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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.