This being so, the Exokionion, which was situated between the Sigma and the Forum of Arcadius, must have occupied the upper western slope of the Seventh Hill.
In corroboration of this conclusion two additional facts may be cited. First, the Church of St. Mokius, the sanctuary accorded to the Arians for their extra-mural services in the Exokionion, stood on the Seventh Hill,[[61]] for it was on the road from the Sigma to the Forum of Arcadius,[[62]] and gave name to the large ancient cistern, the Tchoukour Bostan, to the north-west of the Forum.[[63]]
In the next place, the district on the Seventh Hill to the west of Avret Bazaar (Forum of Arcadius) and beside the cistern of Mokius, still retains the name Exokionion under a Turkish form, its actual name, Alti Mermer, the district of “the Six Columns,” being, evidently, the Turkish rendering of Hexakionion, the popular Byzantine alias of Exokionion.[[64]] The Exokionion, therefore, was on the Seventh Hill. Accordingly, the Wall of Constantine crossed that hill along a line to the east of the quarter of Alti Mermer.
(b) The next landmark, the Ancient Gate of the Forerunner (Παλαιὰ Πόρτα τοῦ Προδρόμου), elsewhere styled simply the Ancient Gate (Παλαιὰ Πόρτα),[[65]] furnishes the most precise indication we have of the position of Constantine’s wall. It was a gate which survived the original fortifications of the city, as Temple Bar outlived the wall of London, and became known in later days as the Ancient Gate, on account of its great antiquity. Its fuller designation, the Ancient Gate of the Forerunner,[[66]] is explained by the fact that a church dedicated to the Baptist was built against the adjoining wall. Conversely, the church was distinguished as the Church of the Forerunner at the Ancient Gate (τὴν Παλαιὰν).[[67]] Manuel Chrysolaras places the entrance to the west of the Forum of Arcadius, and describes it as one of the finest monuments in the city.[[68]] It was so wide and lofty that a tower or a full-rigged ship might pass through its portals. Upon the summit was a marble portico of dazzling whiteness, and before the entrance rose a column, once surmounted by a statue. When Bondelmontius visited the city, in 1422, the gate was still erect, and is marked on his map of Constantinople as Antiquissima Pulchra Porta.[[69]] It survived the Turkish Conquest, when it obtained the name of Isa Kapoussi (the Gate of Jesus), and held its place as late as 1508. In that year it was overthrown by a great earthquake. “Isa Kapoussi,” says the Turkish historian Solak Zadè, who records the occurrence, “near Avret Bazaar, which had been in existence for 1900 years (sic), fell and was levelled to the ground.”[[70]] But the shadow of the name still lingers about the site. A small mosque to the west of Avret Bazaar bears the name Isa Kapoussi Mesdjidi,[[71]] while the adjoining street is called Isa Kapoussi Sokaki. The mosque is an ancient Christian church, and probably bore in its earlier character a name which accounts for its Turkish appellation.
From these facts it is clear that the Wall of Constantine, in crossing the Seventh Hill, passed very near Isa Kapoussi Mesdjidi, a conclusion in accordance with the position already assigned to the Exokionion. The column outside the Ancient Gate was probably that which gave name to the district. Nowhere could a column bearing the statue of the city’s founder stand more appropriately than before this splendid entrance.
(c) Another landmark of the course of the Constantinian ramparts in this part of the city were the Trojan Porticoes (τρῳαδήσιοι ἔμβολοι),[[72]] which stood so near the wall that it was sometimes named after them, the Trojan wall (τῶν τειχῶν τῶν Τρῳαδησίων).[[73]]
From their situation in the Twelfth Region,[[74]] it is probable that they lined the street leading from the Porta Aurea into the city. They were evidently of some architectural importance, and are mentioned on more than one occasion as having been damaged by fire or earthquake.[[75]] The reason for their name is a matter of conjecture, and no trace of them remains.
(d) Nothing definite regarding the course of the Constantinian Wall can be inferred from the statement that it ran beside the Monastery of St. Dius and the Convent of Icasia, seeing the situation of these establishments cannot be determined more exactly than that they were found near each other, somewhere on the Seventh Hill.
The former, ascribed to the time of Theodosius I., is mentioned by Antony of Novgorod in close connection with the Church of St. Mokius and the Church of St. Luke.[[76]] The Convent of Icasia was founded by the beautiful and accomplished lady of that name,[[77]] whom the Emperor Theophilus declined to choose for his bride because she disputed the correctness of his ungracious remark that women were the source of evil.
(e) The Cistern of Aspar, which, according to the Paschal Chronicle,[[78]] was situated near the ancient city wall, is the old Byzantine reservoir (Tchoukour Bostan), on the right of the street conducting from the Mosque of Sultan Mehemet to the Gate of Adrianople in the Theodosian walls. This is clear from the following evidence. The cistern in question was a very large one, and stood near the Monastery of Manuel,[[79]] which was founded by the distinguished general of that name in the reign of Theophilus. The church of the monastery is now the Mosque Kefelè Mesdjidi in the quarter of Salmak Tombruk, and a little to the east of it stands the Tchoukour Bostan mentioned above,[[80]] the only large Byzantine reservoir in the neighbourhood.