The Gate of Rhegium.
The next public gate, Yeni Mevlevi Haneh Kapoussi, situated between the tenth and eleventh towers north of the Third Military Gate, was known by two names, Porta Rhegiou (Ῥηγίου),[[331]] the Gate of Rhegium, and Porta Rhousiou (τοῦ Ῥουσίου),[[332]] the Gate of the Red Faction. That it bore the former name is established by the fact that the inscription in honour of Theodosius II. and the Prefect Constantine, which was placed, according to the Anthology, on the Gate of Rhegium, is actually found on the lintel of this entrance.[[333]] The name alluded to Rhegium (Kutchuk Tchekmedjè), a town twelve miles distant, upon the Sea of Marmora, whither the road leading westward conducted.
The title of the gate to the second name rests partly upon the consideration that the name cannot be claimed for any other entrance in the walls, and partly upon the fact that two circumstances connected with the gate can thus be satisfactorily explained. In the first place, the seven shafts employed to form the lintel, posts, and sill of the gateway are covered with red wash, as though to mark the entrance with the colour of the Red Faction. Secondly, on the northern face of the southern gateway-tower is an inscription, unfortunately mutilated, such as the Factions placed upon a structure in the erection of which they were concerned. The legend as preserved reads thus: “The Fortune of Constantine, our God-protected Emperor triumphs....”
† ΝΙΚΑ Η ΤΥΧΗ
ΚΩΝΣΤΑΝΤΙΝΟΥ ΤΟΥ ΘΕΟ
ΦΥΛΑΚΤΟΥ ΗΜΩΝ ΔΕΣΠΟΤΟΥ
† †
The missing words with which the inscription closed were at some date intentionally effaced, but analogy makes it exceedingly probable that they were ΚΑΙ ΡΟΥΣΙΩΝ, “and of the Reds.”[[334]]
The number of inscriptions about this entrance is remarkable, five being on the gateway itself, and two on its southern tower. Of the former those commemorating the erection of the Theodosian fortifications in 447 are of special importance and interest;[[335]] another records the repair of the Outer Wall under Justin II. and his Empress Sophia.[[336]] Indistinct traces of the fourth are visible on the southern side of the gateway; while the fifth, too fragmentary to yield a meaning, is on the tympanum, arranged on either side of a niche for Icons,[[337]] for the gates of the city were, as a rule, placed under the ward of some heavenly guardian. This gate was closed with a portcullis.
The Fourth Military Gate stood between the ninth and tenth towers to the north of the Porta Rhousiou. The northern corbel of the outer gateway is an inscribed stone brought from some other building erected by a certain Georgius.[[338]]