Capitolium of Constantinople

Originally the Capitolium was thought to be located at the top of the third hill of Constantinople, which is now occupied by the University of Istanbul. However, this position is refuted by De Ceremoniis, a 10th-century Byzantine ceremonial handbook, which mentions it as a landmark along the Emperor's triumphal procession. To reach it, one had to climb the southern slopes of the third hill, akin to the ascent to Rome's Capitoline Hill to go to the Jupiter's Temple. Administratively it belonged to the eighth of the city. ==History==

The Capitolium was erected in Constantinople by Emperor Constantine the Great (). The building, together with the circus, the Great Palace, the Strategion and the Forum of Constantine, was one of those edifices needed to introduce the city as the new Rome. The edifice was originally a , that is a pagan temple dedicated to the Capitoline Triad, but in the early fifth century a cross had already been put on its roof, although a conversion to church is not attested. ==Description==

According to a law promulgated on 27 February 425 AD by Emperor Theodosius II () and contained in the Codex Theodosianus, it is known that the Capitolium was a rectangular edifice whose southern side had "large and magnificent" exedrae which bordered the porticoed side of a public road. The edifice was gilded, and its roof was covered with gilded bronze tiles, like the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus in Rome, and topped by a cross (which fell during a storm in 407 AD). ==Notes==