Note 128 — Chapter I · CONSTANTINOPLE IN THE SIXTH CENTURY[3]

Notitia, Reg. 3. We hear of a trumpet-tower (βύκινον, Codin., p. 86; βύκανον, Nicetas Chon., p. 733) by this harbour fitted with a “siren” formed of brass pipes, whose mouths protruding outside resounded when they caught the wind blowing off the sea. Ducange, i, p. 13, thinks a later fable has risen out of the vocal towers of Byzantium. “Sic nugas nugantur Graeculi nugigeruli,” says Banduri (ii, p. 487). There was certainly a watch-tower here, but of origin and date unknown. Mordtmann, op. cit., p. 55.