It is impossible to justify the vain and credulous exaggerations of modern travellers, who have sometimes stretched the limits of Constantinople over the adjacent villages of the European, and even of the Asiatic coast.

[34] But the suburbs of Pera and Galata, though situate beyond the harbor, may deserve to be considered as a part of the city; [35] and this addition may perhaps authorize the measure of a Byzantine historian, who assigns sixteen Greek (about fourteen Roman) miles for the circumference of his native city.

[36] Such an extent may not seem unworthy of an Imperial residence.

Yet Constantinople must yield to Babylon and Thebes, [37] to ancient Rome, to London, and even to Paris.
[38] [Footnote 31: Codinus, Antiquitat.Const.p.12.He assigns the church of St.Anthony as the boundary on the side of the harbor.

It is mentioned in Ducange, l.iv.c.