Chap. I Of the Eleventh Ward, and of the Fourth and Fifth Hills
I had been at a Loss to discover the eleventh Ward, (which, tho’ the ancient Description of the Wards mentions to have been wider in Compass than the Tenth, and in no Part of it bounded by the Sea; as also that it partly consisted of a Level, and partly of a rising Ground) unless the Author had subjoin’d, that it contain’d also the Church of the Apostles, And tho’ at present there’s nothing remaining of that Church, yet I was inform’d by some ancient People of Constantinople, who told me, that they remembred it stood upon the Back of the fourth Hill; which fell upon a Hill of the third Valley, near the Sadlers Shops, and the Sepulchre of Mahomet the Emperor. I observe from hence, that the eleventh Ward was Part on the Top of the same Hill, and Part on the North Side of it. I shall shew by what follows, that this Ward reach’d to the Land-Wall of the City, which divided the Eleventh, from the fourteenth Ward, and which was also itself divided from the City by an intermediate Space of Land. I shall convince the Reader presently, that this Ward was situate on the sixth Hill, without the Walls of the City, and was afterwards wall’d round by Theodosius the Less. The Walls built by Constantine are said to have reach’d as far as the Churches of St. Anthony, and St. Mary, who was call’d Rabdos, and from thence to have risen to a Land-Wall call’d Exacionion, which took its Name from hence, viz. That without the Land-Wall there stood a Pillar, on which was erected the Statue of Constantine the Great. Some modern Writers will have it, that he built a Church which he dedicated to the Holy Trinity in a Place call’d the Exacionion, now call’d the Church of the Apostles; for, if I am not mistaken, the Walls of Constantine were built upon the Borders of the fourth and fifth Hill, near the Exacionion, Cedrinus writes, that the Walls of the City, the beautiful Churches, the fine Houses seated in the Exacionion were thrown down by a dreadful Earthquake. They tell us in other Places, tho’ not consistently with themselves, that there were Portico’s which reach’d from the Miliarium to the Street call’d Taurus, and to the Gates of St. John the Baptist’s Church near the Hippodrom, which are more than a thousand Roman Paces distant from the Church of the Apostles, and as far from the Walls of the City which were built by Constantine, as may be gather’d from the following Passage of Sozomen. Theodosius, says this Author, leading his Army against Eugenius, went a Mile out of the City to the Church of St. John, which he had built in the Hepdomum. This Hepdomum was a Part of the Suburbs of the City, but is now enclos’d within the Walls, as will appear when I come to speak of it. If the Pillar from whence the Exacionion took its Name, was the same with that high Pillar which stood on the Top of the fifth Hill, and was seen not long since at a great Distance from the City, above all the Houses, we might easily discover, that the Walls built by Constantine did not reach beyond this Pillar, which stood about half a Mile’s distance from the Church of the Apostles. I saw this Pillar took to Pieces, and remov’d for building a Mosque, by Order of Solyman the Emperor. The Base, the Pedestal and the Foundation of it were of white Marble. The Foundation-Stone alone was so high, that I could not climb it without a Ladder. The Pedestal was four Foot and nine Digits high, and the Plinth one Foot, and six Digits. The Greeks and the Turks, each in their Dialect, call’d it the Pillar of the Virgin, which I take to be that celebrated by our modern Writers, which they say was erected upon a Hill, and supported the Statue of Venus, carv’d in Stone. When the Ancient Description of the Wards tells us, that the eleventh Ward is no Ways bounded by the Sea, it must be so understood as to mean, that the Plain situated between the Bay of Ceras, and the Foot of the fourth Hill, was not within the Walls, since the same Treatise mentions, that the City was six thousand one hundred and fifty Foot broad; that is, a Mile and two hundred and thirty Paces; for the Latitude of the Isthmus, which stretches itself over the fourth and seventh Hill, thro’ which the old Wall extended itself, exceeds the Breadth abovemention’d. But Zosimus, an ancient Historian, says, that Constantine the Great so wholly surrounded the City with a Wall, that it cut off the Isthmus from Sea to Sea. So that upon the whole, there is a Necessity to place the Plain, situate between the Bay, and the Bottom of the fourth Hill, in the tenth Ward.