Chrysotriklinos

[1][2] However, Byzantine sources present conflicting accounts: the Suda encyclopedia attributes the building to Justin I (r. 518–527), and the Patria of Constantinople to the Emperor Marcian (r. 450–457), although the latter is usually rejected as unreliable.

The historian Joannes Zonaras records that Justin II in fact reconstructed an earlier building, which has been suggested as the Heptaconch Hall of Justinian I (r.

Unlike the earlier, single-purpose buildings of the Daphne wing of the Great Palace, it combined the functions of throne room for reception and audiences with those of a banquet hall.

[6] In particular, according to the De Ceremoniis, the Chrysotriklinos served for the reception of foreign embassies, the ceremonial conferring of dignities, as an assembly point for religious festivals and a banquet hall for special feasts, like Easter.

[1] From the fragmented literary evidence, the hall appears to have been of octagonal shape crowned by a dome, paralleling other 6th-century buildings like the Church of Sergius and Bacchus in Constantinople and the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna.

[10][11] The shape and general features of the Chrysotriklinos were later consciously imitated by Charlemagne in the construction of the Palatine Chapel of the Palace of Aachen, although San Vitale, being located within his realm, provided the immediate architectural model.

[1] The southern apse led to the imperial bedroom (koitōn), through a silver door put in place by Emperor Constantine VII.

[16] The inscription is dated by Cyril Mango between 856 and 866, due to the fact that neither Empress Theodora (r. 842–56; expelled in 856) nor Basil I (crowned co-emperor in 866 and ruled alone from 867 to 886) are mentioned.

[10] The full ceremonial splendor of the hall was reserved for special occasions, such as the banquets for Arab envoys, described in the De Ceremoniis: additional lightning was provided by great chandeliers, imperial regalia, relics and other precious items were brought from various churches and displayed in the apses, while the meal was accompanied by music from two silver and two golden organs, placed in the porch, as well as by the choirs of the Hagia Sophia and the Holy Apostles.