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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.