Byzantine Churches in Constantinople Part 18

[221] For the protovestiarius, see Pachym. i. pp. 205, 469; ii. pp.

68, 72, 210; for the protostrator, see Pachym. ii. pp. 12, 445. The former died in 1284, the latter about 1315. Cf. Siderides, _ut supra_.

See on this subject the article of A. E. Martini in _Atti della R.

Academia di archeologia, lettere e belle arti_, vol. xx., Napoli, 1900.

[222] _Carmina Philae_, vol. i. Codex Florent. ode 95, lines 280-82.

[223] See _Carmina Philae_, edited by E. Miller, odes 54, 57, 59, 92, 164, 165, 219, 237, for references to the protostrator, or to his wife, or to the Pammakaristos.

[224] Hans Jacob Breuning, _Orientalische Reyss_, chap. xvii. p. 66.

He visited Constantinople 1579-80. The portraits stood 'Im Eingang auff der rechten Seiten,' or, as another authority has it, 'in patriarchica porta exteriore, in pariete dextero ab ingredientibus conspiciuntur,' _Turcograecia_, p. 75.

[225] Gerlach refers to these portraits, but without mentioning the names of the persons they represented. The legends were communicated to M. Crusius (_Turcograecia_, p. 75) by Theodosius Zygomalas, the protonotarius of the patriarch in the time of Gerlach.

[226] Pachym. ii. pp. 182-89. When Cosmas was appointed patriarch a curious incident occurred. A monk of the monastery of the Pantepoptes protested against the nomination, because it had been revealed to him that the person who should fill the vacant office would bear the name John. Such was the impression made by this prediction that matters were so arranged that somehow Cosmas was able to claim that name also.

Whereupon the monk went on to predict how many years Cosmas would hold office, and that he would lose that position before his death.

[227] Pachym. ii. pp. 271-77.

[228] _Ibid._ pp. 278-84.

[229] Pachym. ii. pp. 292-98.

[230] Pachym. ii. pp. 298-300.

[231] _Ibid._ ii. p. 303.

[232] _Ibid._ pp. 341-43.

[233] _Ibid._ 347-85.

[234] Cantacuzene, ii. pp. 442-48; Niceph. Greg. pp. 701, 710, 726.

[235] Ducas, pp. 117-21, 134, 139-42, 148-52, 176.

[236] _Historia politica_, p. 16.

[237] Phrantzes, p. 307.

[238] See Gerlach's description in _Turcograecia_, pp. 189-90.

[239] Breuning, _Orientalische Reyss_, p. 68, 'zur rechten an der Mauren Imp. Alexii Comneni monumentum von Steinwerck auffs einfaltigste and schlechteste.'

[240] Salomon Schweigger, _Ein newe Reyssbeschreibung auss Deutschland nach Constantinopel_ pp. 119-20, Chaplain for more than three years in Constantinople, at the Legation of the Holy Roman Empire, 1581. He gives the inscription on the sarcophagus: [Greek: Alexios autokrator ton Rhomaion]. There is an eagle to the right of the legend.

[241] P. 12, [Greek: eis hen ekeinos edeimato Christo to philanthropo monen].

[242] _Turcograecia_, p. 46, where the tomb is further described; 'est id lapideum, non insistens 4 basibus, sed integro lapide a terra surgens, altius quam mensa, ad parietem templi.'

[243] _Turcograecia_, p. 189.

[244] Patr. Constantius, p. 72.

[245] _Historia politica_, p. 178.

[246] A barrel vault is, however, used under the west gallery of S.

Theodosia though cross-groined vaults are used in the side 'aisles.'

[247] _Manuel d'art byzantin_, p. 742.

[248] The bands of marble on which the inscription is found were cut from marble slabs which once formed part of a bal.u.s.trade, for the upper side of the bands is covered with carved work.

[249] _Carmina Philae_, i. pp. 115-16, lines 4, 7.

[250] _Ibid._ Heading to poem, and lines 10, 13-16. Second epitaph p.

117, lines 2, 5, 14.

[251] _Turcograecia_, pp. 16, 109, [Greek: endon tes mikras ekklesias kai horaias tou parekklesion].

[252] [Greek: tethammene] (Cod. Mon. fol. 102).

[253] Alludes to the retirement of Glabas from the world as a monk.

[254] Her name as a nun.

[255] In the superscription to this epigram in the Florentine and Munich MSS. the name [Greek: Glabas] is given.

[256] In these translations I have been a.s.sisted chiefly by Sir W. M.

Ramsay, Professor Bury, and Mr. E. M. Antoniadi.

CHAPTER VIII

CHURCH OF S. THEODOSIA, GUL JAMISSI

There can be no doubt that the mosque Gul Jamissi (mosque of the Rose), that stands within the Gate Aya Kapou, near the Golden Horn, was the Byzantine church of S. Theodosia. For Aya Kapou is the entrance styled in Byzantine days the Gate of S. Theodosia ([Greek: pyle tes hagias Theodosias]), because in the immediate vicinity of the church of that dedication.[257] This was also the view current on the subject when Gyllius[258] and Gerlach[259] visited the city in the sixteenth century.

The Turkish epithet of the gate 'Aya,' Holy, is thus explained. Du Cange,[260] contrary to all evidence, places the church of S. Theodosia on the northern side of the harbour, or at its head, _ultra sinum_.

The saint is celebrated in ecclesiastical history for her opposition to the iconoclastic policy of Leo the Isaurian. For when that emperor commanded the eikon of Christ over the Bronze Gate of the Great Palace to be removed, Theodosia, at the head of a band of women, rushed to the spot and overthrew the ladder up which the officer, charged with the execution of the imperial order, was climbing to reach the image. In the fall the officer was killed. Whereupon a rough soldier seized Theodosia, and dragging her to the forum of the Bous (Ak Serai), struck her dead by driving a ram's horn through her neck. Naturally, when the cause for which she sacrificed her life triumphed, she was honoured as a martyr, and men said, 'The ram's horn, in killing thee, O Theodosia, appeared to thee a new Horn of Amalthea.'[261]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE XLIII.

(1) S. THEODOSIA. THE EAST END.

(_E. M. Antoniadi._) (2) S. THEODOSIA, FROM THE SOUTH-EAST.

_To face page 164._]

The remains of the martyred heroine were taken for burial to the monastery of Dexiocrates ([Greek: to monasterion to onomazomenon Dexiokratous]), so named either after its founder or after the district in which it was situated.[262] This explains why the Gate of S.

Theodosia was also designated the Gate of Dexiocrates ([Greek: Porta Dexiokratous]).[263] The earliest reference to the church of S.