The principal reference to the Milion is the description by Nicetas[301] of the struggle with the insurgent troops in the reign of Alexius Manuel. “As many buildings as adjoined the Great Church and commanded the Augusteum were seized by the rebels, who scaled the large _apsis_ which stands over the Milion, and also fortified the church of S. Alexius, which is joined to the Augusteum. But the imperial troops made a sally from the great palace and established themselves in the church of S. John called Diippus; and the agora was full of men who were injured by those on the _apsis_ of the Milion, and on the church of S. Alexius. But fresh troops from the palace filled all the thoroughfares and passages leading to S. Sophia. The rebels, coming out of the temple and passing by the Augusteum, became engaged with the others in the narrow ways, and the conflict remained uncertain, until the imperial troops drove back from the streets those who had come out of S. Sophia and shut them within the Augusteum. The imperial troops broke open the gates of the Augusteum, and the rebels were forced from the top of the Milion by the troops mounting the _apsides_, while the rest of them, being worsted in the Augusteum, gave way; but a shower of missiles was kept up from the part called Macron, overlooking the Augusteum, and the neighbouring chamber of Thomais. They took refuge in the pronaos of the church, where is the Archangel Michael in mosaic standing with drawn sword as if on guard. The imperial troops, because of the narrowness, were unable to follow them with advantage, nor did the insurgents dare to trust themselves out again. The patriarch descended into the _proskenion_ or _protekdikeion_ of the church, and then harangued them to prevent further sacrilege.” In the _Ceremonies_ we twice read of the emperor passing through the nave of S. Sophia and its Royal Gate, then across the narthex, and, by the _louter_ (fountain), reaching the steps of the _athyr_ (atrium). “Then he passes through the Milion, and along the Mese and reaches the Forum, where is the Chapel of S. Constantine.” Labarte, wrongly explaining this as the Forum Augusteum, instead of that of Constantine, makes the _louter_ the baptistery, and the _athyr_ its porch. Other processions from the Palace to the Church through the Milion have been given by Labarte. The colonnades adjoining the Milion are mentioned in the account of a fire which attacked a part of the Great Church in the reign of Isaac Angelus. “The parts by the apsis of the Milion, and the Macron, and the place called the Synods were burnt. The porticoes of Domninus were reduced to ashes, as well as the two covered ways starting on both sides of the Milion one of which reaches to the Philadelphion.”[302] The Philadelphion was towards Constantine’s forum, and the other way probably led from the Milion north and south to the church and the palace gate.