The Gate of St. Romanus.
The Gate of Charisius.
Top Kapoussi, between the sixth and seventh towers north of the Fourth Military Gate, is the Gate of St. Romanus (πόρτα τοῦ Ἁγίου Ρωμάνου)[[339]] so named after an adjoining church of that dedication. Its identity may be established in the following manner: According to Cananus,[[340]] the Gate of St. Romanus and the Gate of Charisius stood on opposite sides of the Lycus. The Gate of St. Romanus, therefore, must have been either Top Kapoussi, on the southern side of that stream, or one of the two gates on the stream’s northern bank, viz. the walled-up entrance at the foot of that bank, or Edirnè Kapoussi upon the summit. That it was the gate on the southern side of the Lycus is clear, from the statements of Critobulus and Phrantzes,[[341]] that in the siege of 1453 the Turkish troops which invested the walls extending from the Gate of Charisius (Edirnè Kapoussi) to the Golden Horn were on the Sultan’s left, i.e. to the north of the position he occupied. But the tent of the Sultan was opposite the Gate of St. Romanus.[[342]] Hence, the Gate of Charisius was one of the gates to the north of the Lycus, and, consequently, the Gate of St. Romanus stood at Top Kapoussi, to the south. In harmony with this conclusion is the order in which the two gates are mentioned by Pusculus and Dolfin when describing the positions occupied by the defenders of the walls from the Sea of Marmora to the Golden Horn. Proceeding from south to north in their account of the defence, these writers place the Gate of St. Romanus before, i.e. to the south of, the Gate of Charisius.[[343]]
The Church of St. Romanus must have been a very old foundation, for it is ascribed to the Empress Helena. It claimed to possess the relics of the prophet Daniel and of St. Nicetas.[[344]]
The entrance between the second and third towers north of the Lycus, or between the thirteenth and fourteenth towers north of the Gate of St. Romanus, is the Fifth Military Gate, the Gate of the Pempton (τοῦ Πέμπτου).[[345]] It is identified by the fact that it occupies the position which the Paschal Chronicle assigns to the Gate of the Pempton; namely, between the Gate of St. Romanus and the Gate of the Polyandrion—one of the names, as we shall find,[[346]] of Edirnè Kapoussi.
Some authorities[[347]] have maintained, indeed, that this entrance was the Gate of Charisius. But this opinion is refuted by the fact that the Gate of Charisius, as its whole history proves, was not a military gate, but one of the public gates of the city.[[348]] Furthermore, the author of the Metrical Chronicle and Cananus expressly distinguish the Gate of Charisius from the gate situated beside the Lycus.[[349]]
To the rear of the entrance was the district of the Pempton, containing the Church of St. Kyriakè and the meadow through which the Lycus flows to the Sea of Marmora. The meadow appears to have been a popular resort before the Theodosian Walls were built, if not also subsequently. Here, about the time of Easter, 404, the Emperor Arcadius came to take exercise on horseback, and here he found three thousand white-robed catechumens assembled. They proved to be persons who had recently been baptized by Chrysostom, in the Thermæ Constantianæ, near the Church of the Holy Apostles, notwithstanding his deposition on account of his quarrel with the Empress Eudoxia. Arcadius was extremely annoyed by the encounter, and ordered his guards to drive the crowd off the ground.[[350]]
While riding down one of the slopes of the Lycus valley, in 450, Theodosius II. fell from his horse and sustained a spinal injury, which caused his death a few days later. The Gate of the Pempton was probably the entrance through which the dying emperor was carried on a litter from the scene of the accident into the city.[[351]]