Regarding the name of the entrance opinions differ. Some authorities regard the gate as the Porta Rhegiou (Ῥηγίου), the Gate of Rhegium,[[281]] mentioned in the Greek Anthology.[[282]] But this identification cannot be maintained, for the Porta Rhegiou was one of two entrances which bore an inscription in honour of Theodosius II. and the Prefect Constantine, and both those entrances, as will appear in the sequel, stood elsewhere in the line of the fortifications.[[283]]

Yedi Koulè Kapoussi. (By kind permission of Phenè Spiers, Esq., F.S.A.)

The gate went, probably, by the designation of the Golden Gate,[[284]] near which it stands, just as it now bears the name given to the latter entrance since the Turkish Conquest. A common name for gates so near each other was perfectly natural; and on this view certain incidents in the history of the Golden Gate become more intelligible. For instance: when Basil, the founder of the Macedonian dynasty, reached Constantinople in his early youth, a homeless adventurer in search of fortune, it is related that he entered the city about sunset through the Golden Gate, and laid himself down to sleep on the steps of the adjoining Monastery of St. Diomed.[[285]] If the only Golden Gate were the Porta Aurea strictly so called, it is difficult to understand how the poor wayfarer was admitted by an entrance reserved for the emperor’s use; whereas the matter becomes clear if that name designated also an adjoining public gate. Again, when the historian Nicetas Choniates,[[286]] accompanied by his family and some friends, left the city five days after its capture by the Crusaders in 1204, he made his way out, according to his own statement, by the Golden Gate. In this case also, it does not seem probable that the captors of the city would have allowed a gate of such military importance as the Porta Aurea to be freely used by a company of fugitives. The escape appears more feasible if the Golden Gate to which Nicetas refers was the humbler entrance in the neighbourhood of the Porta Aurea.

CHAPTER V.
THE GATES IN THE THEODOSIAN WALLS—continued.

The entrance between the thirteenth and fourteenth towers to the north of the Golden Gate was the Second Military Gate, τοῦ Δευτέρου.[[287]] Its identity is established by its position in the order of the gates; for between it and the Fifth Military Gate, regarding the situation of which there can be no doubt,[[288]] two military gates intervene. It must therefore be itself the second of that series of entrances.

Hence, it follows that the quarter of the city known as the Deuteron (τὸ Δεύτερον) was the district to the rear of this gate. This fact can be proved also independently by the following indications. The district in question was without the Walls of Constantine;[[289]] it lay to the west of the Exokionion, the Palaia Porta, and the Cistern of Mokius;[[290]] it was, on the one hand, near the last street of the city,[[291]] the street leading to the Golden Gate, and, on the other, contained the Gate Melantiados,[[292]] now Selivri Kapoussi.[[293]] Consequently, it was the district behind the portion of the walls in which the gate before us is situated. This in turn supports the identification of the gate as that of the Deuteron. It is the finest and largest of the military gates, and may sometimes have served as a public gate in the period of the Empire, as it has since.

Of the churches in the Deuteron quarter, the most noted were the Church of the SS. Notarii, attributed to Chrysostom,[[294]] and the Church of St. Anna, a foundation of Justinian the Great.[[295]] Others of less importance were dedicated respectively to St. Timothy,[[296]] St. George,[[297]] St. Theodore,[[298]] and St. Paul the Patriarch.[[299]]

The next public entrance (Selivri Kapoussi) is situated between the thirteenth and fourteenth towers north of the Gate of the Deuteron. Its present name appears shortly before the Turkish Conquest (πύλη τῆς Σηλυβρίας),[[300]] and alludes to the fact that the entrance is at the head of the road to Selivria; but its earlier and more usual designation was the Gate of the Pegè, i.e. the Spring (Πύλη τῆς Πηγῆς),[[301]] because it led to the celebrated Holy Spring (now Baloukli), about half a mile to the west. This name for the entrance is found in the inscription placed on the back of the southern gateway tower, in commemoration of repairs made in the year 1433 or 1438.[[302]]

The gate possessed considerable importance owing to its proximity to the Holy Spring,[[303]] which, with its healing waters and shrines, its cypress groves, meadows, and delightful air, formed one of the most popular resorts in the neighbourhood of the city.[[304]] There the emperors had a palace and hunting park, to which they often retired for recreation, especially in the spring of the year. On the Festival of the Ascension the emperor visited the “Life-giving Pegè” in state, sometimes riding thither through the city, at other times proceeding in his barge as far as the Marmora extremity of the walls, and then mounting horse for the rest of the way.[[305]] But in either case, the Imperial cortége came up to this gate, and was received there by the body of household troops called the Numeri. It was on returning from such a visit to the Pegè that the Emperor Nicephorus Phocas was mobbed and stoned, as he rode from the Forum of Constantine to the Great Palace beside the Hippodrome.[[306]]