On the side of the Sea of Marmora the wall extended as far west as the Gate of St. Æmilianus (πόρτα τοῦ ἁγίου Αἰμιλιανοῦ), and the adjoining church of St. Mary Rhabdou (τῆς ἁγίας θεοτόκου τῆς Ῥάβδου).[[45]] That gate is represented by Daoud Pasha Kapoussi, which stands immediately to the west of Vlanga Bostan.[[46]]
In crossing from the Sea of Marmora to the Golden Horn, over the Seventh, Fourth, and Fifth Hills, the line of the fortifications was marked by the Exokionion; the Ancient Gate of the Forerunner; the Monastery of St. Dius; the Convent of Icasia; the Cistern of Bonus; the Church of SS. Manuel, Sabel, and Ishmael; the Church, and the Zeugma, or Ferry, of St. Antony in the district of Harmatius, where the fortifications reached the harbour.[[47]] To this list may be added the Trojan Porticoes and the Cistern of Aspar.
Map of Byzantine Constantinople. Drawn by F. R. von Hubner for and under the direction of Professor A. van Millingen.
(a) The Exokionion (τὸ ἐξωκιόνιον)[[48]] was a district immediately outside the Constantinian Wall, and obtained its name from a column in the district, bearing the statue of the founder of the city. Owing to a corruption of the name, the quarter was commonly known as the Hexakionion (τὸ ἑξακιόνιον).[[49]] It is celebrated in ecclesiastical history as the extra-mural suburb in which the Arians were allowed to hold their religious services, when Theodosius the Great, the champion of orthodoxy, prohibited heretical worship within the city.[[50]] Hence the terms Arians and Exokionitai became synonymous.[[51]] In later times the quarter was one of the fashionable parts of the city, containing many fine churches and handsome residences.[[52]]
Gyllius was disposed to place the Exokionion on the Fifth Hill,[[53]] basing his opinion on the fact that he found, when he first visited the city, a noble column standing on that hill, about half a mile to the north-west of the Mosque of Sultan Mehemet.[[54]]
Dr. Mordtmann, on the other hand, maintains that the designation was applied to the extra-mural territory along the whole line of the Constantinian land fortifications.[[55]]
But the evidence on the subject requires us to place the Exokionion on the Seventh Hill, and to restrict the name to that locality.
For in the account of the triumphal entry of Basil I. through the Golden Gate of the Theodosian Walls, the Exokionion is placed between the Sigma and the Xerolophos.[[56]] The Sigma appears in the history of the sedition which overthrew Michael V., (1042), and is described as situated above the Monastery of St. Mary Peribleptos.[[57]] Now, regarding the position of that monastery there is no doubt. The establishment, founded by Romanus Argyrus, was one of the most important monastic houses in Constantinople. Its church survived the Turkish Conquest, and remained in the hands of the Greeks until 1643, when Sultan Ibrahim granted it to the Armenian community.[[58]] Since that time the sacred edifice has twice been destroyed by fire, and is now rebuilt under the title of St. George. It is popularly known as Soulou Monastir (the Water Monastery), after its adjoining ancient cistern, and stands in the quarter of Psamathia, low down the southern slope of the Seventh Hill.
The Xerolophos was the name of the Seventh Hill in general,[[59]] but was sometimes applied, as in the case before us, to the Forum of Arcadius (Avret Bazaar) upon the hill’s summit.[[60]]