CONSTANTINOPLE. 175 
have been all before published*. The famous i^^' 
Porta Aurea is within the Heptapyrgium : it "^^^ — ' 
was discovered, and is described, by Le Che- Aurea. 
valier\ The only part of the walls worth Descrip- 
*' * • tion of the 
seeing is, in fact, that part beginning here, waiiot 
which was built by Theodosius ; tortitying the 
city on the land side. It is flanked with a 
double row of mural towersy and defended by a 
fosse rather more than eight yards wide. The 
same promiscuous assemblage of the works of 
antient art — columnsy inscriptions, bas-reliefs, &c. — 
seen in the walls of all the Greek cities, is here 
remarkably conspicuous. But the ivy-mantled 
towers, and the great height of this wall, 
(2) We saw also an immehse shaft of a columh of red porphyry, lying 
in the sea, off the Seraglio point ; the water being as limpid as the most 
diaphanous crystal. Making the circumstance known to our ambassador, 
we offered to undertake its removal to England, and to the University of 
Cambridge, if he would obtain for us a permission from the Porte. The 
request, however, met with a refusal, in terms of some asperity : and it is 
rumoured, but with what truth others may determine, that the said 
Column now constitutes a part of the Collection since offered by him for 
sale in this country. 
(3) Voyage de la Propontide, ^c. p. 99. Paris, 1800. " Entre deux 
grosses tours buties en marbre, s'eleve un arc de triomphe, orne dc 
pilastres Corintliiens d'un style assez mediocre. Ce monument fut 
eleve a I'occasion de la victoire de Theodose sur le rebelle Maxime, 
fomme le prouve 1' Inscription suirant: 
HJEC • too A . THFOnOSIUS . BECOKAT . POST • FATA . TYRANNI 
AlKEA • SMCLA • CEBIT • QUI • TORTAM • CONSTRUIT • AITRO. 
