The Antiquities of Constantinople by Petrus Gyllius a Byzantuste Historian

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http://www.archive.org/details/antiquitiesofconOOgill

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THE

Antiquities

CONSTANTINOPLE. With aDES cRiPTioN of its

SITUATION. the Convenicncics of its

PORT, Vi^PUBLICK BUILDINGS, the Statuary, Sculpture, Architecture,

and other CURIOSITIES of that With Cuts explaining theChief of them.

CITY.

3n jfou; Bocks;, Written Originally in L atin by Petrus Gyllius a Byzantuste Historian.

Now Tranliated into Englijh, and Enlarged with an Ancient Defcnption of the Ward s of that CITY, as they flood in the Reigns oiArcadius and Honorius. I

WiXhFandre^lus's

To

JVoTES

thereupon.

%vhicb is added

A large Explanatory Index. p

ByJoHi^ Ball. formerly

of C. C. C. Oxon.

ResAntiquce laudis, etartis Vir. Geo. 2

Ingredior.

.

""^

LONTDON. Printed for the Benefit of the Tranflator, 1729.

T O

Richard Banner, Efq; OF

PERRT-HALL, I

N T H

E

County of STAFF OR D. S

I

R,

O

fooner had tions 'prevaird

pubiiiL

my

this

my

Inclina-

upon me Author,

Gratitude direcled

to

but

me

where I fhould make the Dedication. Thefe Labours are yours by A

DEDICATION. Your Services to me demand them, you have exprefs'd by many Obligations.

a particular Efteem for Pieces of this Kind, you have affifted me with a valuable Cclledlion of Books in the Tranf-

and you have encourag'd the Performance by the Intereft lation of them,

of your Friends ; fo that if there be any Merit in the Publication of it, 'tis

you who

are entitled to

it.

The Knowledge of /Antiquity was ways look'd upon

as

al-

a Study worthy the

Entertainment of a Gentleman, and was never in higher Efkimation among the Nobility and Gentry of Great Britain than

it

is

And this Regard Age pays to it, pro-

now.

which the prefent ceeds from a wife Difcernment, and a proportionable Value of Things. For

we

never entertain our Curiofity with

more

Pleafure,

and

to

better Purpofes,

than by looking into the Art, and Improvement, and Induftry of antient

Times, and by obferving how they excited their Heroes and great Men to virtuous

and honourable Adions by the

Memo-

DEDICATION. Memorials of Statuary and Scftlptnre ; the filent Records of their Greatnefs, and the lafting Hiftory of their Glory. The great Difcoveries made of late, and pubhfh'd by a * Society of Gentlemen, united in the Search of Anttqiitfy^ will be lafting Monuments of their Fame in Riture Tim.es, and will be look'd upon as Arguments of an ingenious Curioiity,

in looking into

the

delegable Situations of Places, in prelerving the beautiful Ruines of Antient

Buildings,

and

a truer Lisht,

in fetting

Chronology in

by the Knowledge of

Coins and Medals. But,

Sir,

what

in this Dedication,

principally intend

I

to

is

do

Juftice to

Merit, and to acquaint the ¥/orld.

That

you never look'd upon Licentioufnefs, and Infidelity, to be any Part of the Charader of a fine Gentleman, That Virtue does not fit odly upon Men of a fuperior Station, and That in you we have an Exam.ple of one, who has Pru*

The

Society of j^ntiquaries in London.

A

z

dence

DEDICATION. dence enough to temper the innocent Freedoms of Life with the Stridnefles of Duty, and Condudl enough to be Merry, and not Licentious, to be Sociable, and not Auftere ; a Deportment this, which fets off your Charader beyond the moft elaborate Expreffions of Art, and is not to be defcrib'd by the moft curious Statue, or the moft durable Marble. I am. Sir, with very great Regard, Tour mojl Ohligdy

And mofl Obedient Servant^

John Ball.

THE

THE

PREFACE OF THE

TRANSLATOR. ciijlomary upon a Tranjlation give fome Account both of the The Author^ and his Writings. as Gyllius, hejlands Authcr Petrus

T*

is

to

enroWd amofig the Men of Emiand Figure in polite hearnbe a Native of Ah\ in France. He nenc)\

ing^

Ifind

to

was in great Reputation in the fixteenth Ce?itury^ and was look'd upon as a Writer of fo good a Tafte^ 'and fo comprehenfive a Genius, that there thing in the polite Languages^

was fcarce any

which had efcafd him. As he had a particular Regard for Men of dijlinguified Learnings fo

was he

equally honour d^ and ejiee??i'd by them, Francis the Firjl^ King of France, the great Pa-

A

3

t?~o?i

The

Translator's

iron of Literature^

and who was

alfo

a good

and choice the all CoUediion make Greece, to a of Manufcripts which had never been printed^ but in his Pajjage it was his Misfortune to be taken by Some T^ime after, by the Applicathe Corfairs. tion and Generofty of Cardinal d'Armanac, he was redeemed jrom Slavery. T'he jujl Senfe this munificent Patron had of his Merit, incited him, when my Author had finifd more than fourty Tears travels over all Greece, Ada, and the greatejl Part of Africa, in the Search of Antiquity, to receive him into his Friendjhip, and Family ; where, while he was digefiing, and methodizing his Labours for the Service of the Publick, he dyd in the Tear 1555, and in the 65^"^ Tear

Judge of

of

his

his Abilities,

fent

hijfi

into Italy,

Age.

was his Intention to have publifhed Learned Obfervations he had made in his

Although all the

it

j'ravels, yet he

livd

to

give us only a Defcrip-

of the Bofporus, Thrace, and Conftantinople, with an Account of the Antiquities of tion

each of thofe Places. Jn his Search of what was curious he was indefatigable, and had a per-

He had fe5i Knowledge of it in all its Parts. Coinmentainto alfo tranfiated Latin Theodore'^ Minor Prophets, and fixteen Books of MX\2ins Hiflory of x^Lnimals. Petrus Belonius is ries on the

highly refleBed upon, in that being his Domeftick,

and a Cojnp anion with him

in his T^ravels,

he

Freedom to publifj feveral of his Works under his own Name : And indeed fuch a flagrant Difonejly in aSling the Plagiary in fo ^rofs a manner^ was jujlly punijh'd with the mofi took the

fevers

PREFACE. fever e Cenfiires; fince it had been Merit enough to have deferv'd the Praifes of the Learned World for Publljhlng fuch valuable Pieces^ with an honourable Acknowledgment of the Author of them, I have no Occafion to vindicate the Worth

and Credit of my Author, whofe Fame will live, and ftourijh, while the CharaBcrs given hi?n by Gronovius, Thuanus, Morreri, Tournefort, a?2d Montfaucon are of any Weight. Thefc Great

Men

have recorded hi?n to future I'imes, for his into Natural Knowledge his wiweary d Application to the Study of Antiquity, and his great Accuracy and Exa£l}iefs in Wrideep

Infight

,

tin?-.

In the following Treatife,

the

Reader has be-

fore him a full and lively View of one of the moft magnifxent Cities in the JJniverfe Jiately, -,

and

Natural Situation, improvd with all the Art and Advantages of fine ArchiteBure, and furnifloed with the fnoft co/lly Rebeautiful in

its

mains of Antiquity ; Jo that New Rome, in 7nany Injia?ices of that Kind, may feem to excell the Old.

/ hope

Author will not be thought too particular and exaB in de/bribing the fever a I Hills and Vales, upon which Conftantinople jlands, when it is

??iy

confiderd, that he

Situation in the T^he

Manner

is

delineating the Fineft

World. which he

in

treats

on this Sub^

and his Defcriptions, though with the greateft Regard to T'ruth, are embellif^d with a Grace and Beautx, almojl Poetical. This, I look upon it, was occafion d by the agreeable Variety of delightful Profpe5ls and Si-

je5f

is

very entertaining-,

A

4

tuations

;

The Translator's tuatiom,

which the SubjeB naturally led him

to

defcribe.

The prefent State of Conftantinople, I mean as to the Meannejs ajid Poverty of its BiiildingSy is attefied by all ihofe, who have either fecn^ or

wrote concerning it fo that 'tis not Now to be compared with it felf as it flood in its Antient Glory. The Turks have fiich an Averfion to all that is curious in Learning , or magnificent in ArchiteBure^ or valuable in Antiquity y that they have made it a Piece of Merits for abov£ 20q \

Tears, to demolifli,

and

efface every thing

of that

fo that this Account of the Antiquities that City given us by Gyllius, is not only the of indeed the Only colleSlive Hiflory of but Be ft, Kind-y

them.

In tracing out the Buildings of Old Byzantium, the antient Greek Hiflorians, which he perfeBly underfloody were of great Service to him this, with his own perfonal Obfervations, as reding for feme Tears at Conftantinople, furniflyd him with Materials fuffcient for the prefent Hi-

f

The Curious, who have always admird the Accuracy of this Work of Gyllius, have yet been highly concern d,

of Cuts,

by

that

which

it

the

wanted the Advantage Header might have the

of furveying with the Eye^ what my Author has fo cxaBly defcrih'd with the Pen, I have therefore endeavoured to fupply this Defied, by prefenting to the View of the Reader a agreeable Plcafure

ColleSiion

of Figures,

which do

not only refer to

fuch Curiofties as be will find mention d in the feveral

PREFACE. feveral Parts of my Author, but fuch as have been defcrWd by other later travellers , and by this Means I hope I have given a compleat View of whatsoever is mofi remarkable in the Antiquities

of Conftantinople. the Cuts I.

is

'The Catalogue

as follows

and Order of

-y

The Thracian Bofporus, with the

Situatio?i

c/'Conftantinople, as antiently divided into Wards ^

from

Du

A

II.

Frefne.

Delineation of that City, as it flood in it was taken by the Turks;

the Tear 1422, before

from

the fame,

III.

The Ichnography, or Plan of the Church of

, from the fame. IV. The whole View of the Church of Sand:a

San6ta Sftphia

Sophia; from the fame. V. The outfide ProfpeB of that Church ; from the fame. VI. The inftde View of it ; from the fame, VII. The Plan of the Church of the Apojlles from Sir George Wheler.

;

The antient Hippodrom, with the Theand the Engines by which it was ereBed j from Spon a?2d Wheler. IX. The Three Pillars, viz. the Serpentine and VIII.

baean Obelifk,

Porphyry Pillars, Jlanding in the Hippodrom, as defcribed by Gyllius, with the Pillar of the Emperor y[avc\2in,fmce difcoverd by Spon ^/zJ Wheler in a private Garden frotJi B. Randolph. X. The Hiforical Pillar, defcribed by Gyllius, and fine e by Tournefort from Du Frefne. XI. View of the Seraglio Point, with a Reprefentation of the prefent Imperial Palace, and ;

;

A

the

The Translator's, the

Church of Sanda Sophia;

%Fc.

from

B.

Ran-

dolph.

Whe?! this Imprejjion was almoft finifo' d, a lear^ tied Gentleman of the JJniverfity of Oxon, to whom my befi Acknowledgments are due, communicated to 7ne

a valuable Pajjage,

relating to the

Sta-

of Conftantinople, demolifhed by the Romans, which he tranfcribed from the Secotid Book o/"Nicetas Choniar, a MS. in the Bodl. Lib. / it Tranjlation by a way i?/' Appenhave added of dix ; ajid I prefume that the Reader will look upon it as a curious and an agreeable Entertain^ tues

ment.

CON-

CONTENTS. HE

Preface

of the Author^

defcrihing the

the Conveni-

Situation