constructed in 324 and was completed under his son Constantius II (r. 337–361). Only the approximate course of the wall is known: it began at

2000-757: The "Tower of Basil and Constantine " (Greek: Pyrgos Basileiou kai Konstantinou ) on the Propontis coast to the area of the Palace of the Porphyrogenitus ( Turkish : Tekfur Sarayı ) in the Blachernae quarter. The outer wall and the moat terminate even earlier, at the height of the Gate of Adrianople. The section between the Blachernae and the Golden Horn does not survive since the line of

2100-543: The 17th century, these reliefs were arranged in two tiers, and featured mythological scenes, including the Labours of Hercules . These reliefs, lost since the 17th century with the exception of some fragments now in the Istanbul Archaeological Museum , were probably put in place in the 9th or 10th centuries to form the appearance of a triumphal gate. According to other descriptions, the outer gate

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2200-521: The 1980s. According to tradition, the city was founded as Byzantium by Greek colonists from the Attic town of Megara , led by the eponymous Byzas , around 658 BC. The city then consisted of a small region around an acropolis located on the easternmost hill (corresponding to the modern site of the Topkapı Palace ). According to the late Byzantine Patria of Constantinople , ancient Byzantium

2300-521: The 1st century BC and later show the head of Artemis with bow and quiver, and feature a crescent with what appears to be an eight-rayed star on the reverse. According to accounts which vary in some of the details, in 340 BC the Byzantines and their allies the Athenians were under siege by the troops of Philip of Macedon . On a particularly dark and wet night Philip attempted a surprise attack but

2400-619: The Blues and Greens, the supporters of chariot-racing teams , supplied 16,000 men between them for the building effort. Theophanes the Confessor reports renewed earthquake damage in 557 . It appears that large parts survived relatively intact until the 9th century: the 11th-century historian Kedrenos records that the "wall at Exokionion", likely a portion of the Constantinian wall, collapsed in an earthquake in 867. Only traces of

2500-473: The Byzantine scholar Manuel Chrysoloras described it as being built of "wide marble blocks with a lofty opening", and crowned by a kind of stoa . In late Byzantine times, a painting of the Crucifixion was allegedly placed on the gate, leading to its later Ottoman name, İsakapı ("Gate of Jesus "). It was destroyed by an earthquake in 1509 , but its approximate location is known through the presence of

2600-630: The Church of St. Anthony at the Golden Horn, near the modern Atatürk Bridge , ran southwest and then southwards, passed east of the great open cisterns of Mocius and of Aspar , and ended near the Church of the Theotokos of the Rhabdos on the Propontis coast, somewhere between the later sea gates of St. Aemilianus and Psamathos. Already by the early 5th century, Constantinople had expanded outside

2700-657: The Constantinian Wall in the extramural area known as the Exokionion or Exakionion . The wall survived during much of the Byzantine period, even though it was replaced by the Theodosian Walls as the city's primary defense. An ambiguous passage refers to extensive damage to the city's "inner wall" from an earthquake on 25 September 478, which likely refers to the Constantinian wall. When repairs were being undertaken, to prevent an invasion by Atilla ,

2800-476: The Gate of Adrianople to the Blachernae, the walls fall to a level of some 60 m. From there the later walls of Blachernae project sharply to the west, reaching the coastal plain at the Golden Horn near the so-called Prisons of Anemas. The Theodosian Walls consist of the main inner wall ( μέγα τεῖχος , mega teichos , "great wall"), separated from the lower outer wall ( ἔξω τεῖχος , exō teichos or μικρὸν τεῖχος , mikron teichos , "small wall") by

2900-422: The Gate of Myriandr[i]on or Polyandrion ("Place of Many Men"), possibly a reference to its proximity to a cemetery. It is the best-preserved of the gates, and retains substantially unaltered from its original, 5th-century appearance. The so-called Fourth Military Gate stands between towers 59 and 60, and is currently walled up. Recently, it has been suggested that this gate is actually the Gate of St. Romanus, but

3000-418: The Gate of Rhegion and the Gate of Charisius, can be established directly from the literary evidence. In the traditional nomenclature, established by Philipp Anton Dethier in 1873, the gates are distinguished into the "Public Gates" and the "Military Gates", which alternated over the course of the walls. According to Dethier's theory, the former were given names and were open to civilian traffic, leading across

3100-531: The Gate of Rhegion to the Fifth Military Gate (by B. Tsangadas) or from the Gate of St. Romanus to the Gate of Adrianople (by van Millingen). The walls survived the entire Ottoman period and appeared in travelogues of foreign visitors to Constantinople/Istanbul. A 16th-century Chinese geographical treatise, for example, recorded, "Its city has two walls. A sovereign prince lives in the city...". The wall contained nine main gates, which pierced both

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3200-440: The Golden Gate's construction is uncertain, with scholars divided between Theodosius I and Theodosius II . Earlier scholars favored the former, but the current majority view tends to the latter, meaning that the gate was constructed as an integral part of the Theodosian Walls. The debate has been carried over to a now-lost Latin inscription in metal letters that stood above the doors and commemorated their gilding in celebration of

3300-530: The Great . With numerous additions and modifications during their history, they were the last great fortification system of antiquity , and one of the most complex and elaborate systems ever built. Initially built by Constantine the Great, the walls surrounded the new city on all sides, protecting it against attack from both sea and land. As the city grew, the famous double line of the Theodosian Walls

3400-584: The Hippodrome, and then going northeast to meet the old walls near the Bosporus. The Patria also mentions the existence of another wall during the siege of Byzantium by Constantine the Great during the latter's conflict with Licinius , in 324. The text mentions that a fore-wall ( proteichisma ) ran near the Philadephion , located at about the middle of the later, Constantinian city, suggesting

3500-466: The Holy Virgin would have appeared to two blind people and guided them here where she restored their vision. The sanctuary was rebuilt by Emperor Michael III (842–867) but today only a few ruins are visible near Gülhane Park . 41°0′32.51″N 28°59′6.12″E  /  41.0090306°N 28.9850333°E  / 41.0090306; 28.9850333 This Byzantine Empire –related article

3600-816: The Romans';), had ceased to exist. Other places were historically known as Byzántion (Βυζάντιον) – a city in Libya mentioned by Stephanus of Byzantium and another on the western coast of India referred to by the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea ; in both cases the names were probably adaptations of names in local languages. Faustus of Byzantium was from a city of that name in Cilicia . The origins of Byzantium are shrouded in legend. Tradition says that Byzas of Megara (a city-state near Athens ) founded

3700-485: The Second Military Gate, which is located further north. Its name derives from the fact that it led to a wooden circus ( amphitheatre ) outside the walls. The gate complex is approximately 12 m wide and almost 20 m high, while the gate itself spans 5 m. According to a story related by Niketas Choniates , in 1189 the gate was walled off by Emperor Isaac II Angelos , because according to

3800-806: The Spring or Pēgē Gate ( Πύλη τῆς Πηγῆς in Greek) was named after a popular monastery outside the Walls, the Zōodochos Pēgē (" Life-giving Spring ") in the modern suburb of Balıklı . Its modern Turkish name, Gate of Selymbria (Tr. Silivri Kapısı or Silivrikapı , Gk. Πύλη τῆς Συλημβρίας ), appeared in Byzantine sources shortly before 1453. It lies between the heptagonal towers 35 and 36, which were extensively rebuilt in later Byzantine times: its southern tower bears an inscription dated to 1439 commemorating repairs carried out under John VIII Palaiologos . The gate arch

3900-660: The Thracian personal name Byzas which means "he-goat". Ancient Greek legend refers to the Greek king Byzas , the leader of the Megarian colonists and founder of the city. The name Lygos for the city, which likely corresponds to an earlier Thracian settlement, is mentioned by Pliny the Elder in his Natural History . Byzántios, plural Byzántioi ( Ancient Greek : Βυζάντιος, Βυζάντιοι , Latin : Byzantius ; adjective

4000-556: The Xerolophos Gate and the Gate of Saturninus, is mentioned in the Notitia Urbis Constantinopolitanae , which further states that the city wall itself in the region around it was "ornately decorated". The gate stood somewhere on the southern slopes of the Seventh Hill. Its construction is often attributed to Constantine, but is in fact of uncertain age. It survived until the 14th century, when

4100-607: The city in 411 BC, to bring the Athenians into submission. The Athenian military later retook the city in 408 BC, when the Spartans had withdrawn following their settlement. After siding with Pescennius Niger against the victorious Septimius Severus , the city was besieged by Roman forces and suffered extensive damage in AD 196. Byzantium was rebuilt by Septimius Severus, now emperor, and quickly regained its previous prosperity. It

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4200-587: The city itself, but it seems likely to have been an effect of being credited with the intervention against Philip and the subsequent honors. This was a common process in ancient Greece, as in Athens where the city was named after Athena in honor of such an intervention in time of war. Cities in the Roman Empire often continued to issue their own coinage. "Of the many themes that were used on local coinage, celestial and astral symbols often appeared, mostly stars or crescent moons." The wide variety of these issues, and

4300-431: The city supported Pescennius Niger ( r.  193–194 ) in his war against Septimius Severus ( r.  193–211 ). According to the account of Cassius Dio , the city held out against Severan forces for three years, until 196, with its inhabitants resorting even to throwing bronze statues at the besiegers when they ran out of other projectiles. Severus punished the city harshly: the strong walls were demolished, and

4400-560: The city was called Constantinople (Greek Κωνσταντινούπολις, Konstantinoupolis , "city of Constantine"). This combination of imperialism and location would affect Constantinople's role as the nexus between the continents of Europe and Asia. It was a commercial, cultural, and diplomatic centre and for centuries formed the capital of the Byzantine Empire , which decorated the city with numerous monuments, some still standing today. With its strategic position, Constantinople controlled

4500-459: The city when he sailed northeast across the Aegean Sea . The date is usually given as 667 BC on the authority of Herodotus , who states the city was founded 17 years after Chalcedon . Eusebius , who wrote almost 800 years later, dates the founding of Chalcedon to 685/4 BC, but he also dates the founding of Byzantium to 656 BC (or a few years earlier depending on the edition). Herodotus' dating

4600-444: The city". To this day it remains the largest and most populous city in Turkey , although Ankara is now the national capital. By the late Hellenistic or early Roman period (1st century BC), the star and crescent motif was associated to some degree with Byzantium; even though it became more widely used as the royal emblem of Mithradates VI Eupator (who for a time incorporated the city into his empire ). Some Byzantine coins of

4700-523: The city's Seventh Hill. From there the wall turns sharply to the northeast, climbing up to the Gate of St. Romanus, located near the peak of the Seventh Hill at some 68 m above sea level. From there the wall descends into the valley of the river Lycus, where it reaches its lowest point at 35 m above sea level. Climbing the slope of the Sixth Hill, the wall then rises up to the Gate of Charisius or Gate of Adrianople, at some 76 m height. From

4800-722: The coin, dates from the 12th century. Later, the name Byzantium became common in the West to refer to the Eastern Roman Empire , whose capital was Constantinople. As a term for the east Roman state as a whole, Byzantium was introduced by the historian Hieronymus Wolf only in 1555, a century after the last remnants of the empire, whose inhabitants continued to refer to their polity as the Roman Empire ( Medieval Greek : Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων , romanized :  Basileía tōn Rhōmaíōn , lit.   'empire of

4900-491: The crescent and star, and the walls of her city were her provenance. This contradicts claims that only the symbol of the crescent was meant to symbolize Hecate, whereas the star was only added later in order to symbolize the Virgin Mary, as Constantine I is said to have rededicated the city to her in the year 330. It is unclear precisely how the symbol Hecate/Artemis, one of many goddesses would have been transferred to

5000-407: The defeat of an unnamed usurper: Haec loca Theudosius decorat post fata tyranni. aurea saecla gerit qui portam construit auro. (English translation) Theodosius adorned these places after the downfall of the tyrant. He brought a golden age who built the gate from gold. While the legend has not been reported by any known Byzantine author, an investigation of the surviving holes wherein

5100-400: The defeat of the usurper Magnus Maximus (r. 383–388) and was only later incorporated into the Theodosian Walls. The gate, built of large square blocks of polished white marble fitted together without cement, has the form of a triumphal arch with three arched gates, the middle one larger than the two others. The gate is flanked by large square towers, which form the 9th and 10th towers of

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5200-623: The empire. The Anglicization of Latin Byzantinus yielded "Byzantine", with 15th and 16th century forms including Byzantin , Bizantin(e) , Bezantin(e) , and Bysantin as well as Byzantian and Bizantian . The name Byzantius and Byzantinus were applied from the 9th century to gold Byzantine coinage , reflected in the French besant ( d'or ), Italian bisante , and English besant , byzant , or bezant . The English usage, derived from Old French besan (pl. besanz ), and relating to

5300-514: The evidence is uncertain. Byzantium Latin Byzantium ( / b ɪ ˈ z æ n t i ə m , - ʃ ə m / ) or Byzantion ( Ancient Greek : Βυζάντιον ) was an ancient Greek city in classical antiquity that became known as Constantinople in late antiquity and Istanbul today. The Greek name Byzantion and its Latinization Byzantium continued to be used as a name of Constantinople sporadically and to varying degrees during

5400-491: The expansion of the city beyond the Severan Wall by this time. Like Severus before him, Constantine began to punish the city for siding with his defeated rival, but he too soon realised the advantages of Byzantium's location. From 324 to 336, the city was thoroughly rebuilt and inaugurated on 11 May 330 under the name of "New Rome" or "Second Rome". Eventually, the city would most commonly be referred to as Constantinople,

5500-510: The first tower of the land walls, at the junction with the sea wall. It features a wreathed Chi-Rhō Christogram above it. It is also known as the Tabak Kapı ('Gate of the Tannery') in reference to the nearby leather works. Following the walls from south to north, the Golden Gate (Greek: Χρυσεία Πύλη , Chryseia Pylē ; Latin: Porta Aurea ; Turkish: Altınkapı or Yaldızlıkapı ),

5600-639: The fort by Sultan Bayezid I (r. 1389–1402), who otherwise threatened to blind his son Manuel , whom he held captive. Emperor John VIII Palaiologos attempted to rebuild it in 1434, but was thwarted by threats from Sultan Murad II . According to one of the many Greek legends about the Constantinople's fall to the Ottomans, when the Turks entered the city, an angel rescued the emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos , turned him into marble and placed him in

5700-417: The gate and extending a wall some 350 m to the sea walls, thus forming a separate fortified enceinte inside the city to serve as a final refuge. In the event, John V was soon after forced to flee there from a coup led by his grandson, John VII . The fort held out successfully in the subsequent siege that lasted several months, and in which cannons were possibly employed. In 1391 John V was compelled to raze

5800-658: The inner Theodosian wall, he formed the Fortress of the Seven Towers ( Turkish : Yedikule Hisarı or Zindanları ). It lost its function as a gate, and for much of the Ottoman era, it was used as a treasury, archive, and state prison. It eventually became a museum in 1895. The Xylokerkos or Xerokerkos Gate ( Πύλη τοῦ Ξυλοκέρκου/Ξηροκέρκου ), now known as the Belgrade Gate ( Belgrat Kapısı ), lies between towers 22 and 23. Alexander van Millingen identified it with

5900-512: The inner Theodosian wall. With the exception of the central portal, the gate remained open to everyday traffic. The structure was richly decorated with numerous statues, including a statue of Theodosius I on an elephant-drawn quadriga on top, echoing the Porta Triumphalis of Rome, which survived until it fell down in the 740 Constantinople earthquake . Other sculptures were a large cross, which fell in an earthquake in 561 or 562;

6000-412: The inner and the outer walls, and a number of smaller posterns . The exact identification of several gates is debatable for a number of reasons. The Byzantine chroniclers provide more names than the number of the gates, the original Greek names fell mostly out of use during the Ottoman period, and literary and archaeological sources provide often contradictory information. Only three gates, the Golden Gate,

6100-477: The inner wall's towers, and acting in supporting role to them. They are spaced at 48–78 m, with an average distance of 50–66 m. Of the outer wall's towers, 62 survive. With few exceptions, they are square or crescent-shaped, 12–14 m tall and 4 m wide. They featured a room with windows on the level of the peribolos , crowned by a battlemented terrace, while their lower portions were either solid or featured small posterns, which allowed access to

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6200-705: The juncture with the sea walls , and served the communication with the coast. According to the Chronicon Paschale , the Church of St Mary of Rhabdos, where the Rod of Moses was kept, stood next to the gate. The Old Gate of the Prodromos ( Παλαιὰ Πόρτα τοῦ Προδρόμου , Palaia Porta tou Prodromou ), named after the nearby Church of St John the Baptist (called Prodromos , "the Forerunner", in Greek),

6300-661: The major trade routes between Asia and Europe, as well as the passage from the Mediterranean Sea to the Black Sea . On May 29, 1453, the city was conquered by the Ottoman Turks , and again became the capital of a powerful state, the Ottoman Empire . The Turks called the city "Istanbul" (although it was not officially renamed until 1930); the name derives from the Greek phrase "στην πόλη", which means "to

6400-402: The metal letters were riveted verified its accuracy. It also showed that the first line stood on the western face of the arch, while the second on the eastern. According to the current view, this refers to the usurper Joannes (r. 423–425), while according to the supporters of the traditional view, it indicates the gate's construction as a free-standing triumphal arch in 388–391 to commemorate

6500-445: The moat ended at the Gate of St. Romanus, and did not resume until after the Gate of Adrianople. The weakest section of the wall was the so-called Mesoteichion ( Μεσοτείχιον , "Middle Wall"). Modern scholars are not in agreement over the extent of that portion of the wall, which has been variously defined from as narrowly as the stretch between the Gate of St. Romanus and the Fifth Military Gate (by A.M. Schneider) to as broad as from

6600-474: The moat on bridges, and the latter were known by numbers, were restricted to military use and led only to the outer sections of the walls. Today that division is, if retained at all, only a historiographical convention. There is sufficient reason to believe that several of the "Military Gates" were also used by civilian traffic. In addition, a number of them have proper names, and the established sequence of numbering them, based on their perceived correspondence with

6700-406: The names of certain city quarters lying between the Constantinian and Theodosian Walls, which have numerical origins, has been shown to be erroneous. For instance, the Deuteron , the "Second" Quarter, was located not in the southwest behind the Gate of the Deuteron or "Second Military Gate", as would be expected, but in the northwestern part of the city. The gate is a small postern, which lies at

6800-400: The nearby İsakapı Mescidi mosque. The identity and location of the Gate of At[t]alos ( Πόρτα Ἀτ[τ]άλου , Porta At[t]alou ) are unclear. Cyril Mango identifies it with the Old Golden Gate; van Millingen places it on the Seventh Hill, at a height probably corresponding to one of the later gates of the Theodosian Wall in that area; and Raymond Janin places it further north, across

6900-401: The outer terrace. The outer wall was a formidable defensive edifice in its own right: in the sieges of 1422 and 1453, the Byzantines and their allies, being too few to hold both lines of wall, concentrated on the defence of the outer wall. The moat was situated at a distance of about 20 m from the outer wall. The moat itself was over 20 m wide and as much as 10 m deep, featuring

7000-412: The same) referred to Byzantion's inhabitants, also used as an ethnonym for the people of the city and as a family name. In the Middle Ages , Byzántion was also a synecdoche for the eastern Roman Empire . (An ellipsis of Medieval Greek : Βυζάντιον κράτος , romanized :  Byzántion krátos ). Byzantinós ( Medieval Greek : Βυζαντινός , Latin : Byzantinus ) denoted an inhabitant of

7100-453: The sea at the later quarter of Mangana. This wall was protected by twenty-seven towers and had at least two landward gates, one which survived to become known as the Arch of Urbicius, and one where the Milion monument was later located. On the seaward side, the wall was much lower. Although the author of the Patria asserts that this wall dated to the time of Byzas, the French researcher Raymond Janin thinks it more likely that it reflects

7200-478: The services of the city's populace in this task. After the Latin conquest of 1204, the walls fell increasingly into disrepair, and the revived post-1261 Byzantine state lacked the resources to maintain them, except in times of direct threat. In their present state, the Theodosian Walls stretch for about 5.7 km (3.5 mi) from south to north, from the "Marble Tower" ( Turkish : Mermer Kule ), also known as

7300-567: The situation after the city was rebuilt by the Spartan general Pausanias , who conquered the city in 479 BC. This wall is known to have been repaired, using tombstones, under the leadership of a certain Leo in 340 BC, against an attack by Philip II of Macedon . Byzantium was relatively unimportant during the early Roman period. Contemporaries described it as wealthy, well peopled and well fortified, but that affluence came to an end because

7400-500: The suburb of Rhegion (modern Küçükçekmece ), or as the Gate of Rhousios ( Πόρτα τοῦ Ῥουσίου ) after the hippodrome faction of the Reds ( ῥούσιοι , rhousioi ) which was supposed to have taken part in its repair. From Byzantine texts it appears that the correct form is Gate of Rhesios ( Πόρτα Ῥησίου ), named according to the 10th-century Suda lexicon after an ancient general of Greek Byzantium . A.M. Schneider also identifies it with

7500-444: The thousand-year existence of the Eastern Roman Empire , which was commonly referred to by the former name of that city, the Byzantine Empire . Byzantium was colonized by Greeks from Megara in the 7th century BC and remained primarily Greek-speaking until its conquest by the Ottoman Empire in AD 1453. The etymology of Byzantium is unknown. It has been suggested that the name is of Thracian origin. It may be derived from

7600-428: The top. Its interior was usually divided by a floor into two chambers, which did not communicate with each other. The lower chamber, which opened through the main wall to the city, was used for storage, while the upper one could be entered from the wall's walkway, and had windows for view and for firing projectiles. Access to the wall was provided by large ramps along their side. The lower floor could also be accessed from

7700-465: The town was deprived of its civic status, being reduced to a mere village dependent on Heraclea Perinthus . However, appreciating the city's strategic importance, Severus eventually rebuilt it and endowed it with many monuments, including a Hippodrome and the Baths of Zeuxippus , as well as a new set of walls, located some 300–400 m to the west of the old ones. Little is known of the Severan Wall save for

7800-519: The wall appear to have survived in later ages, although Alexander van Millingen states that some parts survived in the region of the İsakapı until the early 19th century. In 2018 the construction of Yenikapı Transfer Center unearthed a section of the foundation of the wall of Constantine. The names of a number of gates of the Constantinian Wall survive, but scholars debate their identity and exact location. The Old Golden Gate (Latin: Porta Aurea , Ancient Greek: Χρυσεία Πύλη ), known also as

7900-463: The walls was later brought forward to cover the suburb of Blachernae, and its original course is impossible to ascertain, as it lies buried beneath the modern city. From the Sea of Marmara, the wall turns sharply to the northeast until it reaches the Golden Gate, at about 14 m above sea level. From there and until the Gate of Rhegion the wall follows a more or less straight line to the north, climbing

8000-554: The walls were damaged by earthquakes and floods of the Lycus river . Repairs were undertaken on numerous occasions, as testified by the numerous inscriptions commemorating the emperors or their servants who undertook to restore them. The responsibility for these repairs rested on an official variously known as the Domestic of the Walls or the Count of the Walls ( Δομέστικος/Κόμης τῶν τειχέων , Domestikos/Komēs tōn teicheōn ), who employed

8100-455: The water to be retained over the course of the walls. According to Alexander van Millingen , there is little direct evidence in the accounts of the city's sieges to suggest that the moat was ever actually flooded. In the sections north of the Gate of St. Romanus, the steepness of the slopes of the Lycus valley made the construction maintenance of the moat problematic; it is probable therefore that

8200-567: The west of the old Constantinian Wall, were erected during the reign of Emperor Theodosius II ( r.  402–450 ), after whom they were named. The work was carried out in two phases, with the first phase erected during Theodosius' minority under the direction of Anthemius , the praetorian prefect of the East , and was finished in 413 according to a law in the Codex Theodosianus . An inscription discovered in 1993 however records that

8300-439: The work lasted for nine years, indicating that construction had already begun c.  404/405 , in the reign of Emperor Arcadius . This initial construction consisted of a single curtain wall with towers, which now forms the inner circuit of the Theodosian Walls. Both the Constantinian and the original Theodosian walls were severely damaged in two earthquakes, on 25 September 437 and 6 November 447 . The latter

8400-459: The work, the walls were restored in a record 60 days, according to the Byzantine chroniclers and three inscriptions found in situ . It is at this date that the majority of scholars believe the second, outer wall to have been added, as well as a wide moat opened in front of the walls, but the validity of that interpretation is questionable; the outer wall was possibly an integral part of the original fortification concept. Throughout their history,

8500-486: The works of Hesychius of Miletus , who in all probability lived in the time of Justinian I . His works survive only in fragments preserved in Photius and the tenth century lexicographer Suidas . The tale is also related by Stephanus of Byzantium , and Eustathius . Devotion to Hecate was especially favored by the Byzantines for her aid in having protected them from the incursions of Philip of Macedon. Her symbols were

8600-787: Was added to the administrative province of Skudra . Though Achaemenid control of the city was never as stable as compared to other cities in Thrace , it was considered, alongside Sestos , to be one of the foremost Achaemenid ports on the European coast of the Bosphorus and the Hellespont . Byzantium was besieged by Greek forces during the Peloponnesian War . As part of Sparta 's strategy for cutting off grain supplies to Athens during their siege of Athens, Sparta took control of

8700-457: Was also topped by a statue of Victory , holding a crown. Despite its ceremonial role, the Golden Gate was one of the strongest positions along the walls of the city and withstood several attacks during the various sieges. With the addition of transverse walls on the peribolos between the inner and outer walls, it formed a virtually separate fortress. Its military value was recognized by John VI Kantakouzenos (r. 1347–1354), who records that it

8800-532: Was bound to Perinthus during the period of Septimius Severus. After the war, Byzantium lost its city status and free city privileges, but Caracalla persuaded Severus to restore these rights. In appreciation, the Byzantines named Caracalla an archon of their city. The strategic and highly defensible (due to being surrounded by water on almost all sides) location of Byzantium attracted Roman Emperor Constantine I who, in AD 330, refounded it as an imperial residence inspired by Rome itself, known as Nova Roma . Later

8900-482: Was built in the 5th century. Although the other sections of the walls were less elaborate, they were, when well-manned, almost impregnable for any medieval besieger. They saved the city, and the Byzantine Empire with it, during sieges by the Avar–Sassanian coalition, Arabs , Rus' , and Bulgars , among others. The fortifications retained their usefulness after the advent of gunpowder siege cannons, which played

9000-621: Was emulated elsewhere, with several cities naming their principal entrance thus, for instance Thessaloniki (also known as the Vardar Gate) or Antioch (the Gate of Daphne), as well as the Kievan Rus' , who built monumental "Golden Gates" at Kiev and Vladimir . The entrance to San Francisco Bay , California , was similarly named the Golden Gate in the mid-19th century, in a distant historical tribute to Byzantium. The date of

9100-587: Was enclosed by a small wall that began on the northern edge of the acropolis, extended west to the Tower of Eugenios, then went south and west towards the Strategion and the Baths of Achilles , continued south to the area known in Byzantine times as Chalkoprateia , and then turned, in the area of the Hagia Sophia , in a loop towards the northeast, crossed the regions known as Topoi and Arcadianae and reached

9200-585: Was especially powerful and destroyed large parts of the wall, including 57 towers. Subsequent earthquakes, including another major one in January ;448, compounded the damage. Theodosius II ordered the praetorian prefect Constantine to supervise the repairs, made all the more urgent as the city was threatened by the presence of Attila the Hun in the Balkans . Employing the city's chariot-racing factions in

9300-606: Was later favored by Constantine the Great , who celebrated Byzantium's 1,000th anniversary between the years 333 and 334. Byzantium was mainly a trading city due to its location at the Black Sea 's only entrance. Byzantium later conquered Chalcedon, across the Bosphorus on the Asiatic side. The city was taken by the Persian Empire at the time of the Scythian campaign (513 BC) of Emperor Darius I (r. 522–486 BC), and

9400-590: Was located on the Constantinian Wall. While Mango identifies it with the Gate of the Prodromos, Janin considers the name to have been a corruption of the ta Meltiadou quarter, and places the gate to the west of the Mocius cistern. Other authors identified it with the Gate of Adrianople (A. M. Schneider) or with the Gate of Rhesios (A. J. Mordtmann). The double Theodosian Walls ( Greek : τεῖχος Θεοδοσιακόν , teichos Theodosiakon ), located about 2 km (1.2 miles) to

9500-404: Was replaced in the Ottoman period. In addition, in 1998 a subterranean basement with 4th/5th century reliefs and tombs was discovered underneath the gate. Van Millingen identifies this gate with the early Byzantine Gate of Melantias (Πόρτα Μελαντιάδος), but more recent scholars have proposed the identification of the latter with one of the gates of the city's original Constantinian Wall. It

9600-403: Was strengthened with 96 towers, mainly square but also a few octagonal ones, three hexagonal and a single pentagonal one. They were 15–20 m tall and 10–12 m wide, and placed at irregular distances, according to the rise of the terrain: the intervals vary between 21 and 77 m, although most curtain wall sections measure between 40 and 60 meters. Each tower had a battlemented terrace on

9700-783: Was through this gate that the forces of the Empire of Nicaea , under General Alexios Strategopoulos , entered and retook the city from the Latins on 25 July 1261. The Third Military Gate ( Πύλη τοῦ Τρίτου ), named after the quarter of the Triton ("the Third") that lies behind it, is situated shortly after the Pege Gate, exactly before the C-shaped section of the walls known as the " Sigma ", between towers 39 and 40. It has no Turkish name, and

9800-451: Was thwarted by the appearance of a bright light in the sky. This light is occasionally described by subsequent interpreters as a meteor , sometimes as the moon, and some accounts also mention the barking of dogs. However, the original accounts mention only a bright light in the sky, without specifying the moon. To commemorate the event the Byzantines erected a statue of Hecate lampadephoros (light-bearer or bringer). This story survived in

9900-486: Was used for triumphal entries until the Komnenian period ; thereafter, the only such occasion was the entry of Michael VIII Palaiologos into the city on 15 August 1261, after its reconquest from the Latins . With the progressive decline in Byzantium's military fortunes, the gates were walled up and reduced in size in the later Palaiologan period , and the complex converted into a citadel and refuge. The Golden Gate

10000-401: Was virtually impregnable, capable of holding provisions for three years and defying the whole city if need be. He repaired the marble towers and garrisoned the fort, but had to surrender it to John V Palaiologos (r. 1341–1391) when he abdicated in 1354. John V undid Kantakouzenos' repairs and left it unguarded, but in 1389–90 he too rebuilt and expanded the fortress, erecting two towers behind

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