Exakionion

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.{{sfn|Janin|1950|p=327}}{{sfn|Guilland|1969|p=62}}

The Byzantine authors apply the term to 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.{{sfn|Janin|1950|p=34}} More broadly, the term was apparently applied to almost the entire area between the walls, but also designated a more specific quarter therein.{{sfn|Janin|1950|pp=34, 327–328}}

Based on the descriptions of imperial ceremonies in the 10th-century De Ceremoniis, that quarter was to the northeast of the area called Sigma, and close to the hill of Xerolophos.{{sfn|Janin|1950|p=34}} 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.{{sfn|Janin|1950|pp=34–35}}{{sfn|Guilland|1969|p=63}} 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 the Theodosian Walls passed into the older city,{{sfn|Janin|1950|p=34}}{{sfn|Guilland|1969|p=64}} 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.{{sfn|Janin|1950|p=90}}

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.{{sfn|Guilland|1969|p=62}} This gate is in turn usually identified with the structure labelled porta antiquissima pulchra in the 15th-century map of Cristoforo Buondelmonti.{{sfn|Janin|1950|p=35}}{{sfn|Guilland|1969|p=62}} 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.{{sfn|Guilland|1969|pp=62–63}}{{sfn|Janin|1950|pp=34–35}} 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 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.{{sfn|Guilland|1969|pp=62–63}}

Apart from the statue of Constantine the Great, there were a number of other monuments in the quarter. Emperor Maurice ({{reign|582|602}}) erected a number of other statues around that of Constantine; Pseudo-Kodinos reports that columns brought from Cyzicus still stood in the area.{{sfn|Janin|1950|p=327}} 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.{{sfn|Janin|1950|p=327}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

• {{cite book | last = Guilland | first = Rodolphe | author-link = Rodolphe Guilland | title = Études de topographie de Constantinople byzantine, Tome II | language = French | publisher = Akademie-Verlag | location = Berlin | year = 1969 }}
• {{cite book | last=Janin | first=Raymond | author-link=Raymond Janin | title=Constantinople byzantine. Développement urbaine et répertoire topographique | publisher=Institut Français d'Études Byzantines | location=Paris | year=1950 }}

Category:Quarters and suburbs of Constantinople