Читать книгу Byzantine Constantinople, the walls of the city and adjoining historical sites онлайн

93 страница из 107

The Fourth Military Gate stood between the ninth and tenth towers to the north of the Porta Rhousiou. The northern corbel of the outer gateway is an inscribed stone brought from some other building erected by a certain Georgius.[338]


The Gate of St. Romanus.


The Gate of Charisius.

Top Kapoussi, between the sixth and seventh towers north of the Fourth Military Gate, is the Gate of St. Romanus (πόρτα τοῦ Ἁγίου Ρωμάνου)[339] so named after an adjoining church of that dedication. Its identity may be established in the following manner: According to Cananus,[340] the Gate of St. Romanus and the Gate of Charisius stood on opposite sides of the Lycus. The Gate of St. Romanus, therefore, must have been either Top Kapoussi, on the southern side of that stream, or one of the two gates on the stream’s northern bank, viz. the walled-up entrance at the foot of that bank, or Edirnè Kapoussi upon the summit. That it was the gate on the southern side of the Lycus is clear, from the statements of Critobulus and Phrantzes,[341] that in the siege of 1453 the Turkish troops which invested the walls extending from the Gate of Charisius (Edirnè Kapoussi) to the Golden Horn were on the Sultan’s left, i.e. to the north of the position he occupied. But the tent of the Sultan was opposite the Gate of St. Romanus.[342] Hence, the Gate of Charisius was one of the gates to the north of the Lycus, and, consequently, the Gate of St. Romanus stood at Top Kapoussi, to the south. In harmony with this conclusion is the order in which the two gates are mentioned by Pusculus and Dolfin when describing the positions occupied by the defenders of the walls from the Sea of Marmora to the Golden Horn. Proceeding from south to north in their account of the defence, these writers place the Gate of St. Romanus before, i.e. to the south of, the Gate of Charisius.[343]

Правообладателям