Augustaion

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Map of the administrative heart of Constantinople.

The Augustaion (Greek: Αὐγουσταῖον) or, in Latin, Augustaeum, was the main public square in medieval Constantinople (modern Istanbul, Turkey), roughly corresponding to the modern Aya Sofya Meydanı ("Hagia Sophia Square").

1 History
2 Location and description
3 References
4 Sources
5 External links

[edit] History

The square was laid out during the rebuilding of the city of Byzantium by Constantine the Great in ca. 330. It was then called the Tetrastoon ("four stoas"), and was the main market (agora) of the city. Constantine erected there a porphyry column supporting a statue of his mother, the Augusta Helena, after which the square was renamed.^[1] The Augustaion was rebuilt in 459, and again in the 530s, after the Nika riot, by Emperor Justinian.

[edit] Location and description

The Augustaion lay in the eastern part of Constantinople, which in the early and middle Byzantine periods constituted the administrative, religious and ceremonial center of the city. The square was a rectangular open space, enclosed within a colonnade (peristylos);^[2] it was entered in its western side from the Mesē, the city's main thoroughfare. At this point stood the Milion, the mile marker from which all distances in the Empire were measured. To its north, the Augustaion was bounded by the Hagia Sophia cathedral and the Patriarchal palace (Patriarcheion), and to its south by the Baths of Zeuxippus and the northern end of the Hippodrome. At the southeastern corner stood the the monumental Chalkē Gate, the entrance to the imperial palace precinct,^[2] and to the east lay the main Senate house, which was first built by Constantine, and rebuilt by Justinian, with a porch of six great columns adorning its front.^[3] This structure is probably the same as the middle Byzantine imperial audience hall known as the Magnaura ("Great Hall").

The square featured a number of statues, including a group of three barbarian kings offering tribute, which stood before the Column of Justinian, erected in 543 by Emperor Justinian in the western end of the square to commemorate his victories.^[4]