Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 1).djvu/63

 of the city lies open to the water. Deeming it improbable that the town should ever be assaulted from this sequestered inlet, Constantine and his successors have omitted to fortify this bank. Originally this shore was indented by a number of small creeks, but the teeming population, overflowing into every available space, has now so crowded the strand with houses that the outer rank, founded on piles, extends beyond the water's edge. In the further part of this district the stream becomes narrower, and from a projecting point a wooden bridge has been thrown across to the opposite shore. In its vicinity a brazen dragon commemorates or suggests a legend of virgins ravished and devoured until the destruction of the monster by St. Hypatius. A slight expansion of the Golden Horn at Blachernae is called the Silver Bay. ; see Paspates, op. cit., p. 68.]