CHAPTER IV

PRE-IMPERIAL CAREER OF THEODORA: THE CONSORT OF JUSTINIAN

The influence of women in antiquity varied extremely according to

circumstances of time and place. During the mythical age they are

celebrated as the heroines of many a legend; and in the epics of

Homer the free woman seems to live on terms of equality with her male

relations.[1166] Down to the historical period the same consideration

was continued to them at Sparta, where the mental and physical

integrity of the females was cultivated as essential to the designed

superiority of the race;[1167] but among the Athenians we find the

women of the community ignored as factors in the state to such an

extent, that they rank little higher than domesticated animals.[1168]

In neither of these states, however, were they ever invested with any

political office; and their power could only be felt indirectly by the

executive as the result of their activity as wives and mothers in the

family circle.[1169] But outside Greece, in those wider territories

more or less permeated by Hellenes, women sometimes attained to a full

share of government, inherited or assumed a sovereignty on the death

of their husbands, commanded armies, and even appeared in martial

attire at the head of their troops. Two Ionian princesses, both of whom

bore the name of Artemisia, reigned in Caria: the elder distinguished

herself at sea as an ally of Xerxes in the naval battle of Salamis

(480 B.C.);[1170] her successor erected the magnificent monument

at Halicarnassus in memory of her husband Mausolus, hence called

the Mausoleum, which was admired as one of the seven wonders of the

world.[1171] Cynane, a daughter of Philip of Macedon, led an expedition

into Illyria, and is said to have killed the queen of that country,

in an engagement which ensued, with her own hand.[1172] This lady

had applied herself vigorously to military exercises, and similarly

trained up her daughter Eurydice in the school of arms. As the wife of

the imbecile Arrhidaeus, one of the successors of Alexander, Eurydice

advanced into Asia to meet Olympias, the mother of that monarch, in

a contest which was to decide the fate of Macedonia. While the young

queen, as we are told, displayed herself with all the attributes of

a female warrior, the dowager chose to accompany her forces with a

train of attendants, who seemed rather to be acting their part in a

Bacchanalian procession.[1173] This war, however, proved ultimately

fatal to all three women, who were merely moved as puppets by the

firmer hands of Alexander’s generals in their rivalry for shares

at the dissolution of his empire.[1174] After the partition of the

extensive dominions of Alexander among his numerous heirs, the number

of Grecian women who enjoyed, or were allied to, sovereign power, was

proportionately increased; and the names of many princesses of varied

distinction in that age have been recorded historically, and even

perpetuated popularly to the present day by towns designated in their

honour, and spread over the three continents.[1175] While some of these

ladies won an unusual share of marital respect and affection, not only

by the graces of their person, but by their capacity for taking part

in the councils of state,[1176] there were not a few who signalized

themselves by a cruelty or criminality hardly exceeded by the male

tyrants of that semi-lawless and contentious epoch. Two Egyptian

princesses, sisters named Cleopatra, were ambitious of occupying the

thrones of Egypt and Syria, respectively, to the exclusion of their own

sons. The Syrian queen, having murdered one of her sons, was obliged

to accept his brother as a colleague, but being unable to nullify

his authority, resolved to make away with him also. On his return

from military drill one day, she presented him with a poisoned cup,

which, however, he declined to empty, having had an intimation of her

design, and bade her swallow the draught herself. She refused, while

denying her guilt, but he insisted that in no other way could she clear

herself, and she thus fell a victim to her intended treachery.[1177]

Her sister, who reigned in Egypt, under almost similar circumstances

was not more fortunate; for, having expelled one of her sons and

committed various cruelties, she raised another to a partnership in the

kingdom. Finding still that her ascendancy could not be maintained, she

planned to assassinate him, but, being forestalled, perished herself in

the attempt.[1178] Precocious in guilt, but, perhaps, more excusable,

was the Cyrenean princess Berenice, who caused her intended husband

to be murdered in the arms of her own mother, as the penalty of his

having slighted her for this adulterous intercourse.[1179] Her name

has been preserved to us in the nomenclature of science, and through

an astronomical compliment a cluster of stars is still distinguished

as the Coma Berenices.[1180] From these few examples the reader may

derive some notion of the social relations of the ruling families in

that extended Greek realm which came into being as the result of the

conquests of Alexander. One by one the separate autonomies succumbed to

the force of the Latin arms, and before the beginning of the Christian

era all of them which lay to the west of the Euphrates had become

merged in the provincial system of the Roman Empire.

When we turn our attention to the Roman Republic, we find that the

females, although in law subjected absolutely to the will of their male

relatives,[1181] were virtually as influential in the state as were the

women at Sparta. From Cloelia[1182] to Portia[1183] the maidens and

matrons of that community displayed the spirit and resolution which

we should assume to be characteristic of the wives and sisters of the

men who made themselves gradually the masters of the earth. Nor were

they backward in applying themselves to intellectual pursuits when the

rusticity of the Republic began to be dissipated by the infiltration

of Hellenic culture; and by their assiduous studies in philosophy,

geometry, literature, and music, they kept pace determinedly with the

mental development of the sterner sex.[1184] With the establishment

of the Empire, a greatly enhanced authority became the permanent

endowment of a limited class. It followed naturally that the female

connections of the emperors and their chief ministers could aspire to

participate in the despotic government, but the throne itself always

remained debarred to women, and to the last days of the Empire the

Romans never acquiesced in a female reign. When Agrippina, presuming

on her power over a son whom her intrigues had raised to the throne,

pressed forward amid general amazement to preside as of equal authority

with him at a reception of ambassadors, the philosopher Seneca hastily

impelled the young Emperor to arrest his mother with a respectful

greeting, and thus, in the words of Tacitus, “under the semblance

of filial devotion the impending disgrace was obviated.”[1185] Yet,

in several instances, as the guardian of an immature heir to the

crown, or as the associate of an incapable husband or brother, a

woman was able to retain for a considerable time all the attributes

of monarchy. The Syrian Soaemias, the equal in profligacy of her son

Elagabalus, assumed the reigns of government, and took her seat in

the Senate, which then beheld for the first time a female assisting

at its deliberations.[1186] Her career speedily terminated in

disaster,[1187] but during the break-up of the Western Empire, two

centuries later, no opposition was offered to the predominance of her

sex by a dejected people. The Empress Placidia Galla, after enduring

many misfortunes, exercised a regency scarcely distinguishable from

absolutism for more than a decade, in the name of her son Valentinian

III.[1188] In the East the rule of Pulcheria, as the adviser of her

brother Theodosius II, and afterwards of her nominal husband Marcian,

extended almost to half a century.[1189] The importance of an Augusta

in disposing of the crown on the decease of her husband has been

indicated in the description of the elevation of Anastasius;[1190]

and the official who records the election of Justin, ascribes the

turbulence of the populace on that occasion to the absence of control

by a princess of that rank.[1191] But the power of a dowager empress

was most signally exemplified in the case of Verina, widow of Leo I,

who, in her dissatisfaction with the policy of her son-in-law Zeno,

succeeded in provoking a revolution, placed the chief of her party on

the throne for more than a twelvemonth, and continued to involve the

Empire in bloodshed for a series of years.[1192] Below the Imperial

dignity the feminine element was perpetually active and widely

exerted, especially throughout the provinces. The wives of legates, of

proconsuls or governors, accompanied their husbands on their missions

to distant parts, and were often responsible, both in peace and war,

for the complexion assumed by the local administration.[1193] They

displayed themselves ostentatiously in public, addressed themselves

authoritatively to the army, and instigated measures of finance, to

such an extent that they were sometimes regarded as the moving spirit

in whatever was transacted.[1194] Agrippina shared the hardships

of Germanicus in his campaign against the Germans, opposed herself

to the disorder of the troops when retreating through fear of the

enemy, preserved the bridge over the Rhine, which in their panic

they were about to demolish, and, combining the duties of a general

with those of the intendant of an ambulance, restored confidence to

the legions.[1195] Yet Germanicus, in his Asiatic command, fell a

victim to the machinations of Plancina, the wife of a colleague; and

Agrippina strove ineffectively to withstand the malignant arts of

another woman.[1196] In some instances oppression of the provincials

was clearly traceable to female arrogance and intrigue; and at length

it was seriously proposed in the Senate that no official should be

accompanied by his consort, when deputed to the government of a

province. The motion was hotly debated, but was ultimately lost through

the vehemency of opposition.[1197]

Nothing in antiquity is more remarkable than the diversity of sentiment

as to prostitution among the Greeks. Considering the deification of

amorous passion and fecundity expressed by polytheism in the cult of

Aphrodite, and the ethics of social order which instilled a reverence

for chastity, the popular mind continually wavered as to whether the

_hetaira_ or courtesan should be contemned as an outcast, or adored

as the priestess of a goddess. Among the Semites who dwelt along the

Oriental borders of the Grecian dominions an act of prostitution at

the temple of the goddess of concupiscence was enjoined on every

woman at least once in her life as a religious rite;[1198] but the

nicer ethical discrimination of the Greeks debarred this custom from

ever establishing itself in Hellenic religion. At Corinth, however,

one of the most distinguished art centres of Greece, it obtained a

footing in a modified form; and in that city a thousand female slaves

sacred to Aphrodite were maintained as public courtesans attached to

her temple.[1199] At Athens, Solon regarded the state regulation of

prostitution as an essential safeguard to public morality, whence he

constituted a number of brothels under definite rules throughout the

town, thus providing, in his opinion, an outlet for irrepressible

passions which might otherwise be manifested in a more unseemly

manner.[1200] As in all ages there were two grades of females who led

a life of incontinence for the sake of gain; and of these the higher

class, the hetairas, filled a place not devoid of a certain distinction

in most of the Grecian cities. This class relied not on their personal

attractions only, but also on their mental accomplishments, aspiring

to become the intellectual companions of their lovers by applying

themselves to the study of literature and philosophy.[1201] Hence they

ranked as the best educated women of the community, and exerted more

influence in the state than the usually dull and secluded housewives.

The majority and the most noted of such courtesans flourished, of

course, in Athenian society, the ascendancy of the women which obtained

at Sparta being altogether adverse to their pretensions. Thus it

happened that the hetairas of Athens were generally regarded as persons

of some consequence; and several writers of the period thought it no

unworthy task to compose their biographies, as might be done at the

present day in the case of eminent women.[1202] To the connection of

Aspasia with Pericles and her position as the leader of Athenian

society during his tenure of power, an important page is devoted in all

histories of Greece; and it appears that even matrons were permitted to

frequent her salon in order to improve themselves mentally by listening

to the elevated discourses held there.[1203] Socrates visited Theodote

for the purpose of augmenting his sociological insight, and Xenophon

has included an account of his debate with her in his memoirs of that

father of philosophers.[1204] Leontium was a conspicuous figure in the

garden of Epicurus, where he convened his disciples; and she penned a

treatise against the Peripatetics, which deserved the commendation of

Cicero.[1205] Scarcely, indeed, can a man of note in this age, whether

potentate, orator, philosopher, or poet, be found whose name does not

occur in anecdote or more serious record as the associate of some

hetaira. It follows that courtesans should appear not rarely as the

mothers of persons of distinction. Themistocles, the younger Pericles,

Timotheus, and Nicomachus, the son of Aristotle, are mentioned in

this connection;[1206] and more than one sovereign prince is allowed

to have been the offspring of some hetaira, namely, Arrhidaeus, king

of Macedonia, alluded to above, and Philetaerus, the founder of the

kingdom of Pergamus.[1207] Many of these hetairas realized wealth, and

some had the faculty of keeping it; nor were they disinclined to spend

it patriotically if an opportunity offered. Lamia erected a splendid

portico at Sicyon;[1208] and Phryne proposed to rebuild the walls

of Thebes, which had been levelled by Alexander, provided that the

fact should be commemorated by a suitable inscription. The Thebans,

however, were too proud to owe the restoration of their town to such a

source.[1209] As the result of their notoriety and the consideration

accorded to them, some courtesans won the distinction of living in

metal or marble; and it was remarked that, whilst no wife had been

honoured by a public monument, the memory of hetairas had often been

perpetuated by the statuary.[1210] The reasons, however, why courtesans

happened to be thus distinguished were in many instances totally

dissimilar: some for actual merit, others merely through the caprice of

passionate lovers, challenged the popular eye from a pedestal. Leaena

was represented at Athens under the form of a tongueless lioness,

because she preferred to die by the torture rather than disclose

the conspiracy of Harmodius and Aristogeiton against the tyrants of

the day.[1211] Even at Sparta the image of Cottina was a familiar

object, standing beside a brazen cow which she had consecrated to

Athena.[1212] A sculptured tomb to Lais was set up at Corinth,[1213]

and a golden statue of Phryne was dedicated at Delphi,[1214] to express

the admiration of their townsmen for their pre-eminence as venal

beauties. A magnificent cenotaph on the Sacred Way from Athens to

Eleusis surprised a wayfarer into the belief that he was approaching

the tomb of some great general or statesman; it was no more than the

fantasy of Harpalus, an extravagant viceroy of Alexander’s, constructed

in glorification of his deceased mistress, Pythionice.[1215] At Abydos,

a temple to Aphrodite, styled the Prostitute, recorded the patriotic

treachery of a band of loose women, which conduced to the slaughter of

an alien garrison;[1216] but when the degradation of Greece was already

far advanced, both Athens and Thebes descended to flatter Demetrius

Poliorcetes by rearing fanes in honour of his favourite concubine,

Lamia.[1217]

In the earlier centuries of the Republic the strict censorship upheld

at Rome kept the city purged of dissoluteness; and prostitution,

regularly supervised and licensed,[1218] was reduced to the inevitable

minimum; but in proportion as Hellenic manners permeated the community,

the courtesan established herself on the same footing as in Greece. We

are told that a fortune gained by her harlotry was willed to Sulla by

Nicopolis;[1219] and the relations of Flora with the great Pompey are

given in detail by Plutarch. Captivated by the beauty of the latter,

Caecilius Metellus included her portrait among the adornments of the

temple of Castor and Pollux.[1220] Precia, a notorious strumpet,

won the devotion of Cethegus, one of the abettors of Sulla, and

the heritor of a large share of his power. At Rome he carried all

before him for some years, whilst he surrendered himself absolutely

to the caprices of his mistress. The provinces were distributed to

her nominees; and the command against Mithridates, in which Lucullus

acquired such extensive territories for the Republic, was obtained

by courting her favour by costly presents and blandishments.[1221]

It is needless to inquire how far illicit sexual connections were

politically operative during the rule of insensate emperors, for in

these times every excess had its parallel;[1222] but it may be noted

that the stern and sordid Vespasian abandoned the patronage of the

Empire to a mistress, into whose lap riches were poured by governors,

generals, and pontiffs, in the form of bribes for securing coveted

appointments.[1223] Concurrently with the decline of the Empire,

municipal institutions decayed, especially in the West, and the sense

of public decency became blunted. When Theodosius visited Rome in

389, he found prostitution in league with crime and administrative

measures more offensive than the moral laxity they were intended to

correct.[1224] Nor was the balance of public morality redressed until

Europe had passed through mediaevalism, and advanced for two or three

centuries into the modern period.[1225]

During the greater part of the reign of Justinian the fortunes of

the Empire were influenced to an unusual extent by two women, the

Empress Theodora and Antonina, the wife of Belisarius, whom chance

had raised from a base origin to the highest rank in the state. In

the early years of the reign of Anastasius, a man named Acacius

filled the post of bear-keeper to the Green faction. Dying somewhat

unexpectedly, he left his wife and three daughters, Comito, Theodora,

and Anastasia, totally unprovided for. The eldest child was but seven

years old, and the widow immediately attempted to provide for the

future by uniting herself with the man who was expected to become

her late husband’s successor. Another candidate, however, presented

himself, and by bribing the master of the shows, whose decision was

final, despoiled them of the situation. The family was now destitute,

but the mother resolved on a last effort to enlist the sympathy of the

faction. Binding the heads and hands of her little girls with wreaths

of flowers, according to ancient custom, she displayed herself with

them in the crowded Hippodrome in the posture of suppliants. These

tactics proved successful, for, although the Greens rejected her

prayer, it happened that the Blue faction were at the moment in want of

a bear-keeper, and they at once preferred the stepfather to the vacant

place. In course of time the daughters developed into handsome young

women, and one by one were consigned to the theatre, as the sphere

most congenial to the associations in which they had been reared. The

eldest, Comito, was the first to make her appearance, and she soon

became a person of some consequence, if not as an actress, at least as

a hetaira, a career indissolubly linked with that of a female performer

on the stage. At the same time her younger sister Theodora became a

familiar object to the public. Dressed in a short tunic, such as was

worn by young slaves, she was always to be seen in the wake of Comito,

bearing on her shoulder the folding seat[1226] without which no one of

any pretensions could stir abroad. Thrown into the haunts of vice thus

prematurely, she became initiated objectively, before she attained the

age of womanhood, in all the excesses of lasciviousness.[1227] In her

turn, as soon as she was old enough, she was pushed to the front to

play a part upon the scene, where she soon captivated the audience by

her special gifts. Theodora was short of stature, of slight physique

and pale,[1228] whence she became possessed with the procacity and

insistence peculiar to those who fear to be slighted on account of

some physical defect. Her accomplishments included neither singing

nor dancing, but she proved herself to be a burlesque comédienne of

singular aptitudes. She was quick-witted and full of repartee, and

her air in coming on the stage was at once provocative of mirth. She

excelled particularly in the comic piteousness with which she resented

a mock chastisement delivered, according to a trick of the day, on her

puffed-out cheeks, which seemed to resound with the severity of the

infliction.[1229] But she was far from trusting to merely histrionic

art to gain the notoriety she craved for, and she applied herself

sedulously to charm that considerable section of humanity for whom the

salt of life is indecency. On the scene, or at private reunions, she

distinguished herself by her impudicity above any of her companions.

Her ingenuity was inexhaustible in inventing occasions for the

exposition of her nudities, and in sexual vice she became a mistress

of everything fantastic and unnatural. She dispensed with drapery as

far as was permissible by law, and one of her favourite devices was to

prostrate herself on the stage, with grains of corn distributed about

her person, so that a number of geese, in searching for their food,

might throw her scanty clothing into obscene disorder.[1230] At orgies

of the dissolute she was the life and soul of the festivities; and she

assumed the rôle of instructress in depravity among her compeers of

the theatre.[1231] Yet with respect to the latter, she also achieved

a reputation for being quarrelsome and spiteful beyond the usual

measure of her tribe. By her habitual and flagrant excesses, she became

universally known in the capital, and she was shunned by all worthy

citizens to such an extent, that they shrunk from being sullied by

her touch, should they chance to meet her in the street.[1232] If a

merchant encountered her in the morning he was as much scared at the

sight as at that of a bird of ill-omen.[1233] Animated by a genius

so restless and aspiring, it is evident that such a woman needed only

transference to a field of higher potential, to become one of the most

notable characters of the age. Such a place had been prepared for her

by fate, and she was destined to renew on the throne of the Empire the

triumphs she had won on the boards of the theatre.[1234]

By a mischance, which she had always practised every expedient

to avert,[1235] Theodora became the mother of a son while at

Constantinople. His father christened him John and, fearing that the

repugnance evinced towards the boy by his mother might endanger his

life, he carried him off into Arabia, the province of his permanent

residence.[1236] Soon afterwards Theodora was induced to quit the

capital by a Tyrian named Hecebolus, who was proceeding to North

Africa to occupy the seat of government in the Pentapolis. In a short

time, however, she alienated this lover by her petulant temper until,

provoked by her insolence, he expelled her from his establishment

without making any provision for her future. This consummation was

assuredly a valuable lesson by which she did not fail to profit at a

later date. Devoid of resources, she betook herself from Cyrene to

Alexandria, where she attempted to live by prostitution; but in a

strange city, without the entry of a congenial circle, she discovered

that her talents or her attractions were unavailing to procure a

livelihood. From city to city of the East she proceeded, repeating

always the same experience in a state of incurable distress.[1237] She

directed her steps constantly northwards in her wanderings, keeping

her mind fixed on the capital, to which she longed to return, and at

length she found herself on the southern shores of the Euxine, within

the limits of Paphlagonia.[1238] In that austere province, where the

circus and the theatre were eschewed, and fornication and adultery were

looked on as the most abominable crimes,[1239] it is possible that she

may have been affected by the puritanism of the inhabitants, certain

that she must have felt chastened by the trials she had undergone.

It is probable also that she remained there for some time in the

receipt of hospitality, whilst being exhorted and encouraged to live

a life of continence. Ultimately, however, she found means to regain

Constantinople, where she arrived in a sober frame of mind and with

the resolution not to relapse into her former habits. She sought out

a humble tenement in a portico near the district of Hormisdas,[1240]

where she resigned herself to earn a modest living by feminine

industry.[1241] A veil of obscurity hangs over the circumstances which

preceded the social elevation of Theodora, which can only be partly

dissipated by surmise. It appears that after the accession of Justin

she was discovered by Justinian sitting demurely at her spinning-wheel,

and that he was fascinated by her at once with a force which he was

unable to resist.[1242] It is allowed that she was not devoid of

beauty,[1243] but if she captivated him by that quality, it was one

which she possessed in common with a thousand others of her class.

Rather must we conclude that she won her dominion over him by her

distinction of mind and character, by her wit, vivacity, insight, and

social address.[1244] He was now verging on his fortieth year, and,

as we shall recognize more fully hereafter, must always have been of

a staid disposition, as free as possible from the wildness of youth.

How far he was acquainted with her past is altogether unknown; if her

travels had extended to a few years her former intimates might now

for the most part be scattered, her person might be half forgotten,

and her meretricious enormities but faintly remembered. Her scenic

extravagances may never have been witnessed by Justinian, but it is

certain that before long her former mode of life was at least partially

revealed to him. Their intercourse soon ripened into familiarity; he

made her his mistress, but without concealment, and with the fixed

intention of marrying her; and as the first step towards that end he

raised her to the rank of a patrician.[1245] Theodora was now removed

from her sordid surroundings and housed in a style suitable to her

enhanced fortunes.[1246] At the same time her sisters, Comito and

Anastasia, were rescued from their degrading vocation and maintained

in a manner befitting their semi-royal relationship.[1247] Her

influence with Justinian became unbounded, and, as the favourite of

the virtual master of the Empire, she was courted by all aspirants to

the emoluments of state.[1248] Her age was now more mature; she had

been taught discretion and self-restraint in the school of adversity,

and she was wise enough for the future not to hazard her ascendancy

by yielding intemperately to her passions. Her physical mould was

not that of a sensual woman, her amazing immorality resulted merely

from an inordinate desire to outrun all competition in the career on

which she had been launched, and we may believe that, after every

incentive to sexual excess had been removed from her path, she found no

difficulty in leading a life of the strictest chastity. Her energies

were now directed into other channels; she did not deny herself the

indulgence of using the exceptional power with which she was invested

to gratify her ambition to the full; she accumulated wealth by every

means possible to an official of the highest authority, and she seldom

allowed the machinery of government to escape altogether from her

control.

Two obstacles stood in the way of Justinian when he proposed to make

Theodora his wife. In the first place he was confronted by the old law

of Constantine which aimed at preserving the aristocratic families of

the Empire free from any taint in their blood. It was enacted thereby

that no woman of vicious life, actress or courtesan, or even of lowly

birth, could become the legal spouse of a man who had attained to the

rank of Clarissimus or Senator, the third grade of nobility.[1249] To

abrogate this statute was therefore a necessity before he could carry

out his design, but he easily prevailed on Justin to give the Imperial

sanction to a Constitution which recites at length the expediency of

granting to such women, who have repented and abjured their errors, an

equality of civil privileges with their unblemished sisters.[1250] A

further impediment arose from the opposition of the Empress Euphemia,

who withstood the marriage with an obstinacy which neither argument

nor entreaty could overcome.[1251] Although her relationship to Justin

had until recently been abased, the quondam slave had never deviated

from the path of virtue and had imbibed all the prejudices of the

strictest matron against women who made a traffic of their persons. A

critical delay thus became inevitable, but Theodora passed through it

triumphantly, and in 524, by the death of Euphemia, Justinian was freed

from all restraint. Their nuptials were then celebrated with official

acquiescence and without even popular protest. The Church, the Senate,

and the Army at once accepted the former actress as their mistress, and

the populace, who had contemplated her extravagances on the theatre,

now implored her protection with outstretched hands.[1252] The crown

with the title of Augusta was bestowed on her by Justinian at the

time of his own coronation;[1253] and she acquired an authority in the

Empire almost superior to that of her husband. After her elevation

Theodora became a zealous churchwoman, and extended her protection far

and wide to ecclesiastics and monks who had fallen into distress or

disrepute through being worsted in the theological feuds which were

characteristic of the age. But she was always bitterly hostile to those

who opposed her particular religious views or political plans, and

proceeded to the last extremity to subject them to her will.[1254]

Antonina sprang from the same coterie as Theodora, but her birth

was more disreputable. Her father was a charioteer of the Circus at

Thessalonica, and her mother a stage-strumpet.[1255] The two women were

not, however, companions, perhaps not even acquainted, as the wife

of Belisarius was almost a score of years senior to the Empress, and

she also exceeded the age of her husband by an even greater amount.

It appears, therefore, that whilst Justinian was probably twenty

years older than Theodora, Belisarius was at least as much junior to

Antonina. The latter was, in fact, the mother of several illegitimate

children before being married, and a son of hers named Photius, not

more than eight or ten years junior to his stepfather, is an observable

figure in the historic panorama.[1256] We have no details as to the

career of Antonina previous to her becoming involved in the current

of political affairs, nor can we regret the loss of another story of

moral obliquity, but there is evidence to prove that she was a woman

of a totally different stamp from the Empress, one disposed by natural

propensity to debauchery, and at no time inclined to deny herself the

pleasures of incontinency. At the outset of Justinian’s reign Theodora

regarded her with the greatest aversion, but whether because the

character of Antonina was at variance with her own or that she loathed

the presence of one too well informed as to her own antecedents cannot

now be determined. In the political vortex they were unavoidably thrown

much together, and it will often be necessary to inquire as to how

far the course of history may have been modified by their respective

activities and temperaments.[1257]

END OF VOL. I.

INDEX

Acoemeti, sleepless monks, 282.

Acrobats, 101.

Actresses, at Constantinople, 107;

marriage with, forbidden to senators, etc., 107, 346.

Adule, port of Axume or Abyssinia, 186, 187.

Adultery, punishment of, at Rome, 336.

Agathias, on military decline, 167;

epigram by, 341.

Agentes-in-rebus, Imperial messengers, 143.

Agrippina, mother of Nero, her arrogance, 326.

Agrippina, wife of Germanicus, her courage, etc., 329.

Aimoin on marriages of Justinian and Belisarius, 348.

Alamundar, Arab sheik, his enormities, 312.

Alemannus, his notes on secret history of Procopius, 320.

Allegories of Neoplatonists, 264.

Amantius, chief eunuch, his plots and execution by Justin, 302, 305.

Amida, siege of, 177.

Ammianus, on Papal luxury, 275.

Ambrose, St., opposes Theodosius I, 55.

Anastasia, sister of Theodora, 338, 345.

Anastasius, Emperor, his coronation, 104;

wars, 175;

character, 298.

Anemodulion or Wind-slave, 76.

Animals, draught, humane treatment of, 142.

Anthology, Greek, obscenity of, 341.

Antioch, earthquake at, 317.

Antipodes, Church against, 182, 214.

Antonina, wife of Belisarius, her origin, etc., 348.

Apostles, Twelve, Church of, 79;

credibility of statements as to, 254;

authenticity of epistles by, _ib._

Apollonius Tyaneus, at Constantinople, 66, 73;

character of, 245, 274.

Apparitors, officers of provincial judges, 149.

Arches, triumphal, at Constantinople, 33, 69, 72, 73, 77, 78.

Arians, at Nice, 276;

Gothic, 79, 279.

Aristippus, his Cyrenean philosophy, 239.

Aristotle, his scientific work, 239;

on slavery, 115;

on women, 322;

on abortion, 343.

Army, Byzantine, 165, _sqq._

Artemisia I and II, queens of Caria, 322.

Art-schools, 224.

Aspirate, abuse of, at Rome, 126.

Athenais or Eudocia, Empress, 108, 230.

Atomic theory of Epicurus, etc., 284.

Augustine, St., his early life, 207;

on prostitution, 331.

Aurelius, Marcus, his ethics, 241;

persecutes Christians, 251.

Bakeries, public, 82;

at Rome, kidnapping for, 337.

Banduri, anon. Patria of, 23.

Baptism, early form of, 112.

Basil the Great, founder of monasteries, etc., 209, 282.

Baths, public, 57;

mixing of sexes in, 116, 340.

Beazley, on early trade, 185.

Beylié on Byzantine houses, 24.

Belisarius, first appearance as a general, 316;

marriage of, 348.

Bema or chancel in Greek church, 55.

Berenice, queen, her crime, 324;

her fate, 325.

Berytus, seat of law-school, 218.

Bigg on Platonists at Alexandria, 262.

Blachernae, region and palace of, at Constantinople, 26, 81.

Blemmyes or Nubians, emerald mines worked by, 189.

Blues and Greens, factions of Circus, 22, 98, 298.

Books at Constantinople, public, 58, 208;

private, 118.

Bosphorus, Thracian, 7, 9, 12.

Bryce on life of Justinian by Theophilus or Bogomil, 320.

Buckler, elevation of emperor on, 105.

Bury on Byzantine economics, 198, 201.

Byzantium, foundation of, 3;

vocal walls of, 7;

character of inhabitants of, 84.

_Byzantinische Zeitschrift_, 361.

Byzas, founder of Byzantium, 3, 48.

Caecina, his motion against wives of provincial governors, 329.

Caenis, concubine of Vespasian, 336, 346.

Candidates, Imperial guards, 50, 167.

Cassius, Dion, on old Byzantium, 6;

on Vespasian’s parsimony, 336.

Cavades or Kavádh, king of Persia, 176, 313.

Cethegus and Precia, 335.

Ceylon, ancient trade at, 186.

Chain of Golden Horn, 40.

Chalcedon, foundation of, 3;

council of, 277, _sqq._

Chalke, palace at Constantinople, 49.

Charity, public, at Constantinople, 81.

China and silk trade, 193.

Chosroes or Nushirvan, prince of Persia, 314.

Chrysargyron, tax on petty trade, 154;

abolition of, 155, 201.

Chrysoceras or Golden Horn, 4, 12, 38.

Chrysopolis or Scutari, 80 (map).

Chrysostom on luxury of Byzantines, 87, 113, _sqq._;

on immorality of, 112, 121.

Churches, Greek, 55;

conduct in, 112.

Circus or Hippodrome, 60, 97, _sqq._

Cisterns at Constantinople, 173, _sqq._

Cleopatra, sister queens so named, their crimes, 324.

Clergy, trade duty free to, 155, 293.

Codicils or Imperial commissions, 93.

Codinus on antiquities of Constantinople, 23, etc.

Coinage of Byzantium and Constantinople, 122.

Colchis or Lazica, relations of Empire with, 312, 316.

Columns at Constantinople, 48, 69, 72, 78, 80.

Coma Berenices, 325.

Comito, sister of Theodora, 338, 345.

Consistorium, Imperial council, 144.

Constantine the Great founds Constantinople, 10, 13, 85;

establishes Christianity, 15, 270.

Consul, installation of, 109.

Cornelia, wife of Pompey, her learning, etc., 326.

Cosmas Indicopleustes, his travels, etc., 182, 187, etc.

Cost of commodities, etc., 123;

of slaves, 115.

Costume at Constantinople, 85, _sqq._

Councils, Oecumenical, 276, _sqq._

Creeds, Christian, elaboration of, 275.

Crescent, chosen emblem of Byzantines, 6.

Cresollius on sophists and voice culture, 208, 214.

Crowns, Byzantine, 91.

Crusades, effects of, 293.

Cyclobion, a fort at Constantinople, 25.

Cynane, daughter of Philip of Macedon, her warlike exploits, 322.

Cynic philosophers, 238, 241.

Daphne, palace at Constantinople, 51.

Dardania, site of Taor and Bader, 299.

Débidour, his defence of Theodora, 342.

Decurions in local government, 148;

captains of silentiaries, 52.

Demes, factions of Circus, 22, 98, 298.

Diehl, his work on Justinian, v, 345.

Dion Cassius. _See_ Cassius.

Diptychs, consular, 110, 227.

Dome or cupola, introduction of, 25, 225.

Ducange on Christian Constantinople 24, etc.

Earthquakes in Eastern Empire, 13, 317.

Emperor, Byzantine, dress of, 89;

portraits of, 42.

Epicurus, his philosophy, 239, 284;

and Leontium, 332.

Eucharist, early method of administering, 112.

Eugenius, tower and gate of, 39, 40.

Eunuchs, origin of, 133;

in Byzantine Empire, _ib._

Euphemia, Empress, her change of name, 301, 304;

opposes Justinian’s marriage, 347.

Euripus of Circus, 62, 64.

Eurydice, daughter of Cynane, her war against Olympias, 323.

Eusebius, his “Church History,” 290.

Evagrius on abolition of chrysargyron, 154;

on monks, 281.

Evans on Illyrian antiquities, 299, 300.

Evolution, nature and prospects of, 285, _sqq._

Exokionion, region of Constantinople, 78, 79.

Exposure of infants, 242;

prohibited at Thebes, _ib._

Filelfo of Ancona, his letters on later Byzantine manners, 116;

on preservation of classical Greek, 126.

Financial officials, bureaucrats, 152, 161;

surveyors and assessors, 150, _sqq._;

collectors, 158, _sqq._

Fish, plenty of, at Constantinople, 4, 84;

miraculous creation of, 253.

Foederati, foreign mercenaries, 169, 170.

Follis, coin and sum, uncertainty about, 100, _sqq._

Forum, of Constantine, 69;

Imperial or Augusteum, 49;

Strategium, 70;

of Theodosius I or Taurus, 71, _sqq._;

Amastrianum, 77;

of Arcadius, 77;

of Honorius, 80.

Fountains, sacred, at Constantinople, 26, 27, 38.

Galen, his works, 221.

Gallienus, his connection with Byzantium, 9, 48.

Galton on Inquisition, 293.

Gates of Constantinople, 31;

Caspian or Caucasian, Golden, 33.

Gieseler, Church History of, 249, 251, etc.

Gladiators, abolition of, 67, 241.

Godefroy (or Godfrey), Theodosian code by, 42, 160, _et passim_.

Golden Gate of Constantinople, 33.

Golden Horn or Chrysoceras, 4, 12, 38.

Gospels, credibility of, 253.

Governors of provinces, Rectors or judges, 148.

Greek churches, decoration of, 55, 227.

Greek learning, introduction of, at Rome, 205, _sqq._

Greens and Blues, factions of Circus, 22, 98, 298.

Gregory of Nazianzus on military dragons, 168;

on furore at Circus, 108;

on theatre, 339.

Gregory of Nyssa on female education, 229;

on popular theology, 280.

Grosvenor on antiquities of Constantinople, 4, 24, 41, 48, etc.

Guards, Imperial, 50, 167;

private, 171.

Gyllius on antiquities of Constantinople, 4, 5, 24, 33, etc.

Halicarnassus, mausoleum at, 322.

Harbours of Byzantium, 7;

of Constantinople, _ib._;

of Theodosius, or Eleutherium, 36;

of Julian, _ib._;

of Bucoleon, 37;

of Neorion or Golden Horn, 39.

Hardouin, Cardinal, on forgery of ecclesiastical works, 256, 282.

Harpalus, his monuments to a hetaira, 335.

Hebdomon, a suburb seven miles from Milion, 319.

Hefner-Alteneck on costume, 91;

on family of Theodora, 342.

Hetairas or courtesans, their manners, etc., 115, 329, _sqq._

Hierocles against Christians, 274.

Hills, seven, of Constantinople, 10, 11;

of Rome, _ib._

Hippalus, a navigator, discovers the monsoons, 184.

Hippodrome or Circus, description of, 60, 97;

exhibitions in, 100;

records kept under, 67, 72.

Hodgkin on silentiaries, 52.

Hormisdas, palace of, 37;

occupied by Justinian, 309.

Huns, Attila and, 21;

Persia and, 176, 178;

Romans and, 313.

Hymn-singing in church, 111;

in open air, 97.

Hypatia, her murder, etc., 207, 230.

Iamblichus, his philosophy, 264.

Iberia or Georgia, relations of Empire with, 315.

Iconostasis, image-screen in Greek church, 55.

Infant exposure, 242.

Ink, Imperial purple, 93.

Inquisition, effects of, in Spain, 293.

Inscriptions on gates of Constantinople, 32, 34;

on codicils, 93;

solution of, 94.

Irenarchs or rural police, 144, 203.

Irene, church of, at Constantinople, 56.

Isambert, his work on Justinian, v, 308.

Isaurians, character of, 172;

war with, 175.

Isidore of Seville, his “Etymologies,” 212;

on eunuchs, 133;

on astronomy, 216.

Isocrates, his ethics, 241.

Jerome on female education, 230.

Jesus, life of, 245, _sqq._;

its credibility, 253.

John of Antioch on military decline, 167;

on Justin, 301.

John of Ephesus on Theodora, 345.

John Lydus on Circus, 63, 99, 101, 102;

on Anastasius, 299.

Julian, Emperor, his character, etc., 271, 280.

Justin, Emperor, his birth and success, 300, _sqq._;

his accession to the throne, 302.

Justinian, Emperor, birth, education, and adoption by

Justin, 301, _sqq._;

his consulship and diptychs, 308;

his marriage, 344, _sqq._

Juvenal on unbelief at Rome, 244;

on Messalina, 342.

Kathisma, Imperial seat in Circus, 61, 97.

Khosr, Chosroes, or Nushirvan, prince of Persia, 314.

Kobad, Cavades, or Kavádh, king of Persia, 176, _sqq._, 313.

Kondakoff on Byzantine art, 225, 228.

Lais, a courtesan, her tomb, 334.

Lamia, a courtesan, a temple to, 335.

Latin language, use of in East, 125.

Law, intricacies of, etc., 219, _sqq._

Law schools at Berytus, etc., 218, _sqq._

Law students, grades of, 219;

ill conduct of, 207.

Lazica or Colchis, relations of Empire with, 312, 316.

Leaena, a courtesan, her monument, 334.

Leontium, a courtesan, and Epicurus, 332;

her writings, _ib._

Lethaby and Swainson on St. Sophia, 55.

Libanius, sophist, method of training scholars, 211, 214;

on decurions, 197.

Libraries, public, at Constantinople, 58, 208.

Long wall of Anastasius, 124, 164.

Lucian on sham philosophers, 209;

on manners of hetairas, 115.

Ludewig, his work on Justinian, v;

on Theodora, 342.

Luitprand on gymnastics, 101;

on reclining at meals, 114.

Lupanars or brothels, 75.

Lupicina, later Empress Euphemia, 301, 304, 347.

Magnaura, Imperial reception hall, 56.

Man and beast fights in Circus, 101.

Manganon of Circus, 61;

an arsenal, 48.

Mani and Manichaeans, 267, _sqq._;

laws against, 269.

Mansions for relays of post horses, etc., 141.

Marble tower at Constantinople, 35.

Marinus, a painter, illustrates life of Justin, 304.

Marinus, Praetorian Praefect, his extortions, 299.

Marrast on Byzantine gardens, etc., 53;

on popular theology, 280.

Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, 322.

Megara, a colony of Byzantium, 3, 84;

character of inhabitants of, _ib._

Menken, A. I., actress, her career, etc., 340.

Messalina, Empress, wife of Claudius, her debauchery, 342.

Milion, official milestone at Constantinople, 59.

Moat at Constantinople, 27.

Monasteries, origin of, 280, _sqq._

Money of Byzantium, 123;

of Constantinople, 122.

Monks, origin of, 280, _sqq._;

acoemeti or sleepless, 78, 282.

Monophysites at Chalcedon, 278;

persecution of, 306.

Monsoons, discovery of, 184.

Montez, Lola, actress, her career, 333, 340.

Mordtmann on antiquities of Constantinople, 15, 24, _et passim_.

Mosheim, Church history of, 276.

Mythology, comparative, 235.

Narthex, vestibule of Greek church, 55, 111.

Neander, Church history of, 252, 282.

Neoplatonists, philosophy of, 261, _sqq._

Nicopolis, a courtesan, leaves her fortune to Sulla, 335.

Nöldeke, history of Persians and Arabians by, 176.

Notitia, official guide to civil and military service of

Empire, 23, 93, _et passim_.

Nude model, facilities for studying in Greece, 226.

Nushirvan or Chosroes, prince of Persia, 314.

Obelisk in Hippodrome, 63.

Olympias, mother of Alexander, her war, etc., 323.

Oman on art of war, 168, 174.

Pachomius, founder of monasteries, 282.

Paederasty, prevalence of, 120.

Palace, Imperial, of Constantinople, 49, _sqq._

Panaetius, a Stoic philosopher, his ethics, 241.

Paspates on antiquities of Constantinople, 2, 24, 28, etc.

Pavement, the, at Constantinople, 69.

Pearl, Cora, a courtesan, her career, etc., 332, 334.

Pericles and Aspasia, 331.

Peripatetic philosophers, 238.

Phila, wife of Demetrius Poliorcetes, her character and temple, 324.

Photius, son of Antonina, 348.

Physicians, public, at Constantinople, 82, 88.

Placidia Galla, Empress, her sovereignty, 51, 327.

Plagiarism, habitual, of Byzantine writers, 228.

Plancina and Germanicus, 329.

Plato on education, 217;

on cosmogony, 258, _sqq._

Pliny on early Christians, 249.

Plotinus, founder of Neoplatonism, 261, _sqq._

Poll tax, 152.

Polybius on unbelief at Rome, 244.

Pompeius, nephew of Anastasius, 305.

Pompey the Great, his wife, 326;

his pillar at Constantinople, 48.

Popes, ostentation of, 275.

Population of Constantinople, 123.

Porch, Royal, at Constantinople, 58.

Porphyry, a Neoplatonist, his philosophy, 263.

Portia, wife of Brutus, wounds herself, 326.

Posts, public, of Empire, 141.

Praetorium, government house in provinces, 148.

Precia, a courtesan, rules Cethegus and Rome, 335.

Primitive races, extinction of, by civilization, 296.

Priscian on grammar, etc., 213;

a centenarian, _ib._

Processions, Imperial, 95, 319.

Procopius first appears in history, 316;

his “Secret History,” 339.

Professors officially appointed, 205, _sqq._;

salaries of, 210.

Prostitution, 329, _sqq._, 337.

Prostration before emperor, 52, 92, 133.

Public shows, expenses of, 100.

Purple, imperial, laws as to, 191.

Puteoli, hydraulic cement of, 41.

Pythagoras, philosopher, on numbers, 215;

on music, 216.

Pythionice, a courtesan, her monuments, 335.

Quintilian on education, 211.

Rabutaux on mediaeval prostitution, 337.

Rectors or provincial governors, 148;

extortions of, 198.

Reformation, the, 294.

Renaissance, the, 294.

Rhetoricians or sophists, their teaching, 211, 212, _sqq._;

affectation of, 208.

Roads, Roman, 141.

_Roi des Ribauds_, intendant of palace courtesans, 337.

Rome, fall of, 20.

Salaries of professors, 210.

Salonina, wife of Caecina, her arrogant display, 328.

Sampson, hospital of, 56.

Scamander river, anecdote of, 330.

Schools of art, 224.

Semantron, call to church, 110.

Senate-houses, 56, 70.

Senate of Constantinople, 146;

Constantine and, 19;

Julian and, 146.

Serpent column in Hippodrome, origin of, 63;

destruction of, 64.

Seven hills at Constantinople, 10, 11;

at Rome, _ib._

Seven towers at Constantinople, 34.

Severus, Emperor, at Byzantium, 8.

Ships, capacity of ancient, 161, 184.

Siedeliba or Ceylon, trade at, 186, 187.

Sigma or crescent at Constantinople, 33, 60.

Silk, mercantile routes from China for, 185, 193.

Silphium, a pot-herb, land of, 192.

Slave of Winds or Anemodulion, 76.

Soaemias, mother of Elagabalus, her character and conduct, 327.

Socrates, Church historian, 290, etc.

Socrates, philosopher, his ethics, 238, 240;

visits Theodote, 332.

Sophists or rhetoricians, their teaching, 212, _sqq._;

affectation, 208.

Spiritualism, ancient and modern, 257, _sqq._, 263.

St. Sophia, old church of, 55.

Statues, public, multitude of, 61.

Steps, public rations served from, 80.

Stoics, their ethics, 238, 264, 286.

Streets at Constantinople, 42, 46.

Strzygowski, his researches on the Golden Gate, 34, 362;

on cisterns, 362.

Studius, monastery of, 78, 280.

Stylites or pillar-saints, 281.

Suburbs of Constantinople, 124.

Sycae, now Galata, 39, 80.

Tabari, translation of, by Nöldeke, 176;

by Zotenberg, _ib._

Taurus, square of, 71.

Taxes, ways of levying, 149, _sqq._

Theocritus aspires to purple, 302;

executed by Justin, 306.

Theodora, origin and career of, 337;

her reformation, 344;

marriage, etc., 347.

Theodoric the Goth, 178, 310.

Theodosius I, his laws against Pagans, 274, 277.

Theodote, a courtesan, Socrates visits, 332.

Theodotus, P. U., opposes Justinian, 309.

Thomas, a silentiary, plunders fugitives at Antioch, 318.

Throne, Byzantine, 50.

Titles of honour, 96.

Torture, taxes enforced by, 200.

Towers at Constantinople, 28, 29, 40.

Trade routes, 184, _sqq._

Trajan, Emperor, and Christians, 250.

Treasury, Imperial, etc., 161.

Tzykanisterion or palace garden, 53.

University or Auditorium of Constantinople, 72, 207, _sqq._

Urbicius, chief eunuch, nominates Anastasius for throne, 104.

Vandals in Spain and Africa, 131.

Van Millingen on Golden Gate, 34;

on Bucoleon harbour, 38.

Verina, Empress, wife of Leo I, provokes a revolution against

Zeno, 328.

Vespasian and Caenis, 336, 346.

Vigilantia, mother of Justinian, 347;

sister of, 301.

Vigilantius against relic worship, etc., 292.

Vistilia, a noble lady, applies for _licentia stupri_, 336.

Vitalian, a general, his revolt, 180;

consulship and murder of, 306, _sqq._

Wall, Long, of Anastasius, 124, 164.

Walls of Byzantium, vocal, 7;

of Constantinople, 27, _sqq._

Water, public supply of, at Constantinople, 73, 74.

Women at Athens, 321;

at Sparta, _ib._;

towns named in honour of, 323.

Wood for fuel, brought from Euxine, 40.

Xenophanes, the Eleatic, his philosophy, 238, 251.

Xerolophos, or dry-hill, at Constantinople, 11, 78.

Xylocercus Gate, 31.

Youth, dissoluteness of, 119;

education of, 204, _sqq._;

legal, 219;

for art, 224.

Zachariah of Mytilene, translated by Hamilton and

Brooks, 278, 312, etc.

Zeno, Eleatic philosopher, 238.

Zeno, Emperor, his Henoticon, 278;

death of, 103.

Zeno, Stoic philosopher, 238.

Zeugma, a quarter of Constantinople, 40.

Zeuxippus, baths of, at Constantinople, 57.

Zoroaster or Zarathushtra, 268.

Zotenberg, translation of Tabari by, 176.

ERRATA

P. 11, peninsula; p. 17, n. 1, Frising.; p. 24, note, Beylié; p. 55, n.

3, Lethaby; p. 118, n. 4, Lactant., i, 20; p. 158, n. 3, Berg-; p. 188,

herd; p. 225, n. 1, cadavérique; p. 256, note, und.

ADDITIONS

P. 20, n. 1. The date of the dialogue Philopatris has been the subject

of much argument, notably in _Byzant. Zeitschrift_, vols. v and vi,

1896-7. It has been placed under Carus, Julian, Heraclius, and John

Zimisces. The matter is unintelligible unless at an early period of

Christianity, and I should be inclined to maintain that interpolations

in one or two places by late copyists (see p. 256) have given it a

false semblance of recency.

P. 24, note. John Malala was unknown to Ducange (not having been

published till 1691), and hence has been neglected to a great extent by

later writers on Byzantine antiquities. He is the earliest authority

for much of what is to be found in the later chronographers. According

to Conybeare the Paschal Chronicle did not copy Malala, but an original

common to both; _Byzant. Zeitsch._, 1902.

P. 33. There is no record of the building of the Golden Gate, but John

Malala (p. 360), says that Theodosius II gilded it, whence the name.

Most probably this statement includes the erection of the monument. I

am now satisfied that the Golden Gate had no direct connection with

Theodosius the Great, but was raised by his grandson to commemorate the

overthrow of the usurper John by his generals Aspar and Ardaburius at

Ravenna in 425. This is the “tyrant” alluded to (“post fata tyranni”),

who had supplanted the infant Valentinian III in the West, afterwards

the husband of Eudoxia, daughter of Theodosius II. The victory caused

the greatest excitement at CP., of which Socrates (vii, 23) gives

a striking account. They were all sitting in the Hippodrome when

the news arrived, whereupon the Emperor, with the whole audience,

rose up, abandoned the games, marched through the streets singing

enthusiastically, and the rest of the day was spent in the churches

giving utterance to fervid prayers. It is inconceivable that so tame

a couplet could have been composed to celebrate the martial deeds

of Theodosius I. The clash of arms would have been heard in any

inscription designed to record the achievements of an Emperor who

won battles in the field by his own tactics and strategy. But in a

generally quiet reign, with the palace under the rule of the women,

any decided success would be magnified and the weakling Theodosius II

would naturally be associated with the prestige of his grandfather,

whose name he bore. The case is one on all fours with that of the great

statue in Taurus (erected after a minor Persian war), so skilfully

allocated by Déthier (see p. 72) and the boastful inscription on it

(Gk. Anthol. Plan., iv, 65). The inscription on the Golden Gate was not

sculptured, but was composed of metal letters fastened to the stone

by rivets. Many of these holes can still be located on the decayed

surface. These were first observed by Strzygowski in 1893, and by

joining them judiciously the form of the letters originally attached

could be made out. The lines ran across the top of the gate, the first

verse of the couplet being on the left side, the second on the right.

See the monograph by S. on the Golden Gate, Jahrb. d. Kaiser. Deutsche

Archæol. Instit., 1893, viii, 1. But the origin of the old Golden

Gate in the Constantinian wall remains unsolved; for surmises see Van

Millingen.

P. 31. It is highly improbable that the wall of Theodosius ever ran

through to the Golden Horn, as, in order to do so, it would have had

to cut the parish or region of Blachernae in two. It must have pulled

up therefore at the previously existing wall which surrounded that

part; see the Notitia, reg. xiv. Hence there must always have been a

projecting portion of the fortifications at this end.

P. 37. Van Millingen decides to identify the palace of Bucoleon with

that of Hormisdas, as hitherto the building on the wall has been

popularly named. This identification now seems to me quite tenable.

Both the Anon. and Codinus (pp. 45, 87) mention, in somewhat different

terms, the locality of H., and connect it with Port Julian, evidently

to the west of the existing ruin. I am satisfied that the latter is

really the Bucoleon built by Theodosius II, and that the Hormisdas,

which must have been altogether reconstructed by Justinian (Procop.,

Aedific., i, 10), has quite disappeared. Theodosius could not by any

sort of implication be said to have built a house of Hormisdas, who

was dead long before he was born. Later this palace (Hormisdas) was

diverted to ecclesiastical purposes, became, in fact, a sort of Church

House, where meetings were held, and also a hostelry for members of the

priesthood when visiting the capital; see pp. 669, _sqq._ In the latter

connection it is often mentioned by John of Ephesus in the work already

referred to (p. 345, n. 2).

P. 74. The identification of the _Bin bir derek_ with the cistern of

Philoxenus is a mere surmise—a monogram on the columns is said to stand

for Εὖγε φιλόξενε! The researches of Forscheimer (and Strzygowski) give

a more likely elucidation which, with the _Yeri Baian Seraï_, a much

larger cistern still full of water, will be considered later on. See p.

539 and cf. Lethaby and S., p. 248.

Pp. 78, 319. There were three localities at CP. which might

conceivably have been called Hebdomon by the inhabitants: 1. The

seventh of the fourteen parishes of the city as described in the

Notitia; 2. The camping ground near Blachernae of the seventh regiment

of Gothic mercenaries; 3. A kind of Field of Mars for reviewing the

troops situated seven miles from the Milion on the shore of the

Propontis. When processions to the Hebdomon are mentioned, it is always

the last place which is meant, and there the church of St. John was

founded. I do not know whether there is any literary reference to

either of the first two localities under that name, but much confusion

has been occasioned by the contradictory views of various writers,

especially Gyllius and Ducange; see Mordtmann, _op. cit._, p. 29.

P. 100. The actual sums which it appears that scholars accept as

obligatory on three praetors to spend annually for the public shows are

respectively £150,000, £120,000, and £90,000, in all £360,000! Under

these circumstances it was scarcely worth while for Olympiodorus to

mention such a trifle as the 1,200 lb. of gold (£48,000), expended by

Probus in his praetorship, unless it was to show how beggarly he was

in comparison with his predecessors in office, the least of whom had

to disburse under legal compulsion nearly double that amount. It is

strange that none of Gibbon’s editors has noticed that his “ridiculous

four or five pounds” is in reality £57 5_s._, at his own estimate

of the value of the _follis_ (.548_d._), viz., 1∕2025 of the silver

_follis_ or purse, which he makes equal to £6; iii, p. 293 (Bury). I

have read somewhere that Sir Isaac Newton could not work the simple

rules of arithmetic.

Pp. 252, 274. The evidence for Galerius’s edict of toleration and

Constantine’s Edict of Milan (313) is the same, viz., Lactantius and

Eusebius. There is no good reason to doubt the latter. The attitude

of Galerius towards Christianity was mere toleration after failure to

suppress; Constantine’s that of favour and adoption. Every one knew

that Galerius would spring again if he got the chance. If C. took up

Christianity as one of his religions _c._ 312, he would naturally,

after his victory, issue a manifesto to define his personal policy and

inclinations. Too much stress is often laid on the light doubts of

recent investigators.

P. 294, n. 2. Since this section on religion was written, two movements

on the lines indicated have come to the surface, one a petition by

university teachers for more freedom in dealing with the mythological

texts in relation to students, the other a similar petition by

ministers of the establishment, for the same freedom, with respect to

the public. Both failed, but doubtless the tide of rationalism will

rise again and again until the desired emancipation be achieved. These

are symptoms of a readjustment of popular religious beliefs at no

distant date, perhaps within a generation or two, a consummation I had

not anticipated as likely to occur for centuries to come. But, as the

chick emerges suddenly from the egg which immediately before was to all

appearances physically unaltered, so sociological revolutions, long

brooding beneath the surface, are sometimes fully achieved in a moment

of time.

Pp. 345, 348. Were we without the Anecdotes of Procopius we should

still know practically all that he has revealed about Theodora. 1.

That she was a prostitute, John of Ephesus, Aimoin. 2. That she was in

a very lowly condition before her marriage, Codinus. 3. That she was

vindictive and cruel when on the throne, Liber Pontificalis, Vigilius.

All this evidence is adverted to circumstantially in its proper setting

throughout the work.

* * * * *

⁂ For CORRIGENDA ET ADDENDA to the whole work see end of Vol. II.

CHISWICK PRESS: PRINTED BY CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO. TOOKS COURT,

CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] To these must now be added Diehl’s beautifully illustrated work,

_Justinien et la civilization Byzantine au VI^e siècle_, Paris, 1901.

The leading motive is that of art, and it is replete with interesting

details, but the conception is too narrow to allow of its fully

representing the age to a modern reader.

[2] Radium was unknown in 1901 when the above was written.

[3] In presenting this history to the modern reader I shall not

imitate the example of those mediaeval stage-managers, who, in order

to indicate the scenery of the play, were content to exhibit a placard

such as “This is a street,” “This is a wood,” etc. On the contrary, on

each occasion that the scene shifts in this drama of real life, I shall

describe the locality of the events at a length proportionate to their

importance.

[4] Schliemann found neolithic remains at Hissarlik, not far off

(Ilios, p. 236, 1880).

[5] In the sixteenth century, as we are told by Gyllius (Top. CP.,

iv, 11), the Greeks of Stamboul were utterly oblivious of the history

of their country and of the suggestiveness of the remains which lay

around them. But an awakening has now taken place and the modern Greeks

are among the most ardent in the pursuit of archaeological knowledge.

They have even revived the language of Attica for literary purposes,

and it may be said that an Athenian of the age of Pericles could read

with facility the works now issued from the Greek press of Athens or

of Constantinople—a unique example, I should think, in the history

of philology. Through Paspates (Βυζαντινὰ Ανάκτορα, pp. 95, 140), we

are made aware of the difficulties the topographical student has to

encounter in the Ottoman capital, where an intruding Giaour is sure to

be assailed in the more sequestered Turkish quarters with abuse and

missiles on the part of men, women, and children.

[6] Alluded to by both Homer and Hesiod (Odyss., xii, 69; Theog.,

992). It was one of those unknown countries which, as Plutarch remarks

(Theseus, 1), were looked on as a fitting scene for mythical events.

[7] Pindar, Pythia, iv, 362; P. Mela, i, 19, etc.

[8] Of these Sinope claimed to be the eldest, and honoured the

Argonauts as its founders (Strabo, xii, 3).

[9] _Ibid._, vii, 6.

[10] Herodotus, iv, 144.

[11] Pliny, Hist. Nat., iv, 18 [11]. Ausonius compares Lygos to the

Byrsa of Carthage (De Clar. Urb., 2).

[12] Not a Greek name; most likely that of a local chief.

[13] According to the Chronicon of Eusebius, Chalcedon was founded

in Olymp. 26, 4, and Byzantium in Olymp. 30, 2, or 673, 659 B.C. In

modern works of reference the dates 684, 667 seem to be most generally

accepted. I pass over the legends associated with this foundation—the

divine birth of Byzas; the oracle telling the emigrants to build

opposite the city of the blind; another, which led the Argives (who

were also concerned in the early history of Byzantium) to choose the

confluence of the Cydarus and Barbyses, at the extremity of the Golden

Horn, whence they were directed to the right spot by birds, who flew

away with parts of their sacrifice—inventions or hearsay of later

times, when the real circumstances were forgotten (see Strabo, vii, 6;

Hesychius Miles, De Orig. CP., and others), all authors of comparatively

late date. Herodotus (iv, 144), the nearest to the events (_c._ 450

B.C.), makes the plain statement that the Persian general Megabyzus

said the Chalcedonians must have been blind when they overlooked the

site of Byzantium.

[14] The remains of a “cyclopean” wall (Paspates, Βυζαντινὰ Ανάκτορα,

p. 24), built with blocks of stone (some ten feet long?) probably

belonged to old Byzantium, respecting which it is only certainly known

that it stood at the north-east extremity of the promontory (Zosimus,

ii, 30; Codinus, p. 24; with Mordtmann’s Map, etc.). It can scarcely

be doubted that the site of the Hippodrome was outside the original

walls, and thus we have a limit on the land side. It may be assumed

that the so-called first hill formed an acropolis, round which there

was an external wall inclosing the main part of the town (Xenophon,

Anabasis, vii, 1, etc.). Doubtless the citadel covered no great area,

and the city walls were kept close to the water for as long a distance

as possible to limit the extent of investment in a siege.

[15] Polybius, iv, 38, 45, etc. It was abolished after a war with

Rhodes, 219 B.C.

[16] Tacitus, Annal., xii, 63, and commentators. Strabo, ii, 6; Pliny,

Hist. Nat., ix, 20 [15]. They are mostly tunny fish, a large kind of

mackerel. In the time of Gyllius, women and children caught them simply

by letting down baskets into the water (De Top. CP. pref.; so also

Busbecq). Grosvenor, a resident, mentions that seventy sorts of fish

are found in the sea about the city (Constantinople, 1895, ii, p. 576.)

[17] Strabo proves that the gulf was called the Horn, Pliny that

the Horn was Golden (the promontory in his view), Dionysius Byzant.

(Gyllius, De Bosp. Thrac., i, 5), that in the second century the inlet

was named Golden Horn. Hesychius (_loc. cit._) and Procopius (De

Aedific., i, 5) say that Ceras was from Ceroessa, mother of Byzas.

[18] Dionys. Byz. in Gyllius, De Top. CP., i, 2. The statement is

vague and can only be accepted with some modification in view of other

descriptions.

[19] Livy, xxxii, 33.

[20] Phylarchus in Athenaeus, vi, 101.

[21] See Müller’s Dorians, ii, 177.

[22] Hesychius, _loc. cit._; Diodorus Sic., xvi, 77, etc.

[23] Polybius, iv, 46, etc.

[24] Cicero, Orat. de Prov. Consular., 3.

[25] Tacitus, _loc. cit._; Pliny, Epist. to Trajan, 52.

[26] Suetonius, Vespasian, 8.

[27] Dion Cassius, 10, 14. I have combined and condensed the separate

passages dealing with the subject.

[28] Herodian, iii, 1; Pausanias, iv, 31. Walls of this kind were built

without cement, so that the joinings were hardly perceptible.

[29] At an earlier period it seems that there was only one harbour

(Xenophon, Anabasis, vii, 1; Plutarch, Alcibiades, 31).

[30] A not uncommon acoustic phenomenon, such as occurs in the

so-called “Ear [prison] of Dionysius” at Syracuse, etc. It can be

credited without seeking for a mythical explanation.

[31] Suidas, _sb._ Severus; Herodian, iii, 7.

[32] The general details are from Dion Cassius, lxxiv, 12-14.

[33] Suidas, _loc. cit._; Jn. Malala, xii, p. 291; Chron. Paschale, i,

p. 495.

[34] Eustathius _ad_ Dionys., Perieg. 804; Codinus, p. 13.

[35] Hist. August. Caracalla, 1. He is represented as a boy interceding

with his father.

[36] Hist. August. Gallienus, 6, 13, etc.; Claudius, 9; Zosimus, i,

34, etc.; Aurelius Victor, De Caesar., xxxiii, etc. There is much to

support the views in the text, which reconcile the somewhat discrepant

statements of Dion and Herodian with those of later writers. The

Goths seem to have been in possession of Byzantium—therefore it was

unfortified (Zosimus, i, 34; Syncellus, i, p. 717). More than a century

later, Fritigern was “at peace with stone walls” (Ammianus, xxxi, 6).

I apply the description of Zosimus (ii, 30) to this wall of Gallienus

(so to call it), which probably included a larger area, taking in the

Hippodrome and other buildings of Severus.

[37] The tops of the various hills can now be distinguished by the

presence of the following well-known buildings: 1. St. Sophia; 2. Burnt

Pillar; 3. Seraskier’s Tower; 4. Mosque of Mohammed II; 5. Mosque of

Selim; 6. Mosque of Mihrimah (Gate of Adrianople); 7. Seven Towers

(south-west extremity). The highest point in the city is the summit of

the sixth hill, 291 ft. (Grosvenor).

[38] The last reach of the Barbyses runs through a Turkish pleasure

ground and is well known locally as the “Sweet Waters of Europe.”

[39] Procopius, De Aedific., i, 11.

[40] Notwithstanding the southerliness of these regions, natives of

the Levant have always been well acquainted with frost and snow. Thus

wintry weather is a favourite theme with Homer:

ἤματι χειμερίῳ...

κοιμήσας δ’ ἁνέμους χέει ἔμπεδον, ὄφρα καλύψῃ

ὑψηλῶν ὀρέων κορυφὰς καὶ πρώονας ἄκρους,

καὶ πεδία λωτεῦντα καὶ ἀνδρῶν πίονα ἔργα,

καί τ’ ἐφ’ ἁλὸς πολιῆς κέχυται λιμέσιν τε καὶ ακταῖς,

κῦμα δέ μιν προσπλάζον ἐρύκεται· ἄλλα τε πάντα

εἰλύαται καθύπερθ’ ὅτ ἐπιβρίση Διὸς ὔμβρας.

_Iliad_, xii, 279, κ.τ.λ.

[41] His reasons for this step can only be surmised. A political motive

is scarcely suggested. A second capital cannot have been required to

maintain what Rome had conquered, and was soon made an excuse for

dissolving the unity of the Empire. His nascent zeal for Christianity,

by which he incurred unpopularity at pagan Rome, has been supposed to

have prejudiced him against the old capital, and moved him to build

another in which the new religion should reign supreme, but these

opinions emanate only from writers actuated more or less by bigotry.

Although he virtually presided at the Council of Nice and accepted

baptism on his death-bed, that he was ever a Christian by conviction

is altogether doubtful. For a _résumé_ see Boissier, Revue des Deux

Mondes, July, 1886; also Burchardt’s Constantine.

[42] For the founding of Constantinople see Gyllius (De Topogr. CP., i,

3), but especially Ducange (CP. Christiana, i, p. 23 _et seq._), who

has brought together a large number of passages from early and late

writers. According to a nameless author (Muller, Frag. Hist., iv, p.

199), Constantine was at one time in the habit of exclaiming: “My Rome

is Sardica.” He was born and bred in the East, and hence all his tastes

would naturally lead him to settle on that side of the Empire.

[43] It may have been earlier. Petavius (in Ducange) fixes this date,

Baronius makes it 325 (_c._ 95).

[44] Plutarch, De Defect. Orac. He explains it by the death of the

daemons who managed them. These semi-divinities, though long-lived,

were not immortal.

[45] See Ducange, _loc. cit._, p. 24.

[46] Philostorgius, ii, 9. Copied or repeated with embellishment, but

not corroborated, by later writers, as Nicephorus Cal., viii, 4; Anon.

(Banduri), p. 15; Codinus, p. 75. Eusebius is silent where we should

expect him to be explicit. The allusion in Cod. Theod., XIII, v, 7,

seems to be merely a pious expression.

[47] The result of Diocletian’s persecution must have shown every

penetrating spirit that Christianity had “come to stay”: the numerous

converts of the better classes were nearly all fanatics compared with

Pagans of the same class, who were languid and indifferent about

religion. He indulged both parties from time to time.

[48] Zosimus, ii, 30, Anon. Patria (Banduri, p. 4), and indications in

Notitia Utriusque Imperii, etc., in which the length of Constantine’s

city is put down at 14,705 Roman feet. From Un Kapani on the Golden

Horn (near old bridge) it swept round the mosque of Mohammed II, passed

that of Exi Mermer, and turned south-east so as to strike the sea near

Et Jemes, north-east of Sand-gate. I am describing the imaginary line

drawn by Mordtmann (Esquisses topogr. de CP., 1891), who has given us a

critical map without a scale to measure it by. It was not finished till

after Constantine’s death, Julian, Orat., i, p. 41, 1696.

[49] Anon. (Banduri) and Codinus _passim_; Eusebius, Vit. Constant.,

iii, 54, etc.; Jerome, Chron., viii, p. 678 (Migne).

[50] Zosimus, ii, 31.

[51] Or Florentia (blooming). Jn. Malala, xiii, p. 320, etc. Everything

was done in imitation of Rome, which, as John Lydus tells us (De Mens.,

iv, 50), had three names, mystic, sacerdotal, and political—Amor,

Flora, Rome.

[52] Cedrenus, i, p. 495; Zonaras, xiii, 3. Eusebius knows nothing of

it. See Ducange’s collection of authorities (CP. Christ., i, p. 24),

all late, _e.g._, Phrantzes, iii, 6.

[53] Anon. (Banduri), p. 5; Codinus, p. 20. The stories of these

writers do not deserve much credit. Glycas, however, accepts the tale

and is a sounder authority, iv, p. 463. “It is well known that the

flower of your nobility was translated to the royal city of the East,”

said Frederic Barbarossa, addressing the Roman Senate in 1155 (Otto

Frising. Muratori, Rer. Ital. Script., vi, 721).

[54] Eunapius in Aedesius. Burchardt jeers at C. and his new citizens.

[55] Idatius, Descript. Consul. (Migne, S. L., li, 908). The accepted

date.

[56] Jn. Lydus, De Mensibus, iv, 2. “A bloodless sacrifice” (Jn.

Malala, p. 320). According to later writers (Anon., Banduri, etc.) the

“Kyrie Eleison” was sung, a statement we can easily disbelieve.

[57] Jn. Malala, xiii, p. 321; Chron. Paschal., i, p. 529.

[58] Anon. (Banduri), p. 4. _Ibid._ (Papias), p. 84.

[59] In cloaks and Byzantine buskins, “chlaenis et campagis” (Κάμπαγος

or κομβαῶν). For the latter see Daremberg and Saglio, Dict. Antiq.,

_sb. voc._ They covered the toe and heel, leaving the instep bare to

the ground.

[60] Jn. Malala and Chron. Paschal., _loc. cit._, etc.

[61] M. Glycas, iv, p. 463. Eusebius does not describe the founding

of CP., doubtless because he saw nothing in it pertinent to Christian

piety, of which only he professes to treat (τὰ πρὸς τὸν θεοφιλῆ), Vit.

Const., i, 11.

[62] The name occurs in Cod. Theod. from 323 onwards, but also as a

palpable error at an earlier date. See Haenel’s Chronological Index. It

is thought coins stamped CP. were issued as early as 325 (Smith, Dict.

Christ. Biog., i, p. 631). Had Constantine fixed on any other place it

is probable that “New Rome” would have passed into currency as easily

as “New York.” But the Greeks did not call their city Constantinople

till later centuries. Thus with Procopius, the chief writer of the

sixth century, it is always still Byzantium.

[63] Socrates, i, 16; Sozomen, ii, 3; Cod. Theod., XIV, xiii, etc.

[64] Socrates, _loc. cit._

[65] Anon. Valesii, 30.

[66] The last Roman emperor, in name only, Romulus Augustulus,

abdicated in 476, but long before that date the Empire had been

gradually falling to pieces. In 410 Alaric sacked Rome; by 419

the Goths had settled in the south of France and the Vandals had

appropriated Spain; in 439 Genseric took possession of Africa; in 446

Britain was abandoned; in 455 Rome was again sacked (by Genseric), etc.

[67] Ciampini (De Sacr. Aedific., a C. Mag., etc., Rome, 1693),

enumerates twenty-seven. Eusebius says many (Vit. C., iii, 48). It is

curious, however, that the dialogue Philopatris (in Lucian) gives an

impression that in or after 363 (Gesner’s date, formerly accepted)

churches were so few and inconspicuous that the bulk of the population

knew nothing about them. The Notitia, again, half a century later,

reckons only fourteen within the city proper, including Sycae (Galata).

Probably, therefore, these twenty-seven churches attributed to

Constantine are mostly suppositious, for even in the reign of Arcadius

it would seem that there were not many more than half that number.

[68] Socrates, i, 16. Two only, as if Constantine had built no more.

[69] Chron. Paschal., i, p. 531.

[70] Eusebius, iv, 58. _Op. cit._

[71] Anon. (Banduri), p. 45; Codinus, p. 72.

[72] Hesychius, _op. cit._, 15 (Codinus, p. 6).

[73] Cicero (Orat. De Prov. Consul., 4) says that Byzantium was

“refertissimam atque ornatissimam signis,” a statement which doubtless

applies chiefly to works of art preserved in temples. The buildings

would remain and be restored, notwithstanding the many vicissitudes

through which the town passed. The Anon. (Banduri, p. 2) says that

ruins of a temple of Zeus, columns and arches, were still seen on the

Acropolis (first hill) in the twelfth century.

[74] Eunapius, _loc. cit._, Themistius, Orats., Paris, 1684, pp. 182,

223, “equal to Rome”; Sozomen, “more populous than Rome”; Novel lxxx

forbids the crowding of provincials to CP.

[75] Cod. Theod., XV, i. 51; Socrates, vii, 1, etc.

[76] Marcellinus, Chron. (Migne, li, 927). See also Evagrius, i, 17,

and Ducange, _op. cit._, i, p. 38.

[77] Priscus, Hist. Goth., p. 168. In 433.

[78] The work of Cyrus is not precisely defined by the Byzantine

historians, but Déthier (Der Bosph. u. CP., 1873, pp. 12, 50) and

Mordtmann (_op. cit._, p. 11) take this view. The words of one

inscription, “he built a wall to a wall” (ἐδείματο τείχεϊ τεῖχος),

support the theory. The walls of Theodosius were afterwards called the

“new walls” (Cod. Just., I, ii, 18; Novel lix, 5, etc.).

[79] On the Porta Rhegii or Melandesia, about halfway across. See

Paspates (Βυζαντιναὶ Μελέται, pp. 47, 50). They are preserved in the

Anthol. Graec. (Planudes), iv. 28. The gate called Xylocercus, with its

inscription, has disappeared.

[80] Marcellinus, _loc. cit._; Zonaras, xiii, 22; Nicephorus Cal.,

xiv, 1, confuses the work of the two men. The Anon. Patria (Banduri),

p. 20, says that the two factions of the circus, each containing eight

thousand men, were employed on the work. Beginning at either end,

they met centrally at a gate hence called “of many men” (Polyandra).

Mordtmann (_op. cit._, p. 28) wholly rejects this tale, as it does not

fit in with some of his identifications. It would, however, be well

suited to the P. Rhegii, where the existing inscriptions are found.

Some local knowledge must be conceded to an author of the twelfth

century, who probably lived on the spot. Wall-building was a _duty_ of

the factions.

[81] Dionysius caused the Syracusans to build the wall of Epipolae,

of about the same length, in twenty days (Diod. Sic., xiv, 18). The

Peloponnesians built a wall across the isthmus against Xerxes in a

short time (Herodotus, viii, 71, etc.). There was much extemporary

wall-building at Syracuse during the siege by Nicias (Thucydides, vi,

97, etc.). The 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).

[82] 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 preserves much of

the lost Dionysius of Byzantium, is also valuable. Later still comes

the monumental CP. Christiana of Ducange (Paris, 1680), a mine of

research, by one of those almost mediaeval scholars, who spent their

lives in a library. Of contemporary treatises, which are numerous and

bulky, I will only mention the following, from which I have derived

most assistance: J. Labarte, Le Palais Impériale de CP., Paris,

1871; A. G. Paspates, Βυζαντιναὶ Μελέται, CP., 1877, and Βυζαντινα

Ανάκτορα, Athens, 1885; W. Mordtmann, Esquisses topographiques de

CP., Lille, 1891. Among books intended less for the archaeologist

than for popular perusal, the only one worthy of special mention is

Constantinople, Lond., 1895, by E. A. Grosvenor, a fine work, admirably

illustrated, but the author relies too implicitly on Paspates, and he

has emasculated his book for literary purposes by omitting references

to authorities. The book also contains several absurd mistakes, _e.g._,

“The careful historian who ... wrote under the name of Anonymos,”

etc., p. 313. To the above must now be added the important, Byzantine

CP., the Walls, by Van Millingen, Lond., 1899, a sound and critical

work. Another beautiful work has also been recently issued, viz.,

Beylié, L’Habitation byzantine, Grenoble, 1902. A wealth of authentic

illustrations renders it extremely valuable for the study of the

subject. This chapter was begun in 1896, and in the meantime scholars

have not been idle. As the Bonn Codinus gives inter-textually all the

passages of the anonymous Patria which differ, as well as an appendix

of anonymous archaeological tracts, I shall in future, for the sake of

brevity, refer to the whole as Codinus simply in that edition.

[83] That is the pierced dome elevated to a great height on

pendentives. The splendid dome of the Pantheon dates, of course, from

Hadrian, but the invention of the modern cupola may fairly be assigned

to the Byzantines. The conception, however, had to be completed by

raising it still higher on a _tour de dome_, the first example of which

is St. Augustine’s, Rome (1483); see Agincourt, Hist. of Art, i, 67.

[84] Procopius, De Aedific., i, 3; Nicephorus Cal., xv, 25.

[85] Κυκλόβιον or στρογγύλον; Procopius, _ibid._, iv, 8. Theophanes,

an. 6165, p. 541, etc. Possibly it looked like the tomb of Caecilia

Metella or a Martello Tower and was the prototype of the castle shown

on the old maps as the “Grand Turk’s Treasure-house,” built in 1458 by

Mohammed II within his fortress of the Seven Towers; Map by Caedicius,

CP., 1889; Ducas, p. 317; Laonicus, x, p. 529. Most likely, however, it

was a wall uniting five towers in a round. The Cyclobion is attributed

to Zeno, about 480; Byzantios, Κωνσταντινούπολις, i, 312;

Grosvenor, _op. cit._, p. 596.

[86] Grosvenor calls the existing road the remains of Justinian’s

“once well-paved triumphal way,” I have found no corroboration of

this assertion. From Constant. Porph. (De Cer. Aul. Byz., i, 18, 96,

etc.), I conclude there was no continuous road here for many centuries

afterwards. Paspates (_op. cit._, p. 13) thinks the last passage

alludes to it as πλακωτῆ, but this is evidently the highway to Rhegium,

etc. (Procop., De Aedific., iv, 8).

[87] Cod. VIII, x, 10; Procopius, De Bel. Pers., i, 25; Cinnamus, ii,

14; Anthol. (Planudes), iv, 15, etc.

[88] This fount is still extant and accessible beneath the Greek church

of Baloukli (Grosvenor, _op. cit._, p. 485, etc.).

[89] Gyllius (Dionys. Byz.), De Bosp. Thrac., ii, 2; De Topog. CP., iv,

5.

[90] Suidas, _sub_ Anast. Mordtmann (_op. cit._, p. 33), thinks the

ruins existing at Tekfur Serai may represent the original Palace of

Blachernae, the basement, at least. It is commonly called the palace of

Constantine, etc., but Van Millingen proves it to be a late erection.

[91] Zonaras, xiii, 24; Codin., p. 95, etc.

[92] Const. Porph., De Cer. Aul. Byz., ii, 12. Still frequented

(Paspates, _op. cit._, p. 390, etc.).

[93] To “a man’s height” (Paspates).

[94] Paspates has all the credit of solving the problem of this moat

(_op. cit._, p. 7, etc.). It has been maintained that it was a dry

moat, owing to the physical impossibility of the sea flowing into it.

The words of Chrysoloras (Migne, Ser. Grk., vol. 156, etc.) are alone

sufficient to dispose of this error.

[95] This space seems to have been called the παρατείχιον; Const.

Porph., _loc. cit._; or rather, perhaps, the πρωτείχισμα; see

the Anon., Στρατηγική (Koechly, etc.), 12 (_c._ 550). Paspates calls it

the προτείχιον, “because,” says he, “I have found no name for it in the

Byzantine historians.”

[96] Ducas, 39, etc.; Paspates, _op. cit._, p. 6. It is, however, the

usual word for the walls of a city. Μεσοτείχιον and σταύρωμα

are more definite; Critobulos, i, 60. Paspates states that the ground

here has been raised six feet above its ancient level.