Mesa ( Greek ἡ Μέση Ὀδός - middle street) is the main street of Constantinople , the capital of the Byzantine Empire (now Istanbul , Turkey ). It began at Hagia Sophia and went west up to the city walls . Mesa served as the venue for the ceremonial processions of the Byzantine emperors , as well as the center of brisk trade. A number of city forums and squares stretched along the street [1] . The ancient route of Mesa in many respects coincides with the direction of the modern Divanyolu Avenue.
Description
Mesa Street began at the tetrapilon of Milius near the Hagia Sophia and went straight to the west. It passed through the city hippodrome and the palaces of Lavz and Antioch and reached Constantine the Great , which stood on the hill of the oval forum , where the first of the two city buildings of the Senate was located . This section of the street 600 m long was called “Regia” ( Greek ἡ Ῥηγία - Imperial Road), since it was here that the imperial processions, going from the Grand Palace and Augusteon Square to the forum of the founder of the city, gained momentum.
From the forum, Konstantin Mesa followed to the forum Theodosius (Cows Forum), halfway intersecting with a large market ( Makros Embolos ): at their junction there was a high pyramid called Anemoduli (“Slave of the Winds”) [2] .
Passing the forum of Theodosius and Amastrian , the street bifurcated at the Capitol in Philadelphion Square [3] : the main highway, crossing the Bull Forum and the Arcadia Forum , went west to the Golden Gate , where it crossed to the Egnatius Road ; the other part of Mesa went northwest to the Adrianople (Harisi) gate, passing through the church of the Holy Apostles and, possibly, the Lviv forum [1] .
Mesa Street was about 25 m wide, on both sides of the house were houses with two-story shady porticoes and colonnades, where benches were located. The porticoes covered so much space from the sun that it was possible to cross all of Constantinople without leaving the shadows. Once the emperor Konstantin Bagryanorodny (pr. 913–959) proposed not to cancel the procession due to bad weather, since it was possible to calmly fit the procession under the street porticos [4] .
Imperial processions marched through the whole city and were carried out until the period of the reign of Komnins . A spectacular sight was the triumphal entry of the emperor into the city through the Golden Gate and his march along Mesa to the Grand Palace; A jubilant crowd lined up on the sides of the street to greet the emperor and the troops returning home.
From the very foundation of the city, the street was flooded with merchants who took a fancy to the porticoes of buildings, where it was possible to hide from the weather [4] . Since the fifth century, the authorities have been fighting in every possible way against the expanding trade rows in order to preserve the original appearance of the street. Despite this, the entire street soon turned into a continuous bazaar with a length of 1850 m, stretching from Hagia Sophia to Philadelphion Square [4] .
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 Necipoglu, 2001, p. 31
- ↑ Ivanov S.A., 2011, p. 263
- ↑ Ivanov S.A., 2011, p. 270—271
- ↑ 1 2 3 Ivanov S.A., 2011, p. 252-253
Literature
- Necipoglu Nevra Byzantine Constantinople: Monuments, Topography and Everyday Life. - Leiden: Koninklijke, 2001. (English)
- Ivanov S. A. In Search of Constantinople. A guide to Byzantine Istanbul and the surrounding area. - M .: Around the World, 2011. - ISBN 978-5-98652-382-8
Links
- Chronos Mesa