CHAP.

XXI.

the peafant, of the poet and the philofopher, was derived from very different caufes, but they met with equal devotion in the temples of the gods. Their zeal was infenfibly provoked by the infulting triumph of a profcribed fect; and their hopes were revived by the well-grounded confidence, that the prefumptive heir of the empire, a young and valiant hero, who had delivered Gaul from the arms of the Barbarians, had fecretly embraced the religion of his ancestors.

NOTES

CHAP. XVII.

■ Polybius, I. iv. p. 423. edit. Cafaubon. He obferves that the peace

of the Byzantines was frequently disturbed, and the extent of their territory contracted, by the inroads of the wild Thracians.

2 The navigator Byzas, who was ftiled the fon of Neptune, founded the city 656 years before the Chriftian Era. His followers were drawn from Argos and Megara. Byzantium was afterwards rebuilt and fortified by the Spartan general Paufanias. See Scaliger Animadverf. ad Eufeb. p. 81. Ducange Conftantinopolis, 1. i. part. i. cap. 15, 16. With regard to the wars of the Byzantines against Philip, the Gauls, and the kings of Bithynia, we should truft none but the ancient writers who lived before the greatness of the imperial city had excited a fpirit of flattery and fiction.

3 The Bofphorus has been very minutely defcribed by Dionyfius of Byzantium, who lived in the time of Domitian Hudfon Geograph. Minor. tom. iii.), and by Gilles or Gyllius, a French traveller of the XVIth century. Tournefort (Lettre XV.) feems to have ufed his own eyes and the learning of Gyllius.

There are very few conjectures fo happy as that of Le Clers (Bibliothéque Univerfelle, tom. i., p. 248.), who fuppofes that the harpies were only locufts. The Syriac or Phenician name of those infects, their noify flight, the ftench and devaftation which they occafion, and the north wind which drives them into the fea, all contribute to form this ftriking resemblance.

The refidence of Amycus was in Afia, between the old and the new caftles, at a place called Laurus Infana. That of Phineus was in Europe, near the village of Mauromole and the Black Sea. See Gyllius de Bofph. 1. ii. c. 23. Tournefort, Lettre XV.

The deception was occafioned by feveral pointed rocks, alternately covered and abandoned by the waves. At prefent there are two fmall islands, one towards either shore: that of Europe is diftinguished by the column of Pompey.

The ancients computed one hundred and twenty ftadia, or fifteen

Roman miles. They measured only from the new castles, but they carried the ftreights as far as the town of Chalcedon.

* Ducas Hift. c. 34. Leunclavius Hift. Turcica Mufulmanica, 1 xv. p. 577. Under the Greek empire thefe caftles were used as ftate prisons, under the tremendous name of Lethe, or towers of oblivion.

Darius engraved in Greek and Affyrian letters on two marble columns, the names of his subject nations, and the amazing numbers of his land and fea forces. The Byzantines afterwards transported thefe columns into the city, and used them for the altars of their tutelar deities. Herodotus, 1. iv. c. 87.

Namque artiffimo inter Europam Afiamque divortio Byzantium in extremå Europa pofuere Græci, quibus, Pythium Apollinem confulentibus ubi conderent urbem, redditum oraculum eft, quærerent fedem cæcorum terris adverfam. Ea ambage Chalcedonii monftrabantur, quòd priores illuc advecti, prævifà locorum utilitate pejora legiffent. Tacit. Annal. xii. 62.

11 Strabo, 1. x p. 492. Most of the antlers are now broke off; or, to speak lefs figuratively, most of the receffes of the harbour are filled up. See Gyllius de Bofphoro Thracio, 1. i. c. 5.

12 Procopius de Edificiis, 1. i. c. 5. His defcription is confirmed by modern travellers. See Thevenot, part i. 1. i. c. 15. Tournefort, Lettre XII. Niebuhr Voyage d'Arabie, p. 22.

13 See Ducange, C. P. 1. i. part i. c. 16. and his Obfervations fur Villehardouin, p 289. The chain was drawn from the Acropolis, near the modern Kiosk, to the tower of Galata; and was fupported at convenient diftan es by large wooden piles.

14 Thevenot (Voyages au Levant, part i. 1. i. c. 14.) contracts the measure to 125 fmall Greek miles. Belon, (Obfervations, I. ii. c. I.) gives a good defcription of the Propontis, but contents himself with the vague expression of one day and one night's fail. When Sandys (Travels, p 21.) talks of 150 furlongs in length as well as breadth, we can only fuppofe fome mistake of the prefs in the text of that judicious traveller.

15 See an admirable differtation of M. d'Anville upon the Hellefpont or Dardanelles, in the Mémoires de l'Académie des Infcriptions, tom. xxviii. p. 318-346. Ver even that ingenious geographer is too fond of fuppofing new, and perhaps imaginary measures, for the purpose of rendering ancient writers as accurate as himself. The ftadia employed by Herodotus in the defcription of the Euxine, the Bosphorus, etc. (1. iv c. 85. muft undoubtedly be all of the fame fpecies: but it seems impoffible to reconcile them either with truth or with each other. 16 The oblique distance between Seftus and Abydus was thirty ftadia. The improbable tale of Hero and Leander is expofed by M. Mahudel, but is defended on the authority of poets and medals by M. de la Nauze. See the Académie des Infcriptions, tom. vii. Mém. p. 240.

Hift. p. 74.

17 See the feventh book of Herodotus, who has erected an elegant trophy to his own fame and to that of his country. The review appears to have been made with tolerable accuracy: but the vanity, first of the Perfians, and afterwards of the Greeks, was interested to magnify the armament and the victory. I should much doubt whether the invaders have ever outnumbered the men of any country which they attacked.

18 See Wood's Obfervations on Homer · p. 320. I have, with pleafure; felected this remark from an author who in general feems to have disappointed the expectation of the public as a critic, and ftill more as a traveller. He had visited the banks of the Hellefpont; he had read Strabo; he ought to have confulted the Roman itineraries: how was it poffible for him to confound Ilium and Alexandria Troas (Obfervations, p. 340, 341.), two cities which were fixteen miles diftant from each other?

19 Demetrius of Scepfis wrote fixty books on thirty lines of Homer's Catalogue. The XIIIth Book of Strabo is fufficient for our curiosity. 20 Strabo, 1. xiii. p. 595. The difpofition of the ships which were drawn upon dry land, and the pofts of Ajax and Achilles, are very clearly defcribed by Homer. See Iliad ix 220.

21 Zofim. 1. ii. p. 105. Sozomen, 1. ii. c. 3. Theophanes, p. 18. Nicephorus Calliftus, 1. vii. p. 48. Zonaras, tom. ii. 1. xiii p. 6. Zofimus places the new city between Ilium and Alexandria, but this apparent difference may be reconciled by the large extent of its circumference. Before the foundation of Conftantinople, Theffalonica is mentioned by Cedrenus (p 283.), and Sardica by Zonaras, as the intended capital. They both fuppofe, with very little probability that the Emperor, if he had not been prevented by a prodigy, would have repeated the mistake of the blind Chalcedonians.

22 Pocock's Defeription of the Eaft, vol. ii. part ii. p. 127. His plan of the feven hills is clear and accurate. That traveller is feldom fo fatisfactory

23 See Beton. Obfervations, c. 72-76. Among a variety of different fpecies, the Pelamides, a fort of Thunnies, were the most celebrated. We may learn from Polybius, Strabo, and Tacitus, that the profits of the fishery conftituted the principal revenue of Byzantium.

24 See the eloquent defcription of Busbequius, epiftol. i. p. 64. Eft in Europa; habet in confpectu Afiam, Ægyptum, Africamque à dextrâ: quæ tametfi contiguæ non funt, maris tamen navigandique commoditate veluti junguntur. A finiftra vero Pontus eft Euxinus, etc.

25 Datur hæc venia antiquitati, ut mifcendo humana divinis, primordia urbium auguftiora faciat. T. Liv. in proem.

26 He fays in one of his laws, pro commoditate Urbis quam æterno nomine, jubente Deo, donavimus. Cod. Theodof. I. xiii. tit. v. leg. 7. 27 The Greeks, Theophanes, Cedrenus, and the Author of the Alexandrian Chronicle, confine themselves to vague and general

expreffions. For a more particular account of the vifion, we are obliged to have recourfe to fuch Latin writers as William of Malmsbury. See Ducange C. P. 1. i p. 24, 25.

28 See Plutarch in Romul. tom. i. p. 49. edit. Bryan. Among other ceremonies, a large hole, which had been dug for that purple, was filled up with handfuls of earth, which each of the fettlers brought from the place of his birth, and thus adopted his new country.

29 Philoftorgius, 1. ii. c. 9. This incident, though borrowed from a fufpected writer, is characteristic and probable.

30 See in the Memoirs de l'Académie, tom. xxxv. p. 747-758, a differtation of M. d'Anville on the extent of Conftantinople. He takes the plan inferted in the Imperium Orientale of Banduri as the most complete; but, by a series of very nice obfervations, he reduces the extravagant proportion of the fcale, and instead of 9500, determines the circumference of the city as confifting of about 7800 French toifes.

31 Codinus Antiquitat. Conft. p. 12. He affigns the church of St. Antony as the boundary on the fide of the harbour. It is mentioned in Ducange, 1. iv. c. 6.; but I have tried, without fuccefs, to difcover the exact place where it was fituated.

32 The new wall of Theodofius was conftructed in the year 413. In 447 it was thrown down by an earthquake, and rebuilt in three months by the diligence of the præfect Cyrus. The fuburb of the Blacherne was first taken into the city in the reign of Heraclius. Ducange Conft. 1. i. c. 10, II.

33 The measurement is expreffed in the Notitia by 14,075 feet. It is reasonable to suppose that these were Greek feet; the proportion of which has been ingeniously determined by M. d'Anville. He compares the 180 feet with the 78 Hashemite cubits, which in different writers are affigned for the height of St. Sophia. Each of thefe cubits was equal to 27 French inches.

34 The accurate Thevenot ( 1. i. c. 15.) walked in one hour and three quarters round two of the fides of the triangle, from the Kiosk of the Seraglio to the feven towers. D'Anville examines with care, and receives with confidence, this decifive teftimony, which gives a circumference of ten or twelve miles. The extravagant computation of Tournefort (Lettre XI.) of thirty-four or thirty miles, without including Scutary, is a ftrange departure from his ufual character.

35 The fycæ, or fig-trees, formed the thirteenth region, and were very much embellished by Juftinian. It has fince borne the names of Pera and Galata. The etymology of the former is obvious; that of the latter is unknown. See Ducange Conft. 1. i. c. 22. and Gyllius de Byzant. 1. iv. c. 10.

36 One hundred and eleven ftadia, which may be translated into modern Greek miles each of feven stadia, or 660, fometimes only 600 French toifes. See d'Anville Mefures Itineraires, p. 53.