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The Golden Gate, therefore, figures also in the military annals of Constantinople. In the reign of Anastasius I. it was the object of special attack by Vitalianus at the head of his Huns and Bulgarians.[268] Repeated attempts were made upon it by the Saracens in the siege of 673-675.[269] Crum stood before it in the reign of Leo the Armenian, and there he invoked the aid of his gods against the city, by offering human sacrifices and by the lustration of his army with sea-water in which he had bathed his feet.[270] His demand to plant his spear in the gate put an end to the negotiations for peace. In 913 the Bulgarians, under their king Simeon, were again arrayed before the entrance.[271] Here, also, in 1347, John Cantacuzene was admitted by his partisans.[272]
John Palæologus, upon receiving the surrender of the gate foolishly dismantled the towers, lest they should be turned against him, in the fickle political fortunes of the day.[273] He did not, however, carry the work of destruction so far as to be unable to use the position as an “acropolis” when besieged, in 1376, by his rebellious son, Andronicus.[274] Later, when Sultan Bajazet threatened the city, an attempt was made to restore the towers, and even to increase the strength of this point in the fortifications.[275] With materials taken from the churches of All Saints, the Forty Martyrs, and St. Mokius, the towers were rebuilt, and a fortress extending to the sea was erected within the city walls, similar to the Castle of the Seven Towers constructed afterwards by Mehemet the Conqueror, in 1457. Upon hearing of this action, Bajazet sent peremptory orders to John Palæologus to pull down the new fortifications, and compelled obedience by threatening to put out the eyes of Manuel, the heir to the throne, at that time a hostage at Brousa. The humiliation affected the emperor, then seriously ill, so keenly as to hasten his death. Subsequently, however, probably after the defeat of Bajazet by Tamerlane at Angora, the defences at the Golden Gate were restored; for the Russian pilgrim who was in Constantinople between 1435 and 1453 speaks of visiting the Castle of the Emperor Kalo Jean.[276]