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

96 страница из 107

The next public gate, Edirnè Kapoussi, between the eighth and ninth towers to the north of the Fifth Military Gate, was named the Gate of Charisius (τοῦ Χαρισίου). The name, which appears in a great variety of forms, occurs first in Peter Magister,^[352] a writer of Justinian’s reign, and was derived, according to the Anonymus, from Charisius, the head of the Blue Faction, when the Theodosian Walls were built.^[353] While some authorities, as already intimated, have attached this name to the Gate of the Pempton, others have supposed that it belonged to the entrance now known as Egri Kapou.^[354] This, as will be shown in the proper place, is likewise a mistake.^[355]

The grounds on which the Gate of Charisius must be identified with the Edirnè Kapoussi are these:^[356] From the statements of Cananus and Critobulus, already considered in determining the position of the Gate of St. Romanus,^[357] it is clear that the Gate of Charisius was one of the two gates on the northern bank of the Lycus; either the gate at the foot of that bank or Edirnè Kapoussi upon the summit. That it was not the former is clearly proved by the fact that Cananus and the Metrical Chronicle, as already cited, distinguished the Gate of Charisius from the entrance beside the Lycus. The Gate of Charisius was, therefore, Edirnè Kapoussi, the gate on the summit of the bank.