Exakionion ( Greek : Ἑξακιώνιον ) or Exokionion ( Ἑξωκιόνιον ) was an area in Byzantine Constantinople . Its exact location and extent vary considerably in the sources.
7-508: The name is given in various forms (Ἑξακιώνιον, Ἑξακιόνι[ο]ν, Ἑξωκιόνιον, Ἑξωκιώνιν, Ἑξωκιώνην), but according to Raymond Janin , it likely derives from a name like Ἑξωκιώνια, meaning "exterior colonnade" (i.e., outside the Wall of Constantine), deriving from a column placed by Constantine the Great in front of the wall, surmounted with a statue of himself. The Byzantine authors apply the term to
14-539: A variety of heights between the Golden Horn and the Marmara Sea , in the portion of the city between the original Wall of Constantine and the later Theodosian Walls . More broadly, the term was apparently applied to almost the entire area between the walls, but also designated a more specific quarter therein. Based on the descriptions of imperial ceremonies in the 10th-century De Ceremoniis , that quarter
21-546: The Prodromos" (ἡ παλαιὰ πόρτα τοῦ Προδρόμου) from a nearby monastery of St. John Prodromos , built by Constantine the Great against the city wall, but this gate may have been situated a bit further north. Apart from the statue of Constantine the Great, there were a number of other monuments in the quarter. Emperor Maurice ( r. 582–602 ) erected a number of other statues around that of Constantine; Pseudo-Kodinos reports that columns brought from Cyzicus still stood in
28-706: The Theodosian Walls passed into the older city, and thence led, flanked by a double portico , through the various forums of the city, to the Chalke Gate of the Great Palace of Constantinople . This gate at Exakionion is therefore commonly held to have been the main gate of Constantine's city wall, or "Old Golden Gate", mentioned in the Notitia Urbis Constantinopolitanae . This gate is in turn usually identified with
35-623: The area. There were also a public bath, a mansion of the 12th-century aristocrat Andronikos Doukas Angelos , and three churches, dedicated to the Theotokos , the Holy Trinity , and Saint Eudokimos . Raymond Janin Raymond Janin , A.A. (31 August 1882 – 12 July 1972) was a French Byzantinist . An Assumptionist priest, he was also the author of several significant works on Byzantine studies . This article about
42-565: The structure labelled porta antiquissima pulchra in the 15th-century map of Cristoforo Buondelmonti . After the Fall of Constantinople it became known as Isakapı ("Gate of Jesus") in Turkish, and survived until destroyed by an earthquake in 1508/09. The descriptions of the Patria and the 14th-century author Pseudo-Kodinos also give grounds to identify this "Old Golden Gate" with the "Old Gate of
49-579: Was to the northeast of the area called Sigma, and close to the hill of Xerolophos. According to the Patria of Constantinople , the Exakionion was situated on a hill, being the highest point of the old Constantinian wall, which fell towards the sea on both sides. The sources make clear that a gate existed at Exakionion that pierced the Wall of Constantine, through which the road from the Golden Gate of
#948051