The ''akakia'' (, el, , literally or "not-wickedness". ''a-'' "not" or "against", ''kakia'' "wickedness"), previously known as an ''anexikakia'' ("enduring wickedness", "forgiveness", "forbearance", "patience") was a cylindrical purple silk roll containing dust which is depicted in wall mosaics and on coinage as being held by

Byzantine emperor This is a list of the Byzantine emperors from the foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD, which marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, to its fall to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Only the emperors who were recognized as le ...

s during ceremonies. It symbolized the mortal nature of all men. It possibly developed from the ''mappa'', the cloth used by the

Roman consul A consul held the highest elected political office of the Roman Republic ( to 27 BC), and ancient Romans considered the consulship the second-highest level of the ''cursus honorum'' (an ascending sequence of public offices to which politic ...

s to start the races at the hippodrome.

Sources

* {{Byzantine-stub Byzantine regalia