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HAEC LOCA THEVDOSIVS DECORAT POST FATA TYRANNI.

AVREA SAECLA GERIT QVI PORTAM CONSTRVIT AVRO.

The history of our knowledge of this inscription is curious. There is no mention made of the legend by any writer before 1453, unless Radulphus de Diceto alludes to it when he states that in 1189 an old resident of the city pointed a Templar to certain words upon the Golden Gate, foretelling the capture of Constantinople by the Crusaders.^[214] And of all the visitors to the city since the Turkish Conquest, Dallaway is the only one who speaks of having seen the inscription in its place.^[215]

The inscription is cited first by Sirmondi^[216] and Du Cange,^[217] the former of whom quotes it in his annotations upon Sidonius Apollonius, as furnishing a parallel to that poet’s mode of spelling the name Theodosius with a v instead of an o for the sake of the metre. How Sirmondi and Du Cange, neither of whom ever visited Constantinople, became acquainted with the inscription does not appear.

Matters remained in this position until 1891, when the attention of Professor J. Strzygowski^[218] was arrested by certain holes in the voussoirs of the central archway, both on its western and eastern faces. The holes are such as are found on stones to which metal letters are riveted with bolts.