Niewöhner, P. 2010. The Rotunda at The Myrelaion in Constantinople

THE BYZANTINE COURT:
SOURCE OF POWER AND CULTURE

SECOND INTERNATIONAL SEVG GNL
BYZANTINE STUDIES SYMPOSIUM
PROCEEDINGS
STANBUL, 21-23 JUNE, 2010
EDITORS
Nevra Necipolu
Ayla dekan
Engin Akyrek
BOOK DESIGN
Blent Erkmen
PRE-PRESS PRODUCTION
Bar Akkurt, BEK
VEHB KO VAKFI, 2013

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SYMPOSIUM HONORARY CHAIRMAN

mer M. Ko
SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD
Prof. Dr. Ayla dekan (Chair)
Prof. Dr. Yldz tken
Prof. Dr. Melek Delilba
Prof. Dr. Ebru Parman
Prof. Dr. Zeynep Mercangz
Prof. Dr. Nevra Necipolu
Prof. Dr. Engin Akyrek
Dr. Vera Bulgurlu
EXECUTIVE BOARD
Prof. Dr. Ayla dekan
Prof. Dr. Nevra Necipolu
Prof. Dr. Engin Akyrek
Hlya Bilgi
Melih Fereli
Seil Knay
Glr Tanman
Erdal Yldrm
The Vehbi Ko Foundation gratefully acknowledges

the valuable support and cooperation of the following
institutions in organizing the Second International
Sevgi Gnl Byzantine Studies Symposium:
Republic of Turkey Ministry of Culture and Tourism
General Directorate of Cultural Heritage and
Museums
Istanbul Archaeological Museums
The Byzantne Court:

Source of Power
and Culture
ABBREVIATIONS
PREFACE
mer M. Ko
EDITORS FOREWORD
Ayla dekan, Nevra Necipolu, Engin Akyrek

OPENING SPEECH
Ayla dekan
vii
xi
xiii
xv
19
Asuman Denker
Excavations at the Byzantine Great Palace (Palatium Magnum) in the Area of the
Old Sultanahmet Jail
29
James Crow
Water and the Great Palace in Constantinople
35
Phlpp Newhner
The Rotunda at the Myrelaion in Constantinople: Pilaster Capitals, Mosaics,
and Brick Stamps
41
Peter Schrener
The Architecture of Aristocratic Palaces in Constantinople in Written Sources
53
Scott Redford
Constantinople, Konya, Conical Kiosks, Cultural Confluence
57
Smon Malmberg
The New Palace of Mehmed Fatih and its Byzantine Legacy
65
Albrecht Berger
The Byzantine Court as a Physical Space
C ON T E N T S
1. BYZANTINE PALACE ARCHITECTURE
2. THE BYZANTINE COURT AS THE CENTER OF IMPERIAL POWER

Paul Magdalno
Power Building and Power Space in Byzantine Constantinople: The Ethics and
Dynamics of Construction and Conservation
71
Antony R. Lttlewood
Palatial Gardens as Symbols of Imperial Power
79
Alca Walker
The Emperor as Cosmopolitan Ruler: Imaging Middle Byzantine Imperial Power
83
Mare-France Auzpy
The Great Palace and the Iconoclast Emperors
89
Judth Herrn
Female Space at the Byzantine Court
95
Frouke Schrjver
Daily Life at the Blachernai Palace: The Servants of the Imperial Bedchamber
(12611354)
99
Robert G. Ousterhout
Emblems of Power in Palaiologan Constantinople
105
T HE BY Z A N T INE C O UR T: S O UR C E OF P O W E R A ND C ULT UR E
CONTENTS
Nevra Necipolu
Circulation of People between the Byzantine and Ottoman Courts
121
vi
C ON T E N T S
3. CEREMONIES AT THE COURT AND IN THE CITY

Henry Magure
Art, Ceremony, and Spiritual Authority at the Byzantine Court
127
Lesle Brubaker
Processions and Public Spaces in Early and Middle Byzantine Constantinople
139
Brgtte Ptaraks
From the Hippodrome to the Reception Halls of the Great Palace: Acclamations
and Dances in the Service of Imperial Ideology
145
J. Mchael Featherstone
De Cerimoniis: The Revival of Antiquity in the Great Palace and the Macedonian
Renaissance
155
Mara G. Paran
Dressed to Kill: Middle Byzantine Military Ceremonial Attire
161
Koray Durak
Diplomacy as Performance: Power Politics and Resistance between the
Byzantine and the Early Medieval Islamic Courts
173
Ruth Macrdes
181
Inside and Outside the Palace: Ceremonies in the Constantinople of the Palaiologoi
4. COURT CULTURE AND VISUAL ARTS
ABBREVIATIONS
AASS
Acta sanctorum, 71 vols. (Paris, 18631940)
AIPHOS
Annuaire de lInstitut de philologie et dhistoire orientales et slaves
AJA
American Journal of Archaeology
ArtB
Art Bulletin
BCH
Bulletin de correspondance hellnique
BMFD

Byzantine Monastic Foundation Documents: A Complete Translation of the

Surviving Founders Typika and Testaments, ed. J. Thomas and A. C.
Hero (Washington, D.C., 2000)
BMGS
Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies
BSA
The Annual of the British School at Athens
BSCAbstr
Byzantine Studies Conference, Abstracts of Papers
BSl
Byzantinoslavica
ByzF
Byzantinische Forschungen
BZ
Byzantinische Zeitschrift
CahArch
Cahiers archologiques
CRAI
Comptes rendus des sances de lanne de lAcadmie des inscriptions et
belles-lettres
CTh

Theodosiani libri XVI cum constitutionibus Sirmondianis et leges novellae ad

Theodosianum pertinentes, ed. Th. Mommsen and P. M. Meyer (Berlin,
1905)
Margaret Mullett
Did Byzantium Have a Court Literature?
189
Apostolos Karpozlos
History Writing as Political Propaganda in Late Byzantium
199
DOC

A. R. Bellinger, P. Grierson, and M. F. Hendy, Catalogue of the Byzantine

Coins in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection and in the Whittemore Collection
(Washington, D.C., 196699)
Athanasos Markopoulos
The School in Byzantium: Structure and Problems
205
DOP
Dumbarton Oaks Papers
Mara Mavroud
Translations from Greek into Arabic at the Court of Mehmed the Conqueror
211
DOSeals

N. Oikonomides and J. Nesbitt, eds., Catalogue of Byzantine Seals at

Dumbarton Oaks and in the Fogg Museum of Art (Washington, D.C., 1991)
Ivana Jevtc
Antiquarianism and Revivalism in Late Byzantine Court Culture and Visual Arts
225
EHR
English Historical Review
EI2
Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed. (Leiden-London, 1960 )
Meryem Acara Eser

Cultural Aspects of Power in the Byzantine Empire: The Court as Patron of
Metal Art Objects
235
EO
Echos dOrient
GOTR
Greek Orthodox Theological Review
Vera Bulgurlu
Byzantine Lead Seals Representing the Kanikleios of the Imperial Palace
243
GRBS
Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies
CLOSING SPEECH
257
HUkSt
Harvard Ukrainian Studies
IstMitt
Istanbuler Mitteilungen
Ayla dekan
C ON T E N T S
111
vii
Davd Jacoby
Between the Imperial Court and the Western Maritime Powers: The Impact of
Naturalizations on the Economy of Late Byzantine Constantinople
CONTENTS
JAOS
JbAC
ABBREVIATIONS
StVen
Studi veneziani
Journal of the American Oriental Society
TAPS
Transactions of the American Philosophical Society
Jahrbuch fr Antike und Christentum
TM
Travaux et mmoires
JGH Journal of Garden History
VizVrem
Vizantiiskii vremennik
JMedHist
Journal of Medieval History
WrzbJb
Wrzburger Jahrbcher fr die Altertumswissenschaft
JB
Jahrbuch der sterreichischen Byzantinistik
ZRVI
Zbornik radova Vizantolokog instituta
JBG
Jahrbuch der sterreichischen Byzantinischen Gesellschaft
JQR
Jewish Quarterly Review
JRA
Journal of Roman Archaeology
JWalt
Journal of the Walters Art Gallery
JWarb
Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes
Mansi

J. D. Mansi, Sacrorum conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio (Paris

Leipzig, 190127)
MDAIRA
Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archologischen Instituts, Rmische Abteilung
MetrMusJ
Metropolitan Museum Journal
MnchJb
Mnchner Jahrbuch der bildenden Kunst
ODB

The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, ed. A. Kazhdan et al. (New York-

Oxford, 1991)
OHBS

The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Studies, ed. E. Jeffreys, J. Haldon, and

R. Cormack (Oxford, 2008)
PG
66)
Patrologiae cursus completus, Series graeca, ed. J.-P. Migne (Paris, 1857
PLP

Prosopographisches Lexikon der Palaiologenzeit, ed. E. Trapp et al. (Vienna,

197694)
RAC
Reallexikon fr Antike und Christentum
RBK
Reallexikon zur byzantinischen Kunst, ed. K. Wessel (Stuttgart, 1963 )
REB
Revue des tudes byzantines
REG
Revue des tudes grecques
RH
Revue historique
SBMnch

Sitzungsberichte der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften,

Philosophisch-historische Klasse
SBS
Studies in Byzantine Sigillography
SemKond
Seminarium Kondakovianum
A BBR E V I AT I ON S
Journal asiatique
ix
JA
viii
A BBR E V I AT I ON S
ABBREVIATIONS
Whilst the rarity and value of mercury was important, it

also appeared as a liquid, albeit poisonous and exotic,
but with resonances of the pools and basins of the wider
palace and Islamic decorative hydraulic practices and
tradition. For the Byzantines of the ninth and tenth
century, visitors and emissaries were confounded
by mechanical automata,36 and in the palace at least
they were content to take for granted the legacy of the
aqueducts of antiquity.
he rotunda at the Myrelaion constituted the

largest domed hall of Constantinople. It was
situated on the south side
of the main street from
the city center towards the Golden
Gate, in between Philadelphion,
Capitol, and Bus (Fig.1).1 Today,
the former rotunda appears as a row
of relatively narrow, low, and dark
chambers which house a bazaar
for leather goods. The chambers
date from the middle Byzantine
period, when they replaced the
dome and served as a cistern as
well as substructure for a palace
which was built on top (Fig.2).
The complex was referred to as
the house of Krateros and later
owned by Romanos Lekapenos,
who turned it into a monastery after
his accession to the throne in 920. The monastery also
comprised a neighboring church, which became known
as the Myrelaion and was afterwards converted into the
Bodrum Camii.2
The cistern and palace were studied by K.
Wulzinger a century ago,3 when the rotunda was not yet
visible. The latter was only discovered in 1931, when T.
Macridy and D. T. Rice excavated the substructure of
the Bodrum Camii and uncovered a small outer section
* The pilaster capitals and mosaics from the rotunda at the Myrelaion
35 Ruggles, Gardens, Landscape, and Vision, 67, n. 69, 70.

36 See A. Littlewood, Gardens of the Palaces, in Byzantine Court
Culture from 829 to 1204, ed. H. Maguire (Washington, 1997); see also
Liudprands account in Mango, Art of the Byzantine Empire, 20910.
are kept in the Istanbul Archaeological Museums, and I am indebted

to the directorate as well as to Dr.ehrazat Karagz, the responsible
curator, for the opportunity to study and present the material. Jenny
Abura has studied the brick stamps and Walter Prochaska has analyzed
the marble. Their original research as well as a complete catalogue of
all small finds are included in P. Niewhner, Der frhbyzantinische
Rundbau beim Myrelaion in Konstantinopel. Kapitelle, Mosaiken
und Ziegelstempel, IstMitt 60 (2010): 411-59. I would also like to
thank Michael Jeffrey Featherstone for reading and correcting the
manuscript.
1. R. Naumann, Der antike Rundbau beim Myrelaion und der Palast
Romanos I. Lekapenos, IstMitt 16 (1966): 199216, at 210f, fig.3; R.
Naumann, Neue Beobachtungen am Theodosiusbogen und Forum Tauri
in Istanbul, IstMitt 26 (1976): 11741, at 133; A. Berger, Untersuchungen
zu den Patria Konstantinupoleos (Bonn, 1988), 33047, fig.8.
2 C. L. Striker, The Myrelaion (Bodrum Camii) in Istanbul (Mainz, 1981).
3 K. Wulzinger, Byzantinische Baudenkmler zu Konstantinopel auf
der Seraispitze, die Nea, das Tekfur-Serai und das Zisternenproblem
(Hannover, 1925), 98108. Cf. S. uri, Architecture in the Balkans
(New Haven, 2010), 270f.
of the rotunda.4 This was then excavated in 1965/66

under the direction of R. Naumann. He was fast in
publishing his findings preliminarily within the same
year,5 but no final report ever followed, and most of the
small finds are still unknown. They include twenty-six
pilaster capitals or fragments thereof6 as well as figural
floor mosaics, all of which are kept at the Istanbul
Archaeological Museums. In addition, Naumanns estate
contains a diary with drawings of a dozen brick stamps
that were found during the excavation of the rotunda.
In the following study, each type of small find will
Fig. 1 Topographical sketch-map of the rotunda and surrounding

buildings (Berger, Patria 347 sketch 8 with changes Niewhner).
first be considered on its own. The results will then

be evaluated with a view to the dating, function, and
identification of the rotunda.
ARCHITECTURE
The rotunda lies at the core of a larger building complex

(Fig. 3). It had two opposite doors, a wider one on the
north and a narrower one on the south. The northern
portal was 3.70m wide and opened onto a portico.
The walls flanking the portal form an angle (Fig.2)
and indicate that the portico was bent with a radius of
approximately 40m. It may have surrounded a sigmashaped forecourt and possibly a u-shaped extension
up to the main street which passed by on the north
(Fig.1).7 Other Constantinopolitan rotundas were
4 D. T. Rice, Excavations at Bodrum Camii, 1930, Byzantion 8
(1933): 15174, at 16271.

5 Naumann, Rundbau.
6 Three are shown in the preliminary report: Naumann, Rundbau,
208, pl. 43, 1. Cf. C. Strube, Die Kapitelle von Qasr Ibn Wardan.
Antiochia und Konstantinopel im 6. Jahrhundert, JbAC 26 (1983):
59106, at 80, 93, pl. 19b; J. Kramer, Korinthische Pilasterkapitelle in
Kleinasien und Konstantinopel. Antike und sptantike Werkstattgruppen
(Tbingen, 1994), 101f, 104, 139, cat. 50, pl. 9.
7 Naumann, Rundbau, 202. uri, Architecture, 90 ignores the
THE ROTUNDA AT THE MYRELAION IN CONSTANTINOPLE:

PILASTER CAPITALS, MOSAICS, AND BRICK STAMPS*
Phlpp Newhner
University of Oxford
As the sun entered through these doors and its rays played
off the roof and walls of the hall, it sparkled with light,
confounding all vision. When al-Nir wished to impress
visitors, he would signal to one of his slaves to cause the
mercury [in the tank] to vibrate, whereupon in the chamber
there would appear a flash like that of lightning bolts that
would fill their hearts with fear.35
32 Theophanes Continuatus, ed. I. Bekker (Bonn, 1838), 140; trans.
C. Mango, The Art of the Byzantine Empire (New Jersey, 1972), 162.
33 Theophanes, Chronicle, AM 6305, 503; Vita Basilii 8586; trans.
Mango, Art of the Byzantine Empire, 195. The row of cisterns on the
site of the later Topkap Saray, especially those situated on the edge
of the terrace wall overlooking the Bosphorus channel, may be
associated with the gardens and the monastery of the Mangana, see
Crow et al., Water Supply, map 15.
34 D. Fairchild Ruggles, Gardens, Landscape, and Vision in Palaces
of Islamic Spain (Pennsylvania, 2006).
THE ROTUNDA AT THE MYRELAION IN

CONSTANTINOPLE: PILASTER CAPITALS,
MOSAICS, AND BRICK STAMPS*
41
this reflects a similar taste for precious materials as

seen in the Byzantine palace ekphrasis; however, it also
reveals an appreciation of Byzantine glamour evinced
by a magnificent pearl sent to Abd al-Rahmn by Leo,
the emperor of Constantinople. There is a difference;
the coup de thtre of Al-Maqqars account was the
description of the mercury tank:
WATER AND THE GREAT PALACE IN CONSTANTINOPLE
40
For the most part the writer of Theophanes Continuatus

in this description was very much a material guy;
what really mattered to him was the marble and the
bronze, the silver and gilt, not the cooling, murmuring
water which had appealed to the writer of psalm42.
Although the Byzantine writer does admit that the
spouting water, which presumably filled a pool in the
Sigma, gave no small amount of pleasure.32 Fountains
also appear in the Vita Basilii, in the account Basil Is
construction of the Nea Ekklesia. Having described the
sumptuous interior, the author continues to describe
the two ornate fountains in the atrium with spouts, one
of porphyry and the other of Sangrian marble. Each of
these was presumably a marble basin, with a central
fountain spouting jets of water; around the rim there
were bronze rams, cocks, and goats. At the time of Khan
Krums unsuccessful siege of Constantinople in 812/13,
Theophanes describes how he carried away the dragon
and bear from the fountain of the suburban palace of
St. Mamas, both probably of bronze, like the lion that
came from the palaces hippodrome. The account in
the Vita Basilii continues and provides a rare insight
into irrigation within the area of the palace. Following
the description of the newly located and constructed
Tzykanisterionthe polo groundclose to the Nea, the
Vita recounts how the emperor created a new garden
abounding with every kind of plant and irrigated with
abundant water.33 These few texts note water for display
in the Great Palace, fountains with their elaborate and
precious decoration figure more frequently, while water
itself is rarely worth more than a passing comment.
Perhaps the exceptional setting of the imperial
residence with its marine views sufficed, but it may
also reflect longstanding and different values of urban
display across the Mediterranean Roman world.
Finally, we turn briefly to a contemporary palace
at the furthest reaches of the Mediterranean. Whereas
hardly anything is known of the physical remains of
the Great Palace of the Byzantine emperors, close to
Cordoba in Umayyad Spain excavations have revealed
extensive traces of a vast tenth-century rural palace
complex at Madnat al-Zahr. Supplied by a new
aqueduct, here are the remains of three great terraces,
of gardens and long pools characteristic of the palaces
of the Islamic world but maintaining those Roman
traditions we have already observed.34 The seventeenthcentury historian Al-Maqqar provides a detailed
account of the palace (qar al-khilfa). In many senses

southeast (D-DAI-IST-KB3314).
Fig. 2 Rotunda and middle Byzantine palace (Naumann with changes
similarly combined with sigma-shaped forecourts, e.g.

the palace complex at the Hippodrome8 and the (later?)
bath or baptistery in the Mangana quarter.9 In all cases
the forecourt will have marked the main entrance.
The narrower southern door was 2.85m wide and
opened onto a semicircular flight of stairs (Figs.2-5).
They led to a lower level, as the ground slopes down
toward the Sea of Marmara. Here the rotunda was
flanked by two separate porticos on the west and the
east. Roughly 40m to the south stood a second, smaller
centrally-planned building almost on the same axis
as the rotunda. This second building was excavated by
Rice on the same occasion when he studied the Bodrum
Camii,10 but has since vanished. It seems to have
northern portico with forecourt and assumes that the narrower
southern door served as main entrance instead.
8 R. Naumann, Vorbericht ber die Ausgrabungen zwischen Mese
und Antiochos-Palast 1964 in Istanbul, IstMitt 15 (1965): 13548; H.
Belting and R. Naumann, Die Euphemiakirche am Hippodrom zu Istanbul
und ihre Fresken (Berlin, 1966), 1323. 3444; J. Bardill, The Palace
of Lausus and Nearby Monuments in Constantinople: A Topographical
Study, AJA 101 (1997): 6795, at 8689, argues that both sigmashaped squares belonged to a single large palace.
9 R. Demangel and E. Mamboury, Le quartier des Manganes et la
premire rgion de Constantinople (Paris, 1939), 8193 (baptistery); A.
M. Schneider, Byzanz. Vorarbeiten zur Topographie und Archologie der
Stadt (Berlin, 1936), 90f (bath); uri, Architecture, 8789.
10 Rice, Excavations, 15862; S. uri, Design and
43
Niewhner).
Fig. 6 Rotunda, south facade (detail of Fig. 5), western corner with
wall revetment in situ (D-DAI-IST-66-89).

PILASTER CAPITALS
Fig. 3 Rotunda and second, smaller centrally planned building
(Naumann with changes Niewhner).
been contemporary with the rotunda. The masonry of

alternating layers of blocks of limestone and brick (Fig.
4-6) is similar, and the same mullions have been found
11m to the south of the rotunda as well as in the second
building. Their narrow-pointed acanthus resembles that
on a console from the rotunda itself (cf. Figs.7 and 8).11
The capitals of the mullions are partly unfinished
but otherwise of exceptional quality (Fig.7). Similarly
carved and undercut (narrow-)pointed acanthus was
Structural Innovation in Byzantine Architecture Before Hagia
Sophia, in Hagia Sophia from the Age of Justinian to the Present, ed. R.
Mark and A. . akmak (Cambridge, 1992), 1638, at 2931, figs. 26f;
uri, Architecture, 90.
11 Masonry: Naumann, Rundbau, 205. Mullions (today in
the garden of Hagia Sophia): Rice, Excavations, 160, pl. 6;
Naumann, Rundbau, 208, pl. 40, 2. Console (today the tip has
broken off and the remaining part is lying on top of the rotunda/
cistern): P. Forschheimer and J. Strzygowski, Die byzantinischen
Wasserbehlter von Konstantinopel. Beitrge zur Geschichte der
byzantinische Baukunst und zur Topographie von Konstantinopel (Vienna,
1893), 58, no.4; Naumann, Rundbau, 208, pl. 40, 1 and 41, 1.
Fig. 5 Rotunda, south door after dismantling of the later foundations
(D-DAI-IST-66-92).
last produced at Docimium in central Anatolia in the

third/fourth century, but it was no longer common in the
Propontis in the fifth and sixth centuries.12 This points to
an early date for the Proconnesian mullions; they appear
to have been produced as long as the Constantinopolitan
workshop closely followed Docimian models, before
the carving was simplified, probably as a result of mass
production.13
12 Translation of the German technical term kleingezackt. Cf.
P. Niewhner, Aizanoi, Dokimion und Anatolien. Stadt und Land,

Siedlungs- und Steinmetzwesen vom spteren 4. bis ins 6. Jahrhundern.
Chr. (Wiesbaden, 2007), 121f. P.Niewhner, Phrygian Marble
and Stonemasonry as Markers of Regional Distinctiveness in Late
Antiquity, in Roman Phrygia, ed. P. Thonemann (Cambridge, 2013),
215-48.
13 Kramer, Pilasterkapitelle, 98101. For the initial influence of
Docimian models and the later simplification, probably as a result of
Much later, when the rotunda was turned into a cistern

during the middle Byzantine period, both its doors were
closed off and a wall built at right angles against the
closure of the southern door (Fig.2). The foundation
of this wall was found during the excavation (Fig.4)
and subsequently dismantled (cf. Fig.5). It was found
to contain the pilaster capitals as well as parts of
door jambs, all of which had been reused as building
material.14 Naumann associated the jambs with the
southern door of the rotunda and the capitals with the
revetment that had covered the facade on both sides of
the door.15 Parts of the revetment have been found insitu and consist of white marble slabs (Figs.5-6).
The height of the facade, however, may speak
against Naumanns reconstruction. Starting at the foot
of the semicircular flight of stairs more than a meter
below the threshold, the revetment must have flanked
the door, which was 2.85m wide and therefore probably
mass production, see Niewhner, Aizanoi, 132f.
14 Naumann, Rundbau, 203 (door jambs), 208 (pilaster capitals).
15 Naumann, Rundbau, 208.

42
Fig. 4 Rotunda, blocked south door and later foundations seen from
Fig. 11 Pilaster capital with soft-pointed and fine-toothed acanthus.
Fig. 10 Pilaster capital with fine-toothed acanthus.
Fig. 12 Pilaster capital with broad-pointed and fine-toothed
Fig. 8 Console from the rotunda, narrow-pointed acanthus (D-DAI-
IST-R382).
at least 5m high. In contrast, most of the capitals were

not wider than 30cm at the bottom, indicating pilasters
of hardly more than 3m total height.16
Another problem is the whereabouts of the other
elements of the wall revetment. There must have been
many more slabs than capitals, but Naumann does not
mention any. Perhaps the slabs were reused elsewhere,
for a purpose for which the sharp-edged reliefs
16 Kramer, Pilasterkapitelle, 110f.
revetment as well as mosaics (see below) implies that the rotunda was
finished and a dome had actually been built.
18 Cf. an almost identical pilaster capital at Ktahya, most
probably also from Docimium: P. Niewhner, Frhbyzantinische
Steinmetzarbeiten in Ktahya. Zu Topographie, Steinmetzwesen und
Siedlungsgeschichte einer zentralanatolischen Region, IstMitt 56
(2006): 40773, at 455, cat. 84, fig. 49.
19 Cf. pilaster capitals in Ktahya (see note 18 above), Side, Isparta,
and Istanbul, each of which combines humpy or spiky fine-toothed
with stiff-, soft-, or broad-pointed leaves respectively: Kramer,
Pilasterkapitelle, 125, 130f, cat. 2, 23f, pl. 1.4; four pilaster capitals from
a seemingly Tetrarchic/Constantinian repair of a thermae-gymnasium
at Ankara, two with stiff-pointed and two with narrow-pointed leaves:
M. Akok, Ankara ehrindeki Roma Hamam,Trk Arkeoloji Dergisi
17.1 (1968): 537, at 10, 23 figs. 25f; a 5th/6th-century pilaster capital
with fat jagged fine-toothed and with soft-pointed acanthus
in the crypt of St. Demetrius at Thessaloniki: G. . Soteriou and M.
Soteriou, H
(Athens, 1952), 161, pl. 45g; Kramer, Pilasterkapitelle, 140, cat. 53,
pl. 9. Cf. also column capitals of the 3rd century proscenium II at
the theatre in Perge, one with humpy or spiky fine-toothed
acanthus, another with pointed leaves: A. ztrk, Die Architektur der
Scaenae Frons des Theaters in Perge (Berlin, 2009), 29f, 136, cat. 6769,
pl. 4, 35; a 4th-century architrave in the archaeological museum at
Afyon, one block of which is fine-toothed whilst others are pointed:
Niewhner, Aizanoi, 291f, cat. 464f, pl. 58; Niewhner, Phrygian
Marble.
20 Translations of the German technical terms feingezahnt,
starrzackig, weichzackig, and grogezackt. Cf. RAC 20:90100
s.v. Kapitell (U. Peschlow).
45
17 Naumann, Rundbau, 211f. The existence of pilaster capitals, wall

Fig. 9 Pilaster capital with fine-toothed acanthus.
pointed (Fig.11), fine-toothed and broad-pointed

(Fig.12) or stiff- and broad-pointed leaves (Fig.13) are
placed next to each other.
The fine-toothed acanthus is of the humpy or
spiky type that was carved at Docimium in the third/
fourth century (Fig. 9-12,21 but was replaced by the fat,
jagged variant in Constantinopolitan production of the
fifth and sixth centuries.22 The same applies to the soft21 Translation of Kramer, Pilasterkapitelle, 24-40: buckel- oder
dornenfrmig. Cf. J. Rohmann, Einige Bemerkungen zum

Ursprung des feingezahnten Akanthus, IstMitt 45 (1995): 10921;
Niewhner, Aizanoi, 12225; M. Waelkens, Sagalassos-Jaarboek 2008
(Leuven, 2009), 357, fig. 273; J. J. Herrmann Jr. and R. H. Tykot,
Some Products from the Dokimeion Quarries. Craters, Tables,
Capitals, and Statues, in Asmosia 7, ed. Y. Maniatis (Paris, 2009),
5975, at 63f; Niewhner, Phrygian Marble.
22 Translation of J. Strzygowski, Die Akropolis in altbyzantinischer
Zeit, Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archologischen Instituts 14 (1889):
27196, at 280: fett, zackig. Cf. R. Kautzsch, Kapitellstudien. Beitrge
zu einer Geschichte des sptantiken Kapitells im Osten vom 4. bis ins 7. Jh.
(Berlin, 1936), 11517.
acanthus.
pointed leaf that appears dry and meager23 in comparison

with the meaty and swollen kind that Constantinople
put out in the late fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries
(cf. Fig.18).24 The Docimian lobes do not touch, but
are separated by narrow channels (Fig.11). The stiffpointed acanthus (Fig.13) is not known after the fourth
century.25 Only the broad-pointed leaf (Figs.12-13) was
trend-setting and favored in Constantinople from the
late fourth century onwards.26All considered, the series
of Docimian pilaster capitals from the rotunda must date
from the third/fourth century.
23 Cf. Niewhner, Aizanoi, 125f.
24 RAC 20:92f s.v. Kapitell (U. Peschlow); C. Barsanti, Capitelli di
manifattura costantinopolitana a Roma, in Ecclesiae urbis. Atti del

congresso internazionale di studi sulle chiese di Roma (410 secolo), ed.
F. Guidobaldi and A. Guiglia Guidobaldi (Rome, 2002), 3:144378, at
144672; C. Baaran, Kyzikos Korinth Balklar, Trk Arkeoloji
Dergisi 31 (1997): 152, at 32f, 48f, cat. 2933.
25 RAC 20:91f s.v. Kapitell (U. Peschlow).
26 RAC 20:93f s.v. Kapitell (U. Peschlow).
and from the smaller centrally planned building, narrow-pointed

acanthus (D-DAI-IST-R107).
44

Fig. 7 One of several similar mullions from south of the rotunda
and rough backsides of the capitals were

unsuitable. Be this as it may, the accumulation
of capitals in the foundations indicates that
they were taken down systematically. Since the
doorjamb was also reused, this most probably
occurred in connection with the middle
Byzantine conversion into a cistern, when the
door was walled up. The jamb must have been
taken up whilst the door was still open. If this
applies also to the pilaster capitals, they may
have come from the interior of the rotunda,
where the original flooring as well as wall
revetment were replaced by water-resistant
mortar.17
According to size, material, and
decoration the capitals can be divided into
one series (Figs.9-13) and five single pieces
(Figs.14-18). The series comprises twenty-one
fragments of at least fifteen capitals made of the same
fine yellowish-white marble. Seven fragments have
been analyzed archaeometrically, and the marble turns
out to be from Docimium.18
The series combines various sorts of acanthus,
as was common in Anatolia,19 with fine-toothed
(Figs.9-12) as well as soft- (Fig.11), stiff- (Fig.13),
and broad-pointed leaves (Figs.12-13).20 The acanthus
differs not only from capital to capital, but also from
leaf to leaf. On the same capital fine-toothed and soft-

47
Fig. 15 Roman Imperial pilaster capital.
Fig. 17 Larger pilaster capital with soft-pointed acanthus.
Fig. 19 Rotunda, floor mosaic fragments as found in front of the
north door (D-DAI-IST-66-137).

Fig. 16 Roman Imperial pilaster capital, Docimian marble.
Fig. 14 Larger pilaster capital, Docimian marble.
Another capital which, according to

archaeometrical analyses, also consists of Docimian
marble is otherwise dissimilar from the foregoing series
(Fig.14). This capital is larger and has two rows of leaves
that are cut differently. They may be an early variant of
the narrow-pointed acanthus, possibly from the third/
fourth century, and the upper right leaf is windblown.
Two completely preserved lobes have five and seven
relatively small points respectively. They are turned
both upwards and downwards and enclose comparatively
small eyes. The general impression is herbaceous and

reminiscent of the Roman Imperial period.27
Two other fragments are also larger than the
series and have divergent leaves, a different, curled
helix spiral, as well as a dissimilar, complex abacus
profile (Figs.15-16). Both date from the Roman
Imperial period. One has long lower points that touch
those of neighboring leaves (Fig.15). The other has
been analyzed archaeometrically and consists of
Proconnesian marble (Fig.16).28
27 Cf. W.-D. Heilmeyer, Korinthische Normalkapitelle. Studien zur
Geschichte der rmischen Architekturdekoration (Heidelberg, 1970),

88105; L. Vandeput, The Architectural Decoration in Roman Asia Minor.
Sagalassos: A Case Study (Turnhout, 1997).
28 For Roman Imperial capitals made from Proconnesian marble,
cf. C. Barsanti, Note archeologiche su Bisanzio romana, in
Costantinopoli e larte delle province orientali, ed. C. Barsanti, A. Guiglia
Guidobaldi, and F. deMaffei (Rome, 1990), 1172, at 38f, pl. 7, figs.
3638; P. Pensabene, Scavi di Ostia 7. I capitelli (Rome, 1973), 64,
185, cat. 247, pl. 23; K. Freyberger, Stadtrmische Kapitelle aus der Zeit
Fig. 18 Pilaster capital with soft-pointed acanthus, Proconnesian
marble.
Two fragments with soft-pointed acanthus are

also single pieces (Figs.17-18). One is again larger than
the series, and the leaves show traits of both earlier
Docimian and later Constantinopolitan production
(Fig.17). The lobes are separated by narrow channels,
von Domitian bis Alexander Severus. Zur Arbeitsweise und Organisation
stadtrmischer Werksttten der Kaiserzeit (Mainz, 1990), 12529, pl.
4446; J. B. Ward-Perkins, Nicomedia and the Marble Trade, BSA
48 (1980): 2369, at 4955, pl. 1318.
as was customary at Docimium in the third/fourth

century (cf. Fig.11), but meaty and swollen like those
carved from Proconnesian marble during the late fourth
to sixth centuries (Fig.18). The pilaster capital may
therefore have been made at Docimium, but may date
from the fifth/sixth century, when central Anatolian
production begins to show Constantinopolitan
influences.29
The other soft-pointed capital is a typical example
of Constantinopolitan production from the later fourth
to the sixth centuries (Fig.18).30 Archaeometrical
analyses have confirmed a Proconnesian provenance.
All in all, the pilaster capitals form a varied
collection of diverse date and provenance. The two
Roman Imperial fragments are older than the rotunda
and would appear to have originally been made for a
different purpose and then reused (Figs.15-16). Thus,
the rotunda may either have been built or repaired with
reused material. The other capitals are late enough to
have been carved originally for the rotunda. Again, they
29 See above, note 13.
Docimian marble.
46

Fig. 13 Pilaster capital with broad- and stiff-pointed acanthus,

Fig. 20 Mosaic head of the male youth AK. after conservation.
Fig. 21 Mosaic foot with lifted heel after conservation.
may either have been used for the initial building or for
later repair work. The most likely pieces to have been
made for the initial building are the series of fifteen or
more capitals (Figs.9-13), in which case all the other
capitals would have been added later.
MOSAICS
The mosaics were found on the floor of the northern

portico in front of the northern portal of the rotunda
the Orontes (Fig. 22).33
Antioch (Lassus, Yakto (as note 33) 118 fig. 2.
(Fig.2).31 They were laid out in a

patchwork of various fragments with
differing orientations and with gaps
in between (Fig.19). This layout
was obviously secondary, analogous
to the reuse of the pilaster capitals
in the later foundations mentioned
above.
The mosaics consist of
ornamental and of figural fragments.
If all the figural fragments belong to
the same or similar figures, they could
be reconstructed as one or more male
youths, each with a round shock of
hair, short cloak and short tunic. Head
and gaze are turned sideward (Fig.20),
the right arm is slightly bent and one
heel lifted from the floor (Fig.21).
Another indication of the iconography
is provided by the inscription AK
above the head which may be read as
. Actaeon is best known as
a mythological figure and described
as a young hunter. He was frequently depicted in
Antiquity,32 for the last time in an early Byzantine floor
mosaic from Daphne, a garden suburb of Antioch on
31 Naumann, Rundbau, 202. The mosaics were removed and stored
at the Mosaic Museum until 1978, when they were transferred to the
Archaeological Museum: Inv. 78.94 (head) and 78.95 (leg).
32 Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae, vol. 1 (Zurich, 1981),
45469 s.v. Aktaion (L. Guimond). Cf. B. Poulsen, Pagans in Late
Roman Halikarnassos 1. The Interpretation of a Recently Excavated
Building, Proceedings of the Danish Institute at Athens 1, (1995): 193208, at 205, fig. 18.
Fig. 24 Mosaic double guilloche (Naumann with changes
Niewhner).
Fig. 25 Mosaic double arch (Naumann with changes Niewhner).
The mosaic floor from Daphne belonged to one

of several sumptuous houses known as the Yaktocomplex. The composition consists of a so-called
figure carpet arranged around a central medallion with
a bust of Megalopsychia. The six figures are alike, all
of them youthful male hunters dressed in short cloaks
33 J. Lassus, La mosaique de Yakto,in Antioch on-the-Orontes 1:
The Excavations of 1932, ed. G. W. Elderkin (Princeton, 1934), 11456,

at 122, fig. 6; W. A. Campbell, Excavations at Antioch-on-theOrontes, AJA 38 (1934): 2016, at 202.
and tunics, each wielding a spear. Inscriptions identify

them as well-known mythological figures, Actaeon,
Meleager (Fig.23), Adonis, Tiresias, Narcissus, and
Hippolytus. The Actaeon figure at Daphne does not
lend itself to direct comparison with the fragments in
Istanbul because it is turned in the other direction.
But if instead one compares it with Meleager, the
fragments in Istanbul can be reconstructed as one
or more spear hunters, possibly framed by the
same double guilloche (Fig.24)34 as at Daphne
(Fig.23).
If this reconstruction is correct, the fragments
may formerly have covered the floor of the rotunda and
have been laid out in close similarity to Daphne. The
composition is arranged in circles and would appear
initially to have been conceived for a rotunda. Its
adaptation to the rectangular ground plan at Daphne is
obviously derivative. Furthermore, spear hunters were
commonly depicted on early Byzantine mosaic floors,
and several have been found at Istanbul, for example at
34 For the latter, cf. C. Balmelle et al., Le dcor gomtrique de la
mosaique romaine (Paris, 2002), 1:pl.75b; S. Campbell, The Mosaics

of Antioch (Toronto, 1988), 88, cat. 74h; S. Campbell, The Mosaics of
Aphrodisias in Caria (Toronto, 1991), 38, cat. 75A. For the double arch
(Fig.25), cf. F. Tlek, A Fifth Century Floor Mosaic and a Mural of
Virgin of Pege in Constantinople, CahArch 52 (20052008): 2330, at
2426, figs. 3f.
49
Fig. 22 Megalopsychia mosaic at the Yakto-complex in Daphne near
Yakto [as note 33] 118 fig. 2, with changes Niewhner).
48

Fig. 23 Detail of Fig. 22 (Meleager) with elements of Fig. 19 (Lassus,
Eleven brick stamps were drawn by Naumann on two

facing pages of his diary, seven on the left and four
on the right page (Fig.26).37 Both pages bear titles
explaining that the seven left stamps had been found by
us, referring probably to Naumann and his team, whilst
the four stamps on the right had been lying in the yard
at the lower story.
Fig. 26 Naumanns diary with brick stamps found by us (left) and
lying in the yard at the lower story (right).
All seven stamps on the left found by us and the

third of the four stamps on the right have one single
line and probably date from the fifth century, when
35 R. Duyuran, Belediye Saray Mozaikleri,Arkitekt 23 (1954):
16670, at 167, fig. 3; G. Hellenkemper Salies, Die Datierung

der Mosaiken im Groen Palast zu Konstantinopel, Bonner
Jahrbcher 187 (1987): 273308 (fig. bibliography); RBK 4:61722 s.v.
Konstantinopel (G. Hellenkemper Salies).
36 Cf. I. Uytterhoeven, Know Your Classics! Manifestations of
Classical Culture in Late Antique Elite Houses, in Faces of Hellenism.
Studies in the History of the Eastern Mediterranean (4th Century B.C. 5th
Century A.D.), ed. P. Van Nuffelen (Leuven, 2009), 32142.
37 A detailed catalogue of all brick stamps as well as their individual
typology and dating has been prepared by Jenny Abura: see P.
Niewhner, Der frhbyzantinische Rundbau beim Myrelaion in
Konstantinopel. Kapitelle, Mosaiken und Ziegelstempel, IstMitt 60
(2010): 41159, at 43133.
The chronological distribution of the brick stamps

may not be accidental. The fifth-century stamps
found by us might have belonged to the rotunda,
whereas the sixth-century stamps lying in the yard
at the lower story could have come from the middle
Byzantine palace and/or church, where they would have
been reused. This seems to be confirmed by the brick
stamps that Rice noticed
during his work at the
Myrelaion.40All stamps
from the rotunda and
the smaller centrallyplanned building are
again of the simple
fifth-century type,41
whilst those from
the Bodrum Camii
also include more
sophisticated sixthcentury specimens.42
Moreover, seventeen
of the fifth-century
stamps date from the
seventh or the fifteenth
indiction.43 This
comprises the majority of
stamps with the indiction
preserved and implies
that the fifth-century
bricks do not form a
chance collection. The
bricks will have been
originally acquired for the construction of the rotunda
and the smaller centrally-planned building, indicating a
fifth-century date for both. Alternatively, the late fourth
century may also be considered, because the beginning
of brick stamping cannot be dated with any precision
and may have occurred already in the late fourth
century, when the Theodosian building boom set in.44
38 J. Bardill, Brickstamps of Constantinople (Oxford, 2004), 99.
39 Bardill, Brickstamps, 1002.
40 Rice, Excavations, 17274, fig. 11. For corrections and more
stamps found by Rice but not published, see Bardill, Brickstamps, 163;
416 s.v. Bodrum Camii.
41 Rotunda: Bardill, Brickstamps, cat. 218.1a, 298.1a; smaller
centrally-planned building: ibid., 416 s.v. Bath building near
Bodrum Camii.
42 Bardill, Brickstamps, cat. 227.1b, 316.1a, 660.1a, 681.1d, 824.1a,
1130.1a.
43 See Niewhner, Rundbau, 434.
44 Bardill, Brickstamps, 28. For a less tight chronological framework,
cf. U. Peschlow, Die Zisterne von Meriamlik. Fragen zu Bau- und

Mauertechnik im Bezirk von Ayatekla, in Syrien und seine Nachbarn
von der Sptantike bis in die islamische Zeit, ed. I. Eichner and V.
Tsamakda (Wiesbaden, 2009), 5780, at 74f.
45 A. Guiglia Guidobaldi, Note preliminare per una definizione
dellarte pavimentale costantinopolitana dei primi secoli, in 16.
Internationaler Byzantinistenkongress. Akten 2 = JB 32.4 (1982):
40313, at 406, 408f, fig. 1; Kramer, Pilasterkapitelle, 99. For a
summary of the earlier bibliography as well as new evidence for
the date of the Theodosian Hagia Sophia, see Bardill, Brickstamps,
5456, 107.
46 Kramer, Pilasterkapitelle, 102f; RAC 20:9396 s.v. Kapitell (U.
Peschlow). For the propylon see A. M. Schneider, Die Grabung im
Westhof der Sophienkirche zu Istanbul (Berlin, 1941), 10f, pl. 1416;
F. W. Deichmann, Studien zur Architektur Konstantinopels im 5. und 6.
Jahrhundert nach Christus (Baden-Baden, 1956), 63f; for a summary
of the earlier bibliography as well as new evidence for the dating,
see Bardill, Brickstamps, 5456, 107. For the Golden Gate, see B.
Meyer-Plath and A. M. Schneider, Die Landmauer von Konstantinopel,
2: Aufnahme, Beschreibung und Geschichte (Berlin, 1943), 3960; J.
Bardill, The Golden Gate of Constantinople: A Triumphal Arch of
TheodosiusI, AJA 103 (1999): 67196, argues that the gate was built
by TheodosiusI, but dates the pointed capitals to the building of the
land walls by TheodosiusII; N. Asutay-Effenberger, Die Landmauer von
Konstantinopel-Istanbul. Historisch-topographische und baugeschichtliche
Untersuchungen (Wiesbaden, 2007), 5461.
47 For the palace complex see above, note 9, and Bardill, Brickstamps,
107109 (additional evidence for the date of the palace of Antiochus).
For the comparison with the rotunda, see Naumann, Rundbau, 203f
(masonry), 206 (architectural typology).
48 F. A. Bauer, Stadt, Platz und Denkmal in der Sptantike.
Untersuchungen zur Ausstattung des ffentlichen Raums in den
sptantiken Stdten Rom, Konstantinopel und Ephesos (Mainz, 1996),
187212. 262f.
FUNCTION
During the Roman Imperial period rotundas were

mostly built for the purpose of a mausoleum or temple.50
At the Myrelaion this seems unlikely since the rotunda
has two opposite doors creating a passage unsuitable
for either of these purposes.51 A similar passage is
found in a rotunda within the aristocratic palace
complex at the Hippodrome.52 Naumann, therefore,
suggested that the complex at the Myrelaion was
intended for the same purpose and may be identified
with the domus nobilissimae Arcadiae, which the Notitia
urbis Constantinopolitanae lists in regionIX.53 This
hypothesis is supported by the evidence of the small
finds. A mythological mosaic floor seems suitable
for an aristocratic residence and a Theodosian date
is compatible with Arcadia, daughter of Arcadius and
sister of TheodosiusII. Arcadia was born in 400, never
married, and died in 444.54
Region IX flanked the Sea of Marmara. It may
have contained the rotunda and extended up to the
Philadelphion.55 The latter was situated to the northeast
49 For location and identity of Philadelphion, Capitol, and Museion,
see D. Feissel, Le Philadelphion de Constantinople: inscriptions et
crits patriographiques, CRAI (2003): 495523. See also P. Speck,
Review of P. Lemerle, Le premier humanisme byzantin. Notes et
remarques sur enseignement et culture Byzance des origines au Xe sicle,
BZ 67 (1974): 38593, at 390; Berger, Patria, 333; P. Speck, Urbs, quam
Deo donavimus. Konstantins des Groen Konzept fr Konstantinopel,
Boreas 18 (1995): 14373. For the obelisk see P. Niewhner and U.
Peschlow, Neues zu den Tetrarchenfiguren in Venedig und ihrer
Aufstellung in Konstantinopel, IstMitt 62 (2012): 341-67.
50 Rice, Excavations, 16971.
51 Naumann, Rundbau, 206. In contradiction of his own argument,
Naumann, Rundbau, 211 suggests that the rotunda may have been the
Capitol, although the latter must have been a temple dedicated to the
Capitoline Triad: C. Mango, Le dveloppement urbain de Constantinople
(4e-7e sicles) (Paris, 1985), 30; E. Mayer, Rom ist dort, wo der Kaiser ist.
Untersuchungen zu den Staatsdenkmldern des dezentralisierten Reiches
von Diocletian bis zu TheodosiusII (Mainz, 2002), 16168.
53 Naumann, Rundbau, 206. Cf. O. Seeck, ed., Notitia Dignitatum
(1876. Reprint Frankfurt, 1962), 237; A. Berger, Regionen und Straen
im frhen Konstantinopel, IstMitt 47 (1997): 349-414, at 368 f.
Mango, Le dveloppement, 59 and Mayer, Rom, 162 wanted to
identify the rotunda with the Museion, but the latter has now been
convincingly located at the Philadelphion to the east of the Laleli
Camii: see above, note 49.
Rice, Excavations, 164 f. and Bardill, Palace, 88 f., note 99
suggested that the rotunda may have been the Chrysokamaron, but
according to the Patria III 112 the latter stood behind the Myrelaion and
must therefore have been a different building: Cf. Berger, Patria, 597 f.
54 J. R. Martindale, The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, vol.
2: A. D. 395527 (Cambridge, 1980), 129.
55 Not according to Berger, Patria, 344. Cf. P. Magdalino,

DATING
university (425).49 The rotunda may have been part of

this program of building and rehabilitation.
51
BRICK STAMPS
There is yet further evidence for a Theodosian

date of the rotunda-complex. An opus sectile floor
excavated by Rice in the smaller centrally-planned
building has been compared with a similar floor in a
portico of the Theodosian church of Hagia Sophia.45
The pointed acanthus on the mullions from the smaller
centrally-planned building and the area to the south
of the rotunda (Fig.7) appears to be among the earliest
of its kind carved from Proconnesian marble, possibly
even earlier than the earliest dated examples at the
propylon of the Theodosian Hagia Sophia and at the
Golden Gate.46 An early date, at the beginning of the
Theodosian building boom, would also be compatible
with the series of pilaster capitals (Figs.9-13),
and their use at the rotunda might be original.
Furthermore, a Theodosian date would explain the
parallels between the rotunda and the palace-complex
at the Hippodrome which could be identified with the
Theodosian aristocracy.47
The Theodosian emperors saw to a successive
monumentalization of the main street, proceeding from
the forum of TheodosiusI (393) to that of Arcadius
(402/403),48 including also the Philadelphion, where
Theodosius I erected his first obelisk and the Capitol
was probably converted into the Museion (414) and
bricks first started to be stamped in Constantinople.38

The other three on the right from the yard at the lower
story have more lines, are generally more complex, and
can be dated to the sixth century.39
50

Sarahane below the Belediye Saray and in the imperial

palace.35 It would, therefore, seem appropriate that
spear hunting should also have been depicted in the
rotunda at the Myrelaion.36
Aristocratic Oikoi in the Tenth and Eleventh Regions of

Constantinople, in Byzantine Constantinople: Monuments, Topography
and Everyday Life, ed. N. Necipolu (Leiden, 2001), 5369, at 56.
56 For the location of the Philadelphion, see above, note 49. For
the Laleli Camii occupying the site of the former Capitol, cf. Berger,
Patria, 330f.; P. Speck, Urbs, quam Deo donavimus. Konstantins
des Groen Konzept fr Konstantinopel, Boreas 18 (1995): 14373.
57 According to this reconstruction, the boundaries of region IX and
X may have met at the Philadelphion. This would explain a passage in
the Notitia where these regions are said to be separated by the main
street: Seeck, ed., Notitia, 237. Cf. Berger, Regionen, 369.
58 Berger, Patria, 33747; Mango, Le dveloppement, 70 and C.
Mango, The Triumphal Ways of Constantinople and the Golden
Gate, DOP 54 (2000): 17388, fig.2 suggests a different localization of
Ta Amastrianou and the Modion; cf. Bauer, Stadt, 23842.
University of Cologne
n 1343 the Byzantine man of letters George

Makrembolites composed a work entitled The
Dialogue between the Rich and the Poor.1 The text
was barely known in its own period and was first
rediscovered in the sociocritical debate of the last
century.2 The poor gaze full of envy at the life of the rich:
Be content, they say, with your elaborate bedchambers,
attracting all eyes, with fabrics embroidered in silver and
gold, rugs of strange appearance and exquisite beauty,
with delightful baths, with your pleasant dwellings, your
enjoying, in fair weather the mildest airs from the roofs of
your three-story houses.3
I.
The nobles palace has not hitherto attracted special
attention either in Byzantine cultural history or
in architectural history or topographical studies.4
In addition to the Great Palace and the Palace of
Blachernai, and the smaller imperial palaces of
Constantinople, which have likewise never been
subjected to a comprehensive study, the palaces of
the nobility represent the third (and certainly most
extensive) component of the topographical presence of
the court in the city of Constantinople.
First of all, it has to be determined what is meant,
in a sociohistorical sense, by the term nobles palace.
We are dealing with the house of an individual, who is
connected to the court through a state office or dignity.
It is in this sense also that the terms aristocracy and
aristocratic should be understood in Byzantium.5 In
1 First published with English translation by I. evenko, Alexios
Makrembolites and his Dialogue between the Rich and the Poor, ZRVI
6 (1960): 187228; see also the commented Italian translation: Alessio
Macrembolite, Dialogo dei ricchi e dei poveri, ed. M. di Branco (Palermo, 2007).
2 G. Wei, Johannes Kantakuzenos Aristokrat, Staatsmann, Kaiser und
Mnch in der Gesellschaftsentwicklung von Byzanz im 14. Jahrhundert
(Wiesbaden, 1969); K.-P. Matschke, Fortschritt und Reaktion in Byzanz
im 14. Jahrhundert: Konstantinopel in der Brgerkriegsperiode von 1341 bis
1354 (Berlin, 1971); see also Alessio Macrembolite, 38 n. 31.
3 evenko, Alexios Makrembolites, 209.1420; see also P.
Schreiner, Das Haus in Byzanz nach den schriftlichen Quellen,
Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Gttingen,
Philologisch-historische Klasse. Dritte Folge 218 (1997): 277320, esp.
31112.
4 See also M. Grnbart, Inszenierung und Reprsentation der
byzantinischen Aristokratie vom 10. bis 13. Jahrhundert (Mnster,
forthcoming).
5 A. P. Kazhdan and S. Ronchey, Laristocrazia bizantina dal principio
dellXI alls fine del XII secolo (Palermo, 1997).
6 Scriptores originum Constantinopolitanarum, ed. Th. Preger, fasc.
alter, Ps.-Codini origines continens (Leipzig, 1907), 14647 (cap.

6366).
7 F. Winkelmann, Quellenstudien zur herrschenden Klasse von Byzanz im
8. und 9. Jahrhundert (Berlin, 1987).
8 Kazhdan and Ronchey, Laristocrazia.
9 N. Oikonomids, Les listes de prsance byzantines des IXe et Xe sicles
(Paris, 1972), 65235.
10 Scriptores, 148.45 (cap. 67); A. Berger, Untersuchungen zu den
Patria Konstantinupoleos (Bonn, 1988), 225.
11 Scriptores, 150.12; Berger, Untersuchungen, 231.
THE ARCHITECTURE OF ARISTOCRATIC PALACES IN

CONSTANTINOPLE IN WRITTEN SOURCES
Peter Schrener
contrast to the Great Palace and the Palace of Blachernai,

the palaces of the nobility are in general entitled only
to the designation oikia, just like all the rest of the
houses in Constantinople. We encounter a first wave of
such houses in connection with the foundation of the
city in the Patria Konstantinoupoleos.6 A second wave is
traced back to the great families whose origins lie in
the second half of the eighth and ninth centuries, but at
the time many members of the clan still lived in the
provinces.7 It was not until the eleventh century, and
especially during the rule of the Komnenian dynasty,
that the city itself, in a third wave, became the favored
residence of aristocratic families, and remained so up
to 1453.8 A statistical enumeration was never made,
though it is possible in the tenth century thanks to
the lists for orders of ranks and the seals. Lets take
as example the Kletorologion of Philotheos of 899.9 It
enumerates seventy-eight dignities and offices. Twentynine of them are attributed to military aristocrats, who
lived outside Constantinople. There remain fortyseven persons, who had because of their position the
possibility to possess a house (palace) of this kind.
The palace of an aristocratic family was also closely
bound to the political, and in consequence social,
fortunes of the family. With a decline in social status,
which often followed a decline in political status, the
palace in many cases also passed into other hands,
often those of an individual currently in favor with the
emperor. In a small number of cases the different owners
are also named in literary sources, whereas, as is well
known, the cadastres for Byzantine Constantinople are no
longer preserved. It would be wrong to assume, however,
that the fabric of buildings (excepting substructures)
remained intact. Rather each new owner undertook
modifications, and the only reminder of the past was its
name: when the Patria was composed at the end of the
tenth century, the House of the Senator Dareios (from the
time of Constantine the Great) was in the possession of a
certain Hikanatissa, who was the wife or daughter of one
of the Skleros family.10 The Houses of Constantines sons
(thus originally imperial palaces) in the ninth century
belonged to a Toubakes and an Iberitzes, while one of
them somewhat later belonged to an Akropolites.11
In one case archaeological and written
evidence combine. The palace of the usurper Romanos
Lekapenos (r.920-944), which he converted into a
monastery after his accession to the throne, belonged
before him to a certain Krateros, who is perhaps
53
THE ARCHITECTURE OF ARISTOCRATIC

PALACES IN CONSTANTINOPLE IN
WRITTEN SOURCES

52
of the rotunda in front of the Laleli Camii, which

probably occupies the site of the former Capitol.56
The Capitol belonged to region VIII which continued
eastward from the Philadelphion, whilst region X lay to
the north (Fig.1).57
A second indication of an imperial origin of the
rotunda may be found in the written record. Sources
mention the square Ta Amastrianou, also referred to
as the Modion, Horeion or Horologion (Patria), at the
house of Krateros (Parastaseis), which belonged to
the Myrelaion (Suda). Ta Amastrianou can be located
in between the Bus and Philadelphion, for imperial
processions stopped at all three places in this order.
The Patria mention a sigma-shaped colonnade at Ta
Amastrianou, probably the portico to the north of the
rotunda. In addition to the sigma, Kedrenos details
a straight colonnade to the north and an old temple,
possibly to be identified with a second portico along the
main street and the Capitol on the opposite side, where
the Laleli Camii now stands. The Patria also mention
the depiction of the river Lycos, which discharges into
the nearby harbor of Theodosius, and an arch which
may have formed an entrance from the main street. On
top of the arch the Modion was on display. This latter
was the standard measure for grain and seems to be
identical with the Molion referred to by the Parastaseis
Syntomoi Chronikai. This source also mentions the old
temple on the north (the Capitol), the figure of a fox
(the Lycos?) as well as anaktorikoi oikoi to the south,58
possibly a reference to the rotunda and former domus
nobilissimae Arcadiae.

Niewöhner, P. 2010. The Rotunda at The Myrelaion in Constantinople

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Niewöhner, P. 2010. The Rotunda at The Myrelaion in Constantinople

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THE BYZANTINE COURT:

SOURCE OF POWER AND CULTURE

VEHB KO VAKFI, 2013

SYMPOSIUM HONORARY CHAIRMAN

The Vehbi Ko Foundation gratefully acknowledges

The Byzantne Court:

Ayla dekan, Nevra Necipolu, Engin Akyrek 

1. BYZANTINE PALACE ARCHITECTURE

2. THE BYZANTINE COURT AS THE CENTER OF IMPERIAL POWER

3. CEREMONIES AT THE COURT AND IN THE CITY

Acta sanctorum, 71 vols. (Paris, 18631940)

Annuaire de lInstitut de philologie et dhistoire orientales et slaves

American Journal of Archaeology

Bulletin de correspondance hellnique

Byzantine Monastic Foundation Documents: A Complete Translation of the

Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies

The Annual of the British School at Athens

Byzantine Studies Conference, Abstracts of Papers

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Dumbarton Oaks Papers

N. Oikonomides and J. Nesbitt, eds., Catalogue of Byzantine Seals at

English Historical Review

Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed. (Leiden-London, 1960 )

Meryem Acara Eser

Greek Orthodox Theological Review

Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies

Harvard Ukrainian Studies

Journal of the American Oriental Society

Transactions of the American Philosophical Society

Jahrbuch fr Antike und Christentum

JGH Journal of Garden History

Journal of Medieval History

Wrzburger Jahrbcher fr die Altertumswissenschaft

Jahrbuch der sterreichischen Byzantinistik

Zbornik radova Vizantolokog instituta

Jahrbuch der sterreichischen Byzantinischen Gesellschaft

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Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes

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Revue des tudes grecques

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Whilst the rarity and value of mercury was important, it

he rotunda at the Myrelaion constituted the

35 Ruggles, Gardens, Landscape, and Vision, 67, n. 69, 70.

are kept in the Istanbul Archaeological Museums, and I am indebted

of the rotunda.4 This was then excavated in 1965/66

Fig. 1 Topographical sketch-map of the rotunda and surrounding

first be considered on its own. The results will then

The rotunda lies at the core of a larger building complex

(1933): 15174, at 16271.

Ayla dekan, Nevra Necipolu, Engin Akyrek