ABSTRACT
In the late fifth and early sixth centuries, one major public structure was built near the Oxeia, and one was built on it. The first was the Baths of Dagistheos, which stood across the Makros Embolos from the church of Anastasia. The second public structure in Oxeia is the church of John the Forerunner and the Baptist, which is intimately associated with the holy martyr Artemios. The Oxeia is an element in the physical topography of Constantinople: an eminence from which the ground falls to the Golden Horn. In the later fourth century, it was near the imperial thermae. Each of the three phenomena helps to define the Oxeia as a neighbourhood. Shame conjures morality, the voluntary association sociability, and the coin economy. In each sphere, the story of Stephanos suggests a kind of rule. Avoidance of shame is a legitimate motivation, one should associate with one’s fellows outside of the immediate kinship group.
