[434] while the former is only m. 29.1 long by m. 18 wide,
with a roof supported on four rows of seven columns[435]--not a large
cistern as works of that class went in Constantinople. But if the
cistern of Aspar was not situated in the district now marked by the
mosque of Sultan Selim, neither could the monastery of Manuel have been
there. Mr. Siderides,[436] moreover, identifies the monastery of Manuel
with that of Manoueliou [Greek: tou Manoueliou] which appears in the
Proceedings of the Synod held at Constantinople in 536 under
Justinian.[437] This, however, does not agree with the statement that
the monastery of Manuel was originally the private residence of the
well-known general of that name in the ninth century. Furthermore, it is
always dangerous to assume that the same name could not belong to
different buildings, especially when the name occurs at distant
intervals in the history of the city. Many mistakes in the topography of
Constantinople are due to this false method of identification. As a
matter of fact, the monastery of Manuel near the cistern of Aspar was
not the only House of that name in the capital of the East. Another
monastery of Manuel stood beside the Golden Horn, in the Genoese
quarter, between the gate of the Neorion (Bagtche Kapoussi) and the gate
of Eugenius (Yali Kiosk Kapoussi). It had a pier, known as the pier of
the venerable monastery of Manuel, [Greek: skala tes sebasmias mones
tou Manouel].[438] Paspates is consequently wrong in associating
that pier with Kefele Mesjedi.[439]

[Illustration: PLATE LXXIV.
S. THEODORE. THE OUTER NARTHEX, LOOKING NORTH.]

[Illustration: S. THEODORE. CAPITAL TO THE NORTH OF THE DOOR LEADING
FROM THE OUTER TO THE INNER NARTHEX.
_To face page 254._]

Mordtmann[440] accepts the identification of Kefele Mesjedi with the
monastery of Manuel as correct, but he identifies it also with the
church and monastery which Gerlach found in this neighbourhood, and
describes under the name of Aetius ([Greek: tou Aetiou]).[441] When
visited by Gerlach in 1573, the church had been converted into a mosque,
and was a beautiful building in excellent preservation. If all that
remains of it is the bare structure of Kefele Mesjedi, the city has to
mourn a great loss.[442] (Plate LXXVII.)

Manuel, the founder of the monastery, was the uncle of the Empress
Theodora, wife of the Emperor Theophilus, and proved a loyal and devoted
servant of the imperial family. Twice at