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That this outline of the city of Constantine is, substantially, correct, will appear from the information which ancient writers have given on the subject.

(a) According to Zosimus,^[42] the land wall of the new capital was carried fifteen stadia west of the corresponding wall of Byzantium. The position of the latter, we have already seen, is marked, with sufficient accuracy for our present purpose by the porphyry Column of Constantine which stood close to the main gate of the old Greek town.^[43] Proceeding from that column fifteen stadia westwards, we come to a line within a short distance of the reservoirs above mentioned.

(b) In the oldest description of Constantinople—that contained in the Notitia^[44]—the length of the city is put down as 14,075 Roman feet; the breadth as 6150 Roman feet. The Notitia belongs to the age of Theodosius II., and might therefore be supposed to give the dimensions of the city after its enlargement by that emperor. This, however, is not the case. The size of Constantinople under Theodosius II. is well known, seeing the ancient walls which still surround Stamboul mark, with slight modifications, the wider limits of the city in the fifth century. But the figures of the Notitia do not correspond to the well-ascertained dimensions of the Theodosian city; they fall far short of those dimensions, and therefore can refer only to the length and breadth of the original city of Constantine. To adhere thus to the original size of the capital after it had been outgrown is certainly strange, but may be explained as due to the force of habit. When the Notitia was written, the enlargement of the city by Theodosius was too recent an event to alter old associations of thought and introduce new points of view. “The City,” proper, was still what Constantine had made it.