2 and
1453. The city was taken in 1204, and became the seat of a Latin empire
until 1261, when it was recovered by the Greeks. On the 29th of May 1453
Constantinople ceased to be the capital of the Roman empire in the East,
and became the capital of the Ottoman dominion.

The most noteworthy points in the circuit of the walls of the city are
the following. (1) The Golden gate, now included in the Turkish fortress
of Yedi Kuleh. It is a triumphal archway, consisting of three arches,
erected in honour of the victory of Theodosius I. over Maximus in 388,
and subsequently incorporated in the walls of Theodosius II., as the
state entrance of the capital. (2) The gate of Selivria, or of the Pege,
through which Alexius Strategopoulos made his way into the city in 1261,
and brought the Latin empire of Constantinople to an end. (3) The gate
of St Romanus (Top Kapusi), by which, in 1453, Sultan Mahommed entered
Constantinople after the fall of the city into Turkish hands. (4) The
great breach made in the ramparts crossing the valley of the Lycus, the
scene of the severest fighting in the siege of 1453, where the Turks
stormed the city, and the last Byzantine emperor met his heroic death.
(5) The palace of the Porphyrogenitus, long erroneously identified with
the palace of the Hebdomon, which really stood at Makrikeui. It is the
finest specimen of Byzantine civil architecture left in the city. (6)
The tower of Isaac Angelus and the tower of Anemas, with the chambers in
the body of the wall to the north of them. (7) The wall of Leo, against
which the troops of the Fourth Crusade came, in 1203, from their camp on
the hill opposite the wall, and delivered their chief attack. (8) The
walls protecting the quarter of Phanar, which the army and fleet of the
Fourth Crusade under the Venetian doge Henrico Dandolo carried in 1204.
(9) Yali Kiosk Kapusi, beside which the southern end of the chain drawn
across the mouth of the harbour during a siege was attached. (10) The
ruins of the palace of Hormisdas, near Chatladi Kapu, once the residence
of Justinian the Great and Theodora. It was known in later times as the
palace of the Bucoleon, and was the scene of the assassination of
Nicephorus Phocas. (11) The sites of the old harbours between Chatladi
Kapu and Daud Pasha Kapusi. (12) The fine marble tower near the junction
of the walls along the Marmora with the landward walls.

The interior arrangements of the city were largely determined by th