An alternative approach to the "Kekroporta"

**Advo-san** · 08-05-2005, 10:56

An alternative approach to the story of the Kekroporta

1)Explaining the word.Kekroporta in greek means "the door of Kekrops". The question of course is WHO was Kekrops and WHY was his name given to a gate in Constantinople.
According to Ancient Greek Mythology, Kekrops was the first king of the City of Athens, in the years long before the famous Athenian Republic. He was supposed to be half man- half snake and he was supposed to have been a great king. Just, brave, a fine example of an athenian (and so=ancient/classical Greek) iluminated monarch.
2)But what was his name doing in Constantinople? The City was built by Conhstantine to the spot where an ancient city was, the ancient greek city of Byzantium, founded by a man named Byzantas. But, Byzantas was not Athenian, he was from Megara, a long-hatred rival of Athens, so he couldn't have named a gate after his rival's king.
Mabe the gate was named after Kekrops by Constantine, or by another emperor later on. Maybe.... But, all emperors exept Julianus were Christians, and it is highly impossible that they would hunt down the Old Religion with their one hand and pay tribute to "idolaters" with their other, by naming gates in their capital after "pagan" kings vis a vis demigods- half men half snakes. This just doesn't seem right....
3)Okay, lets find out more about this Gate...Well, you can't. Kekroporta is mentioned only once in ancient scripts; the first and the last time we encounter it is during the Fall of Constantinople. Not another word can't be found about this damn door, even to the most extensive descriptions of Constantinople.
4)It is simple. The Kekroporta didn't exist.The Kekroporta is a story that was made up to explain the Fall, a scape goat that would allow the survival of the Empire's glory to eternity, even though the Empire was gone. The Empire wouldn't have fallen if the Kekroporta wasn't left open by treachery or negligence....
5)Ok. It didn't exist. But why name the scape goat "Kekroporta"? Why use the name of Kekrops to put the blame for the Fall?

**Advo-san** · 08-05-2005, 11:04

6)IMHO there was a gap running deep into the imperial society. From the one side, there was the military nobility, rich families from the eastern provinces, god-feared rednecks that fought like lions. From the other side, there was the intellectual, highly-educated court nobility, who was pulling all the strings and monopolized the throne and the positions around it.
The first time I 've encountered this separating line was an article in an early-20th sentury encyclopedia that was reffering to the Destruction of Mazikert.
Romanus Diogenis, a typical example of a military noble, overthrew the previous imperial family but was destroyed not because his enemies where stronger but because he couldn't countermeasure the hostility of his Court. His generals betraied him in the most crucial point of his career.
That is the significance of the Kekroporta . All those members of the Court, that plotted more than they fought, made and broke alliances, who spoke and wrote Greek in an elegant way, who preffered the book than the sword and knew Homer's and Plato's works by heart, those were the reason that the Empire was perished. This is what must have been the thoughts of the people that created the legend of the Kekroporta. Kekrops is a symbol, it stands for all those courteers whose classical education distinguished them from the military nobility. And they were the "gate" (vis a vis the Kekroporta) that allowed the loss of the realm.

Any comments are welcome.

**King Henry V** · 08-05-2005, 12:57

Nicely thought, Advo-an.

**Advo-san** · 08-05-2005, 13:20

Thank you so much for your nice words! If you need any clarifications about anything in my post I would be more than happy to give it!

**bozkirsovalyesi** · 08-05-2005, 14:17

ı am in istanbul to live.

kerkoporta gate... ...... was a myth or fictitious

29-may-1453 ... turks armies to go in city
edirnekapı (adrianopolisgate) destroyed city wall...

city wall to fall cannon fire...
real success.... have turk heavy cannons

(occidental) well bibliography : nicolo barbaro "1453 constantinopol siege daily"

note:
ottomans janisseries (devşirme)
to appear 1363 in troops of guardsmen ottoman padishah...
""half warrior"" minor class
heavy infantry. only arrow-bow-scimitar
never armour-spear. medieval game: janisseryheavy infantry = fictitious

A.D. 1363 : 1.000 men
A.D. 1453 : 3.000 men (medieval end 1453)
A.D. 1520 : 8.000 men
A.D. 1582 : 12.000 men
later janisseries muslim born-not devşirme soldiers.

real ottomans ""warrior"" military class:

major class:

timarli sipahi (timar=fief ... sipahi=cavalry)
heavy cavalry........ 166.000 + cavalry

akinci (turk commandos)
light cavalry........ 40.000 + cavalry

azap
light infantry....... 200.000 men

other minor class:

sea levents .........(sea warriros)
sea azaps .........(marines)
castle azaps ........(castle infantry)
sekban ...............(heavy infantry)
yaya ..................(early infantry)
müsellems ...........(early cavalrys)
yörüks ................(early cavalrys militia)
land levents .........(cavalrys)
delils ..................(light cavalry)
farisan ................(border castle cavalrys)
sarıca .................(light cavalry militia)
beşli ..................(castle infantry)
derbentçi .............(mountain pass castle or border castle guardian)

asess ...................(militia)

serdengeçti or dalkilic ........ (sacrificer soldiers... heavy infantry)

**Advo-san** · 08-05-2005, 14:45

Originally Posted by bozkirsovalyesi

ı am in istanbul to live.

kerkoporta gate... ...... was a myth or fictitious

29-may-1453 ... turks armies to go in city
edirnekapı (adrianopolisgate) destroyed city wall...

city wall to fall cannon fire...
real success.... have turk heavy cannons

(occidental) well bibliography : nicolo barbaro "1453 constantinopol siege daily"

note:
ottomans janisseries (devşirme)
to appear 1363 in troops of guardsmen ottoman padishah...
""half warrior"" minor class
heavy infantry. only arrow-bow-scimitar
never armour-spear. medieval game: janisseryheavy infantry = fictitious

A.D. 1363 : 1.000 men
A.D. 1453 : 3.000 men (medieval end 1453)
A.D. 1520 : 8.000 men
A.D. 1582 : 12.000 men
later janisseries muslim born-not devşirme soldiers.

real ottomans ""warrior"" military class:

major class:

timarli sipahi (timar=fief ... sipahi=cavalry)
heavy cavalry........ 166.000 + cavalry

akinci (turk commandos)
light cavalry........ 40.000 + cavalry

azap
light infantry....... 200.000 men

other minor class:

sea levents .........(sea warriros)
sea azaps .........(marines)
castle azaps ........(castle infantry)
sekban ...............(heavy infantry)
yaya ..................(early infantry)
müsellems ...........(early cavalrys)
yörüks ................(early cavalrys militia)
land levents .........(cavalrys)
delils ..................(light cavalry)
farisan ................(border castle cavalrys)
sarıca .................(light cavalry militia)
beşli ..................(castle infantry)
derbentçi .............(mountain pass castle or border castle guardian)

asess ...................(militia)

serdengeçti or dalkilic ........ (sacrificer soldiers... heavy infantry)

Awesome post mate! Nice job.

**amazon77** · 08-11-2005, 20:12

Hi, i believe the correct is: KeRKoporta and not KeKRoporta. U reversed the "rk", so anything having to do with Kekropas the athenian king may not be too relevant. Anyway, i believe that Constantinople would have changed a lot since the times of Constantine, thus any names given by him or another early emperor could easily have changed, especially for sth so unimportant as a lesser gate.
Now, what i believe about that, is that it is just a myth, simply to lessen the success of the Turks taking the city. It would fall anyway, but using the, somewhat, "standard" theme of betrayal or just "forgeting the gate open" (LOL), would be some relief from the Byzantine point of view.
Btw, i'm greek myself just in case anyone thinks i want to "favor" the Turkish side. Even if that gate had anything to do with the fall of Istanbull, it just made it faster. It would happen one way or the other.

**eadeater** · 08-11-2005, 21:47

Very interesting topic, and I think amazon is right, it is the kerkoporta. Its a shame though - you had a very nice chain of though in the explanation.

**Gemenii XIII** · 08-14-2005, 12:58

There is another similar myth that envolves the fall of the Carthaginians. Supposedly, the Carthaginian descended from the Phoenecians and the Romans descended from Trojans. The phoenecian queen Dido, had a love relationship with king Priam and assisted him in war against the greeks. But suddenly the phoenecian queen fell in love with a greek and changed deplomacy. She betrayed Priam and the phoenecians declared war on the Trojans causing their demise. Aneas (the "Trojan founder" of Rome) vowed to kill Dido and every last phoenician/phoenecian descendant. This supposedly caused the Romans to honor Aeneas's vow by destroying the carthaginian civilization, just as the phoenecians helped the greeks to destroy the Trojan civilization. Mind you, this is only a myth, I am well aware that the punic wars weren't caused this myth. My point is that maybe Kekroporta is just another strange greek/roman mythological cause for the fall of constantinople. I mean, if you say that Kekrops was an athenean rival to byzantium, it is not hard to imagine how or why the gate of Kekrops was named after him when the turks demolished it with their cannons, marched through it and destroyed the Roman civilization for good.
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