Part 29 (2/2)

Vor dem Vorhoff (_vestibulo_, [Greek: propilio]) dieser Kirchen [Greek: tes 'Aetiou] zeigte mir Theodosius den Ort, da der letzte Christliche Kayser Constantinus als er bey der Turckischen Eroberung der Stadt fliehen wollen, von Pferde gesturtzet, und tod gefunden seyn solle.

'Not far from here is a very beautiful church where there is said to have been in times past a very large monastery with many houses for teachers and scholars within its walls. Nothing of all that is to be seen now except the ruins of a splendid gate and a dry cistern in which the Jews spin, throw, and prepare silk. In front of the church there is a large court surrounded by a covered pa.s.sage (_porticus_), which is adorned with beautiful figures from the Old and New Testaments painted on gilded quadrangular gla.s.s cubes with Greek inscriptions; but the ancient faces of these (figures) are scratched out. The walls of this pa.s.sage are covered with marble of different colours. It has also three or four high crepidines[451] or vaulted compartments (?) with the pictures of the prophets, of the apostles, and of Christ in gold. The master of the house, or rather the builder, or perhaps the founder, [Greek: ho ktetor], and his wife are also painted there in a costume very much the same as is worn to-day, but with a very strange head-ornament, from which we may conclude that he was one of the most distinguished of the imperial staff, for this ornament looks almost like a duke's biretta of silk and fur; the belt (_cinctura_) is of different colours, such as nowadays the Jews or Armenians wear, white and blue mixed. His wife has a veil (_peplum_) almost like that which Greek women have. The covered pa.s.sage and the church form one building (_porticus muro etiam templi continetur_), entered by two high gates, and comprising four parts, or divided into four parts. 1. The covered pa.s.sage (_porticus_), the walls of which as far as half their height are covered with marble. On the upper part, where the arches begin, and on the arches themselves are the paintings. In this pa.s.sage or hall stand the women, and do not enter the church as they do not enter other churches, unless they go to the Lord's supper. 2. Is the church, as such, covered with Turkish rugs, and has only one gate.

It has a high dome, which, like the remaining two domes, is entirely gilded and painted, and the walls up to the arches are covered with the most beautiful marble. From this one enters 3. through a low vaulted compartment, with a somewhat lower arch than the foresaid arches, the third part of the church, where the founder with other very beautiful portraits (pictures) is painted in gold. From this one enters 4. a vaulted and also painted, but rather dark place, with many small windows. On the outside of the walls of the church there is this inscription[452]--

[Ill.u.s.tration: Monogram in Greek.]

In front of the porch, vestibulo, [Greek: propilio] of this church Theodosius showed me the place where the last Christian emperor Constantine, intending to flee at the Turkish conquest of the city, is said to have fallen from his horse and to have been found dead.'

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGS. 88 AND 89.]

[429] Scarlatus Byzantius, p. 369; Patr. Constantius, p. 81; Paspates, p. 304.

[430] Leo Gramm. pp. 218, 222.

[431] Siderides, in _Proceedings of the Greek Syllogos of C.P._ vol.

xxviii. p. 265.

[432] _Ibid._ p. 263.

[433] _Proceedings of the Greek Syllogos of C.P._, _ut supra_, p. 258.

[434] _Pasch. Chron._ p. 593.

[435] _Die byzantinischen Wa.s.serbehalter von Konstantinopel_, von Dr.

Forscheimer und Dr. Strzygowski, pp. 62-63, 175-176.

[436] _Ut supra._

[437] Mansi, viii. col. 990, col. 1054.

[438] Miklosich et Muller, pp. 28, 50, 53, 54.

[439] P. 305. On p. 163 he places the pier in its proper position.

[440] _Esq. top._ p. 76; Archaeological Supplement to vol. xviii. of the _Proceedings of the Greek Syllogos of C.P._ p. 9.

[441] _Turkisches Tagebuch_, pp. 455-56; cf. Crusius, _Turcograecia_ p. 190.

[442] The question thus raised presents serious difficulties. That some building[A] in the neighbourhood of Kefele Mesjedi was known by the name of Aetius[B] is undoubted. It was a cistern (Du Cange, i. p.

96), and formed one of the landmarks by which the church of S. John in Petra, situated in this quarter of the city, was distinguished (Du Cange, iv. p. 152 [Greek: engista tou Aetiou]). But while that is the case, Gyllius (_De top. C.P._ iv.), who explored this part of the city in 1550, does not mention any Byzantine church that answers at all to Gerlach's description of the church of Aetius, unless it be the Chora.

That Gyllius should have overlooked so beautiful a monument of Byzantine days as the church of Aetius, if different from the Chora, is certainly very strange. But it is not less strange to find that Gerlach does not speak of the Chora. Can the difficulty thus presented be removed by the supposition that Gerlach refers to the Chora under the name of Aetius? The position he a.s.signs to the church of Aetius in relation to the church of S. John in Petra and to the palace of Constantine (Tekfour Serai) favours that view, for he places the church of Aetius between S. John and the palace, exactly where the Chora would stand in that series of buildings. Looking towards the north-west from the windows of a house a little to the east of the Pammakaristos, Gerlach says 'Ad Occasum, Boream versus, Prodromi [Greek: mone] est, olim [Greek: petra]; longius inde, Aetii [Greek: mone]; postea, Palatium Constantini' (_Turcograecia_, p. 190). On the other hand, Gerlach's description of the church of Aetius differs in so many particulars from what holds true of the Chora, that it is difficult, if not impossible, to believe that in that description he had the latter church in mind. Unless, then, we are prepared to admit grave mistakes in Gerlach's description, we must either a.s.sume an extraordinary failure on his part and on the part of Gyllius to notice a most interesting Byzantine monument, directly on the path of both explorers in this quarter of the city, or regret the disappearance of an ancient sanctuary that rivalled the Chora in splendour.

[A] It was probably the ruined cistern with twenty-four columns arranged in four rows of seven pillars each, near the mosque Ka.s.sim Aga, a short distance above Kefele Mesjedi. Gerlach a.s.sociates it with the church of Aetius.

[B] _Tagebuch_, pp. 455-56; cf. Crusius, _Turcograecia_, p.

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