The title porphyrogennetos (female porphyrogennita), means "born in the purple" and refers specifically to those individuals born legitimately to a reigning emperor. The title was both figurative and literal. The structure in Constantinople in which royal children were born was decorated in purple, and was called the Porphyra. The concept existed in the early Byzantine period, but its dynastic overtones did not develop until the mid-ninth century. Its most famous possessor, Constantine VII, described the ceremony surrounding the birth of a porphyrogennetos.