Chap. VI
Of the Bridge near the Church of St. Mamas; of his Hippodrom; of the Brazen Lyon, and the Sepulchre of the Emperor Mauritius.
NOT only some Historians, but also Suidas the Grammarian, have handed it down to us, that near the Church of St. Mamas, there stood a Bridge, which had twelve Arches; for there was a great Floud of Waters at that Place. There was also set up at the same Place a brazen Dragon; because ’twas reported that a Serpent had some Time liv’d there, which had deflour’d many Virgins. This Story was occasion’d by the Name of a Man, who was call’d Basiliscus, one of Numerianus Cæsar’s Life-Guard, who liv’d there, and built a Church, which Zeno afterwards pull’d down. Constantine, call’d Iconomachus, because he was a profess’d Enemy to Images, order’d one Andreas a Statuary, a Man of some Note in the Blachernæ, to be whipt to Death in the Hippodrom of St. Mamas. Zonaras tells us, that Mauritius the Emperor was buried in the Church of St. Mamas, which was built by Pharasmenes, an Eunuch, and Gentleman of the Bed-chamber to Justinian. Cedrinus writes, that the Church of St. Mamas stood near the Gate call’d Xylocercon. Others report, That Crunna, King of the Bulgarians, surrounded Constantinople with an Army from the Blachernæ to the Porta Aurea, and distrusting the Strength of his Forces to take the Town, he hasten’d to this Church, set Fire to a Palace that was near it, and that upon his Retreat, he carry’d off a Brazen Lyon plac’d in the Hippodrom, a Bear, a Dragon, and some curious Pieces of Marble. Sozomen speaking of those Persons who were banish’d on St. Chrysostom’s Account, says, that when they were got without the Walls they met in a Place situate before the City, which Constantine order’d to be cleans’d, to be pal’d round, and made it into a Hippodrom. This, I take it, was the Place which was afterwards call’d the Hippodrom of St. Mamas. Zonaras adds upon this Occasion, that Leo the Emperor, scar’d by a Fire, which then rag’d in the City, flew to the Church of St. Mamas, and continu’d there for some Time. Cedrinus mentions, that the Emperor diverted himself with Horse-racing, near the Church of St. Mamas the Martyr, situate in the Stenon. ’Tis plain from the Authorities abovemention’d, that this Church was seated in the Blachernæ, and that there was a Bridge there, as is farther confirm’d by Johannes Tzetzes in his Variâ Historiâ, where he says, that the Sea extending itself from the Streights of Abydus, to the Bridge of the Blachernæ, is call’d the Hellespont. ’Tis also evident, that this Bridge stood, where the Stone Piles of the old Bridge (when the Water is low, as ’tis in Summer) are seen at present, and stand between the Suburbs call’d the Blachernæ, and the Suburbs, which the Turks call the Aibasarium. This, I am confident, is the same Bridge which the ancient Treatise of the Wards of the City, calls the Wooden Bridge, and places it in the fourteenth Ward, in which, as I observ’d, was the Suburbs call’d the Hepdomum. I desire the Reader to remark one Thing from Suidas, that St. Mamas Bridge had either twelve Stone Arches, or else, that he was writing of another Church of St. Mamas, situate in another Place.