Chap. V Of the Blachernæ, the Triclinium of the Blachernæ, the Palace, the Aqueduct and Many Other Places of Antiquity
The Author of the Book entitled, The antient Description of the Wards attests, that there stood in the fourteenth Ward, a Church, but does not name it; nor does he take Notice of the Blachernæ, although it was called so before the taking of Constantinople by Severus, as I shall immediately make appear. The Blachernæ stood without the Walls, not only in the Time when that Book was wrote, but even in the Reign of Justinian, who, as Procopius writes, built a Church, which he dedicated to the Virgin Mary, before the Walls of the City, in a Place called the Blachernæ. The Spectator, says he, when he enters this Church, will admire its large and bulky Building, yet secure from the Danger of falling by the Strength of its Foundation. You may behold in it, adds he, a stately Magnificence, without any Mixture of Gaiety, and too much Embellishment. ’Tis my Opinion, that Justinian only repaired this Church: For Zonaras reports, that Pulcheria, the Wife of Marcian, built a Church in the Blachernæ, and dedicated it to the Virgin Mary. Pomponius Lætus tells us, that this Church was built by Theodosius. Cedrinus writes, that Justin the Nephew of Justinian, added two Arches to the Church in the Blachernæ. So that ’tis plain from what Procopius has wrote upon this Occasion, that the Blachernæ stood without the Walls of the City, as it is no less evident from the Testimony of Agathius. When the barbarous Nations, says he, approached Constantinople, by the Permission of Justinian, all the Churches situate without the Walls, from the Blachernæ to the Black-Sea, were stripp’d of their Armaments, which were kept within the City. There is at present to be seen, near the Gate called Xylon, and the Western Angle of the City, between the Foot of the sixth Hill, and the turning of a Mosque, situate within the City, (which the People say was dedicated to the Virgin Mary) a Spring now running, which the Greeks tell us was consecrated to her. The Place, where the Spring is, is call’d the Blachernæ. Upon my first coming to Constantinople, some Remains of it were to be seen, but now there nothing appears even of its Ruines. From the Bottom of the sixth Hill, which rises above the Church in the Blachernæ, there shoots an Aqueduct with two Pipes; one of which is stopp’d with a Cock, and the other flows in a constant Stream. I took Notice before, that Andronicus the Emperor brought this Aqueduct from the River Hydrales, into the Ward of the Blachernæ, where there was no River Water till his Time. The Emperor Anastasius built the great Triclinium in the Blachernæ, which went under his Name, even in the Time of Suidas. Zonaras, and others assure us, that the Emperor Tiberius built the publick Bath in the Blachernæ. ’Tis certain from some modern Histories, that there was in the Time of Zonaras, even down to the Reign of Manuel the Emperor, an Imperial Palace in that Place. The Reason why ’tis called the Blachernæ, is mentioned by Dionysius a Byzantian, in his Navigation of the Bosporus, from whom I shall just touch upon some Places described by him, which reach from the Foot of the fifth Hill, to the furthermost Angle of the City, and the sixth Hill. Beyond Mellacopsas, says he, (this, I took Notice of before, was at the Foot of the fifth Hill) there are two Places which afford good Sport in Fishing, all the Year. One upon the Shallows under the Promontories, the other under the deep hollow Shores which are never ruffled by the Wind. The first of these is called Indigenas, from some great Man who was a Native there; the other Pyracius, from Pyræus, a Port of Athens; or as some believe, from some antient Inhabitant. There’s a Place between them called Cittos, from the great Plenty of Ivy it produces. There is also a steep Place called Camara, which adjoins that of Pyracius. ’Tis much exposed to the Wind, and therefore often feels the Roughness of the Sea. Thence, up higher, stands Thalassa, which is the Boundary of the Ceratine Bay, where the Rivers begin to flow into it. ’Tis thus called, either by Reason of their Nearness to the Sea, whose Salt Waters they mingle with their Freshness, or because it stands steddy, and more out of the Wind; or rather, because the constant Influx of the Rivers into it, brings down daily a muddy Substance into the Sea, which very much thickens it; though it serves for Nourishment to the Multitudes of Fish with which it abounds. The first Place that stands upon this calm Sea is called Polyrrhetius, from a Man named Polyrrhetus: The next is Vateiascopia, so called from the deep Sea that is about it; a third is the Blachernæ, which is a barbarous Word; and the last Place is the Marshes.