3. Cilt - Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı

Indeed, in the Boukoleon area, along the sea-walls, Theophanes Continuatostells us of Theophilos’works between 827 and 842; and soon after of Basil’s works,between 867 and 886. In particular, among Theophilos’buildings, we are told ofKamilas’apartments, in fact, the lower apartments, which I would place, as alreadysaid on other occasions, on the lower terrace of the Lower Palace, at 11. m. a.s.l.,thus, in the area of the Loggia in the sea-walls. In Kamilas we know existed theoratory dedicated to the Virgin Mary and to the Archangel Michael 5 . This couldthus be the chapel which the Boukoleon mosaic fl oor belongs to and the ninthcentury dating would then be quite befi tting.At the same time we can’t surmise the later interventions in the same area,which leaving aside Basil’s works, probably to be identifi ed nearer to the LighthouseTower 6 , may be ascribed to Constantine VII Porphyrogenitos, between 913 and959. The Loggia itself is I think most probably a tenth century addition to theoriginal ninth century plan of an open terrace onto the sea-walls 7 .Here were I think the apartments where Nikephoros Phokas was killed onChristmas Eve in 969. Now, one obscure Armenian manuscript, quoted only, tomy knowledge, by the learned Bury in his History of the Eastern Roman Empire,tells us about the conspiracy against the emperor planned by his wife and the chiefeunuch, hiding the killers in the nearby chapel of St. Michael Archangel.This is, in my opinion, the chapel of the mosaic fl oor near the railway.More work is necessary to understand if the mosaic itself is due to the initialplanning of the chapel at Theophilos’time, thus in the fi rst half of the ninth century,or to an eventual re-making at the time of the re-shaping of the open terrace, whenthe Loggia was built, probably in the fi rst half of the tenth century. From thereanyway, on that fl oor, the conspirators headed I think to kill Nicephoros Phokas onChristmas Eve of 969.5 Th. Cont., Bonn, 143-46; P.G.CIX, 156 ff. Cfr. R.Janin, Constantinople Bizantine, Développementurbani et répertoire topographique, 2nd edition, Institut Français d’Etudes Byzantines, Paris1964, 114-15.6 The Baths of Basil I were placed by Nikolas Mesarites near the Lighthouse Tower, to thesouth-east of the chapel of the Pharos. Cfr.Th. Cont. Vita Basilii V.87, Ps-Sym.692, Geo. Mon.Cont. 845, Leo Gr. 258. For further discussion see R.J.H. JENKINS and C.MANGO, “The Dateand Signifi cance of the Tenth Homily of Photius” DOP 9-10 (1956), 125-40; P.MAGDALINO,“Observations on the Nea Ecclesia”, JÖB 37 (1987), 51-64, spec. 567 Theoph. Cont. 447. Cfr. MILLINGEN (Const. byz., 280). Cfr. G.U.S. CORBETT, The buildingto the north of the Boukoleon harbour called the “House of Justinian”, in The Great Palace ofthe Byzantine Emperors, 2nd report, ed. D. TALBOT-RICE, Edinbourgh, 1958, 168-193.123